Well it took long enough but I finally got off my Lamictal and am on to quitting Risperidone. I waited until it had been like a solid 6 weeks since my last dose of Lamictal and most of the withdrawal was over. All this withdrawal has been going on since the start of May so I'm pretty sick of it and am tapering my Risperidone quicker so it can all be over sooner than later. This one definitely isn't as bad as the Lamictal withdrawal so that's good, but according to articles it can last way longer which is a bummer.

I was at .5mg twice daily and started by skipping my evening dose for 5 full days. Yesterday was my first day completely off it, and it started getting pretty rough there in the evening. I have a feeling today will be the worst day. I'm hoping since it's such a low dose it will be somewhat tame. I've also been working on quitting smoking (well using my ecig anyway) and am on step 2 of the patch but had some step 1 patches left over for rough days. So yesterday I wore a step 1 patch, and I'm doing the same thing today. It definitely helps at least a little to have the extra nicotine because I was dissociating slightly prior to putting it on today.

I've only thrown up once so far, but I have a super fickle stomach so that's not really much to make a fuss about. I made some jello and am going to try to stick to tame foods. Other symptoms: irritability, some depression, slight confusion type feeling (although the whole summer feels like a blur of withdrawal so far so idk), headaches that can progress into migraines, fatigue, and tons of anxiety. There's probably more, but my brain feels like an angry animated scribble of shouting thoughts.

I've been continuing the supplements that helped a bit during the Lamictal withdrawal: daily multivitamin, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and b-complex. Also vitamin D since my dad has MS.

So does anyone have any advice on other stuff or activities that might help or have experiences they could share?

I feel like these stupid drugs should have the same kind of warning labels on them as nicotine products. I mean at least you get a nice big warning of how addictive of a substance nicotine is before getting addicted to it so you know what you've gotten yourself into. And it's bullshit that there's countless people out there professionally trained in helping people get off of the illegal drugs or alcohol but you're pretty much on your own struggling to get off the shit doctors prescribed you. I mean my psychiatrist is aware of me quitting these meds obviously. I actually took things much much slower than her orders because of how terrible it was. Ugh.

My advice to anyone who has to quit either of these drugs (Lamictal and Risperidone) someday: do it when you don't have a lot going on in your life and you have the free time to deal with all the emotions and side effects involved. I don't think I could handle this if I was working full time.