@gingerw Hello and thank you! Good to get a response. What is a Volunteer Mentor? Do you welcome new members? I'd like to hear from others, too. I must first say I am not a fan of psychiatry nor the medications, but I have been on them for over 40 years. Yes, I've been hoping to transition slowly, but back in November of last year I needed to get off Clozaril and Topamax that I'd been on since about 1997 and they decided to do it in the hospital. They took me off of it cold turkey in about a week! It was horrible to say the least. I had hallucinogenic nightmares and shut down for which they blamed me! Although I've been in psych units before, this was terrible and I hope I never have to do it again. They put me on what is considered a current antipsychotic Cobenfy, barely tested. Because of coming off the Clozaril/Topamax so quickly I grew somewhat manic and spent a couple thousand dollars, mostly on books. I needed to also be on Olanzapine to quell mania. That caused my blood cells to get too low so I had to be withdrawn from that quickly, which was excruciating. The Cobenfy left me depressed, so my psychiatrist switched me to Vraylar which caused me to overeat as well as me having an eating disorder on top of that. Finally, she switched me to Latuda, but meanwhile I've got a tremor and my tongue is moving in my mouth. I've gone through great anxiety and anger, probably a combination of the medication side effects and opening up emotions. She recently gave me propranolol to help with the anxiety. I do have support, just not people who have "been there," and I'd love that kind of support or other stories besides my own to understand better. Finally, my psychiatrist says that when I hopefully start therapy one of the first things I should do in therapy is learn to accept that I'll be on meds for the rest of my life. While this may be true, I find it defeatist and not in line with my dreams or aspirations. While my psychiatrist has really stuck in there for me and I give her credit, we have different philosophies of how people with mental health challenges should be treated. Meds can I guess be helpful, but right now the side effects have been devastating. My tongue is moving around in my mouth, I have ditties going over and over in my head, my lips are completely dry and I have a noticeable tremor in my hand. The whole thing has been a nightmare, needless to say. Anyone who can relate, I'd love the support and to hear from you!