What Happened To My Face?: Tardive Dyskinesia

Suddenly my mouth drooped on one side. I looked like something serious was wrong with me. I would have gone to see my family physician, but my med check came first. When my prescriber looked at me, she was dismayed. "You have Tardive Dyskinesia," she said. It sounded very serious to me. She explained it was a side effect of the medication I had been taking. Evidently, other doctors had left me on Haldol for too long. She changed the medication I was currently prescribed and told me the damage was likely to be permanent. I was resigned to the idea.

In the hospital I had seen patients who made involuntary faces, chewed their tongues and made sucking motions. Now I knew those were all evidence of Tardive Dyskinesia. I felt sorry for us all. Now, when I am concentrating, I tend to grimace (this is also considered an effect of medication). I try to notice when I'm doing that and consciously relax my muscles, or try to smile instead; sometimes I just don't care.

Lucky for me, the droop went away. My face went back to normal. I was lucky. Later, my prescribers usually check for signs of it - not because they knew I had a history of problems with it, because it is common. They check to see if I can touch my finger to my nose and other similar simple things. I have been lucky. People taking anti-psychotics (as many, if not most of us are) are subject to this problem.

I suggest you inform yourself on this subject and look for any sign of it yourself. Discuss Tardive Dyskinesia with your prescriber. Above all, do not stop taking your medication because it might lead to this symptom. I have had no signs of it for the last ten years. I do not expect to. However, in the highly unlikely event Haldol was ever suggested to me again, I would strongly object to taking it. That is unlikely for me because, at the time I was taking it, I had been misdiagnosed (See "What the Hell is Wrong With Me?" this blog)