Blutoranger: Tapering off Escitalopram - mission impossible

[Blutoranger]

Hi Community,

 

i am reading in this forum for a while. thanks for this work and the great tips!!

 

i am 31 years, male and from austria - according to this please apologize my english.

 

I am taking Escitalopram (Cipralex) for 10 years now. I am trying tapering off since 2 years and i am absolutely unsuccessfull! Every step is too big for me an i get horrible withdrawal symptoms physic and psychic. anxiety, despair, absolute tiredness and confusion... you know

10% was much too big, even 1% is too big for me. Last time i tapered off 0,05 mg and also had horrible symptoms. Its a situation to cry... Now i am on 8,5 mg in 2 years...

 

when i turn on in this way i need 20 horrible years. if someone has a tip for me with tapering off cipralex id be very thankful. tomorrow i am starting with taking my dose twice a day although cipralex has a long half-life-time. every try is a option...

 

what i also have to say (what is the catastrophe) i think i have no effect from cipralex. bad times in life i had on the substance and not before. it was a stupid coinfidence that i got to this bills.

 

best regards!!

 

[scallywag]

Blutoranger -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA). Your ability to communicate in written English is great!

 

I'm sorry to read how difficult it's been for you to decrease dose of escitalopram. I want to be sure that we clearly understand your situation so I will ask you a few questions:

1. You wrote, "Now i am on 8,5 mg in 2 years."  Does this mean that you have been taking 8,5 mg since 2015 and no other changes in dose? If not, please post when you started taking 8,5 mg. If you can't remember the exact day, giving an approximate date is fine. (examples: "middle of June" or "end of March")
    
2. In your taper, how many days or weeks did you stay at the same dose after decreasing?
    
3. How have you been making the decreases -- with a knife, a pillcutter, using a liquid formulation, weighing the pills on a scale?

It would be very helpful for us if you listed your medication and tapering history in a signature that will appear below each of your posts.  A request: Please  summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly:

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years.
  
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
  
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
  
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
  
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
  
• Link to Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.
  
  

Here are some informational topics (you may have read them already) for reference:

Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know.

What is withdrawal syndrome.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.

Micro-taper instead of 10% or 5% decreases.

Tips for tapering off Lexapro (escitalopram)

 

This is YOUR introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community.

 

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

[Blutoranger]

Hi Scallywag,

 

thank you for your feedback. I am sorry i thought i already had made an signature but i postet it in the "history". I tried to fill all the required informations in. Its a summary of the last 2-3 years.

I had made a big brake after first taper attempts cause i had to finish university and got a child. Now (~ 2 years later) i started again with the minimal dose of 0,06 mg (of ~ 8,56) and also had horrible symtoms. I feel fine wenn symtoms are not here. Anxiety is always a big issue in life but i can handle it very good... but not so with withdral symtoms.

 

best regards

[Blutoranger]

Hello peoples!

 

4 years later i am back here - still on the medication. I have made a ton on research the last months for next attempt to taper off. Four years ago i was so sensible that i got bad symptoms in minimal reductions (0,5%). If i look back the tapering time was really hardcore - the anxiety was awful and i got obsessive disorder in this time. I still have panic disorder and see psychotherapist almost ech week.

I think about to try an 4% brass monkey taper all 6 weeks but not sure if it is not easier to take the escitalopram for whole life (i am 35 now...) 😆

 

I also experienced with a lot of supplements for reducing anxiety (rhodiola, ashwaghanda, l-theanine) for withdrawal und to put brain in homeostasis but all have negative side effects. I am using fish oil (2g) and 250-500 mg magnesium each day at the moment. (Also Vitamin C and Zinc but not for brain issues.)

 

Best regards

 

Blutoranger

 

PS:  I have one question to the pros. Its really impossible to find a doctor where i live in europe which knows about withdrawal... really! I had seen so much of them! Are there alternatives? For example Coaches which know the problem with the withdrawal and can "support"? The pros here have so much knowledge and it would be so nice if i could get support by a real expert which knows how to do a correct taper... and not a psychiatrist 😄

 

[Nomansland]

Hello @Blutoranger,

 

glad to see you are back here and doing well (hopefully?).

 

Currently there is an important international and anonymous survey running (from

researchers who have experienced severe withdrawal themself) to inform the medical health systems

around the world about severe antidepressant withdrawal. Hope this will help people in the future finding

competent medical practitioners.

 

Would be glad if you participate. See here: https://uelpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AR9IsQ61jsiXBk

 

Greetings from Germany to Austria!