So my pdoc seems to think it might be possible for me to attempt to go off meds but this time more slowly than when I attempted to do it before. Not now but in a couple of months time or maybe even a year.
The last time I tried this I was only attempting to get off my 5MG Aripiprizole. I went a bit weird over the following 3 weeks off them. I went off it cold turkey. Not psychotic but irritable all the time, always on edge, sad, upset for stupid reasons, couldn’t concentrate at work… So I had to go back on my 5MG dose again.
Everything was going goood but then about 6-9 months later I had a bount of short depression and had to up the dose to 7.5mg Abilify. But now they’ve decreased that back down to 5.
I don’t know I still feel I don’t have schiz because its almost 5 years and no sign of psychosis. Most people say labels aren’t important and to an extent I do agree but I feel this is a misdiagnosis and the other thing is I hate being on antipsychotics
Even if you dont have SZ but have bipolar - you still may have to go on meds really.
I know that the bipolar type 1 variety - the kind I have really needs medication management.
You can still be hospitalized and have breakdowns with bipolar - 5 to 7.5 mg of Abilify is a very low dose - Abilify is harmless to the body compared to the other APs.
I would seriously consider staying on it if you feel better on it.
There is a good chance that you will get much worse off meds - then you are back to square 1
I think most pdocs would tell you to just quit the 5mg and go cold turkey saying it isn’t an effective dose but I have seen a few people on these forums over the years in which 5mg is an effective dose, these are powerful drugs. If I were you and I was going to reduce I would try and get the liquid solution abilify that way you can reduce at a 1mg a time maybe even 0.5mg a time.
I tried to go off Zyprexa once - just got down to 5mg and quit. My experience led me to think that I had a reaction to going down on Zyprexa itself, because of extreme symptoms I hadn’t had before. So it could be some of these drugs pose their own set of ‘symptoms’ when you try to stop them. I don’t know about Abilify and my general suspicion hasn’t been mentioned to me by a Dr.
It could also be that you haven’t been psychotic because you’ve been medicated. If I were you I’d really want to know if I do need the medicine. However you might pay the price of a psychotic episode.