Posted by Christ_empowered on September 27, 2011, at 1:44:17
I've reduced my Abilify from 30 to 15. I also take 200 Lamictal. I feel *so* much better. I still get these moments when I'm acutely (and painfully) aware that I'm tranquilized, but they're becoming less frequent. I also have more energy, I'm more articulate, and I'm starting to "get" life better/more.
What I'm wondering is if at this point I shouldn't ask my shrink to treat this more like severe depression+anxiety, agitation and low-grade psychosis than full on Bipolar I. The thing is, my crack up ("manic episode") wasn't a text book manic episode and a lot of psychosocial and personality factors went into it. Those other factors have now largely been addressed/corrected, so I'm wondering if I could benefit from an even lower dose of Abilify.
What I'm thinking is that since lower doses of Abilify can be stimulating (or at least have more pronounced antidepressant qualities than higher doses), they might be more appropriate to my particular situation than using the standard 10-15 dose recommended for Bipolar I and Schizophrenia.
I don't want to lose what Abilify has given me. Mild apathy aside, my thoughts are clearer and my agitation has diminished. I'm wondering, though, if I couldn't maintain those results, and get more robust anti-depressant/mood-elevating action from, say, 7.5 daily (I have a stockpile of 30 tabs, so it'd be easy for me to cut them into 1/4 tablets and take those).
I'm also curious about Deanxit. Its a mixture of low-dose flupenthixol (a neuroleptic than can act as a mildly stimulating, fast-acting mood-elevator) plus some relatively tolerable TCA I've never heard of in one pill. Its cheap at a lot of online pharmacies.
What do you guys think?
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:997992
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110925/msgs/997992.html