JohnB17: Olanzapine withdrawal

[JohnB17]

You should be able to read my drug history in my signature. I recently finished tapering Olanzapine somewhat ignorantly. Now I’m experiencing withdrawal - mild nausea, and brutal insomnia. It’s been 12 days since I went down to 0mg. I’m wondering if I should reinstate or not. I wasn’t on the drug for that long so I’m not sure what to do. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, this is really tough. Thank you 

[FireflyFyte]

Hi JohnB17,

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. Thank you for summarizing your drug history in your signature.

 

19 hours ago, JohnB17 said:

I recently finished tapering Olanzapine somewhat ignorantly. Now I’m experiencing withdrawal - mild nausea, and brutal insomnia.

 

When was your last dose of Olanzapine? Also, to confirm, you jumped at 2.5mg?

 

How did you feel when you were on the Olanzapine? Did the withdrawal symptoms occur once you stopped or during your taper?

 

Thanks,

 

Firefly

 

[JohnB17]

24 minutes ago, FireflyFyte said:

Hi JohnB17,

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. Thank you for summarizing your drug history in your signature.

 

 

When was your last dose of Olanzapine? Also, to confirm, you jumped at 2.5mg?

 

How did you feel when you were on the Olanzapine? Did the withdrawal symptoms occur once you stopped or during your taper?

 

Thanks,

 

Firefly

 

Hi Firefly, thanks for the response. My last dose of Olanzapine was Monday December 2nd. And yes, I jumped at 2.5mg. When I was on the Olanzapine I felt mostly dead, numbed out, slowed down, it made me very sleepy at first, I was sleeping 12 hours a night. I wanted to stop bc I don’t want to be on these medications and I have an alternative understanding of my situation than conventional psychiatrists do. I had significant akathisia with the Abilify and I think I may have had some akathisia from the Olanzapine as well. I’m confident my psychosis was situational and stress induced. I was in a major life transition at the time, briefly homeless and sleeping in my car, seriously sleep deprived. 
The withdrawal symptoms started occurring after I stopped the taper, I’d say about 5 days after I went to 0. I was fine during the taper, with the exception that as I decreased my dose I started being less sleepy. 
 

Right now I have mild nausea, some dizziness, headache, and the insomnia is brutal. I went almost a full week without getting literally any sleep at all. It’s getting to me. Since then, over the past two days I’ve taken Zopiclone again to try to get some sleep, which works. But I also don’t want to take those drugs bc I know they’re not good. I did have one period this morning where my body sort of collapsed and went to sleep for the first time by itself, I got maybe an hour of sleep and had weird nightmares the whole time. 

[FireflyFyte]

Since your last dose was December 2nd, you are well within the window to reinstate. We have more information on reinstatement at Reinstatement: About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

 

Since your last dose was 2.5mg, you could try a reinstatement of 0.125mg to see if it helps to ease your current withdrawal symptoms. It may take several weeks to notice an impact but for others it happens sooner.