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Mental Health Coming Off Vraylar (cariprazine), Rexulti (brexpiprazole), or Abilify (aripiprazole)

I'm not sure I'm totally buying stories of Abilify withdrawal (with all respect to people who have had negative experiences). With a 95 hour half life for the pills, it takes about 2 weeks for your serum contration levels to disipate which is really the same thing as a slow taper. The tapering effect must be much the same for depot injections but even longer and more gentle.

Maybe instead of withdrawal effects, what people are really feeling is the return of their underlying symptoms. I know the first time I came off Abilify I was very very anxious with intrusive thoughts, but that's what I'd been taking it for in the first place.

Note, I'm only talking about acute withdrawal symptoms and not long term changes in your psychology that might be caused by Abilify leading to anhedonia and other effects long after the drug is out of the system.
 
Atelier3 said:
I'm not sure I'm totally buying stories of Abilify withdrawal (with all respect to people who have had negative experiences). With a 95 hour half life for the pills, it takes about 2 weeks for your serum contration levels to disipate which is really the same thing as a slow taper. The tapering effect must be much the same for depot injections but even longer and more gentle.

Maybe instead of withdrawal effects, what people are really feeling is the return of their underlying symptoms. I know the first time I came off Abilify I was very very anxious with intrusive thoughts, but that's what I'd been taking it for in the first place.

Note, I'm only talking about acute withdrawal symptoms and not long term changes in your psychology that might be caused by Abilify leading to anhedonia and other effects long after the drug is out of the system.
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Do you feel you're focus has come back attall? Do you have anhedonia?
 
Cabra said:
Do you feel you're focus has come back attall? Do you have anhedonia?
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After 5 days of no pills I feel my focus is returning and I have a higher level of interest in life. However I also feel a little bit manic but not uncontrollably so. No anhedonia at all.
 
Cabra said:
When and how long were you on abilify for?
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Nov. 3 2018 - May 18, 2019

Abilify has always given me anhedonia, but before this stint, I never stayed on it longer than a month so my precious soul was able to recover immediately. My reward center is fucked for good.
 
I’m going through Abilify withdrawal right now. Will my brain ever be the same again? I’m really scared.
 
No. 13 Baby said:
Anhedonic 11 months after discontinuing
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seroquel (antipsychotic) xanax or konopin (benzo) or Paxil (ssri) Paxil stopped voices in my head that I was having from major depressive disorder these worked for me
 
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I've been taking Abilify since 2011 at 30mg and it works very well for me. No side effects. However, reading this thread I dread the day I need to come off of it. I wonder if I should be concerned.
 
kush407smoke said:
seroquel (antipsychotic) xanax or konopin (benzo) or Paxil (ssri) Paxil stopped voices in my head that I was having from major depressive disorder these worked for me
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Hmmmmm Xanax? Highly addicting. Paxil one of the worst SSRI's to come off of. I could suggest better. Like if you have to have a benzo Diazepam has a far longer half life and is less addicting than the Xanax's 4-5 hour half life. As for an SSRI, personally I have always got on with Escitalopram, but if you need something with an even longer half life then Fluoxetine is your best bet. As for the antipsychotic Seroquel that isn't a bad suggestion as it's very good for helping you sleep. Disclaimer, I'm not a medical doctor and all these views are based on my personal experience.
 
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chrispche said:
Hmmmmm Xanax? Highly addicting. Paxil one of the worst SSRI's to come off of. I could suggest better. Like if you have to have a benzo Diazepam has a far longer half life and is less addicting than the Xanax's 4-5 hour half life. As for an SSRI, personally I have always got on with Escitalopram, but if you need something with an even longer half life then Fluoxetine is your best bet. As for the antipsychotic Seroquel that isn't a bad suggestion as it's very good for helping you sleep. Disclaimer, I'm not a medical doctor and all these views are based on my personal experience.
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I know people say that about paxil but for me I was onvit for multiple years and I had no problem coming of of it i was on 60mg a day n one day I just quit taking it n never had no w/d and truthfully I believe valium is to weak to help with w/d that's why I suggested xanax or klonopin as they are stronger and will most likely give some sort of high wich would diminish the w/d feeling other antipsychotics that might work besides seroquel is geodon or halperidol
 
kush407smoke said:
I know people say that about paxil but for me I was onvit for multiple years and I had no problem coming of of it i was on 60mg a day n one day I just quit taking it n never had no w/d and truthfully I believe valium is to weak to help with w/d that's why I suggested xanax or klonopin as they are stronger and will most likely give some sort of high wich would diminish the w/d feeling other antipsychotics that might work besides seroquel is geodon or halperidol
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OK fair enough. 👍
 
chrispche said:
OK fair enough. 👍
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I been seeing psych doctors since I was 7 ive been on every medication I refer to ive also been to the psychward prally 100 times n in the psychwards they only use old medications like halperidol and thorazine and klonopin

If you're bad you get a shot called a b52

Benadryl 50mg
Halparidol 5mg
Lorazepam 2mg

Dosage can be adjusted but this is the starting point

As soon as you quit struggling you go right to sleep usually for a while
 
Posting this on behalf of another bluelighter:

"Has anyone had luck coming off of Vraylar (cariprazine)? This medication caused me such issues from restlessness, akathisia, stiff legs and so on. Going on almost two years off this long-acting pill I was hoping to hear any recovery stories from coming off Vraylar and what has helped."
 
End of this month will effectively be 1 year and 8 months off Vraylar capsules. I managed to break through the "threshold" by microdosing mushrooms. So what ended up happening was I ate a small amount of mushrooms about mid day and then a slightly larger dose a couple hours later. It seemed nothing was happening so I went for an hour walk on my usual route. I didn't feel anything until just about the time I got back. I don't condone the recreational use of psilocybin so I used it as kind of a spiritual process and also to see if anything eye-opening would occur. Turns out it did. As I took a second walk, closer to nightfall I suddenly felt the "catalyst" of the remaining vraylar in my system, preventing me from essentially getting my life back, all of a sudden make this enormous shift. It's profound some of the experiences that can occur on such a trip, but mainly these are just my experiences. I am not advocating for the use of said substances.

After the "breakthrough" occurred there was a major shift in my energy. Days that were prior spent having almost not even enough energy to go and take a short walk, all of a sudden transmogrified into something very beautiful. Hence came my eye-opening moment, where I started to notice that I was remarkably well past the point that I was trying to get through, and all within a very short frame of time. Mostly all my symptoms from Vraylar are gone, save for the tiredness. Everything else seems to be in order too. My music is better, my mood is improved, I'm more noticeably social and not stumbling over my sentences as much.

All in all I feel pretty proud and positive about the whole ordeal. Vraylar was arguably one of the worst things that ever happened to me, but I'm starting to accept the experience for what it was. I chose to bear it and I allowed myself to be both uncomfortably and comfortably vulnerable towards my family through all of it and it seems to have worked out remarkably well. Eventually my parents are going to have to sift and deal with the thought of me moving out now that I've got my life back together and this could pretty much mean putting aside all antipsychotic medications altogether, which I'm considering doing soon. But my parents have set the bar pretty firm, in that, if I remain on psychiatric medications I can live here. If not then not. So I'm starting to consider traveling for a while and not really sure where I'll go but I hear British Columbia is absolutely stunning... and... oh... then there's the rest of the world as well.
 
I read a lot more and now have the personal experience of Abilify withdrawal. It’s a bitch.

Does anyone know with Antipsychotic Withdrawal Syndrome whether taking a single dose during the withdrawal period alleviates the symptoms temporarily?

For example if you were withdrawing from Abilify and after a week it was too much. Could you take a single dose just to get through that day and maybe then start to taper again? Or does it need several days of use to be effective in alleviating symptoms?
 
Bump (because I'm pretty sure there's someone out there looking for a thread like this)

Is it possible one of the mods could get this one linked up to google and bing searches and such? I know they did that for the Invega Sustenna thread

Update: Vraylar is almost completely gone from my system. The worst of my systems came earlier this month and sometime before that is probably when it started. Felt like every once in a while a giant pole would get jammed up my ass and go up my spine! Then there was this other psychosomatic symptom where it felt like pieces of rebar were in my back and were trying to twist one way and the slightest thing could make the "rebar" dance from side to side like someone was holding it in their hands like a makeshift steering wheel.

Anyway, a note on Vraylar: it has what I refer to as an effective period of it's administration and efficacy that was actually decent! Every other portion of dealing with it sucked! But that one period of about six months or less was probably when the medication had reached it's so called baseline. Since it's a long-acting antipsychotic, I guess it kind of does that. When I first took it though I kept getting severe muscle stiffness in my right leg (and even now, which I'll get into) and then there was the nausea and the sleep problems. Akathisia didn't set into until way later on this drug. But nowadays the only symptom I still get, now that the psychosomatic stuff is gone is leg stiffness.

Vraylar seems to be one of those meds that has various phases that kind of overlap the neighboring stages to some degree. Coming off the drug is similar to first taking it, I think. The symptoms that first start with taking it are likened to the ones that come at the end. In this case I don't nausea though, but my sleep is somewhat messed up... With the one major symptom remaining being leg stiffness it makes it hard to go anywhere again. So I've chosen to just wait it out.
 
How coincidental!

I cold turkey'd Vraylar last month actually! Now, you definitely shouldn't do what I did and CT antipsychotics, they are VERY powerful psychoactive agents. I only did it because my doctor quit taking Medicaid and I literally ran out of my script.

Now, what you described is what happened to me, except I had some help because I had some of my other scripts left over. I still continue to take clonazepam (kpins) daily (0.5mg in the morning, 1mg at night), xanax as needed (not often at all), lamictal (200mg AM, 150mg PM), topamax (100mg AM and 100mg PM), and adderall (20mg AM, 20mg noon). I believe what helped a bit with the side effects were the benzodiazepines (clonazepam and xanax), HOWEVER, they did not hold them at bay completely.

The akathisia was the worst for me. It's so embarrassing when I can't stop shaking or jerking a certain part of my body and people ask if I'm alright. I've started to take gabapentin to help with that, I haven't found evidence online that it helps with akathisia, but it has certainly helped me. I believe because gabapentin is used to treat nerve pain and muscle cramps, it must somehow help with akathisia too (because akathisia is also related to the nerves). I just happen to have a lot of gabapentin from past scripts of doctors who prescribed it to me for anxiety (which it was absolute trash for personally).

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT TAKE EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF BENZOS AND GABAPENTIN TOGETHER (they are safe in clinical prescribed doses, but not large recreational doses)

In addition, antipsychotic withdraw caused psychosis for me. Please note that this can happen. It's actually gotten so bad that I'm going to quit Medicaid and pay out of pocket for my old doctor again. None of the doctors who take Medicaid will prescribe me my benzos and adderall, which I use as prescribed, not recreationally anymore.

Now, at about a month and a week I started to feel a bit better. Upon some research, it says antipsychotic withdrawal should end around the six week mark. (https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/506868).

So, I think that your symptoms could be something possibly unrelated? Vraylar is loooong gone and out of your system by now if it has been two years. The half life of vraylar is 21 days, which is a long time, but two years is definitely enough time for it to clear. And to do some math, if half life is the time it takes for half of the drug to be eliminated from your body, then it takes 42 days for vraylar to be completely gone from your system. Therefore, 42/7(days)=6 weeks! There's the six week mark the article was mentioning.

I would definitely suggest seeing a GP and talking about your symptoms. You should definitely express your opinion, but in my opinion I do not believe Vraylar could be affecting you for two years after cessation. Do you take any other medications that could be causing side effects? Are you using any drugs recreationally that could be affecting you? A mix of the two? There are so many other factors.

Love <3
 
I can see how certain symptoms that have come up since the time it should have been out of my system could be an indication of something other than vraylar, but how do you explain certain symptoms that are repeats? If I was having withdrawal symptoms, I would know.

I have talked with my doctor at some length about this drug and how the effects are still lingering.

But yeah, I get it. And I get this all the time. Usually what people mean to tell me when they have skeptical doubts about this stuff is that I'm too sensitive or overreacting. Often those statements are accompanied with unkind words like 'faggot' or 'bitch'. I get yelled at almost every day by strangers - or at least honked at - because I am either "too sensitive" or "seemingly paranoid" due to that sensitivity being extremely high and the subtle reactions that come from me. Being both sensitive and aware is not model behavior for a male.

I also tend to avoid specific demographics for that very reason. If I were to hang around bikers or people who drive muscle cars, my anxiety would be too extreme and I would suffer the subsequent health effects.
 
maybe it's the summer heatwave we have going on here, but i can finally sweat again. i am off Abilify injection since May 11 2021... i been on these shots for 9 months. i am off of all APs so that is a good thing. i just need to handle these withdrawal symptons.

ps: before abilify, i was on Invega for a few years.
 
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