[Coffeee]

Hi everyone. I just stopped my abilify last week and now it feels like I'm becoming psychotic possibly, or going into dysphoric mania. I'm feeling really weird and I'm only on a mood stabilizer at this time. I didn't feel this bad in the week since I stopped the abilfy which is an AP but I know that it has a long half life.

Do you think it's a reaction to stopping the AP or is it the psychosis that the AP had been holding at bay? I've been deep into psychosis before.
I've got a diagnosis of bipolar I.

I'm angry, not eating, my head feels floaty and I wanted to spend a lot of money this morning when I was sleeping less, waking up really early. I was ignoring my work too, just getting obsessed with figuring out everything pertaining to my insurance coverage. My husband said I'm trying to pick a fight with him Idk.

I'm going to take my MS early right now. I don't have any PRN unfortunately.

Advice?

[wildflowerchild25]

Why did you stop your ap?

It could be wthdrawal but it could also be what your ap was keeping hidden. If you're suffering I would restart your ap if you can. Otherwise you'll just have to power through.

[Coffeee]

I discontinued it with the OK of my pdoc because it was giving me terrible anxiety and didn't seem to be doing much for my depression which was why we added it. She said it didn't seem to do much at all for me. I'm also on a 50 mg increase of my MS Lamictal since two days ago, again on her advice.

[LucyG]

The psychosis could be a side-effect of withdrawals. Google your med and see if you find anything.

I always try and have a prn around. I would ask for one. If I were you I would get on another ap. Sorry you're struggling.

[wildflowerchild25]

Yeah it definitely could be withdrawal. Maybe give it a few days and see if it abates. If not then maybe trying another ap would help. I know for me personally I need an ap but not everyone does.

Originally Posted by Coffeee

Hi everyone. I just stopped my abilify last week and now it feels like I'm becoming psychotic possibly, or going into dysphoric mania. I'm feeling really weird and I'm only on a mood stabilizer at this time. I didn't feel this bad in the week since I stopped the abilfy which is an AP but I know that it has a long half life.

Do you think it's a reaction to stopping the AP or is it the psychosis that the AP had been holding at bay? I've been deep into psychosis before.
I've got a diagnosis of bipolar I.

I'm angry, not eating, my head feels floaty and I wanted to spend a lot of money this morning when I was sleeping less, waking up really early. I was ignoring my work too, just getting obsessed with figuring out everything pertaining to my insurance coverage. My husband said I'm trying to pick a fight with him Idk.

I'm going to take my MS early right now. I don't have any PRN unfortunately.

Advice?

I can relate to your 3rd paragraph. The floaty head and husband being sensitive to things you say. Obsessed on things....I was more distressed than angry but what is the difference when it comes right down to it. Writing, talking and getting a stronger PRN helped bring me down to my current sloth like existence (if there were polls about who is the biggest sloth I would be the running leader in all of them) it sucks to be a sloth but sucks more to be obsessed, agitated and angry. Would your doctor consider a short course PRN? Self soothing techniques have proved just slightly better than nothing when I'm in this state.

(((Hugs)))

[mindwrench]

From some of the articles I have read it seems that when a person comes off of an AP, they may experience psychosis even if they have never experienced psychosis before. As I understand it the brain attempts to return to it's previous state chemically that it was in without the AP. When the AP is removed then that compensation effect causes psychosis in someone who never had it, and a supercharged psychosis if they had problems with it before. It supposedly is temporary until the brain returns to it's previous state. I could be way off but it is just what I read.

On another note I'm on my 4th day off of an AP, and the second night I had hallucinations much more vivid than I would normally have unmedicated. I've seen some random things that were much more defined in the last few days too. I tend to think the articles I read are correct, as withdrawing from the AP I've had periods of super psychosis and some really nasty moods and sensations, along with a few lingering side effects.

[still_crazy]

Hi. Ever since Thorazine came out and it was used on people with non-psychotic problems ("antipsychotics" are really just powerful tranquilizers, so they're used...to tranquilizer, LOL), there have been indications that going off these sorts of tranquilizers can leave you with more severe problems than you had before taking them.

This is definitely true if you took a high dose or took it for an extended period of time. Abilify is weird. I'm on a lot of it for Bipolar I. Anyway, the research they've done on it shows that even low doses have a profound effect on the D2 receptors, which is what every single "antipsychotic" targets.

Most "atypicals" are "atypical" because they keep the D2 blockade low(ish). This means that a normal dose of, say, Zyprexa might block 70ish% of your D2 receptors, while an equivalent dose of Haldol might block 80ish%. This is important because once the blockade % goes high enough, you start get twitches, spasma, depression, etc. The other thing that makes most atypicals "atypical" is their action on serotonin receptors. By blocking some serotonin receptors, the "atypicals" sometimes help mood and anxiety and also reduce some side effects.

Now...to Abilify. Even at low doses, like 5mgs, you're blocking 40ish+% of your D2 receptors. At my dose--30mgs (I'm trying to reduce, btw)--it seems that a lot of times...there's 100% D2 blockade. Abilify has some weak dopamine receptor stimulating activity, so it can occupy the D2 receptor (blocking off normal dopamine) and then stimulate the same receptor, weakly, so even with the high level of D2 blocking, there's not much in the way of twitches, spasms, stiff gait, etc.

Point is...Abilify is potent, and strange. It blocks the D2 receptors hardcore, like an old school tranquilizer, but its also got action at serotinin receptors, plus the D2 stimulating activity.

So....yeah. Even if you were taking a low dose, big chunks of your dopamine receptors were blocked from receiving normal dopamine. With other meds in the mix, things get more complicated...not only do those drugs affect the brain (obviously, lol), but there's also drug-drug interactions to think about. You may have been taking 5mgs Abilify, but with drug-drug interactions, you might have been affected as if you were taking 10mgs.

There is some good news. Abilify has a long half life, so even if you just stop taking it, it hangs out in your body for a while, doing a sort of self-taper (kind of...). Abilify doesn't result in the same "up-regulation" of D2 receptors as most other tranquilizers. When most tranquilizers block the D2 receptors, the brain makes new ones ("upregulation"). When the tranquilizer is stopped, you get normal dopamine action, and there are new D2 receptors, so there's often a "rebound psychosis" or a "super-sensitivity psychosis," as another poster mentioned. Tranquilizers can suppress psychosis, but they also make people more prone to biologically-rooted psychosis. Fun, huh?

But Abilify doesn't cause as much "upregulation" as the other tranquilizers, probably because it weakly stimulates the same dopamine receptors it blocks. So...in theory, at least, tapering and stopping Abilify should be less of a problem (in terms of psychosis) than with other tranquilizers. Not easy (trust me...), but not as difficult.

I didn't mean to ramble. Hope this helps.

[bizi]

I don't think that lamictal has great manic attack abilities. I would go for another AP. I have used geodon for many years. We tried to cut back but I went into some mania and had to go back up.
I really don't feel side effects from geodon so that is good.
bizi

[Coffeee]

Thanks for all the ideas and support everyone! I think if it gets worse I'll get another ap as suggested. Still crazy, all that science stuff was really interesting you werent rambling, thanks for that.

I'm a little better today, after my Lamictal early last night and got lots of sleep after being worn out from dancing all night. I'm going to try and tough it out to see if my brain can adjust without it but we will be monitoring it for sure...

[venusss]

Stopping AP can cause psychosis, even if you never had it before.

Look at it this way. Your "crazy" is your brain's normal. If your throw mind altering drugs at it, brain tries to compensate to get to its "normal". When you stop the meds, your brain is in overload. It takes time to get back to your baseline. Worth to wait it out, so you are not medicating withdrawal effects, further screwing up your balance.