Does abilify show up in a lab draw?

[Badluck_Ben]

I'm off the court ordered abilify for a few months now and I have been feeling great.

The psychiatrist ordered a lab draw for me to check cholesterol and fat lipid levels because she said that abilify can raise cholesterol.

Was wondering if anyone knows if that lab draw will show whether or not I have been taking abilify? If that's the case I might have to swallow a pill tonight before the lab draw tomorrow.

[jt07]

So you are under a court order to take Abilify and haven't been taking it? Am I understanding correctly?

 

If you doctor checks your Abilify level, it will show up in the lab test and taking one pill is not going to cut it because Abilify has a long half life and it takes forever to reach a steady state in the blood. You'd better come clean to your doctor before you get into even worse trouble.

Edited May 15, 2015 by jt07

[jt07]

If you are having a problem with compliance, there is a long-acting injection called Abilify Maintena. That might be something to talk to your pdoc about.

[Wonderful.Cheese]

So you are under a court order to take Abilify and haven't been taking it? Am I understanding correctly?

 

If you doctor checks your Abilify level, it will show up in the lab test and taking one pill is not going to cut it because Abilify has a long half life and it takes forever to reach a steady state in the blood. You'd better come clean to your doctor before you get into even worse trouble.

 

What jt said.

 

Don't do it! Take the meds! I was on a court order and had monitored daily medications for years. If I strayed they put me IP. You don't want that do you? I certainly did not.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Wonderful.Cheese

[melissaw72]

If the DR orders a specific test to see abilify levels, then yes, they will show up on the report.

[Badluck_Ben]

Update: I took one pill the night before the test but it didn't matter, there was no mention of the lack of abilify in my blood when I met with the dumb ass psychiatrist. ;-)

Edited June 2, 2015 by Badluck_Ben

[Wonderful.Cheese]

Update: I took one pill the night before the test but it didn't matter, there was no mention of the lack of abilify in my blood when I met with the dumb ass psychiatrist. ;-)

Um, "good" for you? This is a pro treatment site. We don't encourage people to not take their meds. So yeah. Time to be honest with your dr.

[Cerberus]

Badluck_Ben -

 

There is no such thing as bad luck, or good luck, just the choices we make. It sounds like you're not making the best choices. You might want to rethink that.

[vanderk]

And if you refer to your treatment provider as a dumbass I cannot imagine your "treatment" will be at all helpful.  This smacks of poor insight/acceptance of a condition.  What is your responsibility for your treatment?

[Badluck_Ben]

And if you refer to your treatment provider as a dumbass I cannot imagine your "treatment" will be at all helpful.  This smacks of poor insight/acceptance of a condition.  What is your responsibility for your treatment?

I'm on all natural supplements.  I went to a naturopathic doctor who worked previously with a patient who was on 5 different psych meds and in and out of the hospital with manic episodes. I got urine and blood analysis done to see the way my body processes elements and I was deficient in things that promote mood stabilization and full on things that cause mania.  I don't experience bipolar symptoms until I have my yearly manic episode in the winter, so I'm trying to avoid that without being an overly medicated dummy the rest of the year.

After my tests I am on high quality products from a company called Prothera....a regimen of glycine, lysine, taurine, zinc, b vitamin with magnesium, vitamin c, vitamin d, fish oil, sunflower lecithin, and finally a multivitamin.

The nutrition test was called NutrEval if anyone's interested.  

[Badluck_Ben]

Badluck_Ben -

 

There is no such thing as bad luck, or good luck, just the choices we make. It sounds like you're not making the best choices. You might want to rethink that.

Having a manic episode at the end of law school and getting thrown into a hospital out of nowhere, with manic episodes the following four years, with everyone thinking you're crazy because during your manic fury you make bizarre Facebook posts to the public, is just bad luck.  The fact that we're in a system that doesn't promote for blood tests to check your nutrition levels at the hospital and just wants to hook you on pills so your system is addicted and no longer functions properly is extremely worse luck.

[Badluck_Ben]

 

Update: I took one pill the night before the test but it didn't matter, there was no mention of the lack of abilify in my blood when I met with the dumb ass psychiatrist. ;-)

 

Um, "good" for you? This is a pro treatment site. We don't encourage people to not take their meds. So yeah. Time to be honest with your dr.

Seems like every time I make a post I get a response like this.  Is there an alternate site I don't know about where my experiences will be respected?

[Wooster]

We are a pro-treatment site.

For some people that means pharmaceuticals and therapy and lifestyle changes. For other people they try a naturopathic route. The experience of many people here is they would be DEAD without pharmaceutical interventions. So when you say...

The fact that we're in a system that doesn't promote for blood tests to check your nutrition levels at the hospital and just wants to hook you on pills so your system is addicted and no longer functions properly is extremely worse luck.

it's unlikely you will get a sympathetic response.

ETA: There is an "alternative treatments" section that I mod in. Naturopathic approaches are supported for discussion there.

Many people have not had success treating their bipolar with nutritional approaches and as I said, would be quite dead without their pharmaceutical approaches.

I hope the naturopathic approach works for you. However, many people don't have option to that level of care because it's not covered by public assistance programs. It's not bad luck that you got ill. It's genetics plus environment. And it's not good luck you can afford a naturopath. It's class privilege.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Wooster

[Pamito]

In my experience, with lots of naturopathic help, the treatments did absolutely nothing.

The only thing that treats my mental illness well is antipsychotic medication.

My life is so much better now that I am on antipsychotics, rather than B12 injections, NAC, and Kava root. What a waste of money that was and I was psychotic to boot!

Your opinions are not going to gain much credence here, there are people here who have a lot of experience with being treated.

[Mendy Oirechman]

Please don't take your poison/Abilify my parents forced me to take that poison for 2 years and it didn't help me one bit if I were you who cares that you were court ordered to take your poison if you were court ordered to commit suicide would you commit suicide? because if you take your Abilify you are commiting emotional suicide just take your Abilify 2 weeks before your evil psychiatrist draws your blood and after stop taking it immidiately doctor shmoctor trust me that drug doesn't help anyone

[jt07]

Please don't take your poison/Abilify my parents forced me to take that poison for 2 years and it didn't help me one bit if I were you who cares that you were court ordered to take your poison if you were court ordered to commit suicide would you commit suicide? because if you take your Abilify you are commiting emotional suicide just take your Abilify 2 weeks before your evil psychiatrist draws your blood and after stop taking it immidiately doctor shmoctor trust me that drug doesn't help anyone

At what point did you think it was at all a good idea to advise someone to 1. go against a court order and 2. go against one's psychiatrist? We are a pro-meds and pro-treatment site. If you had taken time to get to know us you would know that. Plus we do not tell people how to cheat drug screens.

BTW, I think Abilify is a great med. It helps me immensely. It certainly is NOT poison. 

[Gearhead]

Mendy, you're new, so I'm going to explain this to you. If you had a bad experience with Abilify, you have the right to say so if someone is asking about how others like the med.

What you cannot do is suggest that a med is categorically no good, or "poison," or that taking it is "emotional suicide," and you absolutely cannot suggest that someone defy a court order. We are a pro-med and pro-treatment website. 

So knock it off.

[Cerberus]

Please don't take your poison/Abilify my parents forced me to take that poison for 2 years and it didn't help me one bit if I were you who cares that you were court ordered to take your poison if you were court ordered to commit suicide would you commit suicide? because if you take your Abilify you are commiting emotional suicide just take your Abilify 2 weeks before your evil psychiatrist draws your blood and after stop taking it immidiately doctor shmoctor trust me that drug doesn't help anyone

Well, Mendy*, let's analyze your argument, shall we?

Please don't take your poison/Abilify Blatant use of loaded language and propagandist rhetoric my parents forced me to take that poison for 2 years Irrelevant emotional appeal attempting to represent yourself as an oppressed person and it didn't help me one bit Impossible to substantiate, and even if so is relevant only to your specific case if I were you Not only are you not the OP, you know nothing about him other than what is written here who cares that you were court ordered Anyone with respect for the rule of law and the common sense to avoid incarceration or involuntary institutionalization to take your poison More anti-med propagandism if you were court ordered to commit suicide would you commit suicide? Rhetorical fallacy - there is no circumstance in which a person would be ordered to commit suicide; this is not 18th century Japan.  Also, appeal to sensationalist vocabulary because if you take your Abilify you are commiting emotional suicide Unsupportable assertion relying on emotional language - and just plain nonsense just take your Abilify 2 weeks before your evil psychiatrist draws your blood Propagandist vilification of an entire profession punctuated by suggested vampiric imagery after stop taking it immidiately Attempting to coerce members on this site to defy the instructions of their care team or discontinue their medication is not acceptable even if you are yourself a mental health professional, in which case you would face an ethical bar against doing so, and in any case you clearly are not doctor shmoctor Childish name-calling does not constitute an argument trust me I see no reason to do that that drug doesn't help anyone Many on this site would, and do, argue strongly to the contrary; medical and governmental authorities permit its sale because it has been found safe and effective; and the court system in this case is sufficiently persuaded of its effectiveness that it has ordered the OP to use it.

To sum up, you have presented a clearly biased diatribe based on your own butthurt over what your parents "forced you to do" (are you like, 13 years old?) using pathetically clumsy rhetorical clichés in an attempt to make it appear to the OP that it would be better to ignore medical professionals and court officers than to take proven medication.  Your persuasion is dead on arrival, your logic is false as a four-dollar bill, and your anti-med and anti-psychiatry rant is utterly inappropriate to this forum.

Go boil your head.

 

Cerberus

 

*Is "Mendy" short for mendacious, as in mendacious propaganda?

[Badluck_Ben]

 

I hope the naturopathic approach works for you. However, many people don't have option to that level of care because it's not covered by public assistance programs. It's not bad luck that you got ill. It's genetics plus environment. And it's not good luck you can afford a naturopath. It's class privilege.

Your genetics and your environment is determined by LUCK.  Just look around...that 6 year old sitting in the hospital with leukemia?  Genetic bad luck. That giant healthy NBA player? Genetic good luck.  That 6 year old kid who stepped on an IED in Iraq? Environmental bad luck.  The baby being born in the hospital today to two parents who live in a gated community in Bel Air?  Environmental good luck.  To say luck doesn't factor into our genetics and our environments is just ridiculous because these are variables where the concept of "luck" shows itself in many ways.

Nice misplaced use of the term "class privilege" by the way, as I am still covered by medical assistance and pay to attend a naturopath on an hourly job where I might make about 30-35k this year.  

These "many people" you refer to need to explore and actively ask questions in their own recovery.  No need to be a dummy and just accept everything some guy says just because he has on a white coat.  They should question healthcare providers and explore all of the options before you completely wave the white flag and give in to a lifetime of that terrible zombie feeling of being on a neuroleptic.  Psychiatrists have no incentive to give nutrition tests at the hospital and evaluate how the body is processing nutrients, despite the fact there are studies supporting this cause of action to treat symptoms of bipolar.  All of the money is on the side of the drug companies, and that's a problem.  I plan to participate in a case study with my naturopath if these methods help prevent my annual manic episode from happening this winter.

 

[Wooster]

The fact that you are able to have a job where you will earn $30k in a year and can pay out of pocket for a naturopath is indeed a certain amount of class privilege. ETA: Your current income would be 100% of the federal poverty level for a family of SIX.

Many people here simply do not have the capacity to work due to disabling symptoms of their mental illnesses. I was one of those people and I had NO health insurance for two years while I was the most ill because I couldn't afford it. I used food banks and had to defer a whole bunch of bills that ended up costing substantially more in the long run because I had no income, no ability to get income, and was lucky I didn't end up homeless, which would have made EVERYTHING worse. 

I worked hard and had access to the right kind of supports to get better enough to go back to work after a few years. Recovery looks different to each person. For someone else, recovery might mean preventing that annual manic episode in the winter or being able to cook a meal independently twice a week.

CrazyBoards encourages people to partner with their health care providers and to do their own research, not to "completely wave the white flag and give in to a lifetime of that terrible zombie feeling of being on a neuroleptic."

Your experience is YOUR experience. It is not MY experience or ANYONE else's experience. It's completely appropropriate to talk about how you are partnering with a naturopath. It is completely inappropriate to disparage others' treatment choices.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Wooster

[Badluck_Ben]

Just wanted to drop an update.  I consider myself "due" for a manic episode this week as the past 5 years I had not gone longer than 11 months without experiencing a manic episode.  So far so good, and I have high hopes following what this naturopathic doctor has done for me.  I plan to declare "victory" by next spring and work with him to write up a case study. It really is a shame that when you are tagged "bipolar" that everyone tells you the only answer is to submit to taking antipsychotics, and I plan to get the word out.