forgetfulness with antipsychotic medications

@Faith-and-Hope Thanks Faith-and-Hope yours and Shaz51's words do help me feel alot calmer. Take a deep breath aye and soldier on as there is not much more I can do about it than I already am ...

@Bunniekins @Shaz51

@Faith-and-Hope is right about stress.

I have often seemed forgetful and socially vague. There was always so much stress and so many different social things to consider. I still am stretched, forget people's names and all sorts of things. I have only been on low dose antipsychotics last few years so I cant blame them. Its just me. I lose my glasses and keys often. Found 2 old sets of glassess out in the garden a year later ... or under the bed ...

Take care of you. Talk about it with doc. Your situation may be more stable now and they may support some reductions ... its kinda why I do my gently bently.

@Appleblossom Thanks Apple I am due to see her (pdoc) on Wednesday. She is adament that I stay on medications or she will put me in the public system and that means depot injections. I am stuck unless I can swing something like @Eden1919 has done which I dont think I can as I am a danger to myself so there you go the awful truth is I am stuck in this situation unless I do a runner of course ..... how tempting is that.

@Bunniekins Sorry for the late reply I have been having some issues lately. As for your concerns with the memory issues there are a few things that can make that happen. (Aside from the mental illness itself)

1.sleep problems

2. Age

3. Mental overload

as for medications there is some evidence to suggest they can have an impact on memory but not a lot has been studied in that regard of the ones I can remember reading about there was issues with loss/reduction in grey matter with long term use of antipsychotics and a correlation between antipsychotics and long term use and increased risk of like dementia type stuff but there was nothing conclusive and it is hard to find control groups for such studies.

I am sorry you are so trapped in this situation it really frustrates me that doctors often don’t listen to their patients in regards to meds even if it works in some way you shouldn’t have to put up with such shitty side effects.

@Eden1919 Hey Eden1919 always good to hear from you. I knew you would be able to clarify a few things regarding my question :). I am 55 so there could be some kind of decline starting but shouldnt be too much just yet (one would hope :o!). I feel 'Mental overload' is spot on .... the big test will be when I start studyig again in June.... can I juggle it and look after myself and my kidults? only sucking it and see will show.

Interesting what you say about long time use of anti psychotics ..... it is something the worries me. peaxxx

@Bunniekins The mental load thing is hard because it is different for everyone I think if you are studying something you enjoy and if you pace yourself then it should be ok that being said having to look after others can make things complicated. I personally think studying helped me with a lot of things just keeping your mind active is always a good thing. It definitely helped me to keep my mind more in this world as I had other things to focus on. As for the long term stuff yeah the studies that they have done on long term use for antipsychotics in particular have not had any more benifit than going off the meds specifically the study I looked at was saying that after a year the relapse rates for people with schizophrenia were no different or in some cases more often in the group that stayed on antipsychotics vs the people who discontinued. There was also some on quality of life outcomes and those were again better after a year in the group who stopped the meds. And significantly better after 5 years with people off the meds. I think one of the issues is that the actual testing time for a lot of the psych meds is around 6-8 weeks in human trials so before they are released that is the amount of time they have been tried in humans so a lot of the reported effectiveness is in relation to the short term also in the trials for psych meds their success rate so what they define as a success for helping is if it has helped 30% or more patients. And particularly in relation to antidepressants there was almost no different between the drug and the placebo for affective ness when using an active placebo.

Btw I cannot link the studies cause it was in a paper book I was reading.

@Eden1919 yes at times I feel my mind 'trailing off' and I have to actually physically pull it back in so study will be good like that and yes it is a subject that I am particularly interested in so am crossing fingers and toes. Thank you for your perspectives on medications vs no meds I always find your input interesting and informative (always makes me think :). Love peaxx

@Bunniekins I am also always trailing off which is why I can’t do online study I have to be face to face so I can take physical notes otherwise I won’t have payed any attention even if I like the topic.

@Eden1919 How do you cope in a class full of people? the stimuli of everyone there talking to the lecturer etc .... I am not sure I could cope with that....

@Bunniekins Well thankfully most of my classes have not been super large at the uni I have been at this last year and after the first few lectures most people stop coming and just watch them online. But my old uni was bigger and had busy classes the lectures were stressful but you can just get up and go outside if you need a break. Idk most people don’t really talk that much in class just in breaks or before and after. But if you are worried you can ask to meet the unit coordinator/lecturer before class starts and let them know you are having X issue and how you would like to deal with it but for me the biggest help is being registered with the student support team cause they make a plan that has allowances for extensions and also means that if you are having an issue you don’t have to explain any details but can just say my plan says I need/am entitled to X and the lecturer has to listen.

For the actual time time in class though I just make sure I have space before and after so that I can calm down and recharge and don’t get burnt out so quickly but mostly you just have to try and sit and deal with it you can’t control others and unless you want to tell them all why you are having problems then you kind of just have to find ways to cope. Oh but if you are like me and fidget a bit when you are stressed then take something to play with in your hands. Idk is there a particular thing that stresses you out?