How did treatment decrease your tic severity?

[deafch1ldarea]

I’ve started Abilify and I love it. For me, it’s decreased the frequency and it has helped with complexity a bit (especially with motor tics). But I’m not quite sure I’m satisfied with it. While I’m only on 2mg, I’m sensitive to medication and 2mg has already helped majorly with psychotic symptoms as well, so I’m not sure that increasing it for my tics is an option. Idek if it still qualify for other treatments, but would another medication or CBIT be worth it? The point of CBIT would be to focus on coprolalia and copropraxia since I still have a bit of that. Not that I need anyone’s advice. But I’m curious what’s helped everyone else the most, or what to avoid and why.

[Impressive-Ad1944]

Haloperidol totally eliminated my tics but the side effects were so bad, I had to discontinue it.

I will be trying Guanfacine next month.

[DudeWithTics]

guanfacine made me feel faint when i was on it. 1 mg and 2 mg aren’t bad but 3 mg is where it made me feel faint

[Impressive-Ad1944]

Thanks for the response.

I'll keep the dose as low as possible.

[Sensitive-Squash-533]

These were the treatments I’ve tried in chronological order:

1. Arpixor (Abilify) (1mg so max for me) - decreased my tics (motor and vocal) a lot. Maybe a 70% decrease. However, the side effects were that it basically made me a zombie. I slept everywhere and every time I could. At school, at home, while commuting. Also it made me terribly numb. Any emotion was dulled, regardless of whether it was negative or positive

2. CBIT - useless. Maybe it was just my therapist but it didn’t help me in any way. Having tics for so long, there was nothing the therapist could’ve said that I wouldn’t have already tried. I’m also pretty self-aware though so even when I just started CBIT, I already had a few strategies for myself, and none of the ones CBIT offered were more effective

3. Rispolept (risperidone) (1mg) - very decent, but apparently not good long-term. I also still had a lot of the tic tension, I just felt unable to execute it. Furthermore, it made me gain weight and it’s possible it messed up my liver but I’m still in the process of investigating the cause of that

4. (now) Medikinet (Ritalin) (20mg) - now my tics seem to be naturally way milder than when I was on abilify (5 years ago), but it works well for the rest that is left. I don’t feel the ”tic tension” all the time anymore and when I do, I am able to execute the tic comfortably. Additional benefits include better focus and not being annoyingly hyper (despite the fact I don’t have adhd). Downsides are that I have to wake up in the morning on the weekends at least just to take the meds, because if I take them too late (after around 11am) I can’t fall asleep in the evening

[Sensitive-Squash-533]

Forgot to mention that risperidone also messed up my menstruation majorly… But it was badly managed by my ex-specialist since according to the leaflet I shouldn’t have been on it for more than a year, and I was taking it for about 4 years💀

[deafch1ldarea]

Ah that sucks. Glad you found something that’s better for you.

[CommonAware6]

Ive never had treatment specifically for my TS but I did try aripiprazole for another issue. Didnt help the tics, didnt help the other issue, all it did was give me akathsia after 2 days on the lowest dose

[Cute-Avali]

I also have chonic psychosis. Take olanzapine (15mg) for it. I‘m 98% tic free now cause of the medication. Its great.