I started taking Abilify / aripiprazole just about a week ago and have had some very annoying side effects. I searched on Reddit and found people with similar experiences, but didn’t find anything on Lemmy. For the sake of building up content here, I thought I’d share.

My psychiatrist started me on 5 mg Abilify at bedtime. Within a couple days, I noticed these effects:

• I feel drowsy and fall asleep easily about 20 mins after taking it. It usually takes me 30-60 mins to fall asleep otherwise, or 90-120 mins on really bad nights, so it’s been helpful in that regard.
• I consistently wake up about 3 h into the night. If I try to go back to sleep, I can only stay asleep for 30-60 mins at a time before I wake up again.
• Whenever I wake up, I have this strange strobe light effect in my peripheral vision for a moment.
• My mood improved somewhat, but that’s been outweighed quite a bit by the insomnia.

Just to clarify, I haven’t been diagnosed with bipolar per se, but rather a mood disorder not otherwise specified. I get ups and downs, but I bounce between depression and irritability/agitation. Never had a manic episode.

I’ll also note that I started lamictal / lamotrigine at 150 mg twice a day at the same time I started Abilify, but I’ve been on increasing doses for months with none of these issues. I’m also on HRT but that’s been going on for years.

Thankfully, my psychiatrist gave me the go-ahead to stop taking the Abilify. Hopefully the negative effects go away soon.