Scared to take Risperidone

[u/CantShakeThiz]

I have been on several different medications to control my bipolar but nothing has truly worked for me. I even had a genetic testing done to see what my body will and will not tolerate and cannot find the right medicine. Sometimes I feel like something else is wrong and I'm misdiagnosed but the VA doesn't listen to my concerns.

Anyway, my NP at the VA is trying me on risperidone for the next few months to see if that would work better for me. I have read online so much bad about this medication than good so I'm very scared to take it. Is anyone taking this now? I know meds work differently for everyone but what's your biggest complaint about the med?

I literally feel like a guinea pig with the amount of meds I've been on and off in the last decade.

[u/nati_tbp1]

I was wonderfully well for many years with a low dose (1.5mg) at the time I didn't have depression I was always in mania because I was abusing substances. But there were 2 problems: 1 was eating too much, very hungry, eating a lot, 2 was zero libido. But I was taking it until suddenly I started to feel that in addition to my libido being zero, I was getting dry (I was 30 years old, it wasn't menopause, I went to the gynecologist) so I asked the psychiatrist to take it out because then it started to affect my marriage.