Being an idiot and going off my medication

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I hated the side effects of my antipsychotic medication. So I went off it and my mind started getting to me and I started doing stupid things to make me more mentally unwell. Ended up in the hospital with bad health problems. Trying not to be hard on myself for being so stupid. But my body is wrecked. And I just feel stupid for going off and not listening to anyone. Life wasn’t that bad I just hated the side effects.

hope you are doing better now

Has anyone brought up maybe lowering the dose if you don't like the side-effects? Sometimes a lower dose can still work well enough and also decrease the side-effects. If not, it might be something to talk to your doctor about next time you see him/her. One size doesn't always fit all, as body weights, metabolism, neurochemistry, hormones and so on aren't the same from person to person.

I've found some medications to work at lower doses, but some don't work at standard and I need higher (this is across multiple things and not just mental). I've also known someone that required less of basically everything. If I was experiencing bad side-effects but the medication was working, I'd discuss this with my doctor anyway.

It's always best to work with your doctor when trying to discontinue a psychiatric medication... both because there might be a better option you can switch to, and because some psychiatric medications can have really bad withdrawal symptoms -- even when they're marketed as "not addictive" (because by "not addictive" they mean that if your friend takes a few he won't want more, NOT that your body won't become dependent from extended use).

But every time I've quit meds, I quit seeing a doctor as well, so I'm giving advice I've never taken!

I stopped taking Zoloft without a doctor's support and the symptoms from discontinuing it were HORRIBLE... I expected it to be like Prozac or Wellbutrin, which had pretty mild withdrawal symptoms for me... Psychiatric medications are not a joke!

It's quite funny how discontinuation symptoms go, and this too will be due to underlying neurochemistry differences along with the mode of action of the medications themselves.

I stopped Zoloft and...nothing (it wasn't doing much either), and I started losing weight. I can stop benzos and...nothing. But, if I stop any antipsychotic, I feel terrible.