Please tell me how your antipsychotic med make you feel at first time. How can you overcome your fear to take it? What you do if you get side effects from it?
What antipsychotic are you on?
You probably won’t feel much different at first, but provided that this med works for you, over the next few days, you’ll start to find yourself thinking more rationally.
Honestly, it’s like ripping a bandaid off. You’ve just got to go for it.
Tell your pdoc. If you start having any symptoms like a fever, fatigue, delirium, then go to the ER.
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Oh, and don’t feel discouraged if this med doesn’t help anything. Just keep taking it until your doctor says otherwise.
These question actually for my 16 years old son who is schizophrenic . He has both visual and auditory hallucinations. His psychartrist once prescribed him abilify but he refused to take it. I think he really afraid of side effects. I personally afraid of the med will do more harm than good. I am scared to dead myself. I don’t know what to do if he has bad reaction to it. I feel more safe if he put on seroquel because it cause less movement disorder but I also don’t want him to feel sedated all the time and gain weight. Abilify seems like a good choice for long run. Anyway my heart is broken that he has to take antipsychotic for the rest of his life.
@Bchan I’d like to encourage you to join our forum for Family and Caregivers that can be found at:
While this is a peer support forum for people with schizophrenia and other closely related psychotic disorders, the Family forum is specifically for people like yourself, who have a loved one they are concerned about.
Also, please let your loved one know about this forum as they may find it helpful.
Best of luck,
Moonbeam
Volunteer Moderator
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I started taking abilify as a teenager and it was great! Barely any side effects. Especially not the awful sedation that most cause and can really make school hard as a kid. Good luck.
The truth is there might be side effects, but they’ll lessen or go away after a few weeks. It might also take a few weeks to a few months before the meds work properly.
What dose did you take? Did you has hallucinations before? Did you find it difficult to focus with med? I really hope that he will be as lucky as you without any side effects.
I took 30mg/day. I was also on Cymbalta 120mg/ day. I found focusing a little hard, but definitely easier than dealing with hallucinations all the time!
What side effect did you experienced? How did you cope it?
I don’t remember, it’s so long since I took it. I remember being tired and my appetite being affected.
But your son needs to weigh the costs. Be a bit tired, or have hallucinations?
let him try it, if its not working or he has any problems on it ask him to consult with his psyche dr, keep an eye on him but not invasively.
Are you taking different med now? Do you still has hallucinations sometimes? Was it hard to switch med from time to time? My main concern is that he will never able to enjoy his life since his mood will depend on what med he is taking. Especially he is so young, the illness will has big impact on his future.
It will impact his future more if he doesn’t get treatment. Psychosis can cause braindamage
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I am now taking perphenazine. I, foolishly, after doing really really well for 7 years on the abilify, thought I must be cured and didn’t need my meds anymore so I stopped taking them and found myself in the hospital for the next year trying med after med that didn’t work. It took me 3 years to finally land on haldol. That one worked for about 4 years, then it stopped working and I was switched to perphenazine. I’m very happy with the perphenazine now.
Switching meds is always hard.
I’m not gonna lie yes there are terrible side effects but the extent of how bad voices can get is even worse so it’s better to take them and take them consistently
I knew that but he is super stubborn. He is in denial stage. He got really mad when I ask him to see doctor again. I think he is really scare. I feel hopeless and scare too.
Thank you very much for your reply. I will definitely keep it in mind to tell him not to stop med in the future. Was you able to lower your dose on abilify at some point?
No, I’ve always needed pretty high doses of meds to get the positive symptoms under control.