So … I'm alive and (relatively) coherent. And,
I have to say, last night was a fantastic night's sleep!
To be honest, the "…seriously, don't…"
comments had their effects. And a colleague's insistence on 'phoning me to make
sure I was alive made me a little worried. So, buoyed by the knowledge that my
hotel had what was described as a "decent" restaurant, I stayed in,
and decided on a sedate – rather than adventurous – evening.
Which may have been wise. For the first hour
or so, I was absolutely fine, After about 90 minutes, though, I began to feel hugely
and inescapably lethargic. I found myself simply staring into space… drifting
off, looking out of the window… and catching myself simply acting vacant. So I
had a very early dinner and went to bed.
It’s very difficult to put into words what the
sedation feels like. It’s not like being tired, quite. The best example is the
lethargy that you feel on a long motorway journey in summer. When the sun
shines, and the miles scoot past without incident, you often feel your eyelids
drooping, your head nodding and yourself drifting off to sleep. You aren’t
tired, per se, but it takes an enormous effort of will to avoid dropping off.
And for me, too, without being tired exactly , I was just drooping and slumping
into sleepiness.
So what’s it like after 24 hours? Like having
the fidgets, the ‘flu, being drunk, being sleepy and being hung-over, all at
the same time. All of which put a little bit of a dampener on being in Paris…
The akathisia was definitely there before bedtime.
At first, I thought it was just going to be irritating rather than overwhelming.
I certainly aren’t experiencing the effects as badly as the people on this video. But it isn’t pleasant. It’s very much like the fidgety feelings you
get a few hours after a long cycle ride – it feels as if moving or massaging
your legs will alleviate the feelings, except it doesn’t, which leaves you doing
it repeatedly and looking a little strange. My body also isn’t quite doing what
it should. When walking, for instance, I
found myself almost consciously having to lead with my right foot, with the
left sort of following on: right, left, right, left, etc. Even
scratching an itch seemed to be a planned activity.
There are a few other issues: my mouth is dry
and I have a metallic taste in my mouth and a curious tightness in my the chest.
But they’re not insurmountable and I have to say, again, that I had an
excellent night’s sleep last night … I slept for 14 hours! But along with the
obvious sedation were some other unpleasant effects. Wandering (rather
aimlessly) around town getting lost from time to time isn’t terrible, but it
isn’t great either.
Thus far… I’ve been taking chlorpromazine for a
little over 24 hours. Tomorrow… I’m giving my presentation. I’ll keep you posted.
Wondering about the point of taking this psychotropic for such a brief period (???). As I'm sure you are aware, many non-psychiatric medications take time for an individual to adjust to (e.g., oral contraceptives and various antibiotics often have a temporary side effect of nausea, which often abates).
ReplyDeleteLikewise, sedation is common with meds used for non-psychiatric purposes, such as the medication my son takes for Epilepsy. For his first week on Tegretol, he experienced sig. sedative effects. As the dose was slowly titrated up and his body adjusted, the sedative effect diminished and his normal energy level eventually returned. You have no way of knowing what would be temporary side effects for you and what would be long-lasting, thus rendering the benefits of this experiment questionable.