Lived Experience Forum

[rimemariner29]

Hey guys,

I happen to be clinicaly diagnosed with Schizophrenia and depression. I take my meds on time. I attend Grow support group regularly.  I only just begun working full time about 3 months ago. I live on my own.

Currently my medications make it very difficult to wake up early in the morning. Lowering my dose is not an option. Last time I did that, I became suicidal within few days. 

I am always late to work.  I am grateful to be working again though. Its a good job. I keep letting myself down, by not waking up early. It makes me very paranoid when I am rushing to get to work.

Does any one have any suggestions or tips i could use to fix the issue?

Thanks.

[Hobbit]

Hi @rimemariner29

A big welcome to the forums to you!!

You will find here some really great people that can offer you loads of support and advice, within a really friendly environment.

From reading your post, I would like to initially say that I think you seem to be a really strong person. It sounds like you are really managing things quite well., attending GROW and also you have begun working full time. This is wonderful, good on you!!

And also you know yourself enough to be aware that lowering your dosage can have dramatic effects, this is really sensible awareness on your part.

Is it possible to go back to your doctor and discuss these things with him/her? There could possiby be a suitable alternative that you may not be aware of.

In the meantime, I found this other discussion thread here on the forums that I thought you might be interested in about medicaiton. You can go to it by clicking here. There is also another conversation called medicaiton toxicity which you can read here.

I wonder if any of our other members might have some advice for you - @Moon @kenny66 @kato @JT

What I can say @rimemariner29 is you have friends here. Keep posting.

Hobbit.

[kenny66]

2 of my antipsychotics make me tired, one particularly. I get around this by taking then really early at 5pm. I go to sleep early and wake up ok.

Unfortunately the trade off is no night life but I do get up at a reasonable hour, before 7am.

I don't work but I did tell my uni counsellor that I could be late for lectures sometimes because of the drowsy factor from my meds. She told the lecturers who cut me a bit of slck on attending on time. Is it possible to discuss it with your boss?

If not, maybe you can try the early taking pills idea.

Non compliance with medication can be dangerous for people with Schizophrenia, as you know. Whenever I have done that I end up in hospital.

Kenny

[rimemariner29]

Thanks for your encouragement. I woke up this morning at 6.10am. I saw my GP yesterday who told me to take my medication at 5pm. Normally I am used to taking them around 7pm. I didnt struggle as much this morning.

[rimemariner29]

Thanks Kenny for your honest feedback. I took my meds at 5pm yesterday. Somehow I was able to wake up before 7am. I will be sticking with this routine from here onwards. Good luck with your recovery.

[CherryBomb]

@rimemariner29, just want to say 'Hi!' and 'Welcome to the Forums'.

Glad to hear you found a practical solution.

@kenny66 and @Hobbits offered some good pratical advice. Also, great to hear that you took the initative and spoke with your doc.

@Former-Member is in the middle of tossing up whether she should return to in thread here. So feel free to add some insights based on your own experiences to that discussion.

[Moon]

I am glad that taking the medications earlier has helped! It is very difficult when they can cause you to be tired, but your health and wellbeing is the most important and you shouldn't skip them.

I think personally, as someone that is suffering from a similiar illness (scyhizoaffective) it is so wonderful that you want to work and are doing it. It's not always easy, and can require a huge amount of effort even over the small things, that seem second nature to other people. You should be proud of yourself for that!

Does your work know that you have a mental illness and is understanding of why you are late. I can understand if you would not want to tell them, because some people do not understand and have the wrong idea. But on the other hand, they might be more understanding. I guess it depends on the type of environment you work in and the people who are there.

I do hope that with taking the medication earlier it will really help you, and you won't have to be as stressed with running late. Please keep us updating on how you are going. 🙂

[kato]

@rimemariner29

Hello, sorry i am late to this conversation, i was asked by my old emplyer to help out with a display, so i have actually been working all this week, feeling very tired from it. As it has already been said, i found taking my night time meds earlier, has been beneficial, i currently take them at 7pm - 8pm depending on my memory.... i also found in the past the later i took them the harder it was to wake up earlier.

As for waking up earlier, i have about 8 alarms set on my phone to also help me wake up, i really have never been a morning person.

[Former-Member]

Hi @rimemariner29,

Well done on getting back to work! i'm trying to decide if i can handle getting back to work. And one of the reasons im scared i will find it too hard is because of my meds. I take an antipsychotic which makes me so slow and tired in the morning, i struggle just to get my kids to school and kindy. I dont know if i'm ready to come off of them either and scared that if i try at the same time as trying to go back to work is going to be a recipe for disaster!

@kato i've tried taking my night meds later too and still find it hard to get up, i've always been a morning person, mornings have usually been a peaceful and safe time for me in my life and so i've always loved being the first one up in the morning and getting things ready before mayhem starts 😄 but now im never up first thats for sure! gosh i wish they'd invent meds without side effects!

Can you talk to your doctor or psychiatrist about the effects the meds have and see if there are any options? I need to talk to mine this week to see if he'll give me clearance to work and about my meds, im terrified already!

Good luck @rimemariner29

LJ

[kato]

@Former-Member

Hey LJ, the combination i am on, being anti psych anti dep and mood stabiliser are the only combination i have found that actually work for me, with minimal side effects albeit the tiredness, all three of mine are basically designed as sedative related, if i don't have sedative side effects per say, then i get bouts of insomnia, which trigger my mania, not enough sleep is a trigger for me.

other combinations i have tried in the past of different ones have not worked as well as the three i am on currently, but in saying that there are quite a few different ones out there, so talking to pysch or gp maybe a possibilitiy of ones that might work differently?