Posted by floatingbridge on May 14, 2011, at 18:25:02
In reply to ugh...awesome, posted by Christ_empowered on May 14, 2011, at 17:56:50
> As a long term Abilify patient, I find this a bit disturbing. Shrinks seem to love Abilify. I like Abilify because its the least mind-numbing antipsychotic I've found. I guess I'm kind of lucky that a lot of my symptoms overlap with Schizophrenia;
Abilify has been shown quite effective in Schizophrenia (thought not as effective as Zyprexa, apparently),and it has minimized my agitation+psychosis w/o
many (any?) side effects. Mood swings...not so much. I had to add an antidepressant for psychotic depression, but then again...polypharmacy seems to be the rule in Bipolar-land.
>
> Good post.CE, I love your thread title. About sums up the love/hate meds thing. I'm very glad Abilify is working for you. And your poly-pharmacy is more like dual-pharmacy :-) That's good. Abilify is really potent--and that's a good new tool. I could actually tolerate taking it whereas seroquel would freak me out. Ultimately, Abilify wasn't a helper for me.
I think life is to be lived while we have it. Wisely spent. If it takes a medication, well, honestly, I'm not thrilled. I read up about risks, then make a choice. I'm glad there is medicine. I'm glad that you can take a little pill and walk around and be alright w/o needing to be oversedated.
At a certain point, I have had to put my apprehensions to rest. I take xanax--over ten years now. I don't scare myself by going to the Ashton site anymore. I know chronic benzo use isn't a health tonic, but neither is unabating anxiety.
You rock, imho.
* and whoever gazes at the stars will never again be quite alone...
c-ptsd & attendant health concerns
poster:floatingbridge
thread:985291
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110502/msgs/985328.html