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Hi I am new here. I have been tapering from 75 mg Zoloft, 1250 Depakote, and 30 mg Abilify. I know those are some heavy-duty dosages. I am ready to get off of these meds, but I do not want to go too fast (and I know I have.) Every four days I've been lowering dosages. I know it's too quick a taper and will slow down. Thanks

Hello, My name is Kyy, and I would like to introduce myself. I am currently on a community treatment order. Been on one for 5 years. I have plans to taper off of Abilify Injection 400 mg... If anyone would like to discuss about getting off of a CTO or Abilify Maintena 400 mg, please message me. Thanks!

Hi, I’m Kat. I’m a long time lurker first time poster. So I was told by the majority of the PSSD reddit to head here after thinking my symptoms were PSSD and there is some sexual dysfunction, I agree, but I also have uh, odd symptoms. I’m not sure if this is withdrawal from my other medications. Technically I’m still currently on 2 but I’d like to get off of all of them and get my life back. So the prevailing thing is- I can’t feel emotions. And I don’t mean Apathy or Anhedonia, I mean nothing at all. Like a blank. Not even anxiety. This started when I began tapering off of buspar (yes, buspar) in January of 2024. From 20mg to 15mg. (Yes, I know, extremely low dosages.) I was also on 20mg of Hydroxyzine as needed. Suddenly I had a horrible anxiety attack, and I couldn’t feel my stomach. Like it was gone. And there was no hunger or thirst. And then I started having horrible post nasal drip, and dry heaving. And I felt my emotions just go into this vacuum. Very slowly, but now I have blunted affect on my face and I can’t seem to make ANY facial expressions at all. My nausea disappeared, along with the these tremors, arm pains, and burning in my fingers that I’d had for a week. I went to my doctor to get an upped dosage of my long standing metoprolol prescription due to the fact that my heart rate consistently was up all the time. (That has since been controlled by propranolol and lisinipril as of February of 2024.) After losing my emotions, drugs lost most of their effects on me. And I noticed a dampening of all my senses, including (and this is the most bizarre) loss of most of my visual snow. My allergies have also disappeared as well. I recognize that these aren’t super standard withdrawal symptoms and many align with some on the PSSD board, but I did read many stories about emotional anesthesia here, which gave me some hope my emotions would come back. I also have awful insomnia, but never seem to feel tired. I do sleep, but it’s awful and only about a few hours at a time on and off. I do have some weird issues with my vision, to where if I see a light after I’ve opened my eyes in the dark, it flickers like a projector. I’m currently in a PHP program (pardon my ADHD brain) after being inpatient in a psych ward for a while in February. I’m still on two medications, wellbutrin 300mg and abilify 20mg. I can’t taper the wellbutrin in the normal way because the pills are covered by something, but I could potentially do this for the abilify. Again, neither drug seems to be doing anything for me anyway. Even Ativan which once worked in small doses or valium, which I took once in a hospital stay, does nothing. Nor does benadryl or anything else for that matter. I’m scared this is very much permanent and that I’ve ruined my life forever. Despite the hope that I’ve seen on the forum. (I know, emotions come back last, they leave first and come back last.) (I’m not taking benzodiazepines regularly either, by the way.) Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. And it’s nice to meet y’all.

Hi sorry for my poor english i'am suffering from nerve pain after I CT prozac and abilify I took them for almost 3,5 weeks I was on ativan from 9-11 2023 0.5-1mg Clonazepam 11-1 0.5mg tappering for 0.25 for month and i am on 0,25 from 2 month olanzapine 10m g 2 weeks in 12 2023 then abilify 10 days 10 mg 7 days ablifiy 5 mg and stopped at 13/12/2023 beacuse TD started Prozac 20 for 3.5 weeks and ct in 16/12 /2023 mild withdrawal then In 2/2 2024 My body started tingiling only when move then day after day pain is increased now it like fire ants 24/7 is it from prozac, abilify or clonazepam i was on 0.25 clonazepam for 3 weeks before it started and there was no thing

Hello dear wonderful forum of SA ❤️ My name is Ana (and English is not my first language ) , my story about ADs has been a long one. I have been on and off them for many years ,starting 14 years old (now 32) when I took them for 2-3 days and due to side effects I didn’t take them anymore. Years later after my intrusive thoughts and scary ones emerged, I took ADs for a couple of months and dropped them. And after some years later I took them for a year and dropped them (Circa 2016-2017) I have been on different ones: Escitalopram , Zoloft and others I cannot remember. In 2022 after 4 years of battling my anxiety ( anxiety non stop, headaches, racing thoughts, vomiting, neck, head and terrible body pain at the point that I barely could stand up. Which may have been caused because of me experimenting with my on/off drug use ) I decided to try another psychiatrist. She prescribed me Abilify 10mg explaining that I was resisting the ADs and needed something else(poor me for believing this) I cannot explain how I survived the beginning of taking this drug. I stayed on it for 1.5 year and my anxiety still continued(no improvement whatsoever). Me and my psychiatrist decided to add Zoloft so maybe I could feel better. After a year and a half on Abilify I decided to drop it and went from 10 to 5 and from 5 to 2.5. Then cut it off at the end of November 2023. I had terrible Withdrawal symptoms but also had a little sparkle of determination and hope that I will survive it(this was my 4th attempt). I survived somehow. At the end of December I decided to cut Zoloft from 50 to 25mg (bad mistake, don't do it please) and ended in a terrible situation. Then went back to 50mg in January 2024. I have decided that I should try the 10% method. My question is when should I start ? How should I cut the doses? (in my country no liquid is available). Should I buy a scale and a pill cutter? Please help to start my safe (hopefully) withdrawal. Right now my symptoms are: Fatigue, brain fog, memory problems, allergy like symptoms : watery eyes, overwhelmed easily, anhedonia, depression, anxiety but not at big levels (after cutting off Abilify anxiety has really improved). At the moment I am trying to stay on track with a healthy diet( mostly I cook by myself healthy meals). I try and walk every 2-3 days a week and do 10-15 minutes of stretching/exercises every day. I am trying to add prayers to my daily routine but don't know how to do it ( I believe that a greater force has kept me alive so far and thus I need to create a connection with that) I have a full time job and don't know how I have managed but I still do work these 6 past years have been a nightmare and I don't really know how I have been able to work, I am married and have a 3.5 year old daughter ( she is my light ❤️ and mostly I am doing this because of her because I don't want her to be without a mother and I really do want to come to the other side ). Being a mother during this time of my life has been exhausting to say the least but I still have tried to keep a smile in front of my lovely daughter. My family is very supportive and they really have helped me be alive so far and for this I am really grateful. What has also kept me alive so far is the thought that I was not born like this and I clearly remember how I was such an active person, very alive and creative one. I am crying while writing this and am so sorry we all have to go through this season. Today I join this wonderful forum which I found after so many years of questions and no answers. I found my people ❤️ Note: Today's my father heavenly birthday (68 years) and I am really happy to join in a remarkable day to this remarkable site ❤️

Hi, My name is Kai. I was prescribed three meds in the first day. Those were Abilify, Agotine, and Topiramate. I took them instantly after the meeting with psychiatrist. I was very stressed. I felt not understood. But that wasn't the problem. The problem occured when I took the second dose after few hours. I started feeling a strange amount of satisfaction. It was night, and I felt as if I was in a kind of a transitional state. I remember feeling almost supernatural. There was a different day, which I guess I did almost the same thing after meeting the psychiatrist. I remember it was a day, and the dose might have been changed. Also there might have been added the new pill, Risperidone. I felt great agitation. I could not stop moving. I saw hallucination. I felt my world was melting down. My world was never the same after that. Honestly, I don't remember if those two were the same day or not. And many other things occured in the other days, but those were what happened when I was struck by meds instantly. The other days, I felt also very unreal. I felt my world was changing into something else. Since it was the first time I was using the antipsychotics, I thought this was what it was supposed to be doing. Later, I started losing my musical abilities. It happened gradually. One day suddenly, I simply wasn't able to play anymore. I still cannot play to this day. Before, I was great at many instruments. I was a musician by heart, feeling arts all throughout the world, loving the poetry and literature, and so on. I also loved movies, but those all disappeared. I was somewhere apart from the world I used to be in before. There was no 'me' anymore. No more interest, feelings, thoughts, memories. But I was still able to enjoy movies to some extent until I became bedridden. Being bedridden was when I was completely done in my life. At least that is what I felt. But while I was being bedridden, I slowly recovered in a strange way. It took a long time, and the recovery didn't show any promise of my previous self, I started to feel some normal feelings again, which was not really pleasing to me. I don't know if it was because I was being bedridden, relying on to my family, losing my independence and hope, but the reality felt much worse and resembled that feeling of unfortunate childhood that I've been through. I felt totally immature. I am very sorry my writing doesn't articulate anything good. I have tried to write this introduction since the beginning of this year, but it took so long to even be able to write something that doesn't look terrible. So since I know you, which are great people who chose to help, would kindly write replies to this pitiful writing, and if you do so and ask me for more specifics, I will try my best to tell more about my symptoms and situations. It also takes very long time for me to remember something, including what I ate for breakfast. Thank you.

I’m A Phoenix Rising. I’m a 50 year old mother of 6 and I’ve been on psychiatric drugs for the last 30 years. It all started with Zoloft for depression and GAD. I now have 4 or 5 psychiatric diagnoses and about 5 other diagnoses as a result of my psych meds, which introduced even more drugs to my stash, multiple hospital stays and 3 years of ECT. They have destroyed my memory, made me numb and compliant, given me peripheral neuropathy, idiopathic hypersomnia, and ADHD-like characteristics. Not to mention the compulsions I have developed and desperately need to shake, weight gain, metabolic changes, and amotivational syndrome. These drugs, and psychiatrists, nearly destroyed my family so many times and came way too close to ending my life. The almost humorous thing is, up until Aug. of 2023, I was completely in the dark about the side effects and withdrawal from these drugs. No idea! I lived through it a few times yet I had absolutely no one tell me what I was going through was normal. I thought I had completely lost it and that I was destined to live out my life this way (on meds). Looking back now I see how uncharacteristically angry I would get while on zoloft. After my mother died in 2012, while grieving, I went to see a psychiatrist who put me on an anti-psychotic(seroquel), 2 benzos (klonopin & xanax) and adderall (not yet diagnosed with ADHD). My behavior changed drastically. I had a very short affair then decided that I was ready to die. I wound up in a coma for 3 days, then they promptly shipped me to a psych hospital. On 3 separate occasions they gave me a benzo and then refused after that (their funny idea of a taper, I'm guessing). That was the beginning of my very long withdrawal of those particular drugs leading to psychosis (more diagnoses) more suicide attempts, more hospital stays and finally ECT due to being treatment resistant. Lastly, once finding out I was pregnant (in the ER) in 2019, I was told to go off all meds. I wasn’t able to be seen by an OB for 6 weeks. Once seen they put me back on Effexor XR at 150mg (I was on 300mg), then a month later increased my dose to 225mg. Being an older mom, I was being monitored closely yet they didn’t recognize the very serious withdrawal. After looking at my baby’s brain, they told me it looked like “someone put his brain in a blender”. My son had a very rough start, but over time he pulled through. He is now a very loving, active, charismatic three year old! Symptoms of withdrawal; intense anxiety when I've made a mistake. Otherwise it's nagging insomnia and almost constant irritability. ***Life hasn’t always been sour and angry despite what I’ve written here. I am stable now and feel happiness. I have hope and I’m eager to make the changes needed to live out the rest of my years drug free. -Phoenix

Hi all! Before I get into my introduction, I’d like to commend you all, it’s inspiring to see you all stay so positive and consistent in your attempts to reduce/remove these drugs from your life. I’ve been eager to join this platform in attempts to begin my own journey! Introduction I am a F(25) and got sick when I was 24. I was given these drugs due to a FEP. Naturally I am a sensitive/dramatic person so I failed to believe my FEP was actually as serious as stated. Although, I was hospitalized and told I would need to take the medication for a year in order to prevent relapse. Due to naivety and lack of knowledge and the huge levels of sedation the drugs brought me, I stopped them after 3 weeks. Besides I had stopped antibiotics before and never experienced any harm. I was fine for 5 months then I started experiencing extreme paranoia, related to my phone in which I went to the police station in order to report someone tracking my phone. The police sent me to the hospital and I was hospitalized for 4 days, in which I was reinstated 5mg of Olanzapine. I was then released and had cold turkeyed olanzapine again as before I was fine dir 6months and thought it would play out again. 12 days later I had what I call my first real episode of psychosis occurred. I was hospitalized again this time for 1 month. I have amnesia as to what happened in the hospital due to the cocktail I was put on and when I came around I was told I was a paranoid schizophrenic. All this happened within the space of 6 months. Reason for joining I am trying to get assistance to begin my taper as I truly believe my cold turkeys caused my illness. I don’t think I was ill beforehand. I express concern about something I cared about in a manner I saw fit and then was diagnosed as schizophrenic. I didn’t do anything to extreme to receive such a diagnosis. So I am hoping to taper off this drug or Atleast reduce my dose as low as possible as I am on a high dose at the moment. Life post psychosis Many things have changed, in terms of my capability. I am not as intelligent as I was pre-Zyprexa and it’s very evident that the drug has affected my thinking in terms of coherency of thought, conversation and even managed to dampen all of my emotions. I don’t feel anything I am numb and it’s brought me from a super driven highly motivated individual to someone who geninuely does not care about anything. Also lost my sleep and can not sleep untill I take an olanzapine tablet which is also wearing off at the moment. Current medication I am currently on 7.5mg of olanzapine and 2.5mg of abilify. I am not great at maths or anything that has to be done systematically and I have read a lot of the threads already and I can’t seem to find out how to begin this journey of tapering: if anyone could explain it as if I was 6 years old that would be great as that’s the capacity I am working with at the moment. any help or replies or encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

Hello, I have decided to go to a different medicine than my current one (going on 5 years with Abilify 30mg although it hadn't started that way at the beginning of course. it ramped up to 30mg over some time. I digress). I chose this different one based off a video that talked about the least weight-gain-inducing as a side effect, medicine. That medicine is Latuda. The reason for this is because the doctors are worried that my EPS side effect symptoms (in my case: oculogyric crisis and some weird hand tremors and movements) will last longer or become permanent if i don't either 1) taper down (which I've tried on numerous occasions [going down 1mg at a time] without success). or 2) Switch to a new medicine temporarily. That being Latuda. I guess the idea being switching and then tapering off of that one eventually. Or staying at a lower dose of the new one. Initial thoughts/questions: Did I make the wrong decision here? How would I have better prepared to go down on the medicine if I had chosen that route again another time? Thanks

This article is from January of 2023 https://theconversation.com/antipsychotic-withdrawal-an-unrecognised-and-misdiagnosed-problem-196989#

I have been on antidepressants since 2005(Started post partum). while the drugs didn't help me much my doc switched me to different drugs due to the terrible side effects i had. Finally i settled down with Fluoxetine around 2012. Around 2016-17 I started suffering with oversleeping and fatigue. My doc added Abilify and modafinil which helped me for few years and then stopped working. I understood these drugs did so much damage to my brain and body and wanted to get off of them. my doc said I can taper off quickly(2-3 weeks) from these meds and I got of them as he mentioned in 2019 Jan and had severe issues with in 2 -3 months. when I reached out to my doc he mentioned I am having relapse and I have to start meds again. I started them with so much pain. I researched on how to taper of these drugs and start to do half dose of Abilify in Jan 2022.(continued Fluoxetine, Modafinil). After 4-5 months I started 1/4th dose of Abilify. after another 4-5 months 1/8th. and now i am taking a teeny tiny bit of Abilify every 2 weeks. While I dont have any bad depressed days I am suffering with oversleeping, too much fatigue and lack of interest in anything. i have to push myself to do my daily chores. When I reached out to my doc he wants to put me on another new med. I am still with him since I need refills on my meds. At this point i don't want to add more medication but looking for any help with oversleeping and fatigue and to figure out if its caused by abilify withdrawal. is there any other way I can improve my mental health without adding my medication. Thanks in advance.

Here are a few resources for those who are on antipsychotics and are in the process of tapering or have already come off of them. I am noticing more resources for this class of drugs popping up over the last couple of years 😉✌️😺😺 https://psychscenehub.com/psychinsights/antipsychotic-withdrawal-syndrome-tapering/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32259826/ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/drugs-and-treatments/antipsychotics/coming-off-antipsychotics/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853222000165 https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/06/12/post-acute-withdrawal-syndrome-causes-symptoms-treatment/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/epidemiology-and-applied-clinical-research-department/research-antipsychotic https://www.madinamerica.com/withdrawal-protocols-antipsychotics/

Hey all, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia back in early 2018 and have gone through a few psyche drugs. Namely 3mg Risperidone and Depakote (the mg is escaping me).. i went through a few hospitalizations going down completely off the Depakote.. then switching completely to Abilify.. starting off at around 10mg i believe.. Now I'm bumped up to 30mg. I live a pretty boring life at home mostly... and because of this have always desired to get off of meds but have been very cautious about doing so and wanted to do so in a way that is healthy... I was curious for those taking abilify: Is it abnormal to be on a single dose (it's the only drug I'm on really..) of 30mg abilify? I believe it is and am starting to think that maybe it's not a good thing.. which makes me even more motivated to taper off .. at least to a healthier dose of it. If it is why would any doctor want to put me on 30? - Eli

I'd love some feedback and suggestions. Exactly three and a half years ago I weaned off of Lamictal, Zoloft and Abilify, under my psychiatrist's supervision. He had me wean each medication for about two weeks each, which in retrospect is probably much too quickly. I was on that cocktail for maybe three years. I was on one or more psychotropics for a total of five years. Less than two weeks after taking the final pill, I developed insomnia. This has gone on for three and a half years. I have seen five sleep MDs, tried nine sleep medications, sleep restriction, hypnotherapy, every known and unknown supplement for sleep, every cannabis combo, CBD and combo, etc . And still have insomnia. I am being treated for low testosterone by my endocrinologist in case this is hormonal. I get my blood back in 10 days after being on testosterone for a little more than three months. About one month after the weaning, I asked my psychiatrist if he thought the insomnia was from withdrawals. He said yes. A couple of weeks later when I brought it back up, he denied it was caused by withdrawals. There are so many stories about people having insomnia (as well as other terrible effects) after getting off of psychotropic medications. But three and a half years later? Anyone have a similar story? Know where I can get help/answers? If it is caused by damage from the medications, how to I repair my brain? Are there doctors who can help?

Hi everyone! My name is Rubied and I live in the Netherlands. This is my, hopefully summarized enough, story. I would be immensely grateful to get any response on this thread and to hopefully be able to continue posting so I can get some relief out of the situation I'm currently in. I'm 29 years old, suffered a major trauma/abduction at age 17 which changed my entire life. Barely lived, but survived, for years, without any medication. Moved to the Netherlands end of 2018 to start my career, and started really suffering psychologically with the compounded effects of trauma, moving countries, starting a job etc: depression, starting hearing/seeing things, severe untreated PTSD and anxiety. For the first time in my life I got psychological help, at the end of 2019. In 2020 I was started on 25 mg of Sertraline to help with the depression, which got increased to 50mg in 2021. In 2022, Sertraline got increased to 75mg as my depression wasn't improving much. Due to a psychotic episode I had in 2022, I got put on 5mg Abilify. Then, February of this year, my father died, I got promoted, my job offices changed, and my manager changed, all in the same week. It sparked another psychotic episode and I was put in psych ward for 1 week and increased to 10mg Abilify. Meanwhile, important to mention: I come from a family who never really believed in 'mental illness' or mental health drugs, they believe in 'natural healing' with sunlight and being around animals and so on. I spent some weeks with them and they influenced me to quit my psychiatric drugs as they believe it does more harm than good in the long run. In my latest episode I had a 'vision', where we are living in a type of 'Matrix' controlled by superior beings who are experimenting on us with medications and other random life events. So all of this has influenced me. However, I like to think I am of sane mind currently, and I would much rather pursue a 'natural way of living and healing' and come off this scary medication I've been put on. I have tapered from 75mg to 50mg sertraline for 4 weeks now, so currently I take: - 10mg Abilify - 50mg Sertraline I would like to safely, taper off all my medication, and I know this is the internet, but if you have any good advice for me, I would be deeply grateful. I am currently typing this, very emotional, having spent Easter alone in my room with stomach cramps from nausea of the increased Abilify, and sick of this medication nightmare. I just feel in my gut, no pun intended, that medication is not the right approach with me and it doesn't feel right, those are my main motivators if I have to be honest, besides the side effects which I haven't delved into much. Thanks if you have read this thus far, -Rubied

Hi everyone I’m new here. Would just like don’t advice about Abilify 10mg and Mirtazapine 30mg. I have been on this combo for a month and I had a psychotic episode 6 months ago. I was wondering when would be a good time to start tapering off them especially the Mirtazapine as I am not particularly depressed. Will crushing these meds and weighing them at 10% decreases per month be adequate when I go to do it? Thanks HopefulSam

Hi, ive known about this site for awhile. But this is my first post. A breif history about myself. I struggled with opiate addiction and drug/alcohol addiction in my late teens and early twenties. When I got sober, I started to get panic attacks. And was put onto paxil. Ive been alcohol and drug free for almost 11 years (aside from antidepressants, ect) After 7 years of working, it pooped out. And i was left with symptoms that I had never had previously. There is a detailed breakdown in my signature, regarding my dosages, and taper. Upon my recent drops, mainly once I got under 1.25 mg, I expierenced strange withdrawl symptoms. Feelings of dissociation, occasional waves of anxiety. But these generally reside after a few weeks. Previously, Ive only had one migraine in my life before my taper. Interestingly, ive began to have frequent confusional migraines following a drop. It starts with pain behind one of my eyes, coupled with an inability to see out of one eye. Or, distorted vision. This transitions into extreme sensitivity to light and sound. And, not always, but most times, a pounding headache. Also, familiar names and people, I sometimes do not recognize during this period. This period lasts about 4 hours. I know this is all from my abilify taper. The reason I am writing now, is because today is day 1, on 0mg abilify. I take Viva Naturals Omega 3 fish oil (1400mg EPA | 480mg DHA) and Pure Encapsulations Magnesium Citrate 150mg I occasionally take L-Theanine 200mg for anxiety, unsure if it helps or not. If the panic returns with a vengeance, i do have .25mg xanax I can take. But I have not needed to take it, and borderline refrain from doing so. Most of my original symptoms are gone. And I feel that my diet of 0 processed foods, heavy protein//fat from animal products, limited carbs, usually under 150grams a day, and only 40mg of caffeine in the morning have cured my original panic disorder. I am 6'0, 172 lbs, I excercise extensively every day. Any advice, suggestions for possible supplementation, or what to expect from jumping off of abilify at .08mg would be appreciated. Thank you, and I pray that God continues to bless.

Its been almost a month since i stopped meds. I experienced light headedness and nausea today for no reason that could be apparent. Is it possible that this could be the beginning of my withdrawal symptoms?

Hello everyone! I'm writing this because I told myself I also wanted to be of help for those struggling one I made out of the mess psych drigs withdrawal is. While I still struggle with anxiety and some ocd, therapy is currently my only prescription haha along with a few other natural supplements like cbd, magnesium chloride spray, pregnenolone, and a few others. My main objective with this is not to say mental illness is not real and that the meds don't work, because they do sometimes and when we decide to come off them is not like our traumas and mental struggles will disappear. But I hope to say with this that it is possible to overcome ssri withdrawal and start a drug free life along with different coping strategies and a good support system. I was put on sertraline 25 mg along with buspar 10 mgwhen I was 15. I was never very consistent with it, but would experience the effects every time I'd try to come off it. I kept going on and off until 21 when I went cold turkey and my life was almost paralzyed from the withdrawals, I was then put on sertraline 50 mg and aripiprazole. The sertraline game me horrible side effects at first and most of the time i was on it. I believe it was giving me mild serotonin syndrome. I then tried to come off and again withdrawals so I was put on prozac and buspar. Stayed on it until 25. I decided to come off, but did a very small tapper compared to what is needed. The withdrawals were manageable at first, but then they came full force. I was throwing up, head spinning, brain zaps, you name it. I thought it'd never end. that's when I found this group and a few other people hwo have through the same on intagram. The success stories in here gave me so much hope, and that's why I wanted to create mine. Yes, it was horrible. The worse was aroound 6 months, then took 18 months to feel almost close to normal, and now its almost two years, and my nervous system is no where near where it was when I came off the drugs. I'm able to drive, exercise, run, wake up with energy in the morning, go to the store without feeling like my world is spinning, and so much more. For me prayer, supporting my body, and believing I was going to be ok, were huge in my recovery. DUring my worst times where I'd feel hopeless prayer became my strenght and usually something would come that reminded i'd be ok. i also found the work of Dr. Ray peat on serotonin. OS when we come off these drugs our serotonin receptors are all over the place and we actually need to lower them most time. This why I decided to go bakc to the doctors and asked ot be presribed Vistaril, hydroxizine, which is a non addictive, take as needed anciety med. Its simply a potent antihistamine, so there is no withdrawals from it. It realy was of huge help at my very worst to bring some stabiity from the nausea, dizinness and racing heart. I really recommend anyone going through withdrawal to try this if they feel like they can;t simply handle it before going back on the ssri's. I no longer really take it as I now take cbd, but it is usually considered a safe drug free of withdrawals if given at small doses as is simply once again, a potent antihistamine. Apart from that, I worked on bettering my thyroid, nutritional level, and make sure to stay hydrated with mineral water and coconut water to help my nervous system. I also impletened a lot of grounding which is supper healing for the nervous system. AT my worst, I'd simply wake up early in the morning to sit on the grass and take in some sun while sipping on coconut water and listening to worship music. That was very healing for me. But I really encourage anyone here to check out the Walsh protocol and perhaps work with Walsh practiciner as they're expect in treating mental illness naturlaly and healing the many hormonal imbalances and nutritional deficiencies behind long lasting withdrawal symptoms. Please also research mind syndrome and german new medicine so you can learn more how your brain has the ability to keep creating symptoms even after the withdrawl is over and also to learn how the body has immense healing abilities and if taken care of and supported it is very well capable of healing from psych drugs withdrawals. To anyone reading this going through the worse right now, please hang in there, it gets better, it truly does! But makes ure you're getting enough rest, being gentel with yourself, and supporting your body with sunshine, minerals, and plenty of grounding if you also wish. I truly think constant grounding was huge in shortening the duration of my nervous system breakdown. Also find your grounding stone, by that I mean that something that gives you a little hope when it all seems lost. I remember when I was barely even levaing my room, I had a lttile picture with a Bible verse letting me know God was in control. I'd look at it everytime i;d feel panic and repeat myself the words in it. I also hope with this post inspires some to find their support in The Faithful father we have in heaven. As you go through this, I promise you, that you're not alone. I remember reading another srri success story on instagram and how at her worst moment she pleaded with God and a humming bird suddenly appeared on her window. She also beautifully stated how most times when she'd feel low the humming bird would suddenly appear. For me it was an orange butterfly and owl. Many times when life just felt hopeless i'd go to my backyard and boom an orange butterfly would come to my greeting. other times, an owl would literally appear out of nowhere, and my mom also oftentimes saw it, so I wasn;t hallucinating form the withdrawls haha! But I hope this encourgaes you and reminds you that this universe is huge and there is a purpose and a reaosn why you're here. You're loved and cared for, trust that. With a little faith and time you'll be an even stronger and better version than you were before all of this. Oh! I also found @cherellethinks page on instagram very helpful. HSe had her own journeyw ith anxiety, a truly life changing one and also took psych drugs. SHe does one on one coaching and can be of huge help for many in here! @brookesiem is also extremely knowledgeable and has her own encouragng story! SHe also answers dm's and helps answers questions you might have, Last one is @livingrootswellness. Theresa is awsome and also usually answers questions about her withdrawal story. SHe also has an eft tapping group and offers incredible information on improbving withdrawals symptoms! Hang in there my friends! This is truly horrible what you;re experiencing. But with some faith and dedication from our part it gets better! Also, I;m sorry for the many errors. I'll come back soon to fix it. I'm very sleepy but felt liek it was alreay time I wrote my story to hopefully help someone out there. I;m not anit psych drugs by any means, I knwo there were likely of help for me at a time, but I do find there are many alternatives to try before putting somoen on a drug cocktail. ALso, i feel like there is no medical training or experience when it comes to tappering patienst of these drugs. Hopefully, with time this chnages.

7 years on and off abilify, severe blow outs when cold turkey and 6 month wean off. First experience before i was ever drugged was seeing my dads eyes turn completely black like a possession right in front of me, then he passed out, in which he admits he passed out and felt weakened afterwards. I was in many delusional thoughts for weeks up until that point, but it was all intrusive thoughts. 5 years after that which was my last experience after weaning off the thoughts led me to take my dog on a what ended up being a 10 hour walk that turned supernatural, in which i rapped about how tormenting my life was on the spot during the walk for must have been over an hour, it flowed out of me some ryhming, some not, but it was intense. I had prayed that my dog could have golden feet for the long walk and off i went because i believed the night was going to go on forever. I get hit with many delusions and everytime i think the thoughts are God. I want to change that and not fall for the same lies, it's the devil. Never heard a single voice though. Experienced in a number of states God showing how much He loves me through music lyrics song after song, but might just have been lies of the devil again, not that God doesn't actually love me however. But the music leads me to dangerouse times, then hospital to be drugged. Been on abilify again for the past 2 years because I've been scared of this stuff happening again. But once again i want to go off and cold turkey because the normalacy life is killing me with no connection to God at all, not that all those states were God, but it has potential to meet God. One time i walked another long distance by myself where i ended up walking through a couple cities in which i was passing by a building under construction. And i thought to myself, what is that weird lighting in that building, so i snuck under the fence and it was told to me via thoughts that only a child like mind could find it's way into the building but it was all locked down, except one spot that had a stud wall that was staples with plastic. I peeled it back and went in terrified because the building looked so creepy, as i lay on the floor in front of an industrial heater that was in the building warming up due to that it was a mild winter night and i had already tried freezing myself to death, which as soon as my feet started to hurt i cancelled that idea. But yes, on the ground in front of the heater i had another thought telling me that i was the antichrist going to be bound to this dungeon for 1000 years and i believed it was true for a time because i thought i had no idea where i was anymore and this time too i believed the night would go on for these 1000 years. But eventually i stopped believing that i was the antichrist and instead that i was a child of God. I went on to explore the building all night and began to try and build thanos glove for my apparent evil dad who i thought was thanos during this time for a while due to past experiences. One time i sang all night to him in a cabin about how evil he was for casting me into hospital so easily. Where i was drugged and came out an anxious wreck and shell of a man. Fast forward to now and i manage to goto my shorts cleaning job and try to do some exercise and play some video games, walk the dog, watch and play hockey, but its so tedious its tormenting to not be connected to my emotions anymore. Also in that cabin i had some earphones i was listening to music to get inspiration of songs to sing to my dad, when he grabbed the earphones and tried to get me to stop. I sad let go of my earphones, and we had what seemed like a spiritual battle has he finally let go but it was slowely like he was in pain being forced to let go by God or something, because he didnt want to let go, but it was forced to in Jesus name apparently. But it was back and forth until he finally let go, then he hugged me and it felt so snakey at the time. Anyways back to the building i spent all night in the building doing various thing and explored the building terrified at first, vut then i knew the building like the back of my hand even on the roof level, which there was a door that had a sign on it do not prop open, so i listened luckily didnt get locked on the roof in winter. But yes people started coming in after morning came and started doing the strangest work and i was asking them questions about life. When they were not satisfying me i went off to a room by myself thinking and talking with my thoughts that i thought were God and a supervisor game in and said where is your work hat and clothes or something to that effect, and i replied, i don't work here. So he led me down the staircase which i knew and when i got to the main floor, everything was entirely different. Completely different. I ended up in the hospital eventually via police that time, actually, they might have taken me home i cannot remember that bit, but eventually i ended up in hospital.. never been arrested as a criminal however, but a few police incidents like this. Again, anyways.. i want to turn to Jesus and face my demons yet again, but i do not want to fall into the trap of believing my thoughts are direct God communication, thoughts of the intrusive dangerous sort. That is the devil.

Hi all, 🙂 I found this website from a Mikhaila Peterson podcast episode. I took the drug Abilify as I was going through a rough patch in my life. I didn't know that it was a neurotoxin, a poison instead of a healing substance. I took it for a few months and then began tapering. This tapering period was 1 year approximately. I am today in perfect health, and grateful to God for it. I was also lucky to go through zero withdrawal. But the period I was ingesting the drug was hell. Restlessness, sleeping for 14 hours everyday, no enjoyment in things I found joy in before( anhedonia?), loss of my ability to compose music, low physical strength. I got almost nothing productive done. When I searched online, for how to stop this neurotoxin, at first all I found was countless horror stories about how hard it was to come off this drug. But then I found the likes of Altostrata and all the others I am sure the people here are familiar with. I once again had hope. I recommend those who read this to obviously take the tapering methods, from the likes of Altostrata and others who have done such a good job. I personally did the 10% reduction of the last dose, held it for three weeks, and kept repeating this almost till the end. While I reached the final stages and the doses where extremely small ( I used to make a water suspension of the drug, and used syringes to ingest it in my mouth), I did get braver and started making bigger reductions. But I recommend all to follow the best practice of tapering, as I said, written by the likes of Altostrata. I could write a lot about this whole episode of my life. For those who do read this, do take this away from here- it is possible. Never lose hope. Never give up. These drugs where meant for only the severely mentally ill among us, not for those going through a rough patch in their lives. But these drugs are overprescribed, by good intentioned, but severely incompetent psychiatrists, a majority of whom not surprisingly, themselves choose to visit a psychologist rather than take these drugs. Do they believe themselves to be superior to us? Forgive. Forgive them for yourself. And wish them well from the bottom of your heart. All the horrors I went through, at times believing that I will remain a man, who will never regain the strength of his mind, have I believe accelerated my development in some deep way. There is now in me an urgency to do good in this world, to make the world a better place. Should I not be grateful for this? “If we prescribed relational support, walks, exercise, animal contact, rest, nutrition, insightful films/literature, basic financial support, community activity, rather than only psych-drugs, I venture our nation's woeful mental health outcomes would at last significantly improve.” -Dr James Davies PhD

HISTORY: *1998-2010: Buspar, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Paxil, etc. *2018: started sertraline/Zoloft *2019: Went to ketamine clinic seeking ketamine, but was dx with bipolar II instead. Started Vraylar, Topomax, and Ropinirole. Continued sertraline. *January 2020: Got pregnant. Was advised by psychiatrist to cold turkey Vraylar, Topomax, and Ropinirole and quickly taper sertraline. Began my sertraline taper but was having such intense w/d symptoms from the Vraylar, etc., I was a mess and I cold-turkeyed the sertraline, too. *March 2020: Psychiatric hospitalization. Miscarried in hospital. Hospital docs determined bipolar II dx was a mistake. Started ECT but quit when pandemic started. Started escitalopram/Lexapro 20mg, and aripiprazole/Abilify 5mg as an adjunct. *2021: Started bupropion/Wellbutrin 300mg to help with daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Continued escitalopram and aripiprazole. Increased bupropion to 450mg, then decreased back to 300mg for seizure safety for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy. *Early 2022: Replaced escitalopram with venlafaxine/Effexor 150mg (cross-tapered over a few weeks). *Summer 2022: Dx with sleep disorder (alpha wave intrusion). Started trazodone 50mg as a sleep aid. *November 2022: Started phasing out aripiprazole by going down to 2mg from 5mg (p-doc's idea). Had symptoms, went back up to 5mg for the holidays. *January 2023: Began tapering aripiprazole again, this time decreasing to 4mg for three weeks. ********************************************** As you can see, I am on a big, hot, tangled mess of psychotropic drugs. Since my diagnosis in summer 2022 with a sleep disorder, and treatment, I am doing better than ever (no depression symptoms for several months). And I'm on way too many drugs. My psychiatrist has agreed with me that it's appropriate to phase out at least one. We're starting with the Abilify/aripiprazole. P-doc wants to go fast; I want to go slow. I checked the drug interaction website that is recommended here. It seems the Wellbutrin/bupropion has major interactions with everything else, so I believe that should go next. I would like one day to get down to nothing except trazodone, since it is treating my sleep problem. Questions: How do you handle disagreements with your psychiatrist? I need to keep her on my side enough that she keeps prescribing my medication. Bonus if she will prescribe the smaller pills that make it easy to taper. What if I want to go slower than she wants to? What if she does not agree that I should get off a particular med? My goal is to keep feeling good through the tapers. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, Tezz

Hello! I am in a hell of withdrawal. I have been on many different SSRI’s in the past and they all worked but had intolerable side effects. About a year ago I started sertraline, and when it didn’t work my psych put me on Abilify and lamotrigine. The Abilify seemed to help a bit but gave me crazy anxiety and tardive skenesis. The lamotrigine has never seemed to do anything. Since last March I have been trying to taper. I’ve had two terrible experiences when my doc told me to stop the S and A cold turkey. I’m back on low doses of both. Currently I take 12.5mg sertraline, 2mg Abilify, 200 mg lamotrigine and would like to get off all of them, if possible. I have terrible anxiety and crying spells that I’ve had since starting the sertraline and Abilify. Im wondering which drug I should try to taper first?? Thanks for your help!

Hi, I am happy to know this site exists! After coming off of a couple of other antipsychotics (see below) I am finally on one that seems the lesser of evils. That being said Lurasidone is not perfect. I’m on 30 mg, soon to be 20 mg of Lurasidone. I have been on 30 mg (from 40 mg) for 3 months now so I feel it is time to trial a reduction. So far I haven’t had any withdrawal symptoms, but I’m pretty sure I am a poor metabolizer of this medication, so I’m expecting a delayed withdrawal. I think it will take some convincing to go down any further than 20 mg because I am on this medication for Schizophrenia which I have been newly diagnosed with, and literature with being poor metabolizers on antipsychotics is limited (I only found an article stating if you’re on Risperidone you should be on 1/4 of the recommended dose). It took enough convincing to get this far, as the normal starting dose for Schizophrenia is 40 mg. I haven’t had any hallucinations or other symptoms on 30 mg so I am hoping 3 months was long enough to go ahead and trial 20 mg. Overall, I find Lurasidone the lesser of evils for antipsychotics as I am not drowsy at all, and don’t have akathisia as bad as I did on other medications. I have had some weight gain, my hair is thinning a lot, and I have a bit of akathisia in the afternoons so I’m hoping the reduction will help with this. I wish I could go off of all medications, and part of me still believes that there is a possibility that my short-lived psychosis episodes were because of medication withdrawal, not schizophrenia, as I was coming off of medication both times the psychosis happened. Or, I have entertained that there is a possibility I have both Schizophrenia, AND had withdrawal psychosis. Either way the psychosis which presented as auditory hallucinations was super scary and I don’t think I want to experiment with being completely off a medication for now. If I was able to convince my psychiatrist to taper completely off of it at some point, I would probably want to be in hospital and because of the delayed withdrawals I experience, it would be quite a lengthy stay, so not ideal right now. July 2020 - Feb 2021 : Risperidone March 2021 - April 2021 : Abilify September 2021 - March 2022 : Clopixol March 2022 - Current : Lurasidone (Latuda)

I have tried three times now to taper off Abilify. My last try I had gotten down to .25mg daily and then I had insomnia for three nights and then went into psychosis. I had to be hospitalized. At the hospital they raised my dose to a very high amount, 10mg in morning and then 15mg. night. This caused akathisia, but got me out of psychosis. I am now back down to 5mg of Abilify. (Under supervision of my psychiatrist) My akathisia is much better, but I think I still have it. I do not know what to do at this point... I really wanted to be medication free, but that is not possible unless I exercised more and took other supplements consistently. So I could try again, to taper off completely,(and risk being hospitalized again) or I could stay at a maintenance dose of maybe 2mg daily. What do you guys think? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!