Olanzapine success

[Helpmyspouse]

Was hoping someone can shed light on my situation from personal experience. My spouse was suffering from delusions. He is currently on olanzapine but I have no idea what he has been diagnosed with since I am not able to contact him. Does Olanzapine remove old delusions so the patient doesn’t even remember what he believed? Or do the meds just stop more new delusions from forming.

[Helpmyspouse]

Thanks for your reply. I am struggling with the idea of reconciling with him after a year. We can’t reconcile before hand as we are in a no contact order from the police. He had a breakdown in June and tried to choke me. We also have two small children and Children’s Aid involved. The children can only see their father under supervision at the Children’s Aid office. Just wondering what the likelihood of our family reuniting under one roof and living a normal life.
It really hurts to see my family so broken. I know my spouse didn’t ask to get sick and before this was never violent towards me or never showed signs of mental illness. I also know that I need to protect the kids and myself and can’t return to a life that wasn’t safe, emotionally or physically.

[Ballerina123]

Olanzapine helped with my dellutions but it didn't make me forget the dellutions.

For example I had a dellution that the 111 bus was following me and watching me. I can still remeber that dellution and how scary it was but now I can see that it was not true.

Medication are not memory wipers. They cannot erase dellutions but they can make you see the situation in a more realistic light so that you can see that it was a dellution.

CBT therapy also help me rationalise my dellution and sometimes a mixture of therapy and meds can work well.

I hope your spouse feels better soon.

[Steel Maiden]

Olanzapine has kept me out of hospital for 2 years, but only in combination with a second antipsychotic (right now I am on Olanzapine and Amisulpride).

Olanzapine is a good second-generation atypical antipsychotic. From some research I've read, some researchers say that it is the second best to Clozapine.

I have schizophrenia. I still experience upsetting thoughts about the Spies, Dictatorship etc. (my psychiatrist and my Dad call them delusions but I'm thinking they're real but I am confused) but Olanzapine keeps me calmer and able to resist them (without meds I am extremely agitated, hearing voices constantly, freaking out at every person's movement etc.). I hear voices quite frequently, but they're quieter on Olanzapine.

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia is not totally accurate, so atypical antipsychotics like Olanzapine, Risperidone etc. may not totally work, but they do for some.

[insidemyhead]

Hello, speaking as a sufferer from psychosis I can say that anti psychotics can help you gain insight and challenge delusions but it doesn't necessarily make you forget the delusions. You remember how real and scary they were but you now have the ability to challenge them. Now it may take some time to find a med combination that works. I reacted really badly to olanzapine (I can't remember if it helped because all it did was sedate me, I'm not trying to scare you because many people don't experience this), I then went on a second atypical anti psychotic which controlled me enough t get me out of hospital but didn't help me as such. As steel mentions the dopamine hypothesis isn't necessarily true for everyone but was tested with me and I was put on a typical antipsychotic (chlorpromazine) and it's done wonders for me, I can challenge my thoughts with cbt and am slowly gaining control of my life in that sense. So he may need to try more than one medication before he can get to a state of stability and medication is just to control the initial acute symptoms he may need therapy to help him challenge the thoughts he had even if they are not controlling his life anymore also to gain insight so he can become aware he has an illness and to notice any change in his state of mind t get help quicker. I hope things work out for you hun, I really do. Take care x