how long did it take for abilify to work for you?

thanks! now on 5mg for close to 3 weeks..hard to tell if it's working or not

The best I can remember, it acted pretty quickly, but I can't remember the dosage I was on and I don't take it anymore due the cost of it.

It made me a zombie almost immediately

I don't remember. I got akathesia pretty quickly and so was taken off it.

I can't remember bc I didn't need it to work for me until I manic. I didn't take it as an anti-depressant. I did read though that if you stop taking it leaves your system in about 72 hrs. So it has a really short half life.

Same here. I take it at night now because of that very reason.

It worked fairly quickly for me

It took a few months for me to get used to it, but after I got used to it not even that long. It's fairly quick to pull me out of a manic state. When I was on Seroquel I got off Seroquel by simply replacing it with Abilify and had no withdrawal symptoms from Seroquel, and I had severe side effects from that medication namely weight gain and seizure like symptoms.

I haven't had any other medication other than Abilify actually be successful. I've thought about Lithium but that sounds a bit dangerous, Abilify has no side effects other than I think it can prob. worsen your susceptibility to mania if used for a long time.

I say this because before I used Abilify I could go for weeks or months off it and notice no manic symptoms, it took 6 months before they began to come back.

Now if I miss a few doses I can get insomnia fairly quickly, which makes me wonder if it's really the best thing....in the long run. I've taken it for about 7 years though at 30 mgs. Over-all it has improved the quality of my life it seems.

if I add a stimulant it helps.

I currently take 10mg per day. I started with 2mg for about a week, then 5mg the second week then up to 10mg on week 3 or 4. I have been taking the 10mg per day for about 3 months now. It took about a month for my body to get used to it but I really started to notice more of a difference after about a month and a half. At first the side effects where fairly strong, I experienced blurred vision, soreness in my joints (especially my knees), confusions and difficulty thinking. The soreness got pretty bad the first month so much that I skipped a few days and almost considered stopping. But I decided it would be in my best interest to keep taking it and I'm glad I did. Now I don't experience any of those side effects. Although, I take it at night and I don't drive after taking it just in case.