I am feeling better on abilify than in a long time.
So I would actually remain on it for life if it wasn’t for,
Hair loss
Fear of unknown side effects, in particular in the future such as
Tardive dyskynesia?
Parkinsons??
Diabetes?
I had psychosis in 2016.
Then went on abilify, came off abilify under pdoc approval in 2018,
Then relapsed into full psychosis again.
Now I’m back on abilify.
I’m just concerned that if I come off and relapse, I have to do some loooooong recovery thing again and worse still, remain on a higher dose or whatever.
What would you do and why?
I am honestly not sure don’t even know which option I’m leaning towards.
I also happen to miss jogging because I’m on abilify and am not back to normal on abilify.
I can relate to that. I’m not entirely happy with my med side effects either, but the way I justify it to myself is like, I’d rather be fat and symptom free than skinny and floridly psychotic.
I don’t think you can expect things to be perfect while on psych meds. The truth is you’re probably gonna have to make trade offs. I’ve felt tranquilized for the last 4-5 months ever since I started clonazepam for insomnia and I am now probably dependent on it but I need it to sleep so it is a trade off I made.
My AP (Lurasidone) doesn’t have any side effects, but I think I am just really lucky with that, but who knows what the future holds, I am scared sh*tless of developing Tardive Dyskynesia.
You mentioned hair loss, a little would be okay or is it getting worse? In ALL your pics your hair still looks good to me.
I developed diabetes from olanzapine, it sucks, but you can learn to manage it.
Quitting or trying other meds is up to you. Are the side effects tolerable or not. I tried Haldol and the side effects were completely intolerable so I quit. I was also on abilify back in 2012 but it didn’t do anything, no side effects but no antipsychotic effect either, I ended up becoming psychotic and started having visual hallucinations so I had to quit it.
Whenever I lowered my dose too much or went of my meds over the last 17years I relapsed. My guess is you would too, but quitting meds or trying a different one is something you have to decide for yourself, and you probably should talk to your doctor about.
I knew a girl that had thin hair, she bought extensions (I think that is what they were called), She just added fake hair to her real hair. I couldn’t tell until she told me.
“Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a condition in which the ovaries produce an abnormal amount of androgens, male sex hormones that are usually present in women in small amounts. The name polycystic ovary syndrome describes the numerous small cysts (fluid-filled sacs) that form in the ovaries.”
I didn’t know Mae had that, is there a fix for that? Any medication that counter the androgens?
@Zoe if that is what you have then maybe you really should talk about THAT with your doctor if you haven’t already. I don’t’ know a lot about Abilfy but I don’t recall anyone complaining about hair loss before while being on it (but everyone’s experiences with these meds can be different), if you are stable on Abilify then staying on it is probably a good idea. I would search for other explanations for hair loss first before I stopped abilify and became psychotic again.
