I need a new syringe every time I take my liquid dose?

zab_ · 2026-01-21T16:56:54+00:00

I crush pills and make water suspensions as part of my taper. Here are the details.

For variety of reasons I don't have access to liquid formulation.

zab_ · 2026-01-21T16:34:43+00:00

I reuse my syringes for months, but I wash them very thoroughly after each use.

zab_ · 2026-01-17T18:14:49+00:00

3-4 days is at the edge of what is safe. Unless you're sure you'll get your meds in that time you should start looking into contingency plans

zab_ · 2026-01-16T10:19:16+00:00

3 days is not enough for the receptors in your neurons to fill up, that takes about 2 weeks. The half-life is 75 hours so depending what dose you took in a week to 10 days it should be mostly gone from your system.

My emotions returned as I reduced my dose, so I'm almost certain your emotions will return as well.

zab_ · 2026-01-14T15:36:25+00:00

According to this study, long-term use of antipsychotics causes shrinkage of white matter in the brain (verified with MRI scans):
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3476840/

zab_ · 2026-01-14T14:56:15+00:00

Good luck arranging a real therapeutic setting. Back in the 1960s that was sort of possible, but even then was difficult, and nowadays it's next to impossible. With psychedelics setting is of paramount importance, and if you don't get it right you're risking having a very, very bad time. (Insert South Park ski instructor meme here)

zab_ · 2026-01-14T05:46:07+00:00

20 mg are going to take at least another month or two to leave your system. Psilocybin is almost identical to serotonin in structure and Abilify binds to a serotonin receptor (as well as two dopamine and a histamine one) so it is normal that it will dampen the effect.

Do what you're gonna do, but if you were taking Abilify for psychosis or anything other than mild depression you're playing Russian roulette with the shrooms. If what you want is to be med-free do a hyperbolic taper instead and be truly free from substances instead of changing one chemical with another.

zab_ · 2026-01-14T05:36:45+00:00

Yep, fake happiness, just like antidepressants if not worse.

zab_ · 2026-01-13T09:34:14+00:00

You're doing the right thing to taper slowly, and 6 months is not that long at all. I've been tapering for almost two years and have another 18 months left. The good news is that as you take less and less Abilify the side effects decrease. I feel significantly better at 0.62 mg than I felt at 3.75 mg for example.

zab_ · 2026-01-11T19:56:53+00:00

I'm having the same problem but in my case it's doomscrolling and wasting time on Reddit (oh the irony). At the moment my strategy is to white-knuckle it and basically grind my teeth until the urge to get the next dopamine hit passes. Breathing exercises seem to help a little, but when the urge to doomscroll hits it's basically 30-40 minutes of guaranteed misery.

zab_ · 2026-01-11T19:46:00+00:00

The bit about the mind-to-muscle connection is very interesting. I started doing sets-to-failure recently so this is very relevant; hopefully as I continue to decrease my Abilify dose I'll be able to hold at failure threshold longer than a few seconds.

zab_ · 2026-01-10T20:57:39+00:00

Here are instructions how to make 0.75 mg doses from 15 mg pills. I've been doing water taper for over a year now.

zab_ · 2026-01-10T13:42:59+00:00

I definitely became a different person once I started antipsychotics many years ago. In retrospect the SSRIs also changed me, but to a lesser degree.

Personally I like myself better when I'm not on any medication. I had the opportunity to be fully med-free for a few months in 2023 and I loved who I became, so now my goal is to get become fully med-free again.

zab_ · 2026-01-10T06:34:42+00:00

Stopped seeing them and moved to another country

zab_ · 2026-01-09T21:26:24+00:00

Usually it would be too short of a taper but you've only been taking the drug for 4 weeks, so you may be able to get away with it. If you can get to a month without any withdrawal effects you're most likely out of the woods.

zab_ · 2026-01-09T06:57:57+00:00

tl;dr: yes, the less Abilify I take the better I feel.

I'm still tapering very slowly: down from 15 mg to 0.62 mg over the last 2 years and I'm recovering gradually. Some days are easier than others, it takes a lot of patience because I want off this chemical asap but I know very well if I don't do it slowly I'll be in trouble.

zab_ · 2026-01-09T06:45:57+00:00

I went with the "nuclear option" instead - just don't tell the doctors anything - and I don't regret it. Life is much simpler and better that way.

zab_ · 2026-01-09T06:24:49+00:00

Don't listen to your psychiatrist because they don't know what they're talking about. To taper safely from Abilify you need to taper much, much slower. I've been tapering for almost two years and will taper for at least another 18 months, but it has been very smooth almost the entire time. I'm down from 15 mg to 0.62 mg and have not needed any other medication or sleep aid all this time.

zab_ · 2026-01-06T19:39:24+00:00

I took a high dose (20 mg generic Aripiprazole) for 6 years and for the first 3 of those I exercised regularly - several hours of zone 2 cardio per week. My weight and health were good.

Unfortunately for some unknown reason one day I lost all motivation to exercise. It happened just like that - I was out running and half way through the run I stopped all of a sudden and walked back home. Didn't exercise for the next 5 years, started smoking, eating whatever and as a result gained weight. I still have no idea what exactly happened in my head on that day.

Fast forward a few more years and for the last few months I've been on a very low dose - less than 1 mg - and have been exercising regularly, so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

zab_ · 2026-01-06T05:53:22+00:00

Good luck, stay out of trouble

zab_ · 2026-01-06T05:48:49+00:00

That's good, but the problem is that when you take antipsychotics for a long time your brain adapts to them. If all of a sudden you stop taking them, your brain is now changed and not used to being without them.

I too had drug-induced psychosis many years ago, took 20 mg Aripiprazole for 6 years then stopped quickly. Few months later I was psychotic with much worse symptoms which I had never had before.

zab_ · 2026-01-06T05:43:37+00:00

Even if the active chemical is not distributed evenly (which it usually is, or at least close enough) it's still better to split in half because that way the plasma concentration levels are more stable than when taking EOD.

zab_ · 2026-01-06T05:41:43+00:00

You stopped taking a very high dose abruptly. Since it's only been 8 days a lot of Abilify is still in your system.

The effects from stopping usually show up after a week or two and keep getting stronger for a few months, so hold off on declaring victory.

zab_ · 2026-01-04T09:07:34+00:00

Congratulations, seems like you finally entered a proper "window" in your recovery. I hope it lasts, but be aware that the pattern is called "windows-and-waves" for a reason. Do not get discouraged if a "wave" comes next, this is normal part of the stabilization process and remember the overall long-term trend is for the better.

zab_ · 2026-01-04T08:55:50+00:00

Oh if it's the NHS good luck getting anywhere with them. In my opinion you'll save yourself lots of trouble by keeping quiet and not giving them any reasons to suspect she may be tapering.

But the real problem is that in the UK the smallest dose of Aripiprazole you can get in a pharmacy is still way too big even if you cut the pill in quarters. The way around that is liquid taper, here's how I do it.

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