Dr. wants me to start Abilify for depression

I have struggled with depression since 1993. I took Zoloft for many years. I changed to Lexapro in 2014. At that time, I also started Klonopin for insomnia. I have a diagnosed sleep disorder.

I am experiencing debilitating depression, and the doctor wants me to start Abilify as an add-on medication. The dr. started me on it in late December ‘22, and it helped the depression. But I was having bad side effects, so I stopped taking it. I went through a week of terrible withdrawal.

Now he wants me to restart Abilify at a lower dose.

I also naively (I had no idea!) decreased Klonopin from 1 mg to .5 mg to .25 mg recently because I realized how dangerous benzos are. (I had not done any research on tapering, so I thought it was fine to quickly drop from 1 to .5 to .25.)

My brain is a mess right now. The dr. had me go back up to .5 mg Klonopin last night to try to stabilize. He is a psychiatrist, but I can tell he doesn’t understand the seriousness of benzo withdrawal. (“You were on a low dose…no big deal.”)

I’m now scared of Abilify and Klonopin; yet, the depression is so debilitating that I have taken off work (unpaid). I am not performing basic daily activities—not showering, not washing clothes (wearing dirty clothes).

I am full of sadness. Also full of regret now that I realize the power and danger of benzos.

In a perfect world, I would take no prescribed psyc meds.

Does anyone have any experience with Abilify/depression? Taking Abilify while also taking Klonopin? Thank you.

(I WANT to taper off Klonopin, but with my recent super quick taper and hellish withdrawal symptoms, I’m so scared.)

Bumping this because my Mom is also going through the worst depression ever while on SSRI and a reinstated low dose of Klonopin (she has been on Benzo and SSRIs for over 32 years).

Hoping someone can offer some insight to your concerns.

Some sideeffects of antipsychotics are dose related. So if you had a bad experince with sideeffects of abilify there is a possibility that taking a lower dose will decrease some of the sideeffects. Abilify will be hard to get off, but you might not want to come off it, if it works? Im not here to scare you, but I would not take it. But I dont have depression like you.

I wouldnt do anything to increase og decrease the benzo you are taking for awhile. Instead of taking the standard dose of abilify, you could suggest to your doctor that you want to try the lowest pill size in mg of abilify? That way you dont get slammed by a huge dose to begin with. But do so at your own risk. I wish you the best and a speedy recovery.

I have struggled with depression since 1993. I took Zoloft for many years. I changed to Lexapro in 2014. At that time, I also started Klonopin for insomnia. I have a diagnosed sleep disorder.

 

I am experiencing debilitating depression, and the doctor wants me to start Abilify as an add-on medication. The dr. started me on it in late December ‘22, and it helped the depression. But I was having bad side effects, so I stopped taking it. I went through a week of terrible withdrawal.

 

Now he wants me to restart Abilify at a lower dose.

 

I also naively (I had no idea!) decreased Klonopin from 1 mg to .5 mg to .25 mg recently because I realized how dangerous benzos are. (I had not done any research on tapering, so I thought it was fine to quickly drop from 1 to .5 to .25.)

 

My brain is a mess right now. The dr. had me go back up to .5 mg Klonopin last night to try to stabilize. He is a psychiatrist, but I can tell he doesn’t understand the seriousness of benzo withdrawal. (“You were on a low dose…no big deal.”)

 

I’m now scared of Abilify and Klonopin; yet, the depression is so debilitating that I have taken off work (unpaid). I am not performing basic daily activities—not showering, not washing clothes (wearing dirty clothes).

 

I am full of sadness. Also full of regret now that I realize the power and danger of benzos.

 

In a perfect world, I would take no prescribed psyc meds.

 

Does anyone have any experience with Abilify/depression? Taking Abilify while also taking Klonopin? Thank you.

 

(I WANT to taper off Klonopin, but with my recent super quick taper and hellish withdrawal symptoms, I’m so scared.)

I feel for you!

If you have literal depression- Tell your Doc NOT to prescricribe Abilify- Its not quite an SSRI - its anti Physcotic- Bi Polar etc..

It will jumble everything up- Truly you are better just on a stable amount of Klonopin and taper slowly off- At least Benzos are consistant.

Good luck

I haven’t really figured out posting in this forum. 

Just wanted to say thank you for your replies.

I stopped the Abilify a few days ago. Feeling okay so far. 🤞

I haven’t really figured out posting in this forum. 

 

Just wanted to say thank you for your replies.

 

I stopped the Abilify a few days ago. Feeling okay so far. 🤞

Good Job 

Hi,

Just wanted to share my experience with abilify. It worked wonders for my depression-I felt GREAT on this medication, actually a little too great. I ended up with a compulsive shopping problem, spent tens of thousands of dollars and am still recovering from the debt I got in from this meds. When I first started taking it for "treatment-resistant depression" (which I suspect was probably caused by being on benzos since I was 12 years old-and benzos are a CNS depressant that can cause or worsen depression), there were no FDA warnings about impulse control issues. I didn't realize this warning had been added to the box until a friend's law firm contacted me about a class-action lawsuit against the manufactures of Abilify. I would be super careful with all medication, and I don't want to scare anyone away, but antipsychotics are serious business and do have very serious side effects, and for me also worsened akathisia. I'd make sure you try every non-medication alternative and only consider as a last resort.

-Cookie

I also want to note i was only on 2mg most of the time (the lowest theraputic dose). I am super sensitive to medications, though.

I was put on an increased dose of benzos (diazepam) to deal with the akathisia, in addition to propanolol which helped a lot at first but not as much with twice daily use.

I tapered the abilify very slowly, but it honestly wasn't too bad compared to the diazepam taper I am doing now. I had a rule of a 10% reduction per month, and I would hold my dose sometimes longer than a month until I felt fully stable and ready to make the next cut. I just cut my 2mg pills in halves and then thirds. I forget which dose I jumped at, but I rememeber I was using a strategy where I would take it on alternating days toward the end and decrease the 10% based on my weekly cumulative dose, which worked well for me due to the long-ish half life of primary and secondary metabolites of aripiprazole (abilify). I decided to jump because the days I would take my very minimal dose I actually felt worse than the days I didnt, so the jump to zero wasn't actually that bad.

as I got lower and lower the akathisia improved, when I was below 0.5 of a mg I noticed the most improvement. I still have akathisia though, but I suspect it is now due to my benzo taper.

I had made a bunch of lifestyle changes prior to doing this taper, and I also credit that for allowing me to get off abilify successfully (I tried many other times to get off abilify and was unsuccessful). Eliminating processed carbs, eating super healthy and clean (paleo and keto-keto has a noticeable antidepressant effect on me) and regular exercise and working with a naturopath on supplemetnation. I think you really have to set yourself up for success by having the basics working for your body/brain before you undergo a taper of any psych med but especially an antipsychotic.

I was also in a similar situation as you and started on the benzos for a while, and my depression got so severe (likely because of the benzos) that my dr prescribed abilify. There is at least a chance that what you are experiencing is due to benzo use and withdrawal which is normal and to be expected, so that also means when you are through this your depression may not even be an issue!

I guess I am just fundamentally opposed now to solving the issue of one medication (benzos) by adding another (abilify)-for me this spiraled and to cope with the side effects of abilify then I was given z drugs to sleep, and then propanolol and topamax to deal with the side effects of the z-drugs, which all had there own pretty horrific side effects.

Modern psychiatry is a mess lol. hope this helps.