Please help. Abilify stopped to try to stop restless leg syndrome. Going through terrible withdrawal from abilify... anxiety, depression, racing thoughts etc. Now neurologist started titrating me up on a new med for me, lamictal. Yesterday I started 100 mg/day. Another new med for me was started for me a few days ago for my terrible anxiety and panic attacks I'm now experiencing from the abilify withdrawal. It is .5 mg clonazepam I can take up to 2 mg of that per day. I've also been prescribed Adderal XR since January to help with my treatment resistant depression. Before January I had been taking Ritalin for 10 years. Then I switched to adderal xr (60 mg/day). With all this anxiety I cut my Adderal dose to 30 mg/day about 10 days ago. Now the psych doc wants me to wean completely off the Adderal. I cut down to 20 mg/day tomorrow. I take 60 mg of Cymblata. I would really appreciate your input on this treatment plan. Or should I be hospitalized to endure all these med changes? Thanks
Neurologist took me off 5 mg Abilify I have been taking for over 10 yrs as an add on to cymbalta?
Question posted by jeannealyce on 29 Aug 2017
Last updated on 26 September 2018 by ruth7155
Answers
I take Abilify and have been since it came out-at least 10-12 years. I take the highest recommended dose of 30mg. I also take Lamictal. Did you start at 100mg of lamictal? It's recommend to start at 25mg for 2 weeks, then double that and so on, because of the deadly rash you can get from it. Just curious.
Ruth
Jeanne; It really does sound like this doctor does know what she or he is doing that Lamactil is much stronger for the replacement of the Abilify and then adding the Clonazepam You should start to feel better as soon as these medications start to kick in. And when you stop like the Adderall, and the other 2 they don't stop just that day so you have those leaving your system as the others are slowly being added to your system. I do think that a lot of this is also the anxiety of all these medications being changed after all this time but they really look like all of the new ones should do even better than the ones you have been on so long. You really should be fine just remember to try not to think a lot about it just make sure you're doing what you are supposed to do. And know that you're going to have some ups and downs at times. BUT BY ALL MEANS, IF YOU FEEL TOO BAD, OR FELL LIKE YOU MAY HURT YOURSELF CALL 911 AND TAKE ALL YOU MEDICATIONS WITH YOU TO THE HOSPITAL. But if you can get ahold of it you really should start to notice a difference in just a few days meaning more in control. I hope this will help you some. It's never easy to have things change on us but knowing the medication this looks like a pretty fair swap. Also if nothing else call the doctor making all the changes if need be. I wish you the best and know you can do this. But like I said if you feel you may do something get the hospital. all my best to you. I am sure you're going to be just fine.
Thanks so much for your reply and especially your encouragement. I'm counting on the lamictal kicking in soon. The hardest part is the anxiety. But I'm going to get through this. Thanks again Chuck.
You bet, we all need a bump from someone that has been there, and by the way, you take the Clonazepam as the bottle says and it should help a lot for the Anxiety and it does not have to build up in your system. so if you feel it kicking in take it then and within 20 min 1/2 hour at most, you should be good with the anxiety. have a good day.
The reason being is your situation closely resembles my own. I was on Abilify for the longest term before they finally decided "it is no good". I had also been concurrently on Wellbutrin a mainstay since 2006 but that was discontinued 2017. My point is: For prescriber to wean me off Abilify 2/2018, (it was considered a high dose), I had to agree to go onto Lamictal. It was like there was no choice. My preference would have been to just wean off Abilify and be done with it. Yet with me, I have tons of anxiety and the extended Abilify use I suspect has messed with my sleep patterns for 4 years. I get up in the middle of the night, then I cannot for the life of me relax enough to even climb into bed again.
All this said, I want you to know that some people metabolize certain medications horribly, and the genetic testing was essential for the prescriber to say Abilify was not compatible. Now I wasn't even going to have the testing done, but I thought if I don't they will never believe me at my word ... because afterall if you stay on the "stuff" for more than 5 or 6 years (just a guess) the reasoning behind the original decision had to be infallible. problem is in the psychiatric community of docs and prescribers, they just don't know. They really do not. They rely on the prior doctors judgments, which upsets me. One thing I do agree with in your case is the introduction of clonazepam>> However and this is a big however, I wouldn't stay on that very long because it is addictive forming and memory problems result from longer term use. Unfortunately, and this is another point of contention, my prescriber weaned me off Clonazepam because I was on it for too long myself. I like to think she could have kept me on it at a restricted amount. But se la vie. I wish you the best in all these changes. And I believe you will adjust to them as Chuck says..but if you don't, you don't have to be wedded to them.
If you do not feel comfortable with the newer medications and I'd give in a couple of months, please please say something... Lamictal is considered a mood stabilizing drug which my feelings are I can't tell if it actually helps me personally. Again, my position has been for some time that medications aren't the answer, especially when I have an anxious disposition..therapy can really be beneficial but for that to work it requires a commitment to understand it and to try out discussed therapy techniques in the real world. So far, I have made progress in my anxious thinking while some of the anxious behaviors and hypervigilance are much harder to eliminate. Hey, I've been this way since childhood... so altogether I give myself a big pat on the back as should you. Best of luck
Related topics
abilify, cymbalta, depression, anxiety, restless legs syndrome, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, withdrawal, neurology
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