• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Vraylar / Reagila (Cariprazine)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Editing to post now I was just going to write in my trauma diary about this haha. Then I came back to this

At first I liked it. It felt fast acting relief. Felt like someone took me by the shoulders and got a grip. I was able to cry a little on it which is important to me because I don't like feeling so drugged.

When I very quickly researched it, I found it was for short term use (1.5mg 1/day is what I was on)
That was a relief to me because it was strong but manageable for functioning. I knew I couldn't sustain it for that long though.

I have a list of other health issues, so that could affect the time in which I took this drug.

Lastly, I felt completely drunk on it yesterday which is why I'm not taking it today and already called the Dr, he said I wasn't on it that long so no tapering needed.
 
Last edited:
I can't tell if there are side effects from me coming off of it or maybe because I need a different med now. Yeah that's possibly and more likely it. I can tell I'm better off from taking the med.
 
Late to the thread, but I’ll add my experience. I was on Vraylar for a year, then went off it about 5 months ago. My current practitioner works with a lot of PTSD patients, and prescribes it (off-label use) as he’s seen a dramatic improvement in their symptoms and lives. I have to say, this was the case for me - my experience was mostly positive.

When I went on it, I was working full time in an extremely stressful position. That combined with PTSD and some other factors put me in a very unstable condition emotionally. I resisted the idea of going on medication, had for years, but as my practitioner said to me, “You’ve tried the natural route, and you’re still miserable. Would you rather stay miserable, or try medication and maybe be happier?” Well, that made a lot of sense to me.

I went on 1.5mg/day and noticed a dramatic improvement rather quickly. I stabilized. I felt less reactive, and stopped fighting with my spouse all the time. I was far more functional. I could manage daily life and even my job again, although I did change roles because the one I was in wasn’t the right fit.

Eventually, I felt too drugged-up and emotionally numb from the Vraylar, so we cut the dose back to every other day instead of daily. That worked well for me.

The bad: the first major side effect for me was insomnia, so I took 1mg of Lunesta every night in order to sleep. Didn’t love taking a second med to combat effects of the first, but it was worth it, IMO.

The second side effect was weight gain. In one year, I put on about 17lbs, a gain of more than 10%. Wasn’t happy about that at all.

Eventually, I lost my job over factors beyond my control, and took a new one that unfortunately made my previous stress look minimal. After becoming seriously physically ill from the stress after several months, I quit and took time off to just recover, about 6 weeks. Without the pressures of the workplace, I went off of Vraylar - and I did okay. I was able to quit the Lunesta after a bit as well. Once I did, Restless Leg Syndrome appeared, and started robbing me of sleep! My neuro tested my ferritin levels - they were super low - and started me on supplements. The RLS went away. We don’t know how long it had been going on, as it was probably masked by the Lunesta. It’s unknown if the RLS was caused by the Vraylar.

As of now, I’ve been back at my old job for several months, working a 1/2 to 3/4 schedule, with some full-time weeks thrown in. I have remained mostly stable. It almost feels like that year helped reset my brain in some fashion. Most of the weight has come off over the past 5 months (I’ve cleaned up my diet and exercise habits as well…having extra non-work time helps with that). If I ever feel like I need to take Vraylar again, I will.

Tagging @Sideways and @Defaultxlove in case they wouldn’t otherwise see this post. Hope that’s okay.
 
Thanks for that @Mina . Pity about the weight gain, because I know that's a reason so many people aren't prepared to try out atypical antipsychotics (fair enough, I think - weight gain can be all sorts of disastrous for some folks).

It's good to hear that it had some genuine benefits for ptsd. Hopefully that will show up in research at some point.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top