Abilify withdrawal

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I'm a bit scared because I stopped my Abilify (aripiprazole) because it was giving me scary side effects and it is STILL giving me the scary side effects-- most notably sharp 2-second pains deep in my chest. I also slept 12-16 hours a night for 3 weeks. I also gained EVEN MORE weight. So I stopped the Abilify. I have my limits. Mind you, I just went from 60 to 0 mg 2 days ago so it's still in my system, maybe that's why the pains are continuing.

I am also having mood swings-- very happy, very angry, very sad, very anxious and nervous and terrified. Right now I'm starting to calm down and am entering a happy phase.

Anyway, I've been thru so much therapy that I think I can counter the mood swings (that come with going off Abilify) with CBT techniques.

My damn doctor is on vacation for 2 weeks!! ! Oh well, I'll see him when he gets back.

I'm still on 30 mg of Celexa (citalopram) a day and have a once-a-month Invega (paliperidone) injection of 75 mg.

What are you guys's experiences going off Abilify?

I was on Abilify off & on for 5 years. I tried other antipsychotics but I kept going back to Abilify. I was only on a lower dose but I weaned myself off of it & didn't really notice any bad side-effects. It may of helped hold me together at 1st but I got over things as I moved on from a bad experience & my life situation improved. It was just causing me side-effects in the end like shakiness, stuttering, slurring, & bad dry mouth.

You mean you went cold turkey, after taking 2x the recommended amount(10-30mg/day)? Did your doctor suggest it?That's not what you are supposed to do, unless the medicine is dangerous to your life(but in that case you need some other drugs to deal with the withdrawal).
Psychiatric drugs should be tapered off. You do it by taking half of the dose for a few days and gradually taking less and less. Not following it causes bad withdrawal effects, especially for those on high doses. And your dose was high. Maybe the drug itself wasn't at fault but the dose wasn't right? Did you try taking less? For every medicine you should only take as much as required - and doctors tend to overestimate the dose, at least from my experience. I usually cut the tablets in half(if allowed, you can't cut some medicine) when I start a new medicine because full dose gives me bad side effects but half doesn't. And I increase the dose slowly, stopping at the point where I am feeling OK - which usually is about 30-70% of prescribed dose.

I'm scared it MIGHT BECOME dangerous to my life because I'm getting pain in my chest... and it says on the internet stop the drug immediately when you get that problem... yes, I was prescribed 60 mg... 50 used to suffice (and I've been on as little as 15) but it didn't work as well any more for controlling "mania"... and my doc wouldn't give me my Celexa (SSRI antidepressant that sometimes makes one manic) unless I also took something to even me out... other antipsychotics just made me sleep or eat WAY too much... mood stabilizers ( gave me bad side effects or just made me spacey... for example, lithium made holes in my teeth and made me shake an break out badly and sleep too much and gave me a pain in my kidneys, Lamictal made me sleep too much, Depakote/Epival made me spacey and feel like I wasn't all there. Tegretol made me feel like I was burning everywhere, even my eyes, and gave me pains in my bones.

Now I feel more normal and can sleep, thank God.

Much less chest pains now. YAY. They're probably gone for good. But the sleeping wierdness stays the same. But I lost 3 pounds since last week, which is encouraging.

Tried Saphris yet? Taken at night doesn't really make you that drowsy in the day and it has the least amount of weight gain for all the atypical antipsychotics (~3 lbs). It does taste awful though, temporarily numbs your tongue and you can only take it sublingually, though certain countries have it available in a cherry flavour.

I tried Saphris and there are actually regular pills for it. Unfortunately I only tried it for a few days and then the doctor changed it, deciding something else at the time was better, so I don't know what Saphris would have done to me. Maybe I'll suggest Saphris to the doctor I have now. Or maybe staying on just the Celexa and Invega is fine.

Okay. I just got out of the psych hospital!

So I thought the chest pains were a heart attack so I stopped taking the Abilify. I had panic attacks all night long thinking I was going to die from a heart attack/stroke/seizure, though I have never had any of those. I went to the mental hospital emergency room and they did an electrocardiogram and no problems; it was purely something else, like anxiety. They gave me an appointment with another doctor and gave me a clonazepam and a prescription for more clonazepam. The next day, on my way back from filling the clonazepam prescription, I suddenly smelled blood... REALLY INTENSELY. I thought I was having a brain hemhorrage! I tasted it too, but I wasn't bleeding. No sign of blood. I went to the physical hospital thinking my brain was bleeding. They determined it wasn't, and that I was having a psychotic episode from lack of Abilify. They sent me to the mental hospital, because I had also felt suicidal at one point. I was there for 5 days. The physical hospital had given me another ECG and no problems, the pain was apparently just anxiety. So I saw a really good doctor who said the pain was from caffeine (she didn't know I'd been drinking a lot of caffeine, she just guessed because of the nature of the pain). She said it was caffeine causing esophagus and muscles around-the-ribs cramping... that I should just take a deep breath and let it out hard and the pain would go away. The anxiety was mostly lack of Abilify, though there was some extra anxiety. She gave me gabapentin, and a bit of Ativan for emergencies. I am back on the full dose of Abilify now and the Celexa and Invega still too. Yay!

Glad to hear your alright now. Benzos are great for panic attacks, just melt either ativan or clonazepam under your tongue. I get panic attacks a couple times a week, I just recognize them for what they are, try and stay calm and just pop a clonazepam and wait for it to work.

Maybe, if the chest pains were DEAD CENTER, in your chest, maybe you have gallstones. The same thing happened, to me (dead-center pains)----and, I ended-up going to the hospital, TWICE, thinking I was having a heart attack; but, luckily, they figured-out it was just gallstones (which caffeine can irritate).

I didn't notice any side effects of withdrawal from coming off Abilify. I was on it for over a year.

I was on it for like 5 years in a row so I guess that was it.

Maybe I do have gallstones, Campin Cat; would that show up in a blood test? I had one and everything was normal.