Abilifay - Side effects

[Katya73]

Hi,

I'm on abilify since one week (7 days). How long does it take to get rid of bothersome side effects? What I call bothersome is: hard to focus, sleepyness, insomnia, agitated, feeling like a zombie... I started at 10 mg (I'm from Belgium) but that was to hard. Now, I got them lowered by 5 mg by the farmacist. It's better but not that 'wow'. I'm taking it for OCD in combination with Efexor. I'm feeling more social on the other hand, more 'me'. So, I'm going to bite the steel for a while. See if the side effects go away... Thanks for your opinion.

[Katya73]

Hi,

I particulary have bothersome side-effects like drowsiness, sweating. But I know one thing for sure. The more you search on the www, the more scared you get to take whatever kind of pills... I must say that it slowly gets better (side-effects wise).

Greets,
Katya

[Katya73]

Well, I'll tell you some background information. Since 1996 I am diagnosed with OCD after a really though youth (mobbing at school, changes in school often, trauma as a 4 year young child, etcetera). It was a long search to find medication for my illness. Finally we got into Efexor. It worked right-away. I'm taking it since 1997. The last year, I'm close to 40 years (whohoo, 38 in september), I got quite a slight setback. My mood was swinging more, more obsessive thoughts. First we started with Lambipol but that didn't work at all... Even if I think about it I feel bad ;). Then we choose a higher dose of Efexor, 300 mg a day. That even made it worser. No, I'm back at 225 mg a day in two doses (150mg morning, 75 mg evening). And I take Abilify to enhance the effect. My opinion is that the Efexor is loosing some grip but I'm back in 'control', I hope. I exercise mindfulness, Taï-Chi and I'm seeing an acupuncturist every 14 days. Since he is working on the 'problem' too, it might even be that I'm taking a to high dose of Efexor. What I'm going to try now, is taking Abilify at the dose of 5 mg a day and lower my Efexor (in a few weeks) to 150 mg. I feel I'm ready to do it. Also I gained a lot of weight since I'm taking Efexor: more then 20 kg. And I'm suffering from cardiomyopathy and thyriod problems, so the weight has to go down. I also tried Symbalta a few years a go but that was not working at all. I hope this clears some things up.

[LALEAH]

When given Abilify I was warned of a
Particular side-effect: a jerking of the
Head which could be permanant. That con-
Vinced me the risk was not worth taking
Abilify.  Also, if you have to take
Something to enhance a medication, my
"Personal opinion" is the drug doesn't
Work or dose is wrong.  

[lilymoon]

Usually initial side effects wear off after two weeks.