A few years back I wrote about how my son (who was 12 at the time) took Abilify as a stand alone medication for a few months and had suicidal thoughts while he was taking it.   This was unusual for him as he is not a suicidal kid in general and when we discontinued the medication due to it giving him tics of odd tongue movements and neck rolls, the suicidal thoughts discontinued-as did the tics.

Over the years since then I have received quite a few emails from people relating to that post and sharing similar issues of suicidal thoughts or tendencies while taking Abilify – either with themselves, their loved ones, or their children.  Because I have no way to verify the legitimacy of these emails, I have not written about them.  However, a few days ago I received an email from a man saying that his fiance completed a suicide attempt and he is now devastated by the loss.  I was struck by that email.   He attributes the suicide to her taking a combination of Pristiq, Abilify and Adderall.

He says:

The pills made her more and more irate, unapproachable, wild, irrational, paranoid, and completely not “herself”…Definitely not the person I met and fell head over heels for. She nose dived in a matter of 2 to 3 months with the biggest hit coming with the addition of the Abilify.

_______

I cannot get this email out of my mind.  As you know, stimulants caused huge issues for my son and Abilify was not good for him either.

If your child or family member is taking stimulants (Ritalin, Adderall, Focalin, Concerta, etc.) and/ or SSRIs or SNRIs (antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Paxil, Pristiq) and/or Abilify and they are suicidal and/ or worse than they were before they started the medication and/or simply cannot get stable, PLEASE consider that the medications that are supposed to be helping them could be making them worse.   Do not discount their behavior as simply a part of bipolar behavior or as you having a child that simply cannot get stable.   Stimulant medication and medication with stimulant-like properties does help people that can tolerate it but it can also wreak havoc on people that can’t and even more so on bipolar teens, children, and adults.

This has happened to us, it has happened to others, and it can happen to you.

I love this poster and I truly believe in the message it sends.

If you’d like to read more, go to

The Icarus Project, Navigating The Space Between Brilliance And Madness

____________

and

thanks to

Beyond Meds

for posting this image and site for me to see

I’m fourteen, and after a recent suicide attempt overdose on Wellbutrin, I had to stay at a psych ward for ten days. They gave me Abilify for a few days, which worked, minus stomachaches. The doctors thought it was vital I got off of Abilify because of these stomachaches, and put me on Seroquel. Which has, seemingly, worked. But it really wasn’t. It tore me apart completely, and in the past week I’ve been self-mutilated again and attempted overdose twice. I stopped taking it, and I’m happier than ever.
I don’t recommend seroquel to anyone.

Shila, thank you for your comment.  You are so brave to share your experience and I’m so glad you are doing well now.  I hope you continue to do well.  Please keep me posted on your progress via comments or email.  Stay aware of your symptoms and please get help if you feel yourself sliding again.

Here’s the thing, while Antidepressants/SSRIs [ie Wellbutrin] are made to do a good thing and often do help people they can also backfire and produce highly undesirable results. My son had suicidal thoughts on Abilify (which technically is an antipsychotic but has SSRI qualities).  We did not know about these thoughts until after he was off of the medicine and could look back on it and tell us.   Shila attempted suicide on Wellbutrin and Seroquel.  These reactions, although highly undesirable, are not uncommon especially for children and teens.  As for Seroquel, I have no idea why it is advertised as or used as an antidepressant.  Seroquel is a very heavy antipsychotic that works great for some people as an antipsychotic or sleep aid but on the street Seroquel is known as baby heroin and I’m guessing there’s a reason for that.

For anyone interested in looking into possible effects of antidepressant medications, I find the website SSRI Stories, Antidepressant Nightmares to be a great resource.  It gives an easy to read, sortable spreadsheet that documents people’s negative reactions to antidepressant/SSRI medications.

And these stories are just the tip of the iceberg.  These are the very extreme reactions that make the news.  Every day there are many people who have undocumented negative reactions to SSRIs.  Often times these people don’t know the negative feelings they are having or the behaviors they are exhibiting are coming from the antidepressant they are taking and are not organic in nature so they continue to take the medication or up the dose.  Or add another one.  And this can be very dangerous.

Withdrawal from antidepressants can also be extremely difficult and dangerous.  I can write a whole post on that and will soon but suffice it to say that withdrawal from antidepressants should be done extremely slowly and with much care.   Otherwise, the withdrawal effects can be excruciating and/or lethal.

Anyway, I am glad my son is currently doing well and I am glad Shila is now doing well.  I hope they both continue to do well.

As parents, it is important to be aware of the dangers of the drugs we give our children and to give our children/teens a voice in their treatment so we can adjust the treatment accordingly.  Many of the medicines used on children and teens today can have tragic effects and although depression, psychosis, and other psychiatric symptoms are never to be ignored or taken lightly, one should also not take the use of psychiatric medicines lightly and should use them with much care and caution.

There is no ‘magic medicine’.

And such is the case with so many kids these days.  They go to the psychiatrist for one set of symptoms, get put on psychiatric medicines, over time have an adverse reaction to those medicines [psychosis, rages, depression, emotional meltdowns, violence, suicidal thoughts], and now they are diagnosed as bipolar and they are off and running down an endless lifetime of psychiatric medicines.  And the sad thing is, those medications can actually cause some of the psychiatric syndromes.  So it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What a mess for the parents and the kids.  And a dream come true for the pharmaceutical companies.

Anyway,  I saw this article today on www.sciencedaily.com and it rang true to me with regard to what I wrote yesterday about accepting Rye’s reactions and just working with them.

The article High Sensitivity To Stress Isn’t Always Bad For Children states:

But contrary to expectation, such children were also more likely to thrive when they were raised in caring, low-stress families because of their sensitivities to the supportive and nurturing qualities of such environments.

“The study tells us that when children are highly susceptible to stress, it’s not always bad news, but rather should be considered in terms of the type of environment they live in,” explains Obradović.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100205081815.htm

Interesting.

Environment makes a difference.