I have been on Olanzapine for my paranoid schizophrenia since 2004 and avoided being an inpatient during all that time. On Tuesday evening my GP, don’t know which one, is calling me as I raised the issue of halving my dosage from the 5mg I am on which is the minimum therapeutic dose to 2.5mg with a view to stopping completely. Sgt Wilson might ask “Do you think that’s wise?” when during the previous decade I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act nearly every year. Well you see it makes it hard to get up in the morning due to the sedation effect for whatever reason be it just the medication or perhaps an interaction of it with my late evening alcohol or even one of my other medications. Now the thing is if you watch the video below that in West Lapland far fewer people ever even get diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Why? Well you get diagnosed with the condition according to the internationally accepted definition when you have had “it” for (6 I think) months. Now in West Lapland when they treat people for the condition with their own technique called “Open Dialogue” far fewer people ever get put on antipsychotics (like Olanzapine), those who are tend to only be on it for DAYS and largely patients are got well before the 6 months are up so they never get diagnosed with the condition. Sounds a no brainer right? But we don’t generally use their techniques in this country because, arguably, our whole treatment regime is a drugs company conspiracy to farm patients for their bottom line! Watch this space to see what happens. By the way I have been on 2.5mg before and of my own accord I put the dosage back up again but that was oh 10 years ago and I feel more “recovered” now. Self portrait of me in charcoal Putney ca 1988
