anyone uses Abilify? i take 30 mg and couple more meds each

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i'm curious if there is interesting information that i should know about what i take.
i've heard that all meds aren't that good for you. that because the liver don't know these compounds well

i was also heard that autisim got sky rocketing lately among humans. why is that?

i thought i remembered something about abilify, so i looked it up in the PDR, the doctor's handbook for prescribing info. doses of abilify above 15 mg are no more effective than 15 mg doses. you are being over-medicated, unless perhaps you weigh around 300#, perhaps your doc is adjusting for your weight. higher than necessary doses increase side effects without any corresponding benefit. i'd talk to your doc at your very next visit about lowering your dose.

i will talk to him
i'm 240 pounds
thank you

I take 2 mg of Abilify with 225 mg of Effexor. It has really helped me.
30 mg seems really high.
Best to talk to your doctor though.

Not sure about the increase of cases of Autism. It could be that people went undiagnosed in earlier times.

30mg isn't inherently a bad dose. I personally used to take 15mg a long time ago, stopped for a while, and am now back on at 5mg to see if it helps something. My doc was discussing it with me when I went back on, since at 30mg/day when taken with another of my meds (trileptal) some changes in how it's metabolized can happen so she wants to keep me under that. But 30, in and of itself, in her eyes wasn't a totally awful dosage I just had considerations because the other med. It'll vary for each person though, your doctor should be able to tell you more about why he or she has you on that particular dose.
I get regular blood work to check my trileptal levels and kidneys, I've never heard of doing that for abilify though.

I used to be on Ability.....and I kid you not....the doctor at the drug rehabilitation center told me when he put me on it that I might like it because it could possibly speed me up like the high amounts of cough medicine. The drug gave me some wickedly uncomfortable akathisia so I had to use an anti-histamine medication along side of it to nullify that major side effect.

Abilify and other antipsychotics are very powerful medications. They are able to stop and prevent psychosis, which is itself a powerful and damaging state to be in. However antipsychotics will pack a major punch to your neurobiology. In my case Abilify got me over psychosis and even back to work for a period of time. However now five years later I still twiddle my fingers uncontrollably as a result - this movement disorder is known as tardive dyskinesia, and it can affect the hands, face and tongue. The first antipsychotic I was given was seroquel, which seemed to be okay but wasn't powerful enough to stop the psychosis. I was then given a high dose of respiradol, in conjunction with valium. As soon as the valium was stopped, the respiradol caused me to have extrapyramidal side effects - basically it was though I'd had a stroke, then they changed to abilify which I took for six months, then developed the tardive dyskinesia as I came off it.

There are many people who fight ardently against these medications and I can understand why - they are very very potent and dangerous. From my point of view however, the harrowing experience with the medication was necessary in order to stop the psychosis and promote my recovery. Psychosis is indeed so much worse than side effects of these medications and they are worth a go if you are really sick. They need to be handled skillfully and with great care and supervision.

I think the reason for the increase in autism diagnoses is likely due to changes in diagnostic practice, rather than an actual increase in autism (although it could be debated). For instance, AS did not exist in the DSM until the 90s so prevalence studies before then would not have included it, whereas more recent ones would. Also, there are more clinics now that specialise in diagnosing autism and they would claim to be better at recognising less obvious cases.

Abilify is obviously a dangerous drug. Another unwanted side effect would be erectile dysfunction which all psychotropic drugs can create.

Abilify is prescribed carelessly even to children. Don't trust doctors. Those are the same doctors who performed lobotomy on thousands of victims for something as mild as depression, or even because their parents wanted them to be more controllable. Turning you into a brain-damaged sheep is considered a success for them. Smaller scale lobotomies are still performed today (psychosurgery) despite them not knowing anything about the brain. It is still indeed a complete mystery to science.

Do you want to be cured by the highly influent psychiatrist named A. Macieira-Coelho or one of his colleagues? You should read his blog first to know what kind of person he is.

egas-moniz.blogspot. com

[Remove the space before "com", I'm not allowed to post links yet.]

Hello there Lodelar,

I'm very sorry for anything that you have been through. But I must reiterate a point I seem to reiterate a lot on blogs.

It's not generally helpful, when giving advice to people who are mentally ill, and may be prone to paranoia, to give advice which may enhance that paranoia.

For example, if I had just had a psychotic episode, and a doctor had prescribed me antipsychotics, I may not be in the state of mind to accept my diagnosis for reasons of lack of insight, or of grief processing causing denial. I would be looking for someone or something to blame. Seeing such a post on the internet, espousing conspiracy theories and saying not to trust any doctors, would give me the perfect reason to stop my medication abruptly. This would result in me going straight back into hospital, or ending up homeless or in prison, or dead.

I would rather trust a doctor than a random, faceless person on the internet.

One should always be careful, and take a trusted family member or friend to serve as an advocate. But it's hard enough for people to engage with mental health services as it is, without adding to their distrust.

Certainly there is a place for proper debate and criticism of psychiatry and its methods, as there is for any science. That place is not on a forum where people are in genuine need of help.

Not only is your post unhelpful, it's also downright dangerous. Perhaps you are a troll, or perhaps you had a bad experience and genuinely want to warn others. Realise then, that despite the hurt that you and several others have gone through, psychiatry has helped thousands more than they've harmed. It's improving all of the time.

I try to encourage people to persevere and to continue with their treatment, because there certainly is plenty of hope.

Hi Sarah,

I strongly disagree. Unlike doctors, I don't ask for blind faith. I gave him real information that he can research by himself and read. This is much different from a conspiracy theory based on meaningless events. He expressed worry about medication, so it is fair to give him all the information, positive or negative. Unless, of course, you advocate hiding information to people.

Also, you cannot know if psychiatry has helped thousands more than it has harmed, unless you can provide a study that has been published by a neutral party. However, it is a fact that it has harmed many. It is also a fact that many people regret taking Abilify, which you can see by searching "Abilify kills".

I'm glad you are happy about your situation and think that mental peace was worth tardive dyskinesia, but this is only your own experience. What if the effects had been worse?

Do you also support the French doctors who are castrating autistic boys? www.wrongplanet. net/postt134963.html

1. I was not advocating for blind faith.
2. You did not give 'real'information or balanced information
3. The conspiracy theory I was referring to was when you said 'do not trust any doctors'
4. Why do I have to present researched level information when you don't?
5. Either physical or mental pain of any type, or even death, would have been better than continuing to live in the state of psychosis that I was in prior to being given the Abilify. So "What if it was worse" is not really relevant.
6. I did not comment on your French doctor or read your link.
7. Why am I even bothering to pick this to pieces? You will not listen and any intelligent person could make the same conclusions. I will not make any further reply, since you are grossly misrepresenting what I am saying I can only assume you are trolling.

Sarah, we have the same history in drug treatment . . .

I get a more spasmodic effect with tardive dyskinesia, just little twitches. So far it hasn't gotten worse. So I'm sticking with the meds. One thing I also noticed is that my vision is affected. I now need reading glasses (although this could be age, but the onset was at the exact time I started taking Seroqeul.)

Respiradol was the first drug to work for me, but it wasn't strong enough.
I had a really bad experience getting addicted to valium and I wouldn't take it again because of this.

I totally agree.

You didn't pick it to pieces. You ignored all of my points and labelled me as unintelligent. Even if I was actually unintelligent, and especially if I was unintelligent, this is not a proper way to interact. You cannot get angry and insult people who don't agree with you. I was polite and greeted you.

My points against doctors being: the history of lobotomy, its current practice known as psychosurgery (those terms are found in Wikipedia), A. Macieira-Coelho's personal blog about lobotomy (the director of the French National Institute of Health and thus a very influent man), and the French doctors castrating autistic boys (discussed on this forum).

This may be true, but it doesn't mean the drug is useless; it should obviously be given with care.

Not all doctors are the same doctors who performed those lobotomies. I get what you're saying; that in pursuing new treatments, mistakes can be made - especially if they are being used for the wrong reasons. But, again, I don't think this means that all doctors and all treatments are bad.

I am in a similar situation, I used to take Seroquel as well but we reached the limits of the medication without fully taming my psychosis. I am now on 25mg of Abilify but it isn't anywhere near as helpful as the Seroquel was. I am on Atavian for when I have my episodes, which is in the same family as Valium.
I have been back to school for a short while and I shall be starting in a medical referral school in a weeks time. Hopefully I should be able to cope better.