>>11637218>olanzapineSo what you got here is a dopamine and serotonin regulator. To put it in lay terms, your brain is overactive which causes your mania and schizophrenia, then like a car running at top speed your engine (brain) explodes and needs a break. The break is what you experience as a depression as your brain does not have the capacity to make enough dopamine and serotonin.
What this drug does is it attacks your serotonin and dopamine receptors to prevent your engine from blowing up in the first place. This prevents mania which prevents the depression crash l while also preventing schizophrenia, however, nothing comes for free.
The drug works by blocking the uptake of fuel (sero and dopa) to your brain, this is permanent. So think of it as a soft-core lobotomy, youre very gently nuking small (albeit random) parts of your brain so that it doesn't overstimulate itself and you dont get your shizo and bipolar episodes.
Now I say random and this should be stressed, it is important that this drug helps but what area of the brain gets affected depends on an individual basis. If you find that this drug does not help you or worse yet gives you debilitating side-effect you need to stop and switch drug. For example, SSRI give me semi-permanent erectile disfunction which is why I cannot take SSRI. The random part in my brain that they nuke is the control line to my penis and not the one that regulates my emotions.
But yeah the effects will be permanent so it's up to you to weigh what you want to lose or put up in the chances. Do know that whatever drug treatment you take, the therapy you will (and have to) take alongside it will help you much more than any drug could (drug+therapy is best then therapy then drug) and that at the end of the day whatever your choice YOU will have to carry the weight of your therapy. The drug and therapy are just crutches or guidelines (however you want to call them). There are exceptions depending on your schizophrenia
