insomnia/carb cravings with geodon

[laura college junior]

Hey, im currently a college student in my junior year and ive been struggling with anxiety/ocd for the past 7 years. Ive been on prob any drug you can think of ...celexa, effexor, zoloft, paxil, now im on a combonation therapy of paxil cr and geodon. Ive been on this for a good 2 years. I have been experiencing really bad insomnia.I would also for the past about 10 months will wake up early and eat carbs then go back to sleep! i cant tell if its the meds or just a really bad habit. I must lay in bed for a good 2-3 hrs before I can fall asleep. Initially i was on just 40mg at nite which used to put me out right away but now it does nothing...so i take 40 mg with quater to half pill of clonasapam(spelling?). which helps me sleep. I recently had a very depressive/anxiety episode that made me feel very apathetic, unmotivated, tired all the time. My doc said to bump up the geodon by 20mg so i took 60mg at nite and i could hardly sleep at all.HOWEVER..my mood during the next day was the best its been in a while. It made me even more alert. i talked to another doc and he said geodon is an activator but certain doses for certain ppl could cause drowsiness or alertnes which is frustrating. The plan now is to take half a clonaspam at nite and 60mg of geodon in the morning!(im now updating this )...im trying this currently at the moment and im wide awake and its about 3am. I have experienced really bad dreams where i'd wake up with rapid breathing as some of you have described literally horror dreams.. but those have been seldom as of this point in time. Im really just concerned about being able to sleep and if 60mg in the morning will make me have to sleep through all my classes or not. thanks to anyone with any input about all my blabbering!

[Jaynee Doe]

I started Geodon about two weeks ago because of psychotic hallucinations. The good news is it not only works for the hallucinations--it is the ONLY drug that has ever helped my depression. Almost immediately my head was clearer than it has been in ten years. For the last thirty years I've been taking anti-depressants that did nothing.

The bad news is the side effects, most of which I can live with, except for severe acne. I've done some searches and discovered Geodon does cause acne in some people.

Has anyone here had this problem, and if so, have you treated it successfully? I DO NOT want to go off the Geodon, but the acne is really severe. Of course, I'm vain enough to not want it, but the fact is, it also hurts a lot.

Thanks in advance,
Jaynee

[Mom of depressed teen]

My daughter has been on Geodon for 6 months, and had perfect skin before that. Her skin has gotten progressively worse, mostly on her cheeks and forehead. She gained twenty pounds because of carb cravings, so we added Topamax to help with mood stablizing, headaches and appetite control. Her skin got twice as bad. She's quite distraught, as she's 14 and finally mentally stable, but doesn't want to pay the price of being overweight or covered in acne! At this point she's begging me to take her off all meds, and I'm trying to convince her that I didn't put her on meds on a whim, I took her to two neurologists, three psychiatrists and two counselors before we came to this point. One day at a time.

Jaynee Doe wrote:

I started Geodon about two weeks ago because of psychotic hallucinations. The good news is it not only works for the hallucinations--it is the ONLY drug that has ever helped my depression. Almost immediately my head was clearer than it has been in ten years. For the last thirty years I've been taking anti-depressants that did nothing.
The bad news is the side effects, most of which I can live with, except for severe acne. I've done some searches and discovered Geodon does cause acne in some people.
Has anyone here had this problem, and if so, have you treated it successfully? I DO NOT want to go off the Geodon, but the acne is really severe. Of course, I'm vain enough to not want it, but the fact is, it also hurts a lot.
Thanks in advance,
Jaynee

[bipolar4usall]

ACNE SAME!!! did either of you find a way to make the acne go away on geodon? updates? HELP!!