[TheatreKid]

I've had anxiety before. I used to struggle with pretty bad social anxiety. But I started Abilify last week and my dose was increased on Tuesday and ever since, I've been very anxious, but it's weird because it's physically manifesting, but nothing in my head, I'm just anxious with no reason.

It feels like my heart is racing, and has been constantly for the last 15 hours. I didn't sleep a single minute last night because every time I started to fall asleep, I felt like I couldn't breathe. So now I'm so tired and worn out, but can't rest because my chest is exploding.

I have an appointment with my psychiatrist this afternoon, but the fact that this has lasted so long at such an intense level scared me. I called my psych nurse. I wanted her to do something, because I have things I have to do today, but all she said was we'd talk about it this afternoon.

I don't want my psychiatrist to start discounting what I say because I call her with frivolous concerns, but this really did concern me.

[bluekoi]

TheatreKid, You have a valid concern. Drug side-effects can vary greatly. You were smart to call the psych nurse. Also your pharmacist can answer questions about your medication. How are you doing now?

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by TheatreKid

I've had anxiety before. I used to struggle with pretty bad social anxiety. But I started Abilify last week and my dose was increased on Tuesday and ever since, I've been very anxious, but it's weird because it's physically manifesting, but nothing in my head, I'm just anxious with no reason.

It feels like my heart is racing, and has been constantly for the last 15 hours. I didn't sleep a single minute last night because every time I started to fall asleep, I felt like I couldn't breathe. So now I'm so tired and worn out, but can't rest because my chest is exploding.

I have an appointment with my psychiatrist this afternoon, but the fact that this has lasted so long at such an intense level scared me. I called my psych nurse. I wanted her to do something, because I have things I have to do today, but all she said was we'd talk about it this afternoon.

I don't want my psychiatrist to start discounting what I say because I call her with frivolous concerns, but this really did concern me.

Abilify is super weird like that....it seems to have a dose specific response like that in some people...for me 2.5,7.5 and 10mg were all OK but on 5mg I spent two weeks incredibly anxious and irritated....we had to change the dose and everything immediately went back to being fine...

It's really the only medicine out there that's a partial agonist at the d2 receptor and the way it regulates pituitary function is the reverse of every other AP so it's not surprising to me that it has these different effects a lot of people can't handle it at all but it's great for a lot of others...

[ZehR]

I hear of a lot of people getting anxious from it. My dose has been 5mg for 4 weeks (7.5mg-10mg because it gets increased by 3/2 - 2 on 80mg of Prozac). I'm going to have it increased which kinda scares me. I seem to be doing ok. It's like I feel paranoia coming on but it doesn't go any further than that most of the time. So I might stay at this low dose.

[NanuConfused]

I had the same thing happen to me when I was on Abilify. What my pdoc did was give me Propranolol (Inderal) to get rid of all the physical symptoms of anxiety. It worked really well, but I was still fidgety (though I've always been fidgety) and it made me kind of sleepy. So I was switched to Invega.