I tried abilify years ago for a very brief period, I got akathisia from it (restlessness, feeling like you have to constantly move). So I went off it.
I’m on zyprexa now and I did get akathisia initially on it, but it went away after maybe a month give or take.
I’m wondering if I had stuck with abilify for longer, do you think the restlessness would go away?
I’m toying with the idea of trying abillify, as I understand it’s more of a partial dopamine-blocker(?), so maybe that way I could get some more of my emotions back?
I had that on 16 mg of risperdone and perphenazine. That’s the only two meds I had it on. Personally I would choose the ability to sit still over the ability to laght or cry.
I’ve taken Abilify for nine years. The restlessness lasted about two weeks for me. However, I was prescribed Concerta around the same time, so that might be masking the akathisia that would otherwise be noticeable. (Seriously this can’t be emphasized enough.)
I think it does go away, but I had to change meds, from risperdal to invenga.
hated all that, including restless leg syndrome.
never went to the doc though.
Phil’s gotten it too in the past,
and he’s never been on psych meds. who knows.
Abilify isn’t supposed to cause weight gain. I take Latuda as an anti psychotic and I noticed that if I have had a long nap in the day and take Latuda at night I can’t sleep and have terrible akathesia from 12 midnight to six a.m. Latuda used to make me sleepy even if I’d had a nap that day but I’d sleep only a couple of hours. I am a former zyprexa user and sufferer of sleep disorder caused by going off it like so many others.
I’ve been on 60mg of Lurasidone (Latuda) for 2-3ish years now and I developed Akathisia but I didn’t want to quit Lurasidone because it works so well for me. I now take 75mg of Trazodone a day and it completely eliminates the Akathisia. 50mg in the morning and 25mg in the evening.
Akathisia is the worst side effect possible, but in 95 percent of cases it goes away. You need to remove the medicine causing it or lower the dose usually. For me, lowering my Zyprexa dose from 10 mg to 7.5 mg eliminated the akathisia. Mind you I had this akathisia for over a year, as a result of Invega shots and an initial Zyprexa dose of 20 mg, and then 10. I was ready to give up on the med altogether until my doctor suggested a lower dose.
Since then I’ve lowered it to 5 mg. I still rock back and forth sometimes and my feet fidget in bed, but I’m able to stay seated for long periods and lying down in my bed isn’t agonizing like it used to be. I still take the med, just on a lower dose.
Propranalol and there’s a second one, I forget what it’s called, can help with it. I’m on propranalol for my akathisia and have been for a long time.
Try not to lose hope! When it finally goes away it is such a relief.
I started flexing my toes because they were cold in the winter to warm them though that never worked. Then I couldn’t stop moving my feet and I’m sure it’s akathesia because my whole body feels it sometimes but knowing what it is helps control it( I had been in ignorance about what was happening ). I have it when I’m awake in the dead of the night. Playing guitar I notice it but overall it seems I can sometimes control it with willpower. I know this sounds crazy. Playing guitar my legs move a lot but I can stop myself. It’s not as bad as TD which I don’t have as far as I’m aware and I’ve been medicated for thirty five years.
It’s hard to say. I took Abilify for the first time in 2008 and it was my first and worst psychotic break. It gave me severe akathisia. I had to switch. All of the other APs I took after it (Risperdal, Seroquel, Zyprexa) gave me high anxiety and a weird medication-induced depression. Then I was on Saphris which had a completely different reaction. I flew cowboy for a while and was back on a much lower dose of Abilify in 2019-2020. No akathisia this time around but I had high anxiety and weird depression this time. Was it different because of my dose or what was going on in my brain at the time? I am now on Rexulti. It seems to take a much longer time to actually work but a much lower side effect profile. It is all trial and error and this time things might be completely different. How do you feel about your pdoc? Will they be responsive to helping you treat akathisia? Be willing to switch it things get too bad?
i used to walk at least 4 hours a day when i was first on abilify. i now only walk 1 hour on average per day!
but yes, it kind of goes away, but also not all the way (for me anyways).
Days when I worked full time and couldn’t take walks were rough, but doable in 2021, 2022. Now that im between jobs, i walk in the morning and at night and im good. listen to music on my iphone. walk to store. it’s part of my routine now.
sorry youre experiencing that though, nobody could understand the urge to walk excessively when i had restlessness bad, neither did i for a long time.
