Talk About Pacing...

I go through pacing cycles...and I don't always realize it right away, but then when I do, I kind of laugh in my head and continue because it's pleasuring! It's like it satisfies the buzzing energy I have, and it also could be my body matching and projecting when my mind is racing. Do any of you notice this happens to you?

I've always been a phone pacer too--I don't enjoy phone calls too much because I must feel trapped, so the pacing helps me. Lol

Pacing is around 70% of my day tbh. It does the same thing to me headspace-wise too.

Akathisia is a side effect of some anti-psychotics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia

z7z wrote:Akathisia is a side effect of some anti-psychotics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia

Interesting, but I've never been on meds.

Akathisia is terrible! I had this when I first started taking Latuda and it drove me crazy. One of the worst things I have ever felt.

z7z wrote:Akathisia is a side effect of some anti-psychotics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia

Yes, it is!

I was pacing sans medication, maybe to inner anxiousness and racing mind. Feelings of having to be on the move, were constant in certain cycles for me.

Now I've started Abilify (day 5) & I'm still liking to move but it's definitely a different feeling. It was weird the first night I took it--I had restless legs in my bed. Now I'm noticing it's lessening, & the pro is outweighing any cons at this point. Free mind... yay!

I'm glad Abilify has worked for you. Abilify worked very well for me, except the side effects became too much for me so I switched to a newer drug, Vraylar, and that has been just as effective.

quietgirl2538 wrote:I'm glad Abilify has worked for you. Abilify worked very well for me, except the side effects became too much for me so I switched to a newer drug, Vraylar, and that has been just as effective.

Thanks. Hope you don't mind if I ask, what side effects caused you to stop the Abilify?
I am having very minimal. (so far!) The first couple days were muscle aches in my back and neck, but that is gone now. Having just started this med, I have felt normal, energetic, and haven't had days where my mood swings from high to low to high...so this is weird for me. But nice! Hopefully this lasts...I know so many times there are extensive trial and error with meds. I haven't heard of Vraylar but will look it up!

I was on Lithium at 16 and then off it due to my own refusal a year later. I pleaded with my mother to take me to another psych for a second opinion. He "un-diagnosed" me, and said I was just a teen who had "been through a lot". So, I've been off meds for many years. Now, here I am in my early 30's and possibly facing reality that, my first psych as a teen, could have been right. (current psychiatrist has me keeping a mood diary and seeing how this med works for me) I like that he didn't just tell me "you're bipolar" the first time he met me a couple weeks ago. (I was worried about bias, and that he would just be quick to say "yeah that is what you have"....due to reading my history that I had to fill out) It takes time and plenty of following process of elimination to diagnose properly! So, we shall see.

Sorry for tangents and getting derailed. I do it all the time.

It's ok about the tangents. I consider myself the "queen" of tangents. Just ask my friends.

Abilify was one drug I had been able to take for many years. It is great for working with psychosis and delusions, although I needed to stay on it longer or on a higher dose when hospitalized the first time. It balanced out my mood swings really well more recently. I was at 20mg by this time, but I used to be on 15mg for a long while. The side effect I couldn't take anymore was that it made me hungry all the time. I tried to just not eat, but I was left so hungry and I kept putting on weight. Abilify worked great. So it was hard to find another drug to replace it. I tried a couple different drugs and during that trial and error time, I became unstable. It was very hard on me. So yeah that was the side effect I experienced. I take an antidepressant, Wellbutrin XL, and it doesn't have you gain weight, because a lot of antidepressants tend to have a person gain weight, so I've been trying to stick to drugs that don't have that. It's just that I have diabetes and eating all the time is not good for that illness too. But you may not get that side effect, so just keep trying it and see how it goes for you. It really is a good drug.

I've been a pacer my whole life regardless of the meds I've been on. It's how I think. It's too bad that it makes everyone around me nervous for some reason, but I don't care.