Abilify

Would anyone know how much to cut down the Abilify of 10ml when reducing to eventually come off? Also if there were to be side effects how long would they take to show up. Thank you very much.

Hi, Daylelynn, and welcome to Psych Central! I know I took Abilify for a short time and then went off of it, but I don't think I took much. It would be best to talk to a doctor about how to get off of a drug.

I am going to a doctor but I think he is cutting me down too fast. from 10 ml I went to 7.5. Does that seem ok? Thank you.

I've been on 15 mg for 9 years. not sure about coming off of it though. what is your doctor going to use in place of it? has he started on anything else yet?

I just recently went off 10 mg Abilify cold turkey under the advice of my psychiatrist. My pharmacist confirmed what he said - that Abilify has such a long half life, it just peters itself out of your system, no worries.

Ha. Seven days after I stopped the Abilify, I got hit. From my journal this past Thursday - "Uncontrollable crying (at work, oh yay) and headache despite having taken 600 mg of ibuprofen for my back, also feel nauseated and didn't want to finish my breakfast today. Blurred vision, and cognitive deficiencies - doing data entry off the same forms and I keep having to stop to see where fields are located. They're in the same place each time! Dizziness is getting worse as the day progresses."

That lasted into the next day, I called in sick to work on Friday and slept through most of the rest of it.

I was skeptical that you could cold turkey from 10 mg, but I also wanted the stuff out of my system quickly and knew I was already looking at a long half life getting out. After a year and a half on Geodon and then Abilify for equal amounts of time, I'd put on 89 pounds and counting. That was just too much, so I switched back to old-school Haldol, which is working great. I'm just still getting rid of the last of the Abilify side effects. I'm bloated beyond belief today even though I just got rid of my period so it's not that. Usually I'm shedding water weight, today I'm wearing big clothes to feel more comfortable during this transition.

Your doctor's plan from 10 mg to 7.5 mg seems like the logical next step down. I'm glad you got better advice than I did! I would think it's 10 - 7.5 - 5 - 2.5 - 1 and then off. I think they make a 1, don't they, or you could half a 2.5 mg tablet.

Good luck with getting off. I'm glad you're doing it smarter than I did. I had a pdoc telling me something that was not right, and he's gonna hear about it on August 20! lol

I took 15mg for a year and quit cold turkey without any trouble. I am lucky that way though for some reason.

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Thank you all so much for you replies. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Thank you for your reply. How long have you been off the Abilify? Have the side effects gone away yet? I was on 7.5 down from 10 and I could feel the withdrawel effects. I wasn't expecting that in only 5 days and on that little bit of a drop in ml. This drug is going to be hard for me to go off I think. I also gained a lot of weight on this drug. I can't believe you went cold turkey. That's just unreal. I hope you are doing better now.

Daylelynn, Are you on any other drugs? If you are tapering off Abilify as the only drug you need to go slower. Read what a lot of people have or are tapering off in this forum (I can't post the exact address yet, just google this) abilify withdrawal manic muses round 1

I am also tapering off Abilify I was on 15mg and I am going much slower now. Currently I am on 2.0 mg and was on 2.5mg for 4 weeks prior. I am tapering slower now that I am getting close to the end but I read that at 1mg people have a hard time getting off. It can take a year to get off this drug if it is the only drug you are on and you said you noticed the effects. When I went from 2.5mg to 2mg I it took me about a week to adjust to the dosage drop. I don't plan on getting off this drug until march and I will use liquid form once I get below 1mg.
I think a plan of 10% to 20% drops every 3 weeks is a good way to taper. You should also read Robert Whitaker and Peter Breggin books for more info.

That is the taper I did although we tried 10 to 5 first and that was too fast so we went by 2.5's.

I am still dealing with intense anxiety, not sure where it is coming from, but it could be the Abilify. Doctors sometimes don't give the best advice. My instincts were telling me to taper, but he said we were replacing Abilify with Haldol, so it would be okay. My instincts were telling me we were replacing new-school with old-school and that's not the same. But both doctor and pharmacist said okay, so I listened.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. I completely understand!

Oh yeah, and the uncontrollable crying.
That sucks too. Not sure it's attributable to that still, but that's when it started.

I'd ck with a pharmacist or doc, but for me personally, I'd go down to 5mg for 5 days, then just stop taking it...best of luck!