Hello all. My current drug cocktail is 60mg Adderall per day + 15mg Abilify every other day in the mornings with Adderall and Effexor + Effexor XR 150mg per day in the mornings with Adderall and Abilify + 750mg Depakote every night. As I've posted before, I'm trying to get off of Adderall. And going from 100mg per day to 60mg per day in just a month is significant progress to me. However, I am starting to get overstimulated very easily. The reason why I'm trying to get off of Adderall is because my VA doctor diagnosed me with bipolar-depression just recently; indeed, apparently I was misdiagnosed with ADHD. I do have an attention problem, however. But anyways, a few notes worth mentioning before my questions. Whenever I get overstimulated (everyday), I have manic states like you wouldn't believe. Bad ones. It's not until I take Adderall that I have these in the worst states -- but nevertheless bad ones if I try to tiltrate too much off the Adderall. And not taking Adderall leads to horrible withdrawal symptoms.

When I'm overstimulated, I can't focus, I go on shopping sprees, and I get angry and depressed all at the same time. However, when I take Depakote in the evenings, immediately I feel so much better and I'm able to concentrate like never before. No mood swings, no depression, etc. The same applies to Effexor, but only if I take it after I take Adderall. If I take Effexor before Adderall, then after I take Adderall I start feeling the over-stimulation side-effects again. But, if I try to tiltrate even a little bit below my stable dosage, I go through terrible withdrawal symptoms. So, it's kind of a catch-22. I have heard that antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics act as dopamine antagonists in that they can help treat overstimulation. Hence, I think this is why Depakote works so well in the evenings. I mean, immediately all the bad side-effects go away when I take it.

But, I want off of Adderall as quickly as possible. I am hating this. I'm suffering in school and I want off of it. Abilify has lost its effectiveness. Can anyone suggest anything other than slowly tiltrating my way down off of Adderall. I will continue to do that, but is it realistic to go on another anti-depressent aside from Effexor to help with the withdrawal symptoms? How about a different atypical antipsychotic such as Clozapine? I heard Clozapine was a really good dopamine antagonist. ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE HELPFUL! Thanks so much for at least reading this...