Marley: Crossover from Paxil to Lexapro too fast

[Marley]

Hi!

I wonder if anyone can tell me if it is possible to reinstate the last stable dose of paxil when a cross over or bridge does not go well.

 

 I was able to make it from 30 mgs. Of paxil to 15 MGS. In about one year.

 

I tried a Prozac bridge for a short spell with my doctor and made it down to 10 MGS. But had to stop due to complications.  I stayed stable for a couple of months

 

and now we are trying the bridge with escitalopram by weaning off paxil and on yo the escitalopram.

 

The issue is I botched the direction and went way too fast off the paxil and on to the escitalopram.  I was directed to do the following steps for crossing over with one week in between.  But due to my life stressors I messed it up and instead I began with 5 MGS. Of escitalopram with the the ten mgs. Of paxil.  Two days later I added 5 more MGS. Of escitalopram and dropped 5 MGS. Of paxil.  Each am and pm I added .25 mgs. Of Clonazepam.  Then two days later did the same.  So needless to say it was rapid and now I have a prescription for .50mgs.2 xs day  of Clonazepam to help the anxiety and panic that seem more like a fear or apprehension of doing my normal life activities and being around my family.

 

It has been four nights since I dropped the last 5mgs.  dose of paxil.  My doctor says I can choose to be strong and ride it through and be done with the paxil , or add 5 MGS. More of escitalopram.  If I feel I can't handle the last drop of paxil I could choose to  add the last dose back.

 

I am thinking I should add the paxil back.  I went back to the paxil after 9 years of other med failures to help my depression and panick and remove the benzo from my meds.  But I still needed them anyway to ride through the daily short-lived pills due to my speed y metabolism I guess.  Any thoughts.  Would a reinstatement work with a cross over?

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by ChessieCat
Added paragraphs

[ChessieCat]

Hi Marley and welcome to SA,

 

So that we are able to offer suggestions based on your individual situation we need some more precise information about the dates and doses of your drugs.  Please create your drug signature by following these directions, ensuring that you create it so that we will be able to see your history at a glance.  The mods are also experiencing withdrawal and sometimes have cog fog.  Also, please remember to update it whenever you make a change so that it remains current.  Thank you.

 

A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature - ALL drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly?

• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs. 

• 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.
• Link to Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

This is your own Introduction topic where you can ask questions and journal your progress.

[Marley]

AD History:y

Spring 2000 -Paxil 20 MGS. For panick and anxiety (helped with unrealized depression issue)

Spring 2001-Began dose reduction by splitting pills without doctor's insight due to weight gain

Fall 2001-down to 10 MGS. 

Spring 2002 - down to 5 MGS.  Felt sick often and unable to function as past two years.

Late summer 2003-off paxil completely.

Late fall 2003-full blown panick attacked..crashed into depression

Early December 2003 returned to 10 MGS. Paxil per doctor along with .50 lorazapram for paranoia of taking paxil again

December to January stayed on above doses of meds.but very ill

February 2003 stopped lorazapram no refills no prescription still very ill and bed bound

February 2003- began suicide thoughts met with new doctor who increased paxil to 25 mgs.gained some motivation but thoughts continued

February to June 2003 a very slow recovery with weird feelings in my head a lot like numbness

June 2003 to August 2005 recovered and stablized

August 2005 began a slower taper with linger intravals inbetween dose drops.

December 2005 at 10 MGS.  Not feeling well but continued to wean

Spring 2006 off completely and very sick.

April 2006 non functionable with daily crying spells. Many trips to doctor and ER returned to 15 MGS. Or 20 of Paxil

My memory has forgotten much of this period. But I Maintained and got stable again then tried again to wean off maybe

2008 of some time I was off the paxil and until November of 2009 I was a mess in survival mode back and forth toner with bad thoughts severe depression anxiety panick vomiting and just nit well. I continued trying to get through it trying every nutrient and even Zoloft to regain my 

Emotional stability but finally became hospitalized November 2009.

November 2009 escitalopram 10 mg. .50 Clonazepam 2 X's day, menopause had arrived a couple years before so .25mg patch estrogen.

November 2009 to spring 2010.  Stable but had to wean off of Clonazepam per doctor.

Spring and summer 2010 my emotional stability was declining.

2010 blood work from obgyn order revealed genetic mutations due to folate metylation inability.  Began methylfolate and b12 by through naturalpathic doctor.

Fall 2010 to summer 2012 methyl support nutrients with escitalopram prn Clonazepam .25 MGS. Estrogen and also trial progestrone

2012 fall Side effects stopped nutrients increased escitalopram to 15 MGS. Dropped clonazopram

2012 late fall depression increasing evident crossed over to Zoloft .75 quickly dropped to.50 MGS due to side effects

2012 late fall early spring 2013 decresed sertaline tried nutrients again

2013 summer back to 10 escitalopram and clonazopram .25 as prn

2014 early fall continued above  returned to estrogen trial doses

2014 late fall major depression began cross over to paxil 

Early winter 2014 to mid March 2015 paxil 30 mg and .25 clonazopram 2xs day.

2015 April began reduction to 25 MGS. Paxil clonazopram remained same.

2016 Spring maintained to 20 MGS. Paxil clonazopram .25 pm only

2017 spring tried a Prozac bridge with 10 then 20 MGS. To wean off of 20 MGS paxil.  Failed at paxil 15 due to headaches.

2017 mid summer attempted Prozac bridge again.  Made it to 10 MGS. But headaches caused stopping again.

2017 Mid October began crossover from 10 MGS paxil to 10 MGS escitalopram.

2017 late October to present crossed over 

Present doses 10 MGS. Escitalopram .50 clonazopram am and pm bio estrogen am and pm

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by ChessieCat
removed white space

[Marley]

These are now all very repetitious.  How do I delete excess informational posts?  I see you have been weaning off your pristiq.   How are you feeling?

[ChessieCat]

We usually go back and hide the obsolete posts.  I'll do that in a minute.  Thank you for fixing it up it looks really good now.

 

I'm feeling reasonable.  Even though I have been going slowly I still do get withdrawal symptoms.  Thankfully they are only mild but they are still there.  However, compared to when I tried to drop from 100mg to 50mg and had 3 weeks of extreme cog fog where everything I did required my total attention, I'm on the right track thanks to SA.  As my dose got lower I started feeling like I did before I started AD 25+ years ago.

[Marley]

Are you trying to be completely off your meds?  Why did you begin taking them?  Did they help your initial struggle or not?  I actually feel as though the paxil allowed me to experience opportunities that I would have otherwise avoided in the past due to my panick and fears. I feel like my whole life was fear and anxiety and grieving over horrible choices as a result of my psychological mess in my brain until the paxil. The paxil cleared my mind and opened up my mind to follow through with my passions and nit just sit around wishing I could.  It allowed me to step forward and make my life happen.  I went back to college, made a career decision, began a business, and loved it all.  Now.....I just lay around and TRY  my darndest to do what I did before but just can't find the motivation or drive. I don't think it is going to go away..it never does even in different meds. 

  My plan this past week was to take a week off. Which I have and finish the crossover to the escitalopram while at the same time slowly sorting some paperwork from my childcare that I have loved and plan a little for my return.  Not to happen.  I am too anxious and unable to care anymore.  I have also begun isolating away from my family. It feels like I am just stopping life and don't care anymore.  With all the messing around with Prozac bridging this past spring I never let myself get to this point so I never felt like this for long.  I just kept moving and went back to the last dose if paxil and weaned back off of the Prozac.  I guess this is why I keep going back on the paxil. It is still the only emotional stabilizer that works. 

 Each doctor I have seen says they resist the temptation to prescribe the paxil because of all of it side effects.  But honestly the only side effect that I disliked was the weight gain.  Outside of my insecurities of the weight gain I felt like I was actually had no libido issues.  Before the paxil I had weird paranoias interfering with that. Now the paranoia is back again too.

 

 

[Marley]

"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me." Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln battled depression all of his adult life and underwent painful treatments just to survive .)

 

Edited October 30, 2017 by ChessieCat
removed unnecessary quote

[ChessieCat]

11 hours ago, Marley said:

Are you trying to be completely off your meds?  Why did you begin taking them?  Did they help your initial struggle or not?

 

When I first reduced my dose of Prisitiq it was because I was suffering mild serotonin toxicity.  When I first started tapering my aim was to get to 50mg.  As my dose got lower I decided that I would keep tapering because I started getting my emotions back.  It was when this happened that I realised how numb I had been for so many years.  When I got to 50mg I held for 3 months to give my brain a chance to catch up if it needed to.  I have also done a long hold at 20mg for 7 weeks for the same reason.  In May this year I bought a new car (on 25mg at the time) and I was excited.  However, recently I have experienced what I would call real excitement (19mg) and I realised that when I had been excited about the car it was a dulled excitement.  I got so excited seeing a mummy and baby whales breaching and tail slapping recently (we had gone to look at a car for my daughter and the sellers lived on the coast, and I have been out 5 times on whale watching cruises and only ever seen whales spouts in the distance) that I jumped up and down.  It's been a long, long time since I felt like that.

 

I had about 9 major stressors from the age of 19 through to 41.  At 54 I had several more life stressors and my antidepressant pooped out on me (I didn't realise this at the time).  I went cold turkey off citalopram (SSRI) and felt great for a few months and then got very sick for several weeks.  After this I was put onto Pristiq.  It wasn't until I learned about withdrawal from SA that I realised that I had had delayed withdrawal symptoms from the cold turkey.  I was fortunate that I didn't end up with continuing withdrawal symptoms from the citalopram.  It was at the time that I went on Prisitq (SNRI) that the psychologist told me (what I now know is a myth) that I needed an antidepressant like a diabetic needs insulin.

 

If I had received counselling and been taught coping skills after the unexpected death of my father at 19 I might not have ever felt the need to go on an antidepressant.

 

To put things into context, I was born in 1957 and Prozac (the first SSRI) came out in 1987.  I was on Prozac at the start but developed weak muscles from it.  history-of-antidepressants