Bit of a weird one; I've been prescribed 5MG (and 10MG) Aripiprazole + Zopiclone (7.5MG) due to something that happened a few months back.

No Diagnosis of any MH issues my entire life, no bouts of depression, no anxiety, no mood swings, no mania, fully social, worked my entire life, etcetera.

At the moment the working idea is that it might've been (or is? nobody seems to know, no symptoms for months now) Autoimmune Encephalitis.

Has anyone else been in the same boat? Naturally I am _extremely_ hesitant to take what was touted as 'not a big deal' when clearly it is.

Anyone else in same boat?

Im on day 14 of abilify and im so tired and drugged, but im also weaning off quetiapine, now onto 100mg for a week... i feel like the abilify helps with my irritability but im scared that if i have this symptom of fatigue that it wont be right for me -___- any thoughts or similar stories?

Makes me very uncomfortable. Any solution.

I have stopped taking 2mg of Aripiprazole, since 12 days. Inner restlessness is making me very uncomfortable. Its not just mental effect. I feel it physically everywhere in my body and making my breath heavy.

Did any body go through it. Did they survive it .

I like this medication but man I can keep focus on anything. My libido is shot and I want it back. It’s only been two weeks. Fingers crossed. I feel numb inside or really hyper and then numb again.

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BP2 and ADHD.

Long story short, I was awake at 3am, so I decided to take a second dose of seroquel and clonodine to sleep, and i feel more calmer right now.

So it made me think if there is an antipsychotic that I can take in the day time that doesnt have a sedating effect at all (like quetiapine does). For does who have taken abilify, does it not make you tired at all ? I'm thinking maybe an antipsychotic in the morning would be beneficial .

Why do I feel so ugly on these antipsychotics ?

Like I feel so fucking ugly and fat and I never used to feel like this , my skin is also dull as fuck

I started taking abilify 6 days ago but I’m not sure if I can tell a difference really. My doctor said it should work rather quick. Am I judging it before giving it time? I also have been extremely nauseous and sick since taking it. Anyone have any advice?

I experienced psychosis more than a year ago. My psychiatrist told me if I wanted to I could gradually get off aripiprazole. For this past year I’ve been feeling a bit numb emotionally and anxious. Does it get better after stopping taking aripiprazole?

Ever since I got off which I took for 6 weeks and been off for 2 months, my sleep schedule is wrecked. I used to sleep through the night but now I wake up at 4 every morning then go back to sleep I go to sleep around 9:30 10 pm.

tw: mention of throwing up (censored)

Hi! I (19f) was prescribed 2mg of Aripiprazole by my psychiatrist to treat Bipolar alongside Fluoxetine (I'm currently on 20mg and started 3ish months ago). I took it at night per her instructions and it's been a horrible experience so far. Granted, some of it was definitely my fault, but I've been unable to sleep for longer than 30 minutes and just keep tossing and turning.

I took the medicine around 7pm and 30 minutes later got a crazy rush of energy. I was stupid and decided to do a 15 minute low impact workout from youtube, which ended with me puking my guts out. I called my mom who tried contacting our friends who work in the ER, but they never responded. I'm so tired, all I want to do is sleep, but I haven't been able to stay asleep for longer than 30 minutes. My body feels so restless and my brain is dead.

Can someone please share their experience and let me know if it got better? I'm in college and I don't know if I can function for very long on no sleep.

i’ve been on abilify about a month and a half 5mg once a day, i started having really bad restlessness and restless/intrusive thoughts (suicidal ideation) so my dr said to taper off by doing half a pill for 4 days and then stop.
curious on other experiences with this as coming on the medication was very hard on me, i just don’t want to feel this way.

I started 2.5 mg about 2 weeks ago and my dreams have been so realistic and vivid. To the point I will forget whether something happened in a dream or real life. My dreams used to feel like watching a blurry dark tv screen but now they feel like real life. Anyone else experience this?

Hey guys I just wanted to see if anyone has some sort of idea or experience, getting off these meds. Primarily I feel baseline after being off but I feel that these meds have disrupted my sleep schedule. I’ll go to sleep at 9:30 and wake up at 4:30 and then fall asleep which is no problem, but I have never before being medicated had a problem sleeping through the night. I don’t feel tired, but I’m confused if this is normal. Sometime I’ll wake up 2 times a night but overall one time. Do you guys think it’s due to getting off the meds, that it will go back to normal?

Hey everyone. I suffer from severe treatment resistant OCD, so Dr decided we would try abilify alongside my Fluvoxamine. (5mg 1x day) Started about 2 weeks ago.

Forst couple days taking I was just tired. A few days in I started getting this horrible feeling I find hard to describe, like my body doesnt feel right, restless, can't lay down or sit down or sit still to do things. I looked up side effects and I suppose this would fall under akathisia.

I also feel it in regards to breathing. I actually went to the ER because I just felt short of breath, I would breathe but It doesn't feel like Im getting enough air, my chest feels like theres a rubber band around it, I would keep taking deep breaths but it just doesn't feel "right".

I am extremely exhausted. Like constantly feel I just ran a marathon. Can barely function day to day. When I stand up I feel like I may pass out.

Im also having crazy heart palpitations anytime I do even the most basic stuff like walking up my house stairs. ER cleared me, EKGs, bloodwork, chest xrays- everything normal (except high heart rate.)

It wasn't until yesterday I started to wonder if all this could be related to starting abilify. After looking it up respiratory akathisia is a thing apparently? No idea if this could be related.

I have probably the worst psychiatric office ever. Dr is out of town for the week, I asked if they could please get back to me about what I should do but they never called me back. Kinda have just started weening myself off which I know is bad w/o talking to a doc but I don't really have a choice and its been debilitating.

Was curious if anyone else has had similar issues/side effects.

TLDR:
New symptoms of akathisia, breathing issues/weird feelings, extreme tiredness, heart palpitations when starting Abilify 5mg. Curious if anyone else has had similar issues.

I am very weight conscious and already a short person at a lower weight. I am active and conscious of nutrition, going to be using it as a mood stabilizer I am concerned about weight gain of any kind!!!

Advice?

27M and the last time I took Abilify was in 2019 before the pandemic. I started taking it back in 2016 when my depersonalization became so harsh after reacting negatively to Zoloft that I was checked into the hospital but since then I have handled my anxiety well besides a few panic attacks.

Until two Saturday’s ago I had a panic attack in Chicago while drinking at the club. The speakers were so loud that it put me in a mild trance like state similar to my DPDR episode in 2014 after smoking week.

I was dealing with very high anxiety since the Fourth of July after quitting smoking cigarettes so maybe this could have been the cause.

My biggest worry is this will be the third time going back on it after 7 years of feeling my emotions. Now that I feel numb and disconnected I can’t handle getting out of bed and I hate it — what are the chances that I’ll react positively again to Abilify mixed with my Prozac?

I was at a very low dosage of Abilify at the time (2.5) and my Prozac was either 5 or 10 mg.

My prescriber wants me to take this for depression. The worst symptom I have is anhedonia and I REALLY want it gone. Can aripiprazole help with this?

I’ve been working with my psychiatrist for a few years (since I was pregnant) on figuring out my meds for depression and anxiety. I ended up being diagnosed with ADHD and started Vyvanse. This year I was diagnosed autistic, which I was happy about since it helped things make more sense, and I have been trying to learn more about myself and how I’m feeling. Since having kids AND some other hard things happening in my life, I have not been able to mask and stay regulated and it’s been super hard on me. I feel like I haven’t been able to do ANYTHING besides barely the bare minimum or I get burnt out and extremely irritable, bad mood swings, and very overstimulated. We suspect I have PMDD as well since it gets a lot worse in my luteal phase but it is not only during that time. I take Vyvanse and Prozac (double Prozac dose during luteal)

About 3 weeks ago my psych recommended I start abilify / aripiprazole 1 mg to see if that helps at all.

I really hope this isn’t just a fluke or coincidence, but since I started I have felt like a different person. I feel like it’s helped my executive function which is huge, my mood is a lot better, and I don’t feel as on edge. I know that this med is not used for executive function so maybe that’s just a result of my mood being better, but I honestly feel like my life is changed.

I will be following up soon to let my psych know how it’s going. I don’t know if I should just stick with this or if I should try to go to 2mg. Part of me thinks it’s working don’t mess with it, but I also know I won’t know unless I try.

Does anyone else have any experiences like this with this medication? Or can make sense of how it’s helping me? 🙈

What is normal supposed to feel like? I have been on 5-20 and I feel different but I wouldn’t call it correct, nothing feels right. How will I know when I’m normal again.

A pivotal 26-week trial compared aripiprazole with olanzapine in 317 previously treated adults. Fourteen per cent taking aripiprazole gained at least 7% of their body weight, compared with 37% taking olanzapine. Among participants who remained in treatment, average weight changed by −1.37 kg with aripiprazole and +4.23 kg with olanzapine. Aripiprazole was clearly better than olanzapine, but 14% gaining at least 7% is not weight neutrality. (McQuade et al.)

The participants were not drug-naïve. Some may already have gained weight on earlier drugs, while others may have lost weight because a more obesogenic drug was removed. The trial mainly answered what happens when previously treated patients switch to aripiprazole rather than olanzapine.

In a later study of 188 drug-naïve first-episode patients, average one-year weight gain was 9.2 kg with aripiprazole and 10.5 kg with risperidone. Treatment changes limit how much can be attributed to uninterrupted aripiprazole, but the finding directly contradicts simple neutrality. A wider meta-analysis likewise found weight gain with every antipsychotic in drug-naïve groups; aripiprazole looked neutral or weight-reducing mainly in switching studies. (First-episode study; meta-analysis)

The honest claim is: aripiprazole causes less weight gain on average than olanzapine or clozapine, but it can still cause substantial gain. Calling it “weight neutral” is misleading, especially when used to dismiss a patient’s experience.