The Ol' Switcharoo

In my ever-present quest to take care of myself emotionally AND physically, I've decided to try going off the Abilify and to try Geodon instead. The Abilify was working great, emotionally, but the side effects, mainly the sleepiness, were too much to bear. I was sleeping 11+ hours a night, and it was really cutting into my time for everything else. I think in a way it was making my depression a bit worse, because being so sleepy made me want to sleep all the time instead of hanging out with friends or knitting or watching movies or whatever. It's hard to be motivated to do anything at all when all you can focus on is "When can I get back to sleep?"

So I went to talk to my doctor on Monday, and let me tell you, this is the best doctor I've ever had. He actually listens to me and addresses my concerns, and when I tell him what I think is going to work for me he seriously considers it (and usually I get what I want from him, because I generally know what I'm talking about. I mean, I do lots of research before coming in to see him, so I can make intelligent choices as far as my medications go). So when I went in the other day and asked about Geodon (because I had taken it before and had experienced more of a "high" than a "low"), he went through a list of possibilities with me and discussed the pros and cons of each option, and in the end we settled on what I wanted to try first, and if that doesn't work we decided what to try next.

So how is it so far? Hard to say. I've only been on it for two days. So far, no anxiety or irritability, but, once again, it's only been two days, and Scott's out of town so I don't have him keeping an eye on me to see if I seem irritable or not. From my perspective, I'm not irritable.

As far as the sleepiness goes, I had an easier time getting out of bed this morning (after a night of waking up many, many times, but still feeling like my sleep was refreshing), and I felt more alert as I got to work and started working, but then I started drinking a Rock Star and, wouldn't you know it, it looks like on this medication caffeine is having an opposite effect. It could be that the Geodon is making me feel sleepy, and it just took a little while to kick in, but it seems like as soon as that Rock Star started to enter my system I started feeling sleepier than when I woke up. I'll try going caffeine-free tomorrow and see what happens.

I'll keep you all posted. I've been researching this medication and it seems like some people experience side-effects for the first two weeks or so and then they go away. My doctor wants to see me in six weeks to follow up, and hopefully by then I'll have good news for him. We'll see.

Oh, and it seems like a lot of people lose weight that they gained on other medications when they take this one. I'm not holding my breath, but wouldn't it be nice if I lost the weight I gained while on Risperdal? Maybe it's just wishful thinking...