psychiatric medication change
so, i have bipolar disorder. (technically schizoaffective bipolar, which means i have schizophrenia and bipolar at the same time, which means i experience psychosis outside of my bipolar episodes in addition to within them.) i take medication for it, because i am lucky enough to have health insurance right now. (this has not always been the case, so i definitely feel fortunate.) i take a generic of Latuda, which is called lurasidone.
recently i had an appointment with my psychiatrist, which i do about once a month so that i can keep getting my meds refilled. in this appointment i brought up something that has been bothering me for a few months, which is that my legs often have a restlessness, a compulsion to move when i would rather they didn't. i didn't clock until recently that it could be a side effect of my meds. i saw some people on Bluesky (via the Bipolar Feed, shout out Luke, you rock) mentioning that their bipolar meds had resulted in similar side effects, and i realized it was possible that this annoying compulsion was an effect of my meds. so i brought it up with my psychiatrist, and she looked it up in her medication bible thing and she was like, "yep, it can cause that."
so we decided to reduce my dosage of the lurasidone. we had increased it in the first place because i had been having depressive episodes before my monthly periods, but that issue was sorted out by my gynecologist prescribing me a different birth control, so it makes sense for us to go back down. especially if the increase was causing side effects like this restless compulsion to move which is very uncomfortable. it hasn't been enough time for me to tell if the dosage change is helping or not, but i hope it does.
i'm very lucky to be on meds that work for me, i know so many bipolar people who are treatment resistant or have to go through so many meds to find one that works and it was a pretty easy ride for me. i have tried lithium in the past, but i didn't really like it very much and my current psychiatrist likes lurasidone better as it's not so intense. and it works for me. it's prevented me from having any manic episodes the whole time i've been taking it. my depressive episodes i do still get, but they're much less intense and i'm able to break out of the "hate spirals" i get much easier. it's like i have a more rational friend going, "wrong, you don't suck, you deserve to live," and i can actually believe them. if you're on meds that don't work for you, please try to find ones that do and don't just give up. i know it can be hard, but when you find one that does work it makes life so much easier. i love myself now. isn't that nuts? i fully believe that's possible through meds that work for me. (along with some (safe and comfortable) acid usage for the psychological breakthroughs.)
i hope this med change helps reduce this annoying side effect, and i hope its effectiveness doesn't decrease in the process. we'll see going forward.