[emgreen]

The last pdoc I had put me on 30mg of Abilify daily - which gave me a bad case of muscle tightness & made my hands shake. With the pdoc I've seen the past few years, I've weaned myself down to 5mg daily. I'm on the maximum dose of mood stabilizer (400mg Lamictal), so I hope that will keep me between the lines." I ran out of Abilify about a week ago & feel fine. I've been on APs for decades & think I might be OK if I stop taking them. 5mg isn't much of a dose compared to what I've been on in the past, so I doubt I'd go through the roof. I feel good about this decision...though I know my pdoc would advise against it. My GF knows I'm BP, so if things got out of hand, she'd tell me. How do you know if you still need an AP if you've never tried going without one? And, again, with all the Lamictal I'm on I have something to stabilize my mood. If you've ever done this, what has your experience been? I'll go for it anyways, though.

FWIW, I'm on 400mg of Lamictal as well and it doesn't stop my mood swings. In fact, it hardly stabilizes my mood, if at all. HOWEVER, the med's gotten rid of my chronic extreme agitation, which is why I keep taking it.

I don't know how to answer your AP question. The problem is that bipolar changes over the course of time. You may be stable for 5 years, then suddenly go into rapid cycling without realizing it, or vice versa.

[99fairies]

My son was put on abilify and it didnt work well for him so he slowly weaned off it. It took him a month to get off it. 4 days after his last dose he went completely psychotic and ended up in the hospital. But he is only 17, so that might have been part of the problem.

[~Christina]

Lamictal only works in the background on the depressive end.

Abilify ???? I literally lost my mind in 3 days and had to stop it.

Your Pdoc can put you on Cogentin that can help with the muscle issues

[Guiness187055]

Abilify has worked great for me at 15mg. I get a little hypo at times but it beats walking around like a zombie.

Maybe you can get a AP on an as needed basis, In case if need or emergency where you can’t reach the doc.

Maybe you can get a AP on an as needed basis, in case of need or emergency where you can’t reach the doc.

[rwwff]

I'd be cautious going from 5mg to zero; maybe I'm odd, but the difference between 0, 2.5mg and 5mg felt pretty huge on the way up for me, but I'd never felt what an AP could do for me till then, so my perceptions may have been overly sensitive.

[Sunflower123]

Good luck with your transition. I hope it goes smoothly for you. Sending big hugs.