
Dodging Abilify - luu
http://wp.rxisk.org/dodging-abilify/
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carbocation
If you are not interested in a physician's help, do not seek their help.

If you are interested in a physician's help but do not want to take a specific
medication or class of medications, things will get a bit more complex, but
you should eventually be able to find a specialist who will work within the
confines of your requests. However, limiting your treatment options in this
way is hopefully not done lightly. Most of the medications that we have to
offer do nothing for most people who take them. Abilify is one example, but
it's not really unique in this way.

If you are interested in a physician's help but do not want to take a specific
medication, yet your physician is insistent, it's not helpful to lie to your
physician to get out of it. I think it would make sense to seek a second
opinion or transfer your care to someone with whom you can negotiate, rather
than lying about trying a medication. What's worse (for you) is that when
you've finally had enough of this physician's lack of success and you move
your care elsewhere, your new physician will think you have already tried a
medication that you have not in fact tried, and so they will form an incorrect
view of what did and did not work for your condition.

In sum, be honest with your doctor about what you suffer, what you take, and
what you want; if you feel that you cannot negotiate honestly with your
doctor, keep looking until you find someone with whom you are willing to be
open.

~~~
abecedarius
This advice assumes you have the power to say no. If you might get committed,
it seems sensible to consider all your options.

~~~
carbocation
The barrier to being "committed" is extremely high. Getting committed
generally requires a patient to endorse a desire and a plan to harm
themselves, or to temporarily be so disorganized that they cannot safely be in
the community. The author does endorse a history of suicidality, but the
description of the relationship with Abilify comes across as one where it is
being offered in the context of a depression relapse. If she had voiced
concerns in her article that she would be committed if she didn't try Abilify,
that would be germane, but the article didn't seem to raise such concerns.

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d0ugie
Just a few years after being diagnosed bipolar and still new to the game, on a
trek to find the right "cocktail" of medicines to keep me both sane and happy,
I used Abilify for about a month to contain my mania without "snowing" myself
intolerably.

It did snow me, it made me depressed, in addition to not working while at work
(or socializing at all) I would either leave work or hide in a conference
room.

Normally the thing to do obviously is discontinue the drug and try another,
but it's during these states, at least for me, that one loses focus, self-
perception and the nerve and inclination to resolve the situation.

Your doctor might argue that what you're feeling is actually normal, what
everyone else feels, and you just feel lousy because you're not manic as you
had delightfully been before. Just give it three weeks, he says.

Maybe he's right, maybe he's not; maybe he doesn't want to deal with trying a
different drug at least for a few more weeks to get you to calibrate to the
one you don't like. But he's got an advantage in that debate which is that you
are chemically subdued. Challenge him and put up a fair fight before letting
yourself become convinced one way or the other. You might reach a compromise
that works better, like sticking with the drug but at a lower dose.

Eventually my shrink put that together and we subbed in another atypical
antipsychotic, Zyprexa, which, though like Abilify good for some people and
bad for others, and risky, gets the job done, along others in the cocktail,
nicely for me.

So when starting a drug, especially a neuroleptic or an antimanic, try to
remember to be aggressive in monitoring yourself and be vocal when
articulating what you think are your negative side effects stemming from the
new drug. Don't just show up to your next session and say you're doing fine
when you're not, even though a depressive spell makes that a tempting thing to
do.

And for the rookies, in addition to the above, if you find yourself reluctant
to complain about any new drug that has a sexual side effect like impotency or
no libido, for God's sake, snap out of that and tell your doctor, otherwise
you will not only not resolve those problems but you risk conditioning
yourself to distrust medicine and psychiatry which can lead to noncompliance
and possibly your downfall.

It takes some time, but if you're motivated and smart about it, you've got a
good shot at rescuing your captured soul from manic depression, and without
killing your soul, or yourself, in the process.

------
fsk
I tried abilify and couldn't stand the side-effects. The drug was so horrible
that I decided taking nothing was better and taking my chances at being re-
hospitalized.

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lisa_henderson
This is ridiculous:

@carbocation: "If you are interested in a physician's help but do not want to
take a specific medication or class of medications, things will get a bit more
complex"

You don't understand the pressure the doctors are under to prescribe these
things. A few years ago I was bit by a tick and a few months later I developed
severe problems because of that tick bite. One of the problems was that my
heart would sometimes race. The doctor put me on antibiotics to deal with the
bacteria from the tick bite, but the doctor said I also had to take Paxil. I
asked, why would I need to take Paxil to deal with a tick bite? She said the
racing heart indicated anxiety, which needed to be treated. I said, if the
bacteria causes anxiety, won't that antibiotics resolve that? She said yes,
but in the short term I needed to take Paxil. I asked, if the problem is
assumed to be resolving in the short term, and the episodes rare, isn't this a
classic use-case for something like Atavan or Klonopin? We discussed it for a
long time, and we went round and round in circles, but in the end she made
clear that her decision in this matter was final: my choices consisted of
taking Paxil or finding another doctor. Since this woman was a well known
specialist in treating the kinds of bacteria that one can pick up from tick
bites, I decided to take the Paxil. But it struck me as absurd then, and now,
that I had to take Paxil to deal with a tick bite.

~~~
tptacek
'carbocation is in fact a doctor.

~~~
idlewords
As a doctor, he can recommend a high-quality burn center to report to after
reading this comment.

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Igglyboo
Sounds like this women thinks she knows better than the entire medical
industry based on some anecdotal evidence. Just because something doesn't work
for her doesn't make it a scam.

~~~
api
The studies behind this drug were done by the drug maker itself. You don't see
a problem?

~~~
darawk
That's pretty standard practice in the pharmaceuticals industry. Not saying
it's a good thing, but it's far from unique to Abilify.

