Mental Health Abilify Cold-Turkey?

[RedLeader]

Hey everyone. Perhaps a few of you remember me. Well, I'm going to keep this short for now, but the thread concerns my girlfriend's son. He has been incarcerated for about nine months now, during which he has been placed on the medication Ability. He has a couple diagnoses, the most concerning being schizophrenia. He has a tendency toward violent/aggressive behavior and being placed on a moderate dose (I don't know exactly what it is) has really helped him.

Now he's getting out this coming Monday and it appears that he will be cold-turkeying off of it. Part of it is that he does not have medical coverage and their family is poor, and part of it is that my girlfriend is very anti-medication. I don't just mean anti-Big Pharm, which is a good way to be generally, but extremely holistic and natural in how to approach everything. She never wanted him to go on medication in the first place. Anyway, I personally am in favor of psych meds in some situations and schizophrenia is certainly one of them. She and I have argued this before, and ultimately we are just very different morally/philosophically on the issue of taking medication.

So the concern is that is going to be rough on him to come out and come off. Any ideas on OTC stuff that could soften the blow? I don't want him to have any incidents or hurt anyone. I don't know how serious coming off of Abilify is, as I know very little about it.

Any general thoughts on the medication or what happens if a schizophrenic (who is only taking this one med) suddenly stops?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[d1nach]

IMO she is committing abuse pushing him off a antipsychotic with "has a couple diagnoses, the most concerning being schizophrenia. He has a tendency toward violent/aggressive behavior "

Im not trying to come at your girlfriend i dont believe she is trying to be abusive but if she say pressured her son off insulin then he died thats child abuse.

It is not about how she feels or what her moral or philosophy beliefs are you had a kid who was just in jail for nine months, with schizophrenia, and violent behavior.

If money is the problem he can switch medications.

No NOTHING otc or hollistic will help him deal with being unmedicated violently schizophrenic

I dont gamble. But i will bet if he goes off his medication given the severity of mental illness he will harm himself or someone and end up back in jail.

I cant tell you what to do but if he was my son i would do everything in my power to keep him on the medication. But i think you said its her son. So i dont know how that works.

 

[crubsc]

Suddenly stopping an antipsychotic will make the symptoms of his schizophrenia come back and they might even be worse, since he is quitting cold-turkey; the agressive/violent behavior will also probably come back. You mentioned money issues, well, there are other antipsychotics out there which are very affordable and work just as well as Abilify, maybe with some other/different side-effects (every drug has them, Abilify is no exception). I don't believe either that there is a holistic or natural help for his condition. The problem that your wife does not believe or is not in favor or psych-meds treatment is just going to make it difficult for everyone to cope when he has a psychotic break while not taking any proper medication. He should see a doctor and maybe your girlfriend can go with him and the doctor will explain her about the treatment. Family support is crucial. And if she believes it's bad to take psych-meds, tell her it would be even worse to have someone agressive, violent and who could have a psychotic break down at any moment.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Sounds like he absolutely needs it if the doctor gave it to him. Nine months can literally go down the tube in days. Then he'll take even more time to stabilize, and will require more attention and meds.

Contact wherever he is and tell them about the situation. Like right now. Tell them this. Then call tomorrow. And the next day. Tell them of this! If he needs it, make sure he gets the shot and make sure that he can go to another close outpatient place to get the shot in the future. The shot lasts a month or six weeks, depending. So he'll have to choose once a month/every six weeks to do what's good for him, instead of 30 times a month.

This is reeeeeally critical man, okay? Give updates please.

 

[d1nach]

Did you get any updates on if he will be staying on his medication?