LeoD Posted December 1, 2019 Share Posted December 1, 2019 Hi All, I am battling with Escitalopram (Lexapro) withdrawal and taper. My symptoms are mostly mental and cognitive: brain for, lack of focus, memory. Sometimes I feel as if only I could function ok cognitively at work and at home, my depression and anxiety would go away. Caffeine definitely helps a lot with my symptoms but the effect is short lived. I have tried multiple prescription stimulants: Adderall, Vyvanse, Modafinil, Ritalin, all low doses and for a short period of time, just to gage whether there would be some benefits. Long story short, I've noticed some relief from Modafinil (100 mg), however the next day the symptoms come back worse than before. I do understand that ideally we should try to taper without introducing more drugs. However life demands being functional. Any stories and opinions on what stimulant use might be reasonable under the circumstances? Lexapro started 2006, 10 mg 2007 tapered to 0 over a month. Felt poorly, got wd but did not know 2008 Put back on L, 20 mg 2015-16 tapered to 0 over several months. Severe Discontinuation symptoms several days after. 2016: 20 mg, 2016-April 2018 slow taper to 0. 2018 April: Drug - free!!! June: Withdrawal started 🤯 July: Back on Escitalopram, 10 mg, Nov: 15 mg, 2019: Feb 15 13.75 mg, Feb 23 updose to 15 mg, Sep 6 13.75 mg, Sep 16 12.5 mg, Oct 5 11.25 mg, Oct 23 updose 12 mg 2020: Jan 13 11.5 mg Jan 16 updose 11.9 mg, Feb-Dec slowly tapered from 11.6 to 6.6 mg. 2021: Oct 5 mg 2022: Jul 3.8 mg Holding due to bad symptoms of tiredness, brain fog, depression. Bupropion trial sep- nov 2019 no relief from wd. 100, 150, 100, 75, 50, 0 mg Testosterone Aug 2019-April 2021 - injections, stopped abruptly, experienced wd from T discontinuation . Nov 2021 - current - topical. Massive wave from T re-introduction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottlehalffull Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 I find eating enough protein, especially red meat, helps with my cognitive issues. Possibly because of the acetyl l-carnitine in meat. Also it has coenzyme Q-10. So you could also try taking those things as supplements, but eating beef seems cheaper to me. I guess some people on here find protein to be "too activating" but maybe that's what you're going for. I've tried modafinil too with limited (emphasis on "limited") success. It's really bad on the sleep cycle since it has a pretty long half life. Part of the symptom worsening the next day could be from that. And a basic thing I tend to neglect is hydration. If I get less than two liters of water in a day, the next day will be super brain foggy and I won't really feel better until the day after I drink a ton of water to rehydrate. Light morning exercise also seems to help clear out the brain fog somewhat. 2018/7 Started on lamotrigine (12.5 mg) and escitalopram (2.5 mg). Tapered up over the course of a month to 50 mg LTG, 10 mg escit. Kept tapering LTG up to 75 mg by 2018/10. 2018/11 Crosstapered from escitalopram to sertraline. 2018/12 Was still taking both SSRIs (escit. 5 mg, sert. 25 mg) when sert. was discontinued to trial quetiapine. Quet. tapered up to 25 mg, but tapered back down after 3 days on the full dose because side effects. Total time on quetiapine 10 days. Switched back to cross tapering esit. and sert., started tapering LTG up to 100 mg. 2019/1 Lamotrigine 100 mg, sertraline 12.5 mg, escitalopram 5 mg. Finally discontinued escit. and on full dosage of sertraline (25 mg) 2019/04. 2019/11 About two weeks of sertraline 12.5 mg, but went back up to 25 mg. 2019/12/4 Lamotrigine taper: too fast, down to 25 mg over the course of about 10 days. Also started increase sertraline 37.5 mg during luteal phase of menstrual cycle for PMDD. 2020/(early) on 22 mg lamotrigine for a while, maybe a month and a half, maybe longer, then 2020/03 Institutionalized for self harm. I think I was trying to taper the sertraline at the time, don't remember the details. Doses increased: Sertraline 50 mg/lamotrigine 25 mg (current regimen). Supposed to be taking seroquel and abilify (TWO antipsychotics?!) but didn't take any once I was discharged from the institution. (Was on them a few days.) ________________________________________________________ 2001(?) Citalopram, don't remember dosage, cold turkey after a couple months and had terrible withdrawals, including what in retrospect was probably PAWS for the next five or so years. (agoraphobia, crippling social anxiety, anhedonia, dp/dr). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herod Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 When I stopped watching porn, all of my cognitive issues became so much better. I went from not being able to function in school at all to getting top grades. I still get waves where I'm dysfunctional, but now I'm able to slog through university, whereas before I could not. - March 2017: 50mg Sertraline starts - August 2017: up to 100mg - February 2018: down to 50mg - November 2018: one-week taper down to 0mg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Either starting to eat red meat (particularly steak) or finally getting to a low dose on the Pregablin finally got rid of my cognitive issues. I was in constant brain fog/fatigue/no focus or motivation for years. It's been gone for 2 months now and I can finally focus again, feels strange. Caffeine made it worse at the time but now I can drink it again. April 2007 - Seroxat 20mg August 2008 - Cold Turkey August 2009 - Cold Turkey November 2009 - Reinstatement adverse reaction akathesia/suicidal/anxiety March 2011 - Start taper November 2012 - Crash badly at 1.25mg akathesia/suicidal/extreme anxiety January 2013 - 5mg Seroxat, 300mg Lyrica April 2017 - Successfully get off Seroxat with taper followed by 4 month of withdrawal January 2018 - Start with constant urinary urge/pain/burning/genital sensations 2 week after anxiety/akathesia ends January 2019 - Started reducing Lyrica as I suspect it's causing frequent urination, tinnitus, fatigue, brain fog and mental decline. December 2019 - Off all pysch meds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeoD Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share Posted December 29, 2019 Thank you guys. So to summarize: to improve cognition, eat plenty of red mead and stop watching porn 🤪. Makes sense. Anybody has any other pointers? Leo Lexapro started 2006, 10 mg 2007 tapered to 0 over a month. Felt poorly, got wd but did not know 2008 Put back on L, 20 mg 2015-16 tapered to 0 over several months. Severe Discontinuation symptoms several days after. 2016: 20 mg, 2016-April 2018 slow taper to 0. 2018 April: Drug - free!!! June: Withdrawal started 🤯 July: Back on Escitalopram, 10 mg, Nov: 15 mg, 2019: Feb 15 13.75 mg, Feb 23 updose to 15 mg, Sep 6 13.75 mg, Sep 16 12.5 mg, Oct 5 11.25 mg, Oct 23 updose 12 mg 2020: Jan 13 11.5 mg Jan 16 updose 11.9 mg, Feb-Dec slowly tapered from 11.6 to 6.6 mg. 2021: Oct 5 mg 2022: Jul 3.8 mg Holding due to bad symptoms of tiredness, brain fog, depression. Bupropion trial sep- nov 2019 no relief from wd. 100, 150, 100, 75, 50, 0 mg Testosterone Aug 2019-April 2021 - injections, stopped abruptly, experienced wd from T discontinuation . Nov 2021 - current - topical. Massive wave from T re-introduction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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