Abilify problems?

[Spanophile]

I upped my Abilify the past 2 days to 15mgs and now I feel like I could pass out. I'm so tired I feel like any minute my head is going to hit the desk. When I get up from my chair I get so dizzy and woozy that I think I could pass out. Is this Abilify or my normal craziness? Pdoc wanted to put me on Geodon but it's not on my formulary! The problem is I'm still hypomanic - can't stop talking but I'm slurring my speech like a wino who has hit the Wild Irish Rose one too many times!

[LunaRufina]

Did you go from 5mg to 15mg? If so you might need to drop back down to 10mg first for a little bit and then go to 15mg.

Otherwise...

Abilify can make you drowsy, lethargic. But it can be temporary and I would encourage you to wait it out for at least a little while if you can stand it. If it is really interfering with your functioning [making it so you can't work], you could try taking it at night if you aren't already doing so.

The tiredness improved a bit for me after a time and then really improved when I started to take it at night. If you are still hypomanic, I don't know if it is that it is not working, will take a while to work, or is a side effect of the med. Again, you might have to sit it out for a bit. It has only been two days. It's hard to be patient but I would try to give it at least a couple of weeks as far as the tiredness goes. The effectiveness in addressing your hypomanic symptoms? I don't know. I thought I started to feel a little bit of a difference right away in the symptoms I was trying to address but it could have just been a sense of relief in that I was finally doing something to help. It took longer to see a big difference. But it's all different for every one.

I don't know if that was any help. There are a few threads on abilify in this board. You might want to check them out. If the dizzyness doesn't go away really quickly, like today, you should put a call into your doctor just to be safe. It could be a sign that you are on too high of a dose or went up too quickly. Maybe you could increase by 2.5 increments.

Is there a way to get an override with your insurance? I know some of them can have a doctor fill out a form saying why the patient should take a medication not inn the formulary and get coverage that way.

[Spanophile]

Thank you Luna! Someone told me that I should ask my doctor about taking Zyprexa for just a little while. Apparently it can knock hypomania to the floor. I don't want to be on it too long though because I have a problem with gaining weight on these drugs and from what I heard Zyprexa puts the pounds on you faster than eating 2 dozen donuts. I will blimp up for sure.

[barara]

I take 30 mg abilify and i dont have side effects.

In the beginning i had isomnia and a peculiar burp (i think this is the word) but they r all gone now.

I dont take any other medication.

[Loon-A-TiK]

i see (like LR) a couple of problems with your abilify-taking as of right now.

#1- you haven't been taking it nearly long enough to know how it will affect you at all. every drug has initial side effects, but they almost always go away within a week or two. if you ride them out, chances are they won't continue to bother you. as she suggested, taking it at night if it makes you tired could help you sleep and get the drug into your system so it is helpful.

#2- there probably isn't any reason to take zyprexa. it will pack on pounds, do terrible things to your blood sugar, and be a general nightmare. it is AWESOME for short term use in knocking out mania or hallucinations, but i don't know why they still prescribe it long term when they know it leads to diabetes and obesity. i gained 20lbs in one month on it, and i was dieting and exercising. when i stopped it, i lost 30lbs with the dieting and exercising. let abilify work. you've only taken it a couple of days and can't expect it to work overnight.

#3- geodon isn't necessarily your savior either. if you can get your insurance co to swing it, you could try it, but it can cause heart irregularities and made me homocidal! i'm "allergic" to it.

the best bet for you right now is to give abilify at least a couple of weeks, taken at night, to do its thing. abilify isn't bad. i take it. you probably went up in dose too fast too. you should wait about a week before going up 5mg, at least that's what my pdoc is making me do.

[Maddy]

I wasn't on Abilify long enough to know if the lethargy and wooziness goes away or not. It wasn't a good fit for me because it dropped my seizure threshold through the floor, fast. Most AP/AAP's do that to me though, so my opinion on Abilify isn't really helpful to most if any.

Short term Zyprexa can kill mania dead though. They gave my niece Zydis during her time in hospital. Then they put her on Seroquel for mood stabilization. Seroquel really helped her moods, but it caused a LOT of weight gain. She's on Lamictal now and it's great as long as she doesn't miss a dose and takes it at approximately the same time every night. She's also stopped gaining weight, she's not losing weight but it's more like she's growing into her weight. (She's almost ten now.)

Also, my niece stays on mostly the mania side and she's an ultradian cycler.

My 1/2 brother, nephew and niece have all tried Geodon and it made them really rage. My neice went from rage to euphoria in nothing flat. But that could have just been our kooky family.

Sorry I'm not much help.

[Spanophile]

I went back down to 5mgs and I'm still having "issues". Mainly I feel like I always have to move. It's like I'm restless in and out. I can't concentrate on anything for more than 5 seconds. It's horrific. Called the pdoc because something has to be done I have to work I just bought a house and the last thing I need to lose my job because I went nuts. I mean I'm in HR and I know they can't fire me over it and I've thought about telling my boss but who knows how he will react. Some people don't understand that we can't help this and they think that we are "crazy" and don't have an illness. It's wrong and it sucks but it's reality.