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Recovery from nervous breakdown

Posted , 3 users are following.

fiona51388
fiona51388

Back in March I tried out a new type of medication for my schizophrenia and it disagreed with me so strongly that I had a nervous breakdown and ended up spending six weeks in hospital.  After making my feeling about the new drug plain to the Consultant I was put back on my original medication and am fine now.  The drug I tried out was called aripiprazole sometimes known as abilify and I wondered if anyone had had bad experiences with it.  The idea had been to bring my weight down, but in fact I was snacking more and it did not prove to be helpful in that respect and made me feel completely "out of it".  Its a second generation drug and not said to be as effective as some of the older ones, like I was on before, clopixol.

Obviously had i known I was going to go downhill fast on it I wouldn't have asked to try it out but no use crying over spilt milk, I am out the other side of the breakdown now, three months later, have been out of hospital about a month and am fully back on track, doing the things I enjoy.  I still feel I am on too much, about double, of the clopixol but having an appointment to get it reduced soon.

Hospital wasn't an entirely negative experience, having stayed off psychiatric wards for over seven years prior, and being on clopixol the whole time, and feel I can live with the weight gain as its not exactly extreme, I'm just overweight.  I wonder do we analyse these things too  much from my current standpoint anyway, sometimes.

Anyway, let me know if you have had experiences with abilify or problems with weight gain on anti psychotics, it would be interesting to compare notes.  With best wishes, Fiona

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • louise79427
    louise79427 fiona51388

    Posted

    Hi fiona,

    Sorry to hear your experience with aripiprazole. I have been on it for nearly 2 years and have stayed well. I have been back at work for a year and a half with no hospital admissions. I have sczhioaffective disorder. I think we all react differently to meds I guess. I was on risperdone previously and that didn't agree with me.

    Stay .

    Lou x

  • Inmate88
    Inmate88 fiona51388

    Posted

    Hi Fiona.I'm sorry to hear of your experience with this med. I to have paranoid schizophrenia and this was the first drug the psychiatrist tried me on.

    It nearly killed me, no exageration. The initial does was mostly ok, then they increased it a little and that was the turning point. My heart rate went through the roof, it was terrifying. With the increased heart rate my breathing also increased, I was boiling hot to. I could only breath laying completely flat, I couldn't move as I couldnt breath. When laying flat it was like I had ran flat out on a treadmill for hours. I passed out after about 20 mins of being like that. Thank god I wasnt home alone.

    I had to go to hospital when they kept me in for a few days for observation, they also gave me something to counteract the effect of the aripiprazole of course. I've had some awful experiences with meds but this one was by far the worst.

    I hope you are doing ok.

    • fiona51388
      fiona51388 Inmate88

      Posted

      Thanks. This drug aripiprazole has been one that was widely promoted in the States and i dont know if the accounts are true but it has been said to cause a number of deaths in teenagers. Im open minded but feel it was like being given a heavy dose of schizophrenia when id stayed well on clopixol for over seven years so had more or less forgotten what it was like to be a sufferer, appalling. Im back on an even keel now just about. Sorry to hear of your experiences, they sound dreadful. With best wishes, Fiona
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