It does work differently at different doses. At low doses it is stimulating and at higher doses it switches to sedating. When the switch occurs differs for people from 5-10mg. In my biological psychology module, my lecturer said that it is a partial agonist of the dopamine D2 receptor, but that we don't fully understand how a partial agonist works as an antipsychotic. However my pdoc says that it increases dopamine in certain brain areas and decreases dopamine in other brain areas. Maybe that's dose dependent? IDK though.

Abilify/aripiprazole is well known for causing agitation and akathisia. 0.5mg is also a tiny dose, so increasing it may help, though I imagine a big increase would be needed not just another 0.5mg. For me the agitation/akathisia occurred at 6-8mg. Under 5mg was stimulating, then 10mg was sedating and the agitation etc just stopped like magic within 3 days of taking 10mg.

All the best,

*Willow*