Thanks Lisa, she wanted me to definitely not increase my abilify and if these side effects do not ease up, we will try something else. She also wants a report every couple of days. She also made a change to my benzo script short term as I came off klonopin much too fast. On my next visit, she is gonna do a DNA swab to see if that points us to a medication that would be better suited to me for my depression. I will update as time goes by.

Wow, @gman007 -- sounds like you are blessed with a really good doctor who is very on top of things.

Please do update about how the side effects with the Aripiprazole (Abilify) go and if they get better for you. Have you had the experience before of having rough side effects in the first few weeks with a medication that eventually simmered down?

Would also be great to hear about how the DNA swab process goes for you.

@lisalucier; yes I have been blessed with some very caring and involved physicians. I have had to do some filtering, but usually end up with those that seem to be good matches for me. The one exception is my pain management doc who is treating everyone as a druggie and basing treatment on what the DEA is saying at any point in time and that is very sad for patients who will be in pain for the remainder of their lives absent some miracles of medicine. I am also excited/interested to see the results of the swab. I have never had major side effects when beginning a new med, but this is complicated by withdrawal from klonopin and even though I am taking another benzo, they are not all the same in terms of targeted symptoms, strength, half-lifes, etc...so we'll see about the simmering down of side effects.