Antipsychotics are a class of psychotropic medications that reduce the symptoms of psychosis.
They are used to treat nearly any condition that deals with psychosis, from Schizophrenia
Alzheimer's. They may also be used to treat irritability in autism. Research shows that 4 out
of 5 people with severe mental illness who take antipsychotics find that antipsychotics help treat their symptoms.
They block receptors in the brain for dopamine, since the theory is that too much dopamine
causes the symptom of psychosis. Atypical or second-generation antipsychotics also act on serotonin receptors.
The difference comes in the side effects. First-generation or typical antipsychotics,
introduced in the 1950s, tend to affect body movement and give side effects like muscle
stiffness more. Second-generation or atypical antipsychotics, introduced in the 1970s, are less
likely to do this but more likely to cause weight gain.
Some typical antipsychotics
Some atypical antipsychotics
It is not advised to quit antipsychotics cold-turkey and instead taper off due to the
withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is known to cause rebound psychosis, when your psychosis gets
worse because of a reduced dose or coming off of the med.
Some withdrawal symptoms include:
This is like saying someone is addicted to their brain working. People feel bad when they come
off their antipsychotics because it causes their psychosis to worsen, and psychosis is a
terrifying and sometimes life-ruining experience for someone to go through.
A lot of people with psychosis that take antipsychotics have expressed that they WANT to be on
them their whole lives. Taking these medications helps us heavily reduce and sometimes even be
completely free from our symptoms which can be disabling.
While weight gain and trouble thinking/visualizing are common side effects, the amount these
side effects affect an individual varies from person to person and from medication to
medication. If you don't like the effects one antipsychotic is giving you, try another. On top
of that, there is nothing wrong with being fat and/or stupid...
This is the same as the stigma that criminals are psychotic. Psychotic people are twice as
likely to be the victim of a crime than the perpetrator of one, yet we are still stereotyped as
murderers and criminals. If a criminal is actually psychotic, yes, they should go on
antipsychotics, but there is no direct association between the status of being a criminal and
the status of being psychotic.
This is the same stereotype that people who are psychotic are dangerous, just extended to medication.
There is no correlation between someone being dangerous or being violent and psychotic symptoms.
Being violent is not a psychotic symptom. People who take antipsychotics are just like any other person
- 7 million people in the U.S. alone take them. Do you really believe all 7 million of those people are dangerous?
If you seriously believe this, go take a quick read through of the Delusions and Hallucinations
pages under the symptoms category on this site. The symptoms that antipsychotics get rid of are
terrifying, life-ruining, and disabling. Psychosis burns the bridges you work hard to create in
life due to delusion and gets you stereotyped as a serial killer just for existing. There is
nothing weak about us, in fact, we are strong for dealing with all of it on top of the awful
side effects of medication.