Just Diagnosed Bipolar 1. Have been a long time lurker here. Prescribed Abilify as mono-therapy for now. Any experiences with the meds, and any insights into the illness? Thanks

Sorry for the big wall of text. I commend readers who continue till the end. I need somewhere to vent:

As the title says, I just got officially diagnosed bipolar 1 via my first psychiatrist. I've been to and from many doctors, but I finally got referred to a psychiatrist (in Ontario, Canada here, pdocs are covered by OHIP thank God).

My doc and I had a nice conversation about my history, and she listened very intently to my life story. We then chatted about medications, I had previously been prescribed Lamotrigine by my GP, but this new pdoc d/c the lamotrigine (only had been taking it for 5 days) in exchange for a faster acting solution: Abilify.

She warned me about Akathisia and told me it would be activating, which was amazing to hear since I was in a horrible depressive cycle. 5mg for two weeks, then increase to 10mg a day. She admitted Lithium was the best med for bipolar, and admitted lamotrigine is good but takes too long, and agreed the olanzapine i was on made me crash into a suicidal depressive state for a month...but she still pushed the abilify, maybe because she has a biased expertise in it, and works in the schizophrenia clinic (bias towards atypical antipsychotics).

I have been taking the abilify 5mg for 2 weeks so far, and I can say that I feel less depressed. I also feel less able to become manic or as irritable. However, over the past 2 weeks I've been up and down a lot, experiencing bouts of sadness and some irritability and high anxiety. I had a burst on my cousin the other day for no reason. I also developed akathisia which was very annoying and made me super nervous/restless. Called pdoc and she prescribed clonazepam (Klonopin) as needed.

The doctor assured me that symptoms and cycling would disappear at the 10mg dose. I know what people experience is not necessarily the golden standard, but i'd like to hear what people have experienced.

I have an appointment with my proc on May 31, and I want to be prepared. Should I continue with a 10mg dose or ask for another medication?

Also for Bipolar 1 and bipolar in general, does anyone has insights and tips so that I can be equipped to deal with episodes in the future?

Thank you everyone on this subreddit, its been a great help along the way so far :) much love, hugs all around <3