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*Beth* · Sep 05, 2019, 03:09 PM

I just started taking Abilify a month ago. I started at 5mg., then in 10 days increased the dose to 10mg. I gad been experiencing intense mixed states and Abilify seemed to smooth those out quite a bit. It also lessened my anxiety pretty decently, which is great.

I asked my pdoc if she would let me increase to 15mg. She agreed, and that night I started the 15. First of all, I had tremendous difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. The next day I learned that Abilifiy can be activating for some people, so on the third day I took it in the morning.

That night I was at the computer when I had a sudden feeling of not being able to finish something I was posting because I felt so jumpy and on edge. Next, I had to stand up and move - I mean had to. I felt like my body had been possessed by some entity that was forcing me to do anything but be still. The sensation was intense and absolutely awful. I recognized that what I was experiencing was akathesia.

I had had no idea of how miserable akathesia is. How uncontrollable.

Told my pdoc and she was kinda "hmm...well, take whichever dose you think is most helpful, but I want you to take Cogentin with the Abilify."

So here I am, not knowing whether or not to take the Abilify/Cogentin, and whether the benefits of Abilify are enough to justify taking another med to treat a side effect.