Hi, so I've been on caplyta for about 7 years or so. I was initially started on 42mg because that was the only dosage available. At first I had no side effects and genuinely felt that the medication was helping me quite a bit. I've noticed over the past 2-3 years it's just not the same anymore and I have a lot of the side effects. I officially stopped the caplyta last night. Yesterday morning I started vraylar. It was horrible so I have no intention of taking it again, so I am essentially going cold turkey with caplyta.
Last night withdrawal began almost immediately with racing thoughts and just noise and too much energy in my head. It took me forever to initially fall asleep. I did not go into a deep sleep and was at least 50% conscious the whole night. At around 4:30am it all suddenly stopped and I think I might've gotten some REM sleep but honestly I'm not sure. I had a vivid dream of my house flooding and then next thing I knew, my alarm went off.
Upon getting up, I felt really out of it. Like a mix of low blood pressure and low blood sugar, so kinda like dizzy, intense brain fog, my head would start pounding like I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my brain. I get ready for work in slow motion and leave.
I got to work and ate my breakfast. All felt ok in regards to my mood and and my ability to hold conversations. Soon after, my head starts feeling like I'm developing a migraine. I took advil and that seemed to make it go away for now. The longer I've been awake, the more I twitch. It's mainly just in my face and fingers, though.
I am currently considering trying to take a nap at my desk during my lunch break but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. Overall my brain fog has gone down but on a scale of 1-10 with fatigue/sleepiness, I am at a 10. Last time I felt this tired I had stayed awake for 36 hours straight. I will update some more later today and over the weekend. My Dr said the caplyta should only be in my system for like 4-6 days because of its short half life so hopefully this is the worst of it.
EVENING After I got home from work, I laid in bed and just kinda dissociated to Whatnot streams for a couple hours. When I got up I can say I felt oddly rested? I made some food but wasn't able to finish it due to severe cramps and bloating. I took an edible and ended up spending the rest of my waking hours watching diy videos lol
DAY 2 I took melatonin last night around midnight and slept about 5 hours straight but woke up due to stomach issues. I'm genuinely not sure if I'm tired or not. I went back to sleep somewhat after the stomach issues subsided, but I know I was constantly trying to get comfortable and that wasn't happening. Like my eyes feel and look tired, but my body and mind are rearing to go. This is as of officially getting up for the day at 10:30am. My mind wasn't racing as bad earlier this morning so that was nice. This has been the first time in years that I've taken melatonin and I'm not completely zombified with exhaustion to the point of sleeping 15+ hours the next day.
I was expecting significantly worse withdrawal considering I've actually experienced worse withdrawal from caplyta years ago. Being that it hasn't been working like it used to, I wonder if my body's just not reacting as intensely to being without it? I am used to dealing with constant severe fatigue, so I'm not sure how to react to getting less sleep and having more energy. I'm gonna go cook breakfast, and I guess I'll see how I hold up today in regards to energy.