Risperdal?

I have never taken Risperdal but work in mental health for the last five years. My only real concern with risperdal/clients on it is weight gain from it. I know of one person I worked with who gained 50+ pounds in less then 6 months. So I would say watch what you eat etc.

Have you ever been tested for gluten/wheat allergy? Some people can have mental health issues with food allergies I just recently found this out for myself first hand! just a thought

My son was on Risperdal for about a year. He had terrible sensory problems, and it made a huge difference in him. I was warned that he would likely gain weight, but he didn't. I know it's hard to compare medications between an adult and a child, and of course I wouldn't know if he experienced side effects that he couldn't communicate, but I can tell you that my child went from having screaming fits in any situation that involved noise, people, or bright lights to a calm, straight A student who loves to read, play and be at the center of activity. The Risperdal was also combined with occupational therapy so both made the difference.

I've been on risperdal since October 2012 to counteract paranoid delusions. My pdoc believes I suffered a temporary event and I will not need to be risperdal permanently. I started out on 3mg and gained about 15 lbs quickly. Since then, I have lost about 10 lbs as I've stuck to MFP. During this time, my dosage has been cut from 3mg to 2mg to 1mg. Using the TDEE -20 method, I'm struggling with the last 5 lb loss. Right now I'm trying to figure out if I'm a) overestimating exercise, b) underestimating intake, or c) a metabolic outlier from the calculators. I have at least one more stepdown before I'm off risperdal.

I'm on a new medication for (obviously) severe mental health illness issues. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this drug, how your body responded to it--did you gain weight? Did your responses, both verbal & physical become delayed? Did you get adequate sleep or were you fatigued? And anything thing else you can offer me, positive or negative.

Thank you in advance for your responses and honesty. It's MUCH appreciated and extremely helpful.

Yes, I was on it and it really helped my mania/delusions for a while and I actually lost weight with diet and exercise. While I was losing I was very hungry and always wanted to eat and had to resist so hard, plus I could never feel when I was full. I could eat and eat and not feel it. It seemed like I could not resist hunger either when it came like I normally would be able to. I ended up gaining 100 lbs in like 7 months or so and 70 lbs in like 4 months. I did have some other unpleasant side effects as well, like no sexual desire, extra anxiety about everyday activities, and excess social anxiety because of how it made me feel. I think I did not need it after a couple years. I went off of it recently and have had zero episodes and have not even been close to where I was when I was hospitalized. I feel really good and I think taking it for a while helped. I wish I had gone off of it sooner when I started gaining weight. I tried to lose weight over the time that I was gaining but could not seem to reign in my eating enough to follow a program. I am fine since I stopped the medication.

I take just Zoloft now and that seems to be all I need right now. It has not interfered with my weight loss and has lessened the desire to binge.

Now in my 11th day of coming off risperdal and celexa. Dizziness and sleep disturbances have been the two discontinuation symptoms I've had. Day 6 I hardly slept at all. On day 7 I had this continuous buzzing in my head, like static from a radio. On day 9 I was in bed for 14 hours making up for the sleep I lost during the week. I reduced my coffee intake over the weekend, with none on Saturday, but it didn't seem to make any impact. On day 11, the dizziness is still present, but the buzzing in my head is gone. I'm sleeping better but having very vivid dreams. Some of them are waking me up, resulting in a broken up sleep pattern. I'm still holding onto the last 2 lbs of water weight I've gained. In the past that has taken 4 weeks to drop, so I am waiting until August 1st. Hopefully this will be of help to someone in the future going through discontinuation of psychiatric medicine, though every person is different in how they respond to being on these meds and coming off them.

14th day coming off risperdal and celexa. Around day 12 I started getting angry thoughts about things that happened just before going on the meds. It's like this angry part of my mind is waking up from a long sleep, picking up where it left off and now I have to deal with the bad memories again. The last few days have been significantly better on the bad dreams and the dizziness. I'm not dizzy in the morning, though the dizziness picks up some in the afternoon.