LividwLexapro: Hello All, I'm "livid" with Lexapro... but learning to "live" with it : )

[LividwLexapro]

Hey everyone, just introducing myself here. I've been a LONG TIME member of the benzobuddies.org forums and it literally changed my life interacting with the great folks there. SO GLAD I finally got the opportunity to join the forums here as I've been waiting a while to get in!

 

My quick summary:

I was 2 years on Lexapro and klonopin and was able to successfully taper off of Klonopin over the course of an additional year, I tried to taper my lexapro (20mg) over the course of 3 months after that... you can guess how that went 🙄. Six weeks after my last dose I had a massive panic/anxiety attack and found myself back on 20mg of Lexapro and about .75mg of Klonopin again. Oy vay.

 

Regardless, I'm tapering the klonopin again and going into this new journey knowing that I have to wait until I'm off of that first to start my lexapro taper again. I'm going to do it slowly... over the course of 2 years kind of thing (10% at at a time etc), but regardless I'm excited to finally be able to be a part of this community and share in everyone's knowledge as I mentally prepare for that in the future.

 

Benzo buddies helped me so much (and is continuing to do so), and just in my first few days of perusing the forums I can see that this is an awesome community of supportive people as well, so I'm looking forward to contributing and learning with all of you. Happy tapering to all!

[Gridley]

Welcome to SA, LividwLexapro.

 

To give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.

 

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

You and I have a similar drug history with Lexapro and a benzo.  The SA approach to tapering multiple drugs is to taper the activating drug (such as any SSRI including Lexapro) first while leaving the sedating drug (benzos like Klonopin) in place to help with sleep.

 

Taking multiple psych drugs? Which drug to taper first?

 

When I first came here 6+ years ago, I was tapering a sedating drug (Imipramine, a tricyclic) and was advised to leave it and my benzo in place and taper Lexapro first.  I did and 4.5 years later was off Lexapro with (to my knowledge) no protracted withdrawal symptoms.   It wasn't easy but I think it would've been harder without the benzo there as a cushion.  I'm finding my current benzo taper more difficult than my Lexapro taper.

 

Another thing we recommend is to taper by no more than 10% of your current dose every four weeks.  

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Using the 10% taper, you will go down by 50% of your dose every six months. E.g., if you start at 20mg Lexapro, in 6 months you'll be at 10mg; 6 months more you'll be at 5mg, etc.  So you can roughly predict how long your taper will take, not taking in account any necessary longer holds along the way.

 

A variety of the 10% taper is to taper 2.5% every week for 4 weeks with a 2 week hold.

 

The Brassmonkey Slide Method of Micro-tapering

 

With this taper you reduce by half every nine months. This is the taper I used for Lexapro, and it took me 4.5 years to go from 20mg to 0.025mg at which point I jumped to zero.

 

This link is specifically about tapering Lexapro, including how to get the nonstandard doses needed for a 10% taper.

 

Tips for tapering off escitalopram (Lexapro)

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium (glycinate is a good form) and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system. 

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

Add in one at a time and at a low dose in case you do experience problems.

 

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 I am glad that you found us.