Should I try abilify vs Geoden?

Have yet to try these two. What are your thoughts? :pill:

My thoughts don’t matter. I’m not your doctor and I don’t know your medical history or your condition like he does. Suggest getting the advice from the person in the best position to give the right kind to you.

Pixel.

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Good then save the typing. And don’t bother responding,
Oooooopz sorrrrry

Hey, if you want medical advice from anonymous strangers, knock yourself out. What could possibly go wrong?!?

Pixel.

Smooches pixel. I just want to know their experience. It’s seems the psych just tries things on me anyway…

Yah, I hear that. I’m not a big fan of Zyprexa myself, but the doc had good reasons for putting me on it, I’m sure.

Pixel.

Yah to sedate you for a month. Probably thought you were better off jabba the hut!

I’ve been on both recently. Coming from Invega as both these medications are reported to have little sexual side effects.

I couldn’t tolerate Abilify. I took one 15mg dose at night. It made me feel drowsy but kept me awake, made me visually hallucinate white coloured lights in the roof moving in a circular pattern like fireflys. Clenched jaw and finally fell asleep after 5 hours but kept on waiting up every 30 mins. It affected me horribly.

Including this eyelid twitching. (which hasn’t completely gone away after stopping for 2 weeks)

But that doesn’t mean you will get these side effects. I’m incredibly sensitive to medications.

I was really hoping Abilify would work. It’s great at improving sexual health after using other anti-psychotics that cause sexual dysfunctions.

I’ve been on Geoden for the past 2 months. I haven’t noticed any improvement in sexual dysfunction yet. But as I was on the injectable version of Invega it could take 6 months to resolve.

Geodon keeps me stable but I’m more housebound than before. I cannot have higher dosages in the day because it makes me sleepy. So I take 40mg in the day, 80mg at night. 40mg in the day isn’t enough. I’ve noticed myself deteriorating as Invega leaves my system from the injection.

In my personal preference, I would say Geodon. But you may really like Abilify. It’s activating for some, makes others sleepy. Since medications affect different people so differently I wouldn’t take anyones recommendations. Just use what they say as a guide.

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Again i’d like to take the time to mention I am no doctor, I am patient and a sufferer. With that said, abilify is an improvement.

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Thanks guys…I’m scared of both. :scream:

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both gave me anxiety and akathesia but ya never know one of them could work for you

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abilify made me normal in a month but it made me restless, drowsy and I used to go to bed at 8 pm. I also gained 50 pounds with that med. watch your diet

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I’ve been on Abilify, and I am currently on Geodon. I actually got an increase in physical strength from Abilify. It got me a little too amped up, though. Keep in mind that different med’s can affect different people differently. Geodon has been a good med. for me. I’ve been on it for years and years. It controls my symptoms with very few side effects. I take it with Seroquel - 80 mg in the morning and 80 mg at night.

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GOD PLEASE HELP Science make me a good drug!!!

These responses make me think it’s not even worth switching!

Can I ask how your akathesia lasted?

Geodon was a lifesaver for me. I lost 20 pounds because it kills my appetite, and it controls most of my symptoms. I still hallucinate in stressful times, but they are much more pleasant hallucinations. For a while, I had to be on a higher dose (120 mg/day) because I got a concussion. That made me sleep all the time and lowered my sex drive.

Now that I’ve lowered back to 60 mg, I have much more energy and I got my incredibly high sex drive back. I love being on Geodon. It improved my life from “homeless, crazy drunk” to “employed, stable member of society” with limited bad side effects. Then again, every brain is different. I have never heard anyone else say Geodon curbed their appetite.

I used to have a few students with autism and bipolar disorder, and Abilify helped them a lot. One kid lost 40 pounds when he switched from Risperidone to Abilify. I think the reason so many APs exist is because everyone reacts differently. That’s also why a lot of doc’s seem to just throw different meds at us until they find one that works. It is hard to tell how someone will react until they actually try it out.

Don’t be afraid to try a bunch of different ones until you find the combination that works best for you. It took me many years and dozens of drugs to find what worked. And always speak up if you feel the side effects are worse than the symptoms. This is all about improving your quality of life, after all.

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Since this type of question gets asked about daily (if not twice daily), I’ll develop an general response I can pull off the shelf for most of these inquiries.

Most anti-Ps are pretty similar in terms of their basic mechanisms of action in suppressing synaptic dopamine transmission. Each one is a molecular formulation that’s just enough different to 1) make it qualify for its own separate (and very profitable) patent, and 2) make it hit those receptors just a little differently (even including hitting different sub-types) (this is called “affinity”).

And each human being is the result of slightly different genetics and epigenetics (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics), as well as all the effects of life experience (or “nurture”) vs. genetic and epigentic “nature.” Thus, no med will work exactly the same way for any two people, save possibly a pair of identical twins, and even then diverse life experience is likely to have a say in the matter.

The statistical measures of “common side effects” are just that: statistics. They are worth looking into, but… Anyone who takes a particular med will have their specific reactions to it at the particular time in their lives that they take that med. I have seen pts who had an awful time on a particular med ten years earlier do fine with it ten years later.

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I think a month for abilify and a couple weeks for geodon