Posted by Ritch on June 5, 2003, at 13:21:12
In reply to Re: ZOLOFT/ABILIFY-MISSION MODE- HELP-!!!!! » Ritch, posted by e503 on June 5, 2003, at 9:58:48
> >> > Ben quieted down after we gave him 2.5 mg. abilify, but I just figured out why we gave it up! On another website, a mom was saying that when she gave her child abilify he was on "mission mode". That's exactly what is happening with ben. I couldn't figure out what was going on before, I thought it was obsessions, really urgent obsessions, but it's not, it's MISSION mode! in other words, he HAS to have this thing he is so focused on and goes on and on about it. VERY URGENTLY. So why the heck is abilify causing mission mode and what should I do? It is horrible.
> >
> > Well.. I've got bipolar disorder with a few autistic traits (according to my pdoc). Ben is autistic and has some bipolar traits-so I am curious and concerned about how he is doing-but I'm not a doctor-I've just got a lot of med experiences-especially weird bipolar reactions to various meds (some of which Ben is taking).
> >
> > Sooo... he dropped the Zoloft back down and added a *little* Abilify and it did quiet him down? FWIW, SSRI's like Zoloft have made me manic. Zoloft helped with OCD-traits and panic, but I had a lot of sleep disruption with it and did get pretty wiggy at times. The max. I could tolerate was 25mg/day. Did his doctor say anything about further reducing the Zoloft and maybe keeping him on a small dose of Abilify? It sounded like he was doing OK when the Abilify was washing out-but when it washed out more-he started having trouble-it could be that the very low-dose Abilify helps.
>
> Yes!! he did say that ben may need only 25 mg. of zoloft------but he did not want to drop it from 75 mg. all at once. Yes-he is thinking 25-50mg. zoloft and SMALL dose abilify. REAL small. He said even starting at 1 mg. if I could get it compounded. But, I gave him 2.5 mg. yesterday and it did quiet him down, almost too much (and this "mission mode") until later in the evening and he was actually quite good. I just want to avoid this "mission mode" stuff. Do you think if I gave him 2.5 mg. every other day I could get a steady state of 1.25 cuz of the long half life?
>
> That's interesting about you being bipolar with some autistic traits - it seems like you react to meds (or at least some of them) like ben does. What meds do you take? Zoloft helped with OCD at 25 mg?
>
> eliseIt's a good idea to back off the Zoloft slowly. If you do it too quickly you may pass an optimum spot and not know it. You ought to ask your doctor about giving the Abilify 2.5mg every other day-that is if you don't want to hassle with the compounding. But it will likely not be as smooth that way and it seems that he (Ben) is touchy with taking a quantity of a med all at once. Meds I take? I'm on Depakote ER 250mg, Klonopin .5mg, and a *tiny* bit of Effexor, with some fishoil and Vitamins. Just about any serotonergic med (like Zoloft) reduces my "task stickiness" and makes things flow smoothly, it isn't really OCD, I'm not sure what the heck it is! It is really more like GAD, I rehearse and ruminate about *outcomes* and I get stuck on certain problems I try to solve-that often are not solvable and often not worthy of trying to solve!, but it is all mental-no rituals, the "problems" switch around a lot-so it's not the "same thing" coming up over and over, and it is just mildy annoying, but it does interfere with things.
poster:Ritch
thread:227600
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030604/msgs/231655.html