Tapering off abilify. Withdrawl?

We get a lot of people who are really young and have no idea on this site....I'm maintaining this thread as a guide for people who want to taper off so it wasn't just you I was replying too. Sorry if you saw it as patronizing. I'm glad it worked for you but it won't work for everyone thus I'm trying to provide a safe guide for tapering in case other people don't have a pdoc like mine.

Also be honest you coming in and saying you got off cold turkey when I'm struggling with withdrawl came off as arrogant. It like telling someone whose lost a pound in the last month that you lost twenty without even trying. So as you say there is a lot of tone that's lost on the Internet.

I came off Abilify without any side effects at all. Good. Luck.
Gayle

Starting the taper to 2.5mg tonight.

All the best Sometimes! I'm really rooting for you!

*Willow*

thanks!!!!

Congrats - Hehe. Keep going at it! You will be off it in not too long. Just wondering though how your achieving your 2.5mg? From what I know, the pills abilify comes in 2,5,10, and so on with 2 being the lowest. Are you cutting your 2's in quarters?

for me, I am on 7.5 right now and getting to 5 in about 2 weeks. I'm doing 4 week increments. And I think a good idea is to stay on your lowest dose for a longer time to see if symptoms improve and then - you take it every other day and then every third to really make sure it's successful.

And to Girlafraid, I understand why you may have came off cold turkey. At times, the thought of having to dose down so slow can be very depressing and hard on someone....

I'm just cutting the fives in half to get 2.5mg---not sure what I'm going to do after that I just realized my next pdoc appointment isnt for 3 months so I'm probably stuck at 2.5 for a while. I'm thinking I should get some of the two's and cut them in half for ones then go off completely. Good luck

I have been on 20mg of Abilify since March 2013. I have slowly cut back on my dosage to 10mgs. when I don't take it I get really agitated and go ballistic on my husband sometimes. I don't like the weight gain, however for me not taking it I can tell a difference. I have read that taking anti-psychotics causes dementia later in life so the more I read about some of the medications that I have taken or are taking the more paranoid I become.cutting them back the way you described sounds like a good way to go.
warm thoughts to you and best wishes

Thanks---yeah I couldn't go from 10 to five like a year ago because I was so angry at everyone so slowly seems to be best. The thing is I basically trusted my pdoc on the tapering but I'm not sure how many people he's actually gotten off the meds.

Here in the UK, Abilify/aripiprazole comes in a liquid form as well as 2, 5 and 10 mg tablets. I know cos I used it to wean up to 10mg by 1mg increments. That might help you if you can get it there.

All the best,

*Willow*

Starting no meds tonight!

BOOYA!!! I come off Abilify on the 2nd of November!!!!!!

I call it' vilify' because it changed me into a raging, angry, aggressive maniac.

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

Went off cold turkey because I was so messed up. (Been also on 15-20 antipsychotics)

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

For someone who struggles with getting off this med, I believe I've found a reliable method for tapering. If you do 1 mg every 4 weeks (and this is an appropriate time frame for lowering dose) once you hit your half dose of the regular dose you were on, take a break and stay on that half dose for a longer period then normal dosage increments would be.

So for example and to clarify, if you stayed on 15 mg for depression for 2 years and decide to go off, you would do the following (or something similar).

Begin your dose to 12.5mg for your first month
dose to 10mg for month #2
dose to 7.5mg for month #3
dose to 5mg for month #4
***then you want to stay on 5mg for month #5
for #6 month you will be at a third of your initial dose, and at the same time a very low one. So asses yourself to see how you are doing inside. If symptoms are not returning immediately (paranoia, panic, weird thoughts) and all seems normal and/or getting better then you can move on to 4mg for month #6. The whole idea behind this dosing down is to take a break.

If you find you need more time and need to dose slower then take month #6 as your third month of 5mg. Eventually using this approach, you'll be able to get off and even possibly rid all of your problems I think.

By the way sometimes psychotic, how are you doing with everything at the moment??

-Joe

. I'm doing fantastic it's been a week totally off and I feel great. Called the pdoc to check in and will do that in another two weeks again just to make sure I'm OK.

So glad it's going so well. Am keeping my fingers crossed for you

*Willow*

Hi I have gone from 10mg to 5 mg 2 days ago. I just want my own feeling and thoughts back and to feel my true self again. I do feel different already it's harder to stay grounded and I'm easily distracted.. I worry of becoming manic again to the point where I go psychotic (horrible word) but it's happened .. Any way, thoughts do feel clearer but sometimes I feel in a dream world. I'm reading things abit deeper too! Will all this pass? It's hard to know what do with my time as it's sometimes hard to concentrate on 1 thing.. Hope this helps to share my experience so far. Any feedback would be fab!

Do you have something to take now that you're tapering off? Make sure you let your pdoc know.

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

I've been off Abilify for about 3 weeks. The first week I was fine...but the last 2 weeks have been hell on earth. I am dizzy, lightheaded, feel like I'm going to faint when I stand up, generally feel sick. I tried to get in to see my pdoc, but she is booked until July! I don't know what to do. Can't go on this way, but I don't want to start the meds again only to have to deal with this all over again. Suggestions???

I stopped Abilify cold turkey under doctors orders with no withdrawal effects.

Given your dx I'm assuming you were on a low dose as an add on for depression which is different than using it as an anti-psychotic due to rebound psychosis from withdrawal on higher doses ie 10mg and up.

If you taper slowly its not as bad----we cut the dose by 2.5mg every 6 weeks...if you're on an anti-psychotic dose you can actually induce a break just by quitting cold turkey----this happens for all the anti-psychotics its called supersentivity psychosis. So my first taper I had to go back up we originally went from 10 down to 5mg but I went up to 7.5 and stayed there. I guess the question is whether you want to risk triggering a mood episode or psychotic break. Personally I would just go up a little and start tapering from there it would not be worth it for me to become psychotic---if you taper slow enough you don't really feel it at all.

I quit immediately because it made me so aggressive I wanted to strangle something.

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

I was on 5mg as an addition to my other depression meds. I did taper slowly, over about a 5 week period. Maybe that wasn't slow enough? I did it according to my Pdoc's orders. Another symptom I am having is I am grinding my teeth during the day, cannot keep from doing it no matter how hard I try. As I said before, I called my Pdoc and she can't see me until JULY. I don't know if I can do this until then. Will the symptoms go away with time? Please help.