[Secretum]

My pdoc upped my abilify to 15 mg to counteract my depression and hallucinations. So far, the higher dose has been working well, but I've been experiencing some side effects. At this dose, I find the abilify very sedating. It is a struggle just to stay awake as I type this, and I need to study for and do well on four exams in the up-coming week! I don't know how I am going to do it.

I already started taking it at night, but I still feel very fatigued during the day. Does anyone have any suggestions? How do you deal with being on sedating meds? More coffee? Thanks.

[Moose72]

Zyprexa did the same to me. You either have to ride it out or go off? I got my dose lowered to half and I'm much better.

The only thing that ever worked for me was time for my body to adjust. But doesn't sound like you have a lot of time. coffee maybe, I drink so much I think it's lost it's stimulant effects for me.

[bipolarmedstudent]

Originally Posted by Secretum

My pdoc upped my abilify to 15 mg to counteract my depression and hallucinations. So far, the higher dose has been working well, but I've been experiencing some side effects. At this dose, I find the abilify very sedating. It is a struggle just to stay awake as I type this, and I need to study for and do well on four exams in the up-coming week! I don't know how I am going to do it.

I already started taking it at night, but I still feel very fatigued during the day. Does anyone have any suggestions? How do you deal with being on sedating meds? More coffee? Thanks.

Maybe try splitting the dose to see if that helps?

In the short-term, try cold showers, opening the window to get a cool breeze, drinking lots of coffee (or caffeine pills), and just 'pushing through' the sleepiness (there are certain hours of the day that we are particularly sleepy...if we resist falling asleep at these times, we often get more alert).

In the long-term your options are to either add a stimulant (I'm thinking provigil) or to lower the abiliify and add a different antipsychotic (although most antipsychotics are more sedating than abilify, so I don't know if that will work).

It's also possible that as your body adjusts, the sedation will go away or at least lessen considerably.

Personally, if I were you, I would drop the dose back down until my exams were over, PROVIDED I could handle the hallucinations.

Also, what other meds are you on? Is there any other med that could be contributing to your sedation, that you could temporarily discontinue?

[cocoabeans]

Energy drinks! That's what I do w/seroquel. Although, if you're depressed wouldn't you naturally be really sleepy? When I'm properly depressed I can sleep for days! Maybe it isn't entirely the drug.

[BuggsBunny]

Caffeine tablets are my trick. Equal to a cup of coffee, without the sugar and calories. They last 4-5 hours and don't make me manic. You can take one or two as needed, altho there is a limit to how many you can take in a day.
I usually only need one at a time to get me thru the rough spot of mornings.

Other than that, everyone else has listed the a lot of good tricks.

Drink the coffee black. No sugar, no calories! Lol.
Re: caffeine pills. I can drink coffee no problem. And stay awake all over the clock. Completely irrespective of coffee or any other thing. Anyhow, I had a job that had very limited access to "facilities". Sooo, I picked up some caffeine pills so that this would not be an issue (see also: headache avertment). They made me feel like kakashalanga. Not at first, but say it were overnight, at the end, where I'd normally just be a bit buzzed with bizarro energy, I'd feel bizzaro buzzed and sh***y. (Which of course leads to the question why did I take them?! It was an experiment. Even cut in half had this effect.) So anyway, YMMV.

So... coffee, yeah, maybe, depends how it affects you personally. For me, as much as I love it, it would be a joke of ineffectiveness. So I'd go with the answer:

Moving around. Physically. That's what helps me. And NO, I don't feel like doing so at the time, hahaha! But if I do it, it helps a lot. A brisk walk around the block, jumping into some cleaning. I remember clearly one time when meds really zonked me into serious sleepy bear mode. I was trapped at work and couldn't move around much. Was essentially melting over the counters. Could.not.stay.awake. Yeah, it can be pretty intense.

Maybe scheduling in some quick activity between study blocks?