They laid off almost everyone at my old job on a few Monday's back. I was already trying to get off pot and booze because they were frankly killing me. I had started Wellbutrin but it was still the 2 week period where that stuff kicks in. When I got told that I was going to be let go I had a really bad mental breakdown. I have PTSD from having an utter shit childhood and really bad episodic MDD. I could not focus and was crying in public which has not happened in a while. I also might have been hearing voices but they are not there anymore. I ended up in a partial hospitalization program under recommendation of my therapist and while it sounded scary it has turned my life around in only 3 days of going.
Next step is they are going to be putting me on Abilify to even out the spikes I have been having. While the Wellbutrin is handling some of my ADHD I want to see if I can change it to 300mg to see if it squashes it along with my MDD episodes that its handling now. The psychologist says I should not be scared of the Abilify even tho I kind of am. She says it will even out the spikes and dips I have been having. Those are what are causing me to cry. I read on the internet too it should be helpful with my autism spectrum issues.
I have been white knuckling it alone for so long that seeing some light on the horizon makes me want to cry with joy. I just hope some of the bridges I have burned can be built back up again because I have left a trail of fire behind me. I am really hoping to figure out this whole vegan thing that I have been so hardcore in hating now that I am not consumed by thoughts of death.
Lastly, I dont know if any of you have had some experiences with Abilifiy if you do I would like to hear about them bad or good. Thank you for reading this my friends, and if you think there is no hope out there remember that other humans have beat what you have and you dont have to go at it alone.
As someone who is diagnosed with ADHD, autism, and C-PTSD I have found that I'm really sensitive to norepinephrinergic meds, like ridiculously so. This is not the case for everyone and especially with ADHD in the mix, it would be safer to presume that boosting your norepinephrine will aid you with anxiety and panic attacks, if you happen to experience them. That being said, don't just presume that this is the case and if you do happen to be sensitive to norepinephrinergic meds then Wellbutrin may not be ideal for you or you may need something else in the mix to mellow out that aspect of Wellbutrin. I'd be reaching for clonidine in this situation because it can be particularly useful for ADHDers.
Obviously people respond differently to different meds and there's no guarantees with psychiatric meds but Abilify is really not too big of a deal in my experience. I personally found that I was less inclined to experience agitation due to negative stimuli, which is mostly an autistic thing but it can be an ADHD thing too, which was nice but as a person who is (was?) high-masking and high-dissociating, I suspect that I was using that benefit of Abilify to push through negative stimuli which, if my assumption is correct, would have been counterproductive. So I guess I'd say that it's important to consider your "sensory diet" on Abilify but that it can make things better.
As an anti-psychotic it's pretty mild tbh. Also don't let the category of anti-psychotic spoök you - there are some medications that are OTC which happen to be anti-psychotics so it's not like something big and scary; Abilify is not thorazine or clozapine. No shade to anyone who is on those meds though - I'm just trying to point at the fact that anti-psychotics span a very broad spectrum of "strength".
But yeah, I wouldn't issue any major cautions with Abilify.
I have been flying the flag for amantadine as a really overlooked psychiatric medication for a fair while now and, thankfully, my well-connected psychiatrist has started integrating it into his practice since I essentially prescribed it to myself and got him to sign off on it. I'll spare you the details but he has gone on to have success with other patients of his - it is very well tolerated with no reported side effects from his patients (including me) and he is beginning to prescribe it to people with OCD to see how they respond. Next time I see him I need to speak with him to consider it as an alternative to prescribing topiramate, which can have negative effects on appetite. But yeah, amantadine is a worth considering as an adjunct med both for mental illness but also it has an added benefit in that it works as a dopamine reuptake inhibitors which is ideal for ADHDers, especially given that it doesn't have norepinephrinergic effect. If your prescribing doctor is uncertain about it (mine was lol) then I can provide an email contact to a psychiatrist who would be able to liaise with your doctor and provide advice.
Anyway I'm rambling on again. Good luck with it, check in if you need more info or advice and I'll probably see your post or just comment below one of my comments and you'll wring some more exposition out of me; drugs? Autism? ADHD? These subjects feel like they are my wheelhouse nowadays.
Edited because I was using the non-slur based verb "spoök", not the slang noun, so I'm circumventing the filter
How does it compare with topiramate wrt brain fog? Had a friend on topiramate that basically could not get their brain going while taking it.
So despite amantadine hitting a lot of different things at once, it has a really low side effect profile. There have only been a few preliminary studies that have trialled it with different mental illnesses and neurodevelopmental disorders but generally it's surprisingly well tolerated and I haven't heard any reports about brain fog on it and I definitely haven't experienced any myself either.
Yeah, the ol' Dopamax™ effect lol.
I'm probably not a good measure of this because I am pretty resistant to brain fog, at least when I haven't collapsed into executive dysfunction or catatonia. But as for medications inducing it in me it just doesn't seem to be something that I'm prone to.
It's not uncommon at all to have brain fog with topiramate. Sometimes it's just a problem with increasing the dose too quickly but sometimes it just wreaks havoc with people too.
This isn't medical advice but amantadine can be discontinued pretty rapidly and it doesn't seem to cause any real withdrawal effects like what you'd get with, say, antidepressants. So if you or someone you know is considering trying it out then I wouldn't be too concerned because you should be alright to cut the dose back pretty quickly if it's causing bad side effects. But yeah, that's one to talk to the doctors about since I'm not qualified.