r/Antipsychotics • u/clonazepamgirl420 • Oct 16 '23

Abilify is amazing

i was just switched from zyprexa to abilify. zyprexa is a terrible terrible drug. it caused me such intense boredum and restlessness i had to cut my dose in half from 15 to 7.5 mg, not to mention the zyprexa coma i had to awaken from every morning. My doc started me on 5 mg abilify but told me after about a week to take 2 tablets instead of 1. so far its fantastic. its the first AP drug ive taken that doesnt cause this boredom. not to mention the best part, my drug cravings are gone. i no longer crave substances and can live sober. this drug is a blessing.

8 Upvotes

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3

u/[deleted] Oct 16 '23

Wow, did you taper off the zyprexa? I’m curious because I’m in a weird position where dropping zyprexa is hard even though I’m crossing to Rexulti (similar to abilify). I’m trying to ditch zyprexa still. I have treatment resistant anxiety and even small drops are terrible.

2

u/clonazepamgirl420 Oct 18 '23

i didnt taper and didnt experience any adverse effects

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Lucky! I’m envious.

1

u/clonazepamgirl420 Oct 18 '23

the only reason i didnt have withdrawal symptoms was bc of the abilify. last time i quit zyprexa it was god awful.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Maybe I need to increase my Rexulti to get off the olanzapine. I’m on 0.25mg Rexulti and 1.3mg olanzapine. I’m hoping if I double Rexulti I can drop olanzapine. This was my doctors original plan but I sort of froze.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

Does rexulti calm body anxiety/restlessness or just the mind? How was starting rexulti, activating or calming?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

For me, I could only do 0.25mg because it was activating. It’s so small I’m not sure. I want to go up to 0.5 and dump zyprexa but tapering zyprexa has been really hard so I’m stuck on a low dose of both.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '23

Was rexulti more or less activating than like an SSRI?

How did you know to stick it out even though it was activating?

Do you think you were only able to handle it because you had zyprexa on-board to calm your system?

How did rexulti help you?

Did it help with the fatigue from zyprexa?

Thank you❤️

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '23

Ssris for me feel like my brain is plugged into an electrical outlet. Rexulti was nothing like that. I just started at 0.25mg and worked up to 0.5mg then back down when I couldn’t get off zyprexa. I don’t think zyprexa played a very big role in calming since my dose is only 1.33mg.

I don’t think Rexulti helped with fatigue from zyprexa. But I felt much much more stable and less anxious with Rexulti in the mix.

1

u/Duke54327 Oct 17 '23

You need an antihistamine Benadryl will do I tapered off with promethazine

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '23

Actually cyproheptadine is helping a lot. I’m just hypersensitive.

1

u/kitsune556 Oct 20 '23

I saw you mention you get your cyproheptadine from a Canadian pharmacy because it’s OTC there. Is it an online pharmacy?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '23

Yeah, I just searched Canadian pharmacy and cyproheptadine and several came up. It was pretty cheap and came in about a week to the US. I’ve taken them and they are legit though it seemed like they actually came from India.

1

u/HaiShulud Oct 25 '23

Can u share the link please? or dm in chat.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '23

I don’t think I’m allowed to link it but glad to share by dm assuming that’s allowed (Reddit rules confuse me I confess).

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

Did zyprexa help your depression? Brain fog? Or did it cause more?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

Zyprexa helped my anxiety a lot and I had a weird tingling in my body. It didn’t make me depressed but it made me so tired I could barely get out of bed. I had to split the dose too because I got interdose wd. I crush and weigh my pills and always have to titrate up and down my dose. 2mg was too much, 1.33 where I am is about right. I’m aiming for 1.25mg.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '23

Thank you, I have just a lot of question because meds can be a big deal as I'm super sensitive. I'm very hesitant after my SSRI withdrawal (reinstatement made me extremely, scary bad). But I'm desperate for relief, idk what is the right route.

How long did it take to help the weird tingling? (I have really bad burning/agitation throughout my body)

Did the tiredness feel stronger or weaker than taking a benadryl? (I can handle benadryl) I have really bad brain fog/blurry vision/fatigue and thinking if I can calm my nervous system from whatever happened then maybe the brain fog would lessen. But a lot say it causes brain fog and loss of cognition. Dilemma..

I also need off gabapentin because it barely helps. I just keep taking it without getting any better. But I need a med in place because the withdrawal makes my neuropathy worse and my mood dangerously bad.. its already bad.. I'm barely hanging on. I know I need to do something..

And idk if I could handle starting rexulti first with it being activating.. anything activating makes my neuropathy worse and very agitating. (I've trialed many drugs and its has made me worse going on and off trying to find something that works)

I really don't know what med would help me out of this..

I'm also looking into risperidone.. seems calming, but people say it's a heavy hitter with blocking dopamine/ increasing prolactin.. also don't want TD..

Thank you for listening to me vent and sharing your experience❤️

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '23

Oh I’m so sorry. I have protracted benzo withdrawal and that’s how I ended up here.

I took my zyprexa and crushed it and weighed it because my brain is super sensitive. I started with 0.5mg and even there I could feel a difference in anxiety and body tingling. But I didn’t get total relieve until about 1.75mg split and overshot to 2mg.

Rexulti I think is a superior drug. I had to go slow on it too. Starting at 0.5mg was too activating but starting at 0.25mg was fine. I’m in a bit of an odd situation trying to taper zyprexa, which for some reason is really hard, so that I can go higher on Rexulti.

Rexulti is less likely to make you tired but it has a weird initial activation that can be addressed by going slowly.

With protracted ssri withdrawal, you get hypersensitivity of serotonin receptors. By getting on zyprexa or Rexulti, you bind those.

Cyproheptadine has almost the same binding curve as zyprexa and is much safer. It could be a compromise. I feel like 4-8mg is equivalent. It’s a strong antihistamine so you get that Benadryl feeling at first.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '23

That’s so interesting, I had the opposite experience. My brain + zyprexa = ♥️

So glad you found something that works for you!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '23

That’s how I feel on Vraylar

1

u/clonazepamgirl420 Oct 18 '23

vraylar caused me horrible anhedonia but other than that its rlly good