Dee12h: weaning from a low dose of Lexapro

[Dee12h]

@AndyPants Yes, the next day, things got better.

[Dee12h]

Is low BP a symptom of WD?

 

I have episodes where I feel like I might pass out. I never have, but my BP would drop to the 50’s during them. They’ve been happening a lot for awhile, even with other symptoms improving. My heart rate is normal.

[Dee12h]

I know no one will answer, but throwing it out here anyway. 
 

Is this normal? 
I feel like I have a minor flu everyday. Muscle aches, twitches/cramps, headache, heart palps, lower appetite, fatigue, irritability, stuffy nose, dizzy, chest pressure when I exert myself. Muscle aches are the worst. My mom developed fibromyalgia at my age, so I just want to make sure this is WD.

 

The weird thing is that it’s gotten slowly, steadily worse for the past 3 weeks, even though I haven’t changed my dose in a month. I was supposed to go down again yesterday, but I guess I hold? I hope this isn’t my new “WD normal”. My sleep has improved, and that’s always been my worst symptom.
 

Also, if anyone knows the answer to my last question, that would be amazing too. Tia!

[siderale]

On 8/15/2021 at 4:28 AM, Dee12h said:

Is low BP a symptom of WD?

I could not answer to this, however my BP is also very low (always has been but especially now in WD, couldn't tell if it's tied) and I get a lot of dizziness, which is itself a very common symptom of WD.

I don't know if you know it, but compression socks might help A LOT. I wear some due to veinous issues, but they also help with low BP. Helps the blood flow back to your brain! Especially helpful during the summer as well.

 

2 hours ago, Dee12h said:

I feel like I have a minor flu everyday. Muscle aches, twitches/cramps, headache, heart palps, lower appetite, fatigue, irritability, stuffy nose, dizzy, chest pressure when I exert myself. Muscle aches are the worst. My mom developed fibromyalgia at my age, so I just want to make sure this is WD.

 

I am no doctor and fibromyalgia itself is I reckon hard to diagnose. However all that you describe I've experienced and I see people experience here during WD, yes. Some subside, some get worse before improving. I'd say monitor it- get to a doctor for a health check if it gets debilitating or you get too scared, but to me it definitely sounds like it would be WD. The array of very physical symptoms it can give to you is quite scary.

I currently feel mostly good BUT definitely feel like I have a minor flu as well. Tired, weird aches, palpitations, head pressure especially nearby the sinus.

 

I could not advise you regarding your dose and if it is your new WDnormal as I am not familiar with tapering, but I send thoughts, and cross fingers so that you feel better soon!!

 

[AndyPants]

On 8/25/2021 at 11:02 AM, Dee12h said:

I feel like I have a minor flu everyday. Muscle aches, twitches/cramps, headache, heart palps, lower appetite, fatigue, irritability, stuffy nose, dizzy, chest pressure when I exert myself. Muscle aches are the worst. My mom developed fibromyalgia at my age, so I just want to make sure this is WD.

 

The weird thing is that it’s gotten slowly, steadily worse for the past 3 weeks, even though I haven’t changed my dose in a month.

Muscle twitching, heart palpitations, irritability, dizziness, lowered appetite and chest pressure are all WD symptoms I've had.

 

I've had some stuff where my symptoms have been worse right after a drop, and other times where my symptoms seemed fine after a drop but then after a month or so got worse. It seems like the waves aren't always consistent.

[Dee12h]

My 3yo was in an accident last week that could’ve easily killed him. He’s fine, thank God, but the stress was extreme. Now I have lots of head pressure, brain fog, ear ringing, vision changes, irritability, & dizziness. As you can see I’ve been tapering very carefully. This is normal, right? 

[AndyPants]

18 hours ago, Dee12h said:

My 3yo was in an accident last week that could’ve easily killed him. He’s fine, thank God, but the stress was extreme. Now I have lots of head pressure, brain fog, ear ringing, vision changes, irritability, & dizziness. As you can see I’ve been tapering very carefully. This is normal, right? 

My worst symptoms were this spring after my son got hurt and we had to take him to the hospital. So in my experience a stressful event like that can definitely trigger worse symptoms.

 

So sorry you're going through that and glad your son is ok!  Being a parent is so stressful.

[purple]

Agreed. It sounds like a normal response to stress on top of tapering/withdrawal. Glad he's okay!

[Dee12h]

My irritability is out of control. 😢 my poor kids. ALA seems to help a little, and I’m trying to figure out if I should try to go off caffeine. I’ve been going so slowly! My other symptoms are ok- just dizziness after a drop & occasional trouble sleeping. 

[Heath]

Hello @Dee12h !
irritability is definitely a wd symptom. I understand that well ! Been experiencing that quite often this year.
When I feel it around wife and kids. I try so hard to tie my tongue in a knot. But body language is still there. It’s very good that you acknowledge it’s there. 

And yes caffeine, nicotine,  or any stimulate, no sleep, and stress can make it worse.  

When I stop caffeine and make myself go to sleep at decent hour the irritability is much better. But even at that withdrawals cause irritability in it self.

[Dee12h]

Thanks, Heath. 

[Dee12h]

I’m wondering if I’m going too slowly. I’m irritable ALL the time. I was trying to wait until my sleep was better before dropping again. (I just need melatonin; as long as I have that I’m good, but I’d like to not take anything.)

 

Is this just WD normal, and I need to get over it & keep going? Will things ever level out if I keep holding? The med made me irritable anyway, so maybe keep going?
 

After next school year, my kids will all finally be in school, and I’ll be able to take a year “off” (from homeschooling/having preschoolers), but that’s a year away.

[AndyPants]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:46 PM, Dee12h said:

I’m wondering if I’m going too slowly. I’m irritable ALL the time. I was trying to wait until my sleep was better before dropping again. (I just need melatonin; as long as I have that I’m good, but I’d like to not take anything.)

 

Is this just WD normal, and I need to get over it & keep going? Will things ever level out if I keep holding? The med made me irritable anyway, so maybe keep going?

Last year I held for several months and then decided I was close enough to normal and that I need to get started tappering again. Irritability has been tough for me both when I was holding and when I've been tappering, but it doesn't seem any worse now, for what it's worth. I also take 0.50 melatonin every night.

 

Everybody has to make the decision for themselves about what they think is best for them, but I've decided that some occasional sleep issues and irritability are WD normal for me. I haven't been following everything by the book as this site lays out so I'm not an authority on anything, but for me I decided I needed to keep pressing forward with decreasing the dosage regularly and learn to cope with everything else.

 

I told my son recently that i was sorry for yelling and he said "yeah you say that a lot". That cut me deep. So yeah... you're definitely not alone in dealing with irritability.

[Dee12h]

Well, my last drop was 30% about 3 wks ago. .15-.1

I knew it was a bigger drop, but my doses are so low. I haven’t started diluting yet. I’m going stay at least through the holidays. But I am really feeling this one. Anxiety is definitely more noticeable. Dizziness too.
 

My gut is a wreck. I’ve had several tests recently to rule out anything dangerous. Been diagnosed with IBS which I’ve never had before. Dr’s prescribe ssri’s FOR IBS, so it makes sense coming off them can cause it. Mine did start with covid & possible food poisoning a month later, so this may not be the only cause. Colonoscopy/endoscopy is the next step if antibiotics don’t work (tested + for SIBO), and I am extremely anxious about that procedure! 😣

 

Trying to stay positive & relaxed, but my research addiction does not help. 
 

At least I’m sleeping ok. 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Soup]

Please research antibiotics and make sure you really need them . I didn’t and it has set me back terrible . Just a word of caution I don’t want anybody else to feel like me . 

[Dee12h]

1 minute ago, Soup said:

Please research antibiotics and make sure you really need them . I didn’t and it has set me back terrible . Just a word of caution I don’t want anybody else to feel like me . 

Which did you take? I have Refaxamin, which is specifically for SIBO & doesn’t go into the bloodstream but stays & targets the small intestine only.

[Soup]

I took Suprax and macrobid but I would still be cautious and maybe do some more research . Maybe that drugs.com they suggest here for interactions would be good to check it out 

[Foxclover6]

The muscle aches,  palpitations, gut issues,  is all withdrawl.  Don't know why anyone didn't say,  yes , that is from withdrawl or reduced dose.

[peaceandlove]

On 11/21/2022 at 9:59 PM, Foxclover6 said:

The muscle aches,  palpitations, gut issues,  is all withdrawl.  Don't know why anyone didn't say,  yes , that is from withdrawl or reduced dose.

Have you had gut issues, what kind?

[Dee12h]

I haven’t dropped since Nov! 😣 
Now I’m having bad dizziness & my blood pressure is so low. It’s really freaking me out. 90’s/50’s. My husband (M.D.) says it’s not TOO low, but I feel awful. Also having muscle spasms & muscle weakness.

I’ve also been having to take things to help with sleep. Most of those lower BP too, so now I’m stuck! 

[Dee12h]

4 months is too long, so I’m dropping anyway to .075. We’ll see how it goes. BP is better, but muscle weakness & spasms & dizziness are still bad. Sleep is ok.

[Crochet]

You have gotten so low! I'm glad your sleep and blood pressure have improved. I'm sorry that you are having all those other symptoms. Keep up posted, for sure, and take care.

[Dee12h]

Well, six days later I was up until 4:30 AM, so I went back up to .1. 

 

The past 3 days have been horrible. For a week I’ve been extra irritable/mood swings. I figured it was my period coming. Then Tue night, bam, couldn’t sleep. The next day it was like I'm post-partum again (had it last 2 babies, bad anxiety & depression- why I went on lex when youngest was 9mo). Crying off & on all day, shaking, fearful, muscle twitching, tachycardia, dark thoughts, insomnia. I started period today & praying tonight is better. 
 

Never during WD have I been this bad. Think it could just be hormones? I guess we’ll see in a couple if it stays or goes. If it stays, I have no choice but to go back up. I can’t function & have 3 kids. I haven’t changed my dose in 6 months!! (Except that one 6 day try.) Could it all be catching up with me?! All month, my anxiety has been getting progressively worse (some caused by traveling). 😫😭

[Dee12h]

Well, I updosed to .125, and now I feel worse! The depression & insomnia hasn’t really improved, dizziness is much worse, agitation, shaking, & I have that crushing fatigue & irritability I get when I’m on too much med. I even have some “too much serotonin” symptoms, which is scary.

My husband (M.D.) is astounded at how much tiny dose changes can affect me.

 

TIP: If your symptoms are manageable, do NOT updose to “see if it will help”! 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️
 

(I also am starting to think maybe what I thought was WD, was actually peri-menopause as I was on the same dose for 5 months, and wasn’t getting better. My pms this past month was horrific, mood-wise.)
 

[AndyPants]

@Dee12h sorry to hear you are having a tough time. It is always so hard to know what to do with dosing and where symptoms are coming from. Traveling has become one of my biggest stresses in the last couple years.

[Dee12h]

I need some advice.

 

My nervous system is so out of whack lately. Things that never used to set me off are. Talking to my husband’s family on marco polo 🤔, any driving, thinking about a cruise in Jan (boats never used to bother me), walking in the evenings, anything that gets my heart rate up, my 4yo’s constant noises.
 

I’ve developed pretty bad travel anxiety. Got heart palps any time I tried to pass someone (4 lane HW) on an 1.5 hr trip, and that messed things up for me mentally. I had to pull over twice. We have a 9 hr trip (5 nights away then 9 hrs home) planned in 2 weeks, and I have no idea how I’m going to do it. I get insomnia before the trip & my dizziness makes driving difficult. ( I took 15 extra minutes to get home today bc I didn’t want to get on the freeway.) I thought about taking a x@nax & letting DH drive (I haven’t ridden with anyone else driving in years.) 

 

I keep trying to live a normal life & do all the things, but it’s still getting worse. My fear is that if I stop doing things, I’ll regress & never want to get back out & do those things in the future, even afraid of eventually developing agoraphobia. My question is, how do we know how much to push ourselves & how much to take it easy? I don’t want to make my nervous system worse but also want to stay resilient & used to doing things.

 

My kids will all finally be in school this Aug (after 12 yrs of homeschooling/having preschoolers). Things will settle a lot hopefully, bc I don’t work outside the home. But I really want to do this vacay in 2 weeks with my kids! 😢 How do I get through this summer?

[Dee12h]

Would love to get some insight on my bolded question above, but I did end of doing the trip.

 

While some fun was had, the traveling was awful for me. It set me back a lot, I fear. I feel like I’m on the border of agoraphobia. Hopefully, I’m still just recovering as it’s been 1 week since we returned. I drove most of the 9 hrs there, but my dizziness was so bad (& mainly anxiety that the dizziness triggers), I felt it was unsafe to drive home. I have not ridden with anyone else driving for more than 5-10 min for probably 20 years! I took 3.5 xanax (.25) over the course of the traveling day while my husband drove. My adrenaline definitely kicked that drug’s butt. It will not be conquered by medication. 😆😫 I have only ever taken .25 at a time in the past, & rarely, and it has always knocked me out. So weird. So the trip home was terrifying. 
 

And currently, I’m struggling with driving even around my town.  We live in the country about 10-15 min out of town. I drove 25 min across town with people in the car & my anxiety was so intense I was sure I was going to pass out. (In the dark) And now I’m scared to go anywhere; I get very dizzy & then that causes anxiety. I have 3 kids at home that need to get places, so this is not an option. Yesterday & today I tried just driving around my neighborhood (25mph) & then around the next roads out (45mph) & just focusing on staying calm & not freaking out about the dizziness. I’m trying to desensitize myself. Hopefully, since this hasn’t been a problem long it will go away faster? My brain needs to not fear driving around my town. No traveling for awhile though! 

[Dee12h]

After meeting with my psychologist, I am stopping melatonin (apparently it has an interaction with lex which is specifically dizziness/brain fog), and lowering my dose to .09 . 
 

Does anyone know of a natural sleep aid that does not have dizziness as a side effect?
 

Will update & tell you the reasoning if it’s successful. 😜

 

I’m also starting on progesterone tomorrow as it was low & could be causing a lot of these symptoms. (Peri is similar to w/d bc you’re w/ding from hormones!)

[Crochet]

Hi Dee! I don't have any sleep recommendations that you don't already know about. I take 400mg magnesium glycinate, 200mg l-theanine and 1mg melatonin each night. I think there is a thread dedicated to sleep stuff, and there might be one for progesterone, too.

 

To answer your bolded question, I generally do not push myself, unless it is absolutely necessary. It seems like my body needs the energy for internal processes right now, so I try to reserve it, and just make sure I do some kind of movement each day. I traveled to help my sister for a couple weeks after she had surgery. I did more than I should have the first week, and ended up in bed for a few days. I think this will turn around at some point, but right now I still protect.

 

I hope you get everything figured out. Good luck with new treatment!

[Dee12h]

how do we know how much to push ourselves & how much to take it easy? I don’t want to make my nervous system worse but also want to stay resilient & used to doing things.
 

Working with 2 therapists, trying to stay home but terrified I’ll be home bound forever. 😭 Dizziness & brain fog makes driving very difficult, & riding with others makes me super anxious (always has, that’s not WD).

 

Everything that helps my anxiety makes the dizziness/brain fog worse. Can holding too long cause paradoxical symptoms? Like WD & you need to drop again?

 

I’m reading an acute stressful event can cause Nuero inflammation of which one if the main symptoms is bad brain fog. I had a terrifying event 2 weeks ago which lasted all day (so terrified for 12 hrs, basically) (but really had bad stress for 5 days beforehand as well). How long do acute stressors set us back for? Also why I don’t want to leave the house RN, more stress!

[Dee12h]

Since November, my last drop, I have had no windows or waves, just steadily, slowly, progressively get worse & worse. My cycle does affect things up & down, but I don’t think those are windows/waves. Not sure what to do anymore. Progesterone seemed to make me worse, so I stopped. 😩

 

Things I’m trying daily to help:

get outside in the morning & doing grounding/nature, therapy 1/wk, meditation, evening walk, lots of water, warm baths, magnesium glycinate, melatonin as needed for sleep even though I think it makes the dizziness worse (sleep is more important), trying to connect which is difficult when everyone just wants to fix you yesterday & has lots of ideas of things you could/should be doing.

Sometimes: yoga, comedy, massage

[Dee12h]

how do we know how much to push ourselves & how much to take it easy? 

 

 

I’m down to .08 & things aren’t better or worse. I had like a 4-day window, but that’s it. Dizziness & brain fog are the worst. Been trying to drive more but couldn’t at all today. I really think melatonin is making it worse, but scared to try to sleep without it.

 

Therapist (been with off & on for yrs & really like) wants me to meet with a psychiatrist to talk about what meds could help me. 🤪😤 Feeling misunderstood is the worst.

 

Do you ever feel like people in withdrawal think every symptom is w/d, when we would have many of these anyway, just from life?

[Dee12h]

how do we know how much to push ourselves & how much to take it easy? 
 

Wanted to update, even though this thread is dead. I’ve been on .8 for about a month. Dizziness has good & bad days & is by FAR my worst symptom, mostly with driving. I have played around with lowering & raising my dose a tiny bit, which I know is not recommended, but I am desperate to be able to drive normally! I upped to .9 for 2 days. Yesterday was ok. Today, day 2 is MUCH worse! I think the med is causing the dizziness. Why are w/d and side effects (too much) so similar?? 😩 Don’t know where to go from here. 

[Dee12h]

So if up-dosing makes dizziness worse, and dropping makes dizziness worse, and holding for over 6 months doesn’t help anything & symptoms slowly worsen the entire 6 months, what the 🤬🤬🤬🤬 do I do? 
 

I lowered to .07 (after being on .08 over a month), and now my dizziness & anxiety are worse after 4 days. I held at .1 for FORever, no change, only slow decline. WTLF. 

[AndyPants]

I hate not knowing where symptoms are coming from. I haven't had dizziness but some brain fog and generally feeling out of it and slower reflexes. I used to do most of our family driving but the past year I've started to have my wife drive the majority of the time. I feel like maybe I should push myself to try to do it more but sometimes its easier to just let go of some things.

 

If symptoms are bad regardless of what you do I wonder if it's more side effects then WD and you might as well keep decreasing and trying to keep off. I'm not an authority on anything and don't know what the heck I'm doing so I could be wrong.

[modelarz71]

On 2.09.2023 at 05:05, Dee12h said:

Więc jeśli zwiększenie dawki powoduje nasilenie zawrotów głowy, a upuszczenie pogłębia zawroty głowy, a trzymanie przez ponad 6 miesięcy nic nie pomaga, a objawy powoli nasilają się przez całe 6 miesięcy, co 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 mam zrobić ? 
 

Obniżyłem do 0,07 (po ponad miesiącu na 0,08), a teraz moje zawroty głowy i niepokój są gorsze po 4 dniach. Utrzymywałem poziom 0,1 przez ZAWSZE, bez zmian, tylko powolny spadek. WTLF. 

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