I was put on abilify when I was 21, but had had psychosis symtpoms as early as 17 y.o. I was on it for close to 25 years, with varying doses, typically 10 or 15 m.g. a day.

I was having terrible symptoms ( major depressive ones) that affected my life so much, that I started tapering in March of 2025. I was only on 5 m.g. a day at that time, but had been on for 25 years. I didn't know what to expect, but to me, there was no other choice.

Initial withdrawal symptoms were terrible after about 3 weeks in. I had insomnia for over 3 months, a constant headache for 2 months (and I had never gotten headaches before), long spats of lightheadedness and nausea, uncontrollable aggressiveness at times, intense irritability, so many things.

To be safe and to guard against any psychosis symptoms coming back, I tapered VERY gradually, either .5 - 1 m.g. every 2 - 3 months, and by early February this year, have been off.

It's been one of the most difficult things to deal with in my adult life. Second after dealing with very strong psychosis symptoms from my mental illness since my late teens and early to mid 20s.

My advice would be to try every thing you can to be healthy. Exercise regularly (intense exercise for 40-45 minutes a day), getting as much sleep as you can (this last month I gave finally gotten uninterrupted sleep), and maintaining a healthy diet are huge.

That said, I'm still dealing with a lot of irritability and sometimes aggressive behavior more than a year later. The upside is that, after tapering, my emotions came back, my energy came back, I did a 180 degree turn in my outlook, I have unlimited motivation, I can feel, think, and even see better.

I was one who had many negative effects from this drug, unfortunately, but it wasn't until coming off of it that I now know that the drug caused a lot of it. Whole new life. It's hard, and if you're in a position like I was, work with your doctor and go as slow as you need to, focus on yourself in all the ways you can get healthy, and it'll get better.

Worried that it may take much more time than I thought to be free of everything, but I'm positive and there's no comparison to what I was a little over a year ago until now.