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Anonymous

This caught my attention because I've been dealing with TD for two years. I was on a low dose of Abilify--and only a few months--when my right eye began to twitch, and my right wrist began a slow, uncontrollable, outward turn. I mentioned these symptoms to my p-doc, who insisted it probably wasn't the Abilify. I said she was wrong, because I'd read about it online. And because it wasn't my imagination. It was real and it was a pain. A moot point now, but she backed me off on the meds till I was off of them.

The eye twitches disappeared in a week or two, but the wrist problem remains. Lately it's gotten somewhat better, but there are still times when, trying to sleep, I have to hang onto the headboard (maybe it's psychological, but I've convinced myself I can keep my wrist from turning). Even on good nights, I've become so accustomed to the "support" of the headboard, that I fall asleep touching it. Just in case.

I discovered, quite by accident, that the Ativan I was taking for anxiety relieves the symptoms to some degree. As I said, it seems to be getting better, but I don't ever expect it to go away entirely. It's more of an annoyance now, but even as recently as this past summer it was downright painful. I was always fighting my wrist, trying to get it to stop moving. At movies and sports events I'd sit on my hand to keep it still, and was always worried people would notice.

But that's my experience with meds and TD. By the way, I'm diagnosed with Bipolar 1, rapid cycling, and it was never one of those "I was hit with it" things, but rather something I've lived with my entire life.

I teach fiction writing, am working on a memoir, and though I haven't yet "come out" as bipolar to the public, I plan to do so eventually. There's no way around it if the memoir is picked up. So, fingers crossed. And TD (and Abilify) be damned.

~"Sooz Incognito"

November 21, 2009 - 3:14pm

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