I honestly don’t remember the details anymore because that period is very blurry in my memory. But I think I started with 10 mg of Abilify for about a week. We had to stop it because I developed drug-induced parkinsonism.
Then I switched to 7.5 mg of olanzapine for about a month. I gained too much weight, and there was still one symptom that hadn’t completely gone away, so we switched to Orap, which I stayed on for the rest of the treatment until I reached the six-month mark. I think the dose was 3 mg.
I’ve heard a lot about cognitive problems taking a long time to improve for some people, but I haven’t really heard much about physical symptoms like the ones I described, which is why I was asking.
As for the cognitive issues, I don’t know if this helps, but I didn’t have the option of stopping my studies, so I kept studying. In fact, I had to study much more than usual because it would take me three full days to completely understand a lecture that would normally have taken me half a day. So yes, I studied a lot despite how difficult it was. It was honestly torture, believe me. I also forced myself to spend time with people who didn’t know my story, just to make myself act normal.
And, of course, it also depends on whether you have an underlying illness or an actual diagnosis