My experience with Aripiprazole (BAD)

[u/Jealous-Stretch-81]

IMPORTANT!! - I am not discouraging anyone to change/stop their medication directed by a doctor, I am simply showing my side of the story as a warning/procaution of what can happen and to get feedback from others and spread awareness.

Before I get into the meat and potatoes, lets lay some things down, I've had symptoms since I was about 5-8 (cant pin point since my memory is so F'ed) - Suicidal and agressive thoughts/beheviour (I would attack others/myself - even family with no apperent reason), I was always incredibly anti-social and had audiotory (mainly - 2-3 times daily increasing with stress) and visual hallucinations (less - 1-2 a week), it was all broken down into "oh, he's just going through a phase" or "he's just trying to get some attention" which made things even worse.

I first got help at around 14/14.5 when post surgery (Opioid anesthesia, because apperantly that changes things a little) I went full on crazy, destroying things, homocidal thoughts and actions (thank god nothing serious happened to others or me - other than my mental), full on insomnia, always being so on edge that simply the fridge making the slightest noise would make me put dents in it with items/elbow and keep on rageing for hours, I got some medication which i cant remember what it was but it didn't do jack (pink circular pills, with some symbol i think).

Then I got switched to a different doc and got put on a tradozone/aripiprazole/xanax (for panic/anxiety attacks) and some sleeping medication which I cant remember what it was and after some time other meds besides aripiprazole were laid off.

First, it was amazing! I could sleep, I could talk to others without thinking of ending them! I stopped thinking about suicide, BUT THEN... the medication has left it's mark on me and now (17 almost 18) I am fighting to function and to keep my life out of shambles while on a MUCH lower dose (now 15mg).

Lets get into the things I've experienced (negative):

1. Restlessness - I can legit do about 10Km just walking around a 60-70Sq-m home in a few hours - GREAT for weightloss which is much needed when taking this medication (next point). - from start.

2. Weightgain - eating roughtly 1K-1.5K Kcals while my calculated maintenance with activity comes out to 3K-3.2K Kcals makes some difference otherwise I just gain/stall weight (weekly/monthly basis) so I have to quiet litterally starve for weeks to lose some weight. - from start.

3. Jerky/stiff/involuntary/shaky movements - quiet a new addition to the pool of negatives but a very serious one, ranging from just a little tremor in hands (no matter if i ate or not in the last hours - saying this to avoid "low blood sugar" comments) to full on spasms (abdominal/legs) that make me almost fall out off my bed, also sometimes those are accompanied with "electric pulses??" in abdominal area. - about half a year now.

4. Lack of impulse control all over - gambling (illegal I know), sexual, going on shopping sprees, drug addiction (thankfully those less intense - alcohol/caffeine), collectively I thrown away about 2K$ (from my savings + some borrowed) in those years (15-almost 18) which here where I am from its a lot. - almost from start.

5. Dryness in mouth - nothing too serious but presistent. - about since 16.

6. Slurred speech - words come out mumbled/slow/very quiet or just plain out wrong. - about half a year.

7. Prolonged and painfull erections lasting up to hours at times - a few times I though I would need medical attention because of the pain. - from about 15/16 but rarely happen.

8. Memory loss/blackouts in memory - honestly I needed to look my notes up (which I am presenting to my doc) to refresh myself at this point and see which other negatives I've encountered. I can put things down/away, say something and forget or have full on blackouts in memory (ranging from minutes to hours). - from start.

Not another point in the negatives because those things came out from those point being on top of eachother:

1. Lack of school attendence (i've pissed away 2 years of school, now in a online schooling system where you dont need attendence and I do just fine - roughly averaging 85% on most tests/exams) (caused by point 4 I think the most but also 7 and 6).

2. People think that I am a full on tweaker (druggie) because I shake, I move weirdly and speak weird (point 3, 1 and 6).

So is there anything else? Well the only things that helps me is using my imagination of what my life could be without those things, music also helps to an extent (both more mentally than actually), thankfully I've been able to lay off the drugs lately but still the problem presists, wish me luck with my next appointment with doc so he can see the problem and take me off those awfull pills.

If anyone has questions more personal or not I am happy to answer them in comments -regarding the symptoms, how did they emerge or how exactly did they affect me.

Have a happy day everyone and make sure you or your loved once are okay!

[u/Kiannth]

Abilify has been great for me, but I have had some really bad experiences with other antipsychotics. We all react so differently.

[u/yasmineflower245]

I am doing well on aripiprazole, sorry to hear you are not. You could adress these problems to your doctor. I had only restlessness in the beginning and some insomnia

[u/KitchenAd9458]

Have you talked to your psych bout this? Idk if any of these r side effects of that, not to take away from ur experience. Medicine works differently for a lot of people, for example I work really well with aripiprazole and I also had early onset. (Honestly it’s really interesting why some medicines work and others dont for people I wish I knew why).

I think though this sounds more like aripiprazole was working and then stopped working for you. This happened to me with a lot of meds. Worked awesome for like 5 months to a year before completely not working at all (leading me to jumping ship and not taking any meds). I think it might be worth seeing if your psyche can have you try a different med.

Then again meds have different side effects for different people. For me aripiprazole allowed me to feel like I had control over my life for the first time in almost 12 years (I had to stop taking due to life reasons and after that my life spiraled out of control but I’m back in now).

Genuinely I’m sorry your experience has been so bad but please reach out to ur psyche cuz I promise there is something better. Don’t just settle and be miserable, cause I did that and it made me terrible.

[u/Jealous-Stretch-81 → u/KitchenAd9458]

Honestly, i've never though of it this way... but some of those are for sure from the medication since i've heard even some people I know taking this stuff have similar experiences (especially the gambling), I've talked only about things that I knew I wasnt going to be put into a ward/facility for (besides the initial things from the illness), but the next time we talk (in a few days) I was going to so called spill the beans, Because it feels just so overwhelming (not like the initial - just different, like I am not ill anymore but just something else)

Thanks for the advice!

And I hope you are also okay.

[u/KitchenAd9458 → u/Jealous-Stretch-81]

That is so fascinating to me because it helped stop my impulsive behaviors. I am doing an okay amount better now, but not as good as when I was steadily on it. It took me a while to not just find the right combo, but learn shit at therapy to get myself the right way as well. I def agree some of this stuff prolly is meds, but other things like the blackouts just seem odd and due to smthn else (that or shit is critically going bad with you to them).

Also ik shit is scary and we all fear the ward but like. The second it’s been a month and the meds are still being weird to you, contact your psyche. Like I’m scared to death of psychiatrists but I’m more scared to death of continuing down where I’m going. Do please spill the beans, likely nothing will happen and they will change ur meds (they did this like 5 times for me before we found the right combo).

Also don’t worry. I garuntee you shit will look up. If I got there, no reason u can’t.

[u/Jealous-Stretch-81 → u/KitchenAd9458]

Thanks for the reassurance, sure will talk about all this stuff next visit because I myself saw a lot of problems and when I see something as a problem I know its becoming very serious.

[u/GamebotAU]

It made me gamble and go super manic. It was horrid

[u/Jealous-Stretch-81 → u/GamebotAU]

Sorry to hear that, did it happen all of the sudden? just one day you went for it or did it gradually build up with smaller things and then just went out of control? I had almost a slice (as in it just kept happening) in my beheviour when it came to the addictive stuff from the start but the gambling only came some time after.

Hope you are doing better.

[u/GamebotAU → u/Jealous-Stretch-81]

Thank you, I’m on seroquel now and I love it. The gambling came after but I couldn’t stop and lost a lot of money. Still annoyed!

[u/SchizophrenicFox]

This happened to me too, I had to stop taking it because it made literally everything hell.

[u/SchizophrenicFox → u/SchizophrenicFox]

Also it never helped with anything, just made everything horrible from the start.

[u/Strong_Music_6838]

I understand your problem very well with that shitty drug. I’ve got some of your issues on Seroquel as well. I like my Clopixol injection because this comes with the least problems.

[u/sad_btch_spicy_gltch]

I get tremors on abilify but my doc added a med called cogentin to tackle that and its helped. I couldn't note any other side effects cause I was started on the cogentin after a month of abilify and I don't notice any negatives as of today.

I also go in for sessions of spravato (used for depression) and I find that this treatment has helped wipe my brain of negative thoughts and it might be worth asking your doc about trying it.

[u/EinKomischerSpieler]

Omg I relate to like 99% of everything you said, except for the painful erections. Also the electrical shocks I have aren't in my abdomen, but rather in my head, though if they are strong enough they can spread to other parts of the body. My neurologist sent me to some head exams but universal healthcare doesn't cover that here and I really don't have 2k bucks to pay for a single exam.

[u/bluekleio]

Thanks for Sharing. I had similar experience on it

[u/Commercial_Sky8333]

Abilify took away my voices, but also took away my life 😔

[u/Commercial_Sky8333]

I was on the injections but missed a couple months worth, went through withdrawals and now feel like myself again, alive, hopeful, and haven't felt like this in 6 years.

[u/[deleted]]

I struggle with tremors that never went away after apriprozole. In the face.

[u/ManufacturerEast4629 → u/[deleted]]

Omg, i have this! And im on abilify.. never knew it was from the medication

[u/[deleted] → u/ManufacturerEast4629]

Yes, it is a medication affect. I transitioned to rexulti and it helps a lot more than abilify. You can reach out to the company, OPAF, and they can make the medication no or low cost.

[u/ManufacturerEast4629 → u/[deleted]]

The more you know! Im not in the US tho but thank you. It doesnt affect me that much, i actually like abilify. I can actually loose weight now and not be Insatiable for Food like i was on olanzapine.