Greetings,
My name is John, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder about eight years ago. After a few times stopping my meds, the last time ending in a suicide attempt. I have taken my meds as prescribed and have been doing well for the last 5 years.

I am currently thinking about reducing my meds, but cautiously. Anyway, I have a full time job as an architectural draftsman. I recently moved to Indianapolis, ( three months ago), from central New York.

 
I look forward to reading your posts and kicking in my 2 cents now
and again.

Laters,
John

Hi again,
I am single, never married. I am 40 years old and just finished some mid-life activities. I moved from Syracuse NY, a small to mid sized city in central NY, just south of the end of lake Ontario, which made for lots of lake effect snow. I am looking forward to less snow this winter.

I have recently looked into social anxiety disorder, as I have been in Indy for three months and haven't met anyone. I did meet a woman at the bar last night, but it took a couple of drinks for me to approach her, so am not counting it toward a healthy way of meeting a new person.

I have been taking 9 mg of risperdal daily for almost 5 years. I take zoloft when I get depressive symptoms, and have stopped taking it recently. I took Trileptal as a mood stabilizer, and stopped that a few months ago. It has been smooth sailing emotionally, and I am still planning on reducing the risperdal, with the guidance of a psychiatrist.

I just started my job three weeks ago, and am looking forward to taking a couple classes in the evening. I want to be a little quicker mentally, hence the desire to reduce the meds. I am on the same dosage I was on when I was last hospitalized, and am starting to desire to be more agile mentally, and hopefully gain more interest in life in general. I am thinking of, over the next
year, reducing the risperdal to 6 mg day, and see how I function for a while at that dosage.

I have learned from people online that it is common for symptoms to recurr after reducing a medication, but that after a period of time, you stabilize, I am not looking forward to getting paranoid or delusional thinking, but believe that I can handle lesser symptoms. I don't think the symptoms will be too severe because I will still be taking a healthy dose of risperdal daily.

I have an appointment with my psychiatrist Monday evening so I will have to see what she has to say about it. I also look forward to hearing different opinions and experiences people have about changing dosages of meds.

Regards,
John