Abilify / Aripiprazole to improve anxiety and socializing?

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Has anyone taken this medication and does it help? My doctor thinks it would help me by reducing anxiety and making me want to, or cope better with socializing more. They also say it can help with depression apparently?

The list of side-effects is scary. I've tried a lot of antidepressants in the past and they never helped a thing.

So I don't know if I should trust the doctor really. This doctor is the one that spotted the Asperger's after I have been treated for 'social anxiety' for years, which is a good thing. But this doctor has also been pushing the idea of Abilify since the first time I met them........ before the ASD was even confirmed.

I'm depressed and lonely but I don't know if this is the right way to go at all. I find it hard to trust the medical profession in general and I'm still questioning the ASD diagnosis even though with hindsight it is 'obvious' to everyone I've told.

It's primarily used to treat psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and other mental instabilities.. I don't understand why he feels such a powerful drug is necessary for someone with "social anxiety and depression" that's completely ridiculous, honestly. I would think if you truly just have no outlying issues beyond social anxiety and depression (cutting, extreme self esteem problems, etc) this drug is absolutely unnecessary and the doctor is likely being bribed by some major pharm companies.

If you feel your anxiety and depression warrants needing medication there's plenty of help out there, abilify is just such a powerful drug though.. and yes, those side effects are legit and they're not so uncommon. I once knew someone who DID suffer from the muscle spasms as a result of taking abilify.

It may of helped my depression alittle but it did not help my anxiety or socializing. It caused me tremors, ticks, twitches, stuttering, & slurring. It is approved for autism thou & can help with mood swings & anger issues if you have those(I had em). Even if you don't you can try it out for alittle while & quit if the side-effects get too bad or it doesn't help after awhile.

The weight gain and risk of movement disorders worries me as well.

I don't understand the doctors logic behind diagnosis ASD, supposedly neurological difference not an illness, and then saying the best thing to do is to take powerful medications. Yeah the social anxiety and depression is a problem but it mainly stems from the isolation and constant feeling of being overwhelmed by everything.... which I now know is a sensory issue.

So I guess they recommend abilify to blunt the senses?

My movement disorders went away after I weaned myself off of it.

I'm always super paranoid about movement and tic disorders, but I've been on various antipsychotics for 8 years with no movement disorders or tics, and my psychiatrist screens for them regularly. I have comorbid bipolar disorder though and can't take antidepressants. I was put on Abilify about a year ago specifically to treat the depression side of it and it's been a life saver for my depression, and because I'm less depressed, I socialize a bit more. It initially made my anxiety worse, but after a couple of weeks that settled back to normal range for me. I'm on a lower-than-therapeutic dose and it works at a low dose for me.

The only problem I have is that it's very very expensive. I can't afford to go OFF disability right now because if disability wasn't covering my meds, the Abilify alone would cost hundreds of dollars a month. I feel kind of stuck in that regard, because unless I can find a job that I can work that has great insurance, I'll have to go off of it if I go off of disability.

It's going to be different for everyone, but for me, I didn't notice an increase in energy or agitation, I just had more anxiety after I took it for the first couple of weeks - that could have been caused by anything from the medication to me just being anxious about taking medication. I played around with the time I took it because it also made me really sleepy at first, but that also wore off after a couple of weeks.

It didn't necessarily make me want to leave the house more, but it made me less depressed which made everything feel interesting again, gave me more motivation to actually do things instead of lie in bed all day. I still have to do the work to stay healthy, but it made it easier to actually want to do the work.

Very minimal side effects after the initial adjustment period.

It works quite well for depression, which can be an underlying cause of social anxiety. It's worth a try if you or your family has a history of depression. Just make sure you take a very small dose. I got two main side effects:

Orthostatic hypotension - The head rush feeling you get when you stand up too quickly. It became more common and more intense, but not at all dangerous.

Akathisia - A feeling of intense restlessness, like you can't sit still and have to constantly be doing something. When it was severe, it was quite miserable. If you get this side-effect, you might end up never wanting to take the Abilify again, which is unfortunate since it might actually work.

Psychiatrists are starting to realize that small doses are actually very effective despite what the pharmaceutical company says. The pills come in 2/5/10 mgs. When I took 5, I got fairly significant side effects. Even the 2mg pills give side effects sometimes. However, as little as 0.5-1mg can be effective.

I know a lot about drugs. I come from a family of psychiatrists and I've seen one since I was 12.

I just started taking Abilify for the same reason, and also mood stabilization. It's still too early to tell if it's doing anything. We shall see...

Kate

Took Abilify a few years back and regret it.
It made me restless, triggered restless leg syndrome, and a few other side effects.

I have taken it but not for anxiety, I didn't notice any change in anxiety but it did even out my mood

One of my issues is never being able to make a decision. I've still not decided whether to take this or not. Leaning towards probably not.

I've heard of it helping with anxiety, but in a flattening-of-affect, apathetic, don't-give-a-damn-if-I-die way rather than a I-feel-calm-and-relaxed way. It helps OTHER PEOPLE with your anxiety more than it helps you.

IMO, the best treatments for social anxiety are benzodiazepines (sedating and habit-forming, but at least I feel chill while they're active) and exposure. I've had the best luck with "do it scared."

My favorite treatment, though, is to learn to enjoy doing things that don't involve socializing. A bustling social life is not necessary, no matter how much subtle and overt pressure an extroverted society puts on the rest of us to believe we're lesser without it.

I took a drug in the same class (risperidone) for months and months and months. Other people (people who didn't have to see me struggling to remember how to make ramen, dragging myself to the bathroom, and being unable to find the grocery store half a mile away) thought it helped because I could no longer verbalize depression or anxiety (or much of anything). I felt just as bad, if not worse, on the inside.

I HAVE heard of people being helped by it. I just am not one of those people, nor do I know any of those people.

I can't blame the aripiprazole specifically, because she was also taking massive doses of Zyprexa (another atypical antipsychotic). I can tell you that my cousin (not ASD, suspected ADHD) became not only nonfunctionally lethargic but also psychotic as a direct result of the medication.

I DO NOT believe that atypical antipsychotics should be peddled as antidepressants. They ARE NOT; shortly, we're going to be seeing 1800BAD-DRUG lawsuits over peddling them to treat unipolar depression. They are dopamine antagonists (block the action of dopamine), which is why people become both restless (brain senses the deficiency and tells the body to move to make more) and lethargic (not enough of the neurotransmitter to transmit neurologic information). In a less-known piece of information, they are also serotonin antagonists (therefore having the OPPOSITE mechanism of action as most antidepressants).

If they're dopamine antagonists, you can just about bet they're norepinephrine antagonists too.

I'm not saying not to try it. You might have the opposite reaction. People do.

I am saying to be very leery. If you get bad results and the doctor won't listen, he or she gets too much information from drug reps and not enough from actual medical research, and you need a different doctor at least where your mental health is concerned.