MagicalCarpet: New to the community, need advice.

[MagicalCarpet]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about your experiences with these drugs: escitalopram, lithium carbonate and quetiapine.

 

My current dosages are:

Quetiapine: 50 mg at night.

Escitalopram: 20mg at morning

Lithium: 225mg also at morning.

 

My question would be this: which of these drugs should I be focused on tapering down first? I'm using these drugs for quite a while (at least 5+ years, can't remember exactly when I started) and I've just noticed that they really don't provide any sort of relief for my condition. Would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks in advance. 

Edited March 7, 2021 by manymoretodays
name to title, tags

[DataGuy]

Hi @MagicalCarpet,

 

Welcome to SA. Glad you've found this site before you started tapering. Often people will taper far too fast, have many distressing symptoms, then find this site a bit late. 

 

A few questions:

1) May I ask what your condition is?

2) Is your goal to be drug free?

 

Normally we would recommend tapering the antidepressant first, since Quetiapine acts as a "brake" on your nervous system, and withdrawal symptoms tend to accelerate nervous system activity. When you begin tapering, we recommend cutting 10% per month to begin. If this ends up being too much, you can shift down to 5% per month. There is no sense rushing things and no advantage to tapering too fast. See this post: Why taper by 10%? In general, you want to minimize withdrawal symptoms as much as possible. If they get too intense, it is best to hold or slow down. If they do not remain under control, the nervous system can destabilize and it can be difficult to get back to normal. Some who taper too fast or cold stop their meds can have symptoms that last for months or years. 

 

Here are the tips for tapering escitalopram specifically.

 

Since you are tapering multiple drugs, here is an explanation of how we decide which to taper first and what order to taper them in.

 

If you have difficulty tapering the Seroquel, you may want to try switching to something like Olanzapine. Some have difficulty with Seroquel because it tends to produce interdose withdrawal due to some special pharmacological properties it has. We can help you with that when the time comes. 

 

Hope that is enough info for you, MagicC. When you begin tapering, you may want to learn a few non-drug coping techniques to see what works best at mitigating withdrawal symptoms. Here is a list of them, if you want to take a look. 

 

Good luck, and look forward to helping you!

Edited March 8, 2021 by DataGuy

[MagicalCarpet]

Hello,

 

Thank you for the reply. To answer your questions:

 

1. OCD

2. Ideally yes, that would be my long term goal, but I realize quite I'm far off from reaching that point. Currently I'd like to just cut out at least 1 drug out of my life so that seems like a reasonable goal for now.

 

This isn't my first attempt at trying to quit psych meds, my previous attempts were a spectacular failure, because I did too quickly. 😮

My question to you would be, why do you think I should try quitting antidepressants first? In my experience, the withdrawals from ADs were the most vicious. Far more brutal that Lithium and quetiapine.

 

Thanks in advance.

[getofflex]

Hello @MagicalCarpetand thanks for your patience with us in getting back to you.  If you carefully read the link data guy gave you, "which to taper first", in his post it will explain why he suggested you taper the antidepressant first.  Your antidepressant is an accelerating drug, and the quetiapine is a sedating drug.  

 

You mention you had a bad time getting off antidepressants in the past.  It could be that the failure was due to tapering off too fast, or going cold turkey.  We will know more if you can give us some more information about your drug history. 

 

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