Just realised I now have Akathisia

Earth Girl

I have schizophrenia and I just found out that the medication I take can cause this. I've had this "pacing around the house" problem for several years and I thought that I just randomly found it fun to do, like a new "hobby" almost, but i watched a Youtube video about the medication I take and it talked about this.

Can it get worse? The woman in the Youtube video said that when this happens, the psychiatrist will either change your medication or give you another medication as well, but they are more likely to change it. There is no way I am changing my medication though because the other medications I took had bad side effects (for me). One made me gain a lot of weight because it increased my appetite and another made me feel like I needed to sleep I and just couldn't relax or concentrate.

People I went to school with talk about how I "Just walk around my house all day agh" (I don't know why they think they are allowed to stalk me anyway but okay).

Apparently Akathisia can make people suicidal? I don't feel that way so that's something. But it does make things harder for me. For example, I will want to take a shower, but I feel the need to walk around the house several times before I can do that. Even watching T.V or being on the computer can be hard for me because I can't concentrate and I have to just sit still.

Croix

Dear Earth Girl~

I can see why you can be worried about this, as Dr Google has said that this condition is a result of a medication and can lead to suicidal thoughts. I'm glad this has not made you suicidal.

Trying to deal wiht this on your own may not be the wisest course. For instance I'd like to be able to discuss this with my therapist to find out if the behaviour is in fact due to my medication, the various downsides of continuing on, which you say yourself make life difficult, and of course what can be done about it.

Until you know all the facts from a qualified source it looks like it is going to be an ongoing course of worry, something you don't need.

Of course it is possible your doctor will want ot change meds, however I'm sure you will have some say in this, also becuse two previous medications had unacceptable side effects does not mean all are like that.

Over the years I've tried a seemingly endless stream of medications for PTSD, depression and anxiety, and the change over process was not always a comfortable one. However by perseverance with my psych we landed on a regimen that suits me exactly. No side effects and it (mostly) works.

If I had been asked earlier if I thought things were ever going to be sorted out I would have expressed great doubt. Now I'm delighted to find I was wrong and my life has turned around.

Once you know the facts you can make an informed judgment as to your alternatives.

I would like to know how you get on if you felt like saying

Croix

Earth Girl

Hi Croix, thank you for your response 🙂

I've tried a lot of medications when I had my first psychotic episode and it took a while to find one that works. They thought that some of my psychosis was still there when we found one that was good for me because I was telling them that people from school are still talking about me (they still are and I'm not imaging this, they've been saying mean things about me for ages, even before psychosis) so they kept getting me to try different medications, but I still knew that people were talking about me so they thought that those medications weren't helping. Two of the many medications they made me try had those bad side effects and I don't think that they wrote down what the side effects for those two medications were, they just wrote "didn't help" for all of them so I don't know which one made me extremely drowsy and could barely do anything and I don't know which ones that didn't seem to have any side effects could be.

But hopefully we'll find the right one if I have to change my medication. There's a lot of different ones and apparently they make new ones all the time.

I'm glad you were able to find a good medication. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, especially the PTSD. That sounds really rough.

My akathisia doesn't actually affect me too much (in a way), but several times a day, I'm just walking around in circles around the house. It mostly gets annoying when I want to get something done (like have a shower, put laundry on the line, brush my teeth, get dressed or even just watch T.V or use the computer). I'm really glad that it doesn't make me suicidal, but I agree that it would be best for me to see my psychiatrist again about it. I haven't seen them in a long time, so I will have to figure out how to see them again. I assume I just make an appointment.