Ever since I’ve been on antipsychotics I’ve had a problem with lack of motivation almost like mild depression and I’m not sure if it’s the antipsychotic making me unmotivated or if it’s just mild depression. I don’t feel a heavy weight of depression just this difficulty getting motivated.

I'm going to be really general. I can't say what is happening to you. I'm sorry you're having these troubles.

The point of treatment for most patients is to improve their quality of life. If the med helps your mania for example, but you can't do your work or have sex or think clearly or you get diabetes (COMMON side effect) etc, then it may not be worth it to you.

I'm in my 50s and I have a very, very negative opinion on antipsychotics. I lost 15 years to psychiatry. The drugs made me stupid. I couldn't read my sci fi, stopped writing fiction, playing piano etc. I couldn't do it. Most pdocs don't seem to consider overall quality of life imo. (Some do)

I never found any meds that did help me, but in the past 8 years off meds I improved my piano playing a lot and learned a foreign language to fluency. My life has purpose. Those drugs stole my purpose from me. My pdoc who retired said it was like watching someone recover from a stroke.

Idk. Maybe that's just me. But others I have known on antipsychotics lost functioning too.

I think lithium is ok, but I need to be able to take NSAIDs off and on, I need a knee replacement. Opioids don't work for me either. (NSAIDs work great). My whole family has trouble with various meds.

Once you get a schizophrenia or bipolar label, a lot of docs give up you. They deflate you with their low expectations. They don't say that to you, of course. Every time you have a problem thinking or motivating, they say it is the illness progressing, but it's the med or stress etc.

Maybe this doesn't seem relevant to you now, but the longer you are in the system, the more cynical you will probably be.

I get hypo in spring too.

I don't know what you should do, I'm just some lady on the internet, but my bet is that the antipsychotic is the cause.

Be sure to think in terms of overall quality of life and not just about being rid of symptoms. If you mostly chase symptoms, like the pdocs seem to do, you may lose in the end. Even if the antipsychotics had worked, they would not have been worth it for me because I'm an intellectual.

/r/bipolar Thread