Has anyone been on Risperidone?

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I hope you're right. I've heard of people say there are plenty if 30 year old graduates or even older but then I find out they're graduating with their second degree, starting their second career. This would be my first. I know the longer I think about this the more time I waste but I waste time worrying about many other things as well. They say Australian uni fees are going to go up drastically so I wonder if I'm mad to do it at a time like this. If I'd done it when I was younger and still living under a left wing government, it might've made things easier.

Something I worry about even more is what kind of career I should have. I can't decide on that so I can't decide on a degree. I can't decide on the details either. There may be some way to study something helpful before starting the degree itself. I'm just not sure how it all works. I know very little of higher education and what options I have within it. My attempts to get a life coach have fallen flat.

Anyway, I think I have to decide in about a month to make the STAT or I lose another year. I've been feeling like I should do something with my life since the middle of last year yet I missed last years STAT. The time before that was wasted not wanting to anything but even in the year since I still haven't made any progress even though I did want to do something by that time. I as though that's even more wasteful.

Anyway, that's enough regretting the past for now. As for the future, how do you choose a career anyway?

They prescribed it for my son. I got the prescription filled, went home, read about it and then threw it in the trash.

And that was before the 'it makes men grow breasts' lawsuit'.

Why was it prescribed for though?

no, i havent. also acording to wikipedia it causes men to grow tits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risperidon ... se_effects
id be pretty f*****g concerned if i where you.

It didn't make me grow tits. It only looked that way because I was really fat, not because I had a genuine case of gynecomastia. It didn't make me really fat. I was already fat before I started taking it. Did it make me fatter? I can't say. I put on weight for the first few years I was on it but to compare the weight of a fat 14 year old with the weight of a fat adult is comparing apples and oranges.

Did any of my previous medications make me fat? I can't remember what they were. All I remember is that when I was 8 I went from being thin (probably underweight) to overweight. When Mum found out Risperadone causes increased appetite her "solution" to this problem was to cook more.

I'm thinner now but is that a return to my natural state or a result of dieting? Probably a result of dieting. And although Risperadone is associated with weight gain, I started dieting before I went off Risperadone and last weight while on it so it is possible. Not that I'm trying to defend Risperadone.

id talk to a doctor and make sure that you didnt just grow boobs if i where you. i mean i get it stops you from being violent and stuff and i think thats important, the thing is so do a lot of very mild recreational drugs and they dont make men grow tits or cause you to become obese. also acording to this article it causes "scitzophrenia like symptoms" frankly that sounds suspicously like a halucenogen and even if its not scitzophrenia often involves halucinations and extreme parinoia and may meen that the medicane causes you to become a scitzophrenic. it also aperently can cause you to either not be able to stop moving or worse, not be able to move. it is listed as having "sexual side effects" (presumably this means the whole growing tits thing but its not specified so it could be somethng else, however someone online claims it caused a complete lack of any intrest in sex so thats also possible) and can cause osteoporosis.

Maybe it had some effect like that. I don't know. I can't say how much of it was just caused by being fat. Also I had chrest rolls before I started taking Risperadone.

It didn't give me hallucinations or make me asexual. Was I paranoid? No. Did I have social anxiety? Yes... but that started a few years before I went on Risperadone.

Part of the problem is that I can't remember most of the meds I was on before Risperadone. They could've screwed me up too. Part of the problem is that even if I'd never been medicated, I still wouldn't have been completely normal. I may still have had social anxiety. That happens to a lot of aspies, even unmedicated ones. It's died down gradually over the last five or six years. I may still have had a liking for junk food and little thought for long term consequences, though, I really do think Risperadone increased my appetite. It's not normal to want to eat every two hours. I may still have had a dislike for school work... Maybe not. When I was rebellious I did the work easily. When I wanted to conform was when I struggled with it. This is strong circumstantial evidence but it could also partly be because the work actually did get harder as I got older. Again, apples and oranges comparison.

So would my life have been better sans Risperaone? I'll never know. Alternate histories are never accurate.

It was supposed to level his moods out. He had spurts of being very angry and having fits.

Besides the side effects, I decided he needed to learn to manage his moods himself. If the drug was doing it for him, then how would he ever learn. I felt it would be doing him an injustice in the long run. So I worked with him instead, showed him how I handle it and you know what? We're doing pretty good. This week is tough because it's back to school week, but I have every reason to believe he'll settle in here shortly. I have no regrets about my decision.

An interesting idea. You may be right. I had fits of anger during childhood and my early teens, which ended upon starting on Risperadone, though in the ten months since I stopped taking it, the fits of rage haven't started again. Still, you may be right.

He was prescribed Risperidone just for that? And I thought it was prescribed to me liberally.

There's really nothing else that the medication is for?

I was wondering what the OP's withdrawl program was, or anyone else who has come off Risperdal without going onto another drug. There's no way my doctors would help me get off it. I'm down to 0.25mg, and have no anger problems. I'm just scared to go down any more.



they're not really appropriate for this part of the forums .... definitely some weird sexual side effects on a higher dose (above 4mg)

... most are caused by increased prolactin levels ... which is also what causes the lactating and man tits thing


Bi-Polar, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, behavioral/irritability problems associated with autism, and short term alzheizmers/dementia treatment (although that one is controversial)

I already know that. I was talking about Cash's son.

Yes I agree it's quite addictive and I was only on 1mg. My withdrawal program with simply to go on another drug. I went straight onto Phentermine and I've been on and off it since then. Oddly enough the Phentermine isn't very addictive. I find these two drugs have polar opposite effects on me.

And to think that doctors are turning children into drug addicts.

why would you take this?

I take it for anger and severe, frequent meltdowns. It makes life bearable while I wait for (insert potentially identifying situation here) to be over. I just wish it didn't have such a potential for long-term side effects, or I'd gladly stay on it even after that.

I have been off Risperadone since I was 13, and this drug caused lots of problems. My mood got worse after I first started taking it (age 9 for tics, anxiety, who knows what). I didn't have a good auditory processing, and was obliviously unaware that Tourettes was useless; just happy no one was bullying me anymore.

My anxiety got worse in middle school and special ed noted that I have frequent episodes of extreme happiness or downright depression. The behavioral problems got worse and I slowly became more immature (yet seemingly mature to surface). This is when I was pulled off.

Like OP, I am glad I stopped taking it.