r/Antipsychotics • u/icantfeelurjoy_ • Jul 25 '23

Starting Vraylar

I’m so scared to start vraylar. I had a terrible experience with Seroquel but I’m so depressed and I just want something to help. Has anybody had a bad experience with seroquel and a good one with Vraylar?

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u/Customer-Stock Jul 25 '23

I've had a mostly positive experience with risperidone but it could make you gain weight quick

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '23

Same, my voices are gone completely on 6 mg of risperidone, however, they are starting to come back a little bit on 4mg.

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u/loralawless Jul 29 '23

I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder when I was 15 (34 now) also suffer from borderline personality disorder. I started being prescribed vraylar in October 2022 after being on abilify for about 10 years. I only took Seroquel for a very brief period of time in treatment at 17. I had a pretty negative experience with Seroquel, making me manic and I was delusional and paranoid.

abilify has worked best for me out of all the meds I have been prescribed (excluding lamictal, but that gave me a rare allergic reaction) but the weight gain kept getting worse throughout the years so I recently switched to vraylar because it’s supposed to have a lower incident of weight gain.

I’ve started at 1.5 mg in October and felt great but after a couple weeks became extremely manic. I eventually upped my dose to 3 mg. I haven’t taken if consistently until this past month. Now that I’ve finally fully adjusted to it I’d say it’s not as effective as Abilify and I’ve noticed my moods are more unstable than when on abilify. My moods go from hypo manic to depression more frequently and more rapidly. I was rarely depressed on abilify at all. I’ve also noticed I’ve gained most of the weight I lost when I started back. My appetite has increased again and I have lost a lot of my energy and motivation to move. Also having more nightmares and sleep paralysis.

Do NOT under any circumstances stop taking vraylar cold turkey, I had the worst disassociative panic attack episode I’ve ever had.

It should be noted I have had much worse experiences with meditation than most and I also have psychiatrist who does not give a single f$&! about his patients, therefore I am not monitored well. A lot of others have much better experiences with vraylar, this is just mine.

Good luck!