# I love my Abilify. So why did my shrink take me off it cold turkey? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681 "2019-11-20T01:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/21 "2019-11-21T04:31:45Z")
> [@steatopygia](#): > > I’m going to guess it was dropped as polypharmacy after a care conference. polypharmacy? > [@](#): > > “Prostate management”. 🆒 Yeah, its getting to.be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/22 "2019-11-21T06:53:41Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > polypharmacy? Taking many different medications at the same time. Definitions vary, but often the term is used with the implicit assumption that they are not all medically necessary (for example, two or more doctors each separately prescribing different medications to treat the same condition) or that they are interacting in unfortunate ways. ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/23 "2019-11-21T10:01:32Z")
What **slash2k** said. Sorry I wasn’t very clear. Polypharmacy, sometimes defined as more medications than are clinically indicated, in the elderly, is associated with many adverse effects. These can include decreased mentation and an increase in falls. Some facilities have “care conferences” which could include a pharmacist, a social worker, a healthcare provider, and, ideally, the patient or a representative. One of the goals of these conferences is to use a multi disciplinary approach to achieving the best outcomes. It is _possible_ that your drug regime was looked at during this conference and changes were made. I’m not saying this is what happened, just a guess. You joke about them “depending on you being demented”, have you had problems in this area? Because, for the most part ;), your writing is clear. Here is more info than you may want on polypharmacy. I’m pretty sure you have time on your hands. [PDF slide show type presentation](https://www.acponline.org/system/files/documents/about_acp/chapters/ga/13-bland.pdf). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/24 "2019-11-21T12:15:58Z")
I see your > [@Calavera](#): > > Unreliable narrator. and raise you > [@steatopygia](#): > > … for the most part ;), your writing is clear. 😃 There probably was a conference of that sort. I’ll find out later today. What pisses me off is that I should have been in it or at least briefed on it. That is or should be the procedure. As an engineer I’m all about following procedure to avoid events like this. They’re all about taking the lazy way then being surprised when someone complains to the State oversight guy. 😃 Dumb fucks. ---
**Author:** ![Grave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Grave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grave)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/25 "2019-11-21T17:18:15Z")
You are spiraling dz. When I do that, the most productive path has been to stop pretending to know what is going on. Rest for a few days, ask for sedatives if needed. Let your concerns go for now, calm yourself, revisit everything next month. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/26 "2019-11-21T17:54:05Z")
How do you feel? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/27 "2019-11-21T20:25:37Z")
Annoyed, but that’s my normal. Wish we could post photos so you could see me hours after birth. If looks could kill that photographer is 65.5 years dead. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/28 "2019-11-21T20:56:25Z")
> [@Grave](#): > > You are spiraling dz. When I do that, the most productive path has been to stop pretending to know what is going on. Rest for a few days, ask for sedatives if needed. Let your concerns go for now, calm yourself, revisit everything next month. This could be an extremely unproductive path for anyone who’s actually put at risk by a change in meds, or by other problems with medical procedures. Or, at any rate, what’s produced could be the exact reverse of health. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/29 "2019-11-21T21:49:50Z")
This is not the first time they’ve done this to me and, being lucid, it’s my job as a human to work to end this practice. If it’s happened to me it’s happened to lots of people who are too far gone to be able to fight it. And now my prostate hurts every time I try to pee. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/30 "2019-11-22T00:42:31Z")
Straight from the doctor’s mouth: . The other day this dump called to ask if they could stop giving me that stuff. It is because the state was asking why I was still on it despite being Not Insane. He approved it, expecting the Home to have a formal meeting with me. He was disappointed that it hadnt happened. . SSRIs don’t need weaning. . He asked how I am. I mentioned my impotence but he isn’t a psychologist so he was uninterested. I’m more comfortable about it than I was. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/31 "2019-11-22T00:51:26Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > This is not the first time they’ve done this to me and, being lucid, it’s my job as a human to work to end this practice. If it’s happened to me it’s happened to lots of people who are too far gone to be able to fight it. > > And now my prostate hurts every time I try to pee. I can’t address your specific situation, but yeah, you really have to be able to be your own advocate in medical matters. The thought of NOT being able to do that for myself, some day, is frankly terrifying. Doctors make mistakes. Doctors attribute side effects of drug A as an unrelated condition that must be treated with drug B, which causes other side effects, etc. (speaking from personal experience here on that exact situation). I’ve also caught medical staff in hospitals with medication screwups; in my case it would have meant a certain amount of fleeting misery and nothing worse, fortunately, but there was the time I was arguing with the Nazi Doctor From Hell who delivered my son (and whom I regret hitting only the once), who tried to make me take a pain medication with a potentially dangerous preservative (“What will it do to you?” “I’m not sure, and I don’t think NOW is the time to find out!!”). I’m sure there are doctors wish patients would just shut up and take whatever is prescribed (or not) and not complain and make their lives harder. And if you’re in a place where a lot of residents truly are NOT able to advoicate for themselves, you’re the oddball / anomaly / annoyance and they don’t know how to deal with you. If you were put on Abilify due to depressive symptoms, and it was helping, then it’s UTTER negligence for them to pull you off it a) without telling and discussing it with you, and b) without addressing the problems it was helping. It may or may not be the perfect medication for you (as in, maybe they’re thinking of putting you on some other concoction instead), but right now at the very best, you’ll be sent right back to where you were, mood-wise, before they started it. ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/32 "2019-11-22T00:55:35Z")
" He asked how I am. I mentioned my impotence but he isn’t a psychologist so he was uninterested." That was pretty funny. Glad you are feeling better about things. ---
**Author:** ![Qwakkeddup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Qwakkeddup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwakkeddup)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/33 "2019-11-22T01:28:42Z")
My father was not your best patient in the hospital. He knew what medications he was on, and would refuse other doctor’s “prescriptions”. During one of his stints some bully assed doctor prescribed approximately twenty drugs to put my father on, and cancelled about five that he has been on forever. That dimmwit almost needed a phone-ectomy when he came roaring\* into dad’s room for refusing to take the meds. and not doing as he was told. Dr. Dimmwit was promptly informed Dad had a perfectly competent Physician he trusted, and didn’t need some Wacky Quack messing with his meds. Everything got straightened out pretty quickly, after they threatened to kick him out of the hospital, he mentioned something like, treating a patient without their permission sounds a lot like malpractice to me. After all that, he was wishing the argument had been much earlier. No more surprise med changes, no more Dr. Who?? walking in and no more med student visits. \*Screaming, red faced, foaming at the mouth, Threw his clipboard at Dad. Dad therefore grabbed the phone to use as a defensive weapon. I don’t doubt he would have whopped the asshat upside the head, but he kept his distance, which was the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/34 "2019-11-22T01:45:03Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > SSRIs don’t need weaning. He’s got to be [kidding](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719459/). I once went through withdrawal from Paxil after losing touch with my psychiatrist, and that was HELL. Is there any way to get a second opinion? ☹ _good luck_ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/35 "2019-11-22T01:48:05Z")
> [@Songs that make you cry](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/7870/32): > > \*Screaming, red faced, foaming at the mouth, Threw his clipboard at Dad. Why would a surgeon be prescribing that much? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/36 "2019-11-22T01:50:05Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > He’s got to be [kidding](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719459/). I once went through withdrawal from Paxil after losing touch with my psychiatrist, and that was HELL. > > Is there any way to get a second opinion? ☹ > > _good luck_ No, not while I’m here. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/37 "2019-11-22T03:32:44Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > No, not while I’m here. I think it’s a hint DZ, past time to exit, stage right. They don’t have your best outcome in mind. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/38 "2019-11-22T20:48:20Z")
Oh,I know that…I’m just too.lazy. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/39 "2019-11-23T01:30:04Z")
For now I’m enjoying the unreal, living dream I currently exist in. I used to.pay for it and the hangover was unfun. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681/40 "2019-11-23T14:21:15Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > He asked how I am. I mentioned my impotence but he isn’t a psychologist so he was uninterested. #justnotintoyou. Get well and get home! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-my-abilify-so-why-did-my-shrink-take-me-off-it-cold-turkey/843681.md?page=3)