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@Bailey @Boges11 Yes, in the morning but also during the day/afternoon. Also strong WD waves. In the evenings usually less intense. I was tapered too fast by doctors. Really had problems when tapered with dose changes. But it was when I went from 12.5mg to zero that it broke loose on another level. Is it worse in the morning for you? Grateful for this forum and hugs to you who are struggling with this. 🌿

Hi KateH, Welcome to SA. Please summarize your drug history in your signature by following the instructions at How to Summarize Your Drug History in Your Signature. You may need to be on a computer to complete this. This is a positive sign. I would recommend holding at your current dose to see if you can stabilize further. Making changes in doses can contribute to instability so it is important to stay consistent to allow your CNS a break. Are you planning to taper once stable? Thanks, Firefly

It's great to read that you now feel better! Thank you for sharing. There is hope!

I have not been able to isolate any specific information. Can you speak to your doctor to see if a liquid can be compounded?

Is it worse in the morning @Boges11 @Dahlia50?

Thank you for allowing me to be here. I am in quite a bind but think I would be accepted and understood here. I never in my wildest dreams imagined going through this. I have been living abroad for almost a. year. I arrived in the Republic of Georgia last month needing a refill of my prescription Gabapentin 300 mg. I have been on it for 20+ years for depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Same dose, every day, 20+ years. I am 67 years old. Georgia refused to refill the prescription so I arranged to come to Turkey for a refill. In the meantime, I began tapering as I was running low on pills. I had no idea about tapering slowly and so began to decrease by 25% every five days. By the time I was at 75 mg. I was in severe withdrawal- insomnia, agitation, anxiety, depression, pain, nausea, and dizziness. Upon arrival in Turkey, I reinstated the full dose, another mistake. I immediately slept through the night but other symptoms have become increasingly worse. Primarily, extreme somnolence and weakness, depersonalization, terror attacks, depression and anxiety, dizziness, and nausea. The symptoms are beginning to abate, albeit slowly. I intended to start a slow taper when I stabilized but I wonder when, or if, that will ever happen. I feel I have done irreparable harm to my nervous system. I have gone from being an active 67-year-old to feeling feeble and disabled. I am too ill to fly back to the States and finding knowledgeable persons in Turkey for help hasn't produced any results. I am willing to travel within the EU to get help. I could handle a short flight. Thanks for staying with me so far. Looking forward to connecting and recovering.

All we can do is raise awareness and support sites like this one. None of us have true freedom and will always be controlled by either the government or massive companies. There will always be massive unneeded suffering. That's why no one cares when people are trapped on drugs they're forced to continually pay for. No one cares about funding research for withdrawal or not just handing out pills like candy.

Dear SA friends, It’s been 3 years mark since my last setback on April 2021, I got significant better feeling on 2023. Now I’m feeling 80% normal and fully return to my life and work, I moved into new house which I designed for the renovation by myself, I cannot make it totally 2 years ago. Mostly I just forgot the symptoms, I sleep well, not have anxiety and akathisia anymore, sometimes only have some minor symptoms like muscle pain, tinnitus, headache and some mild neurological symptoms which is not bother me at all. I try my best to avoid medicines, caffeine drinks, tea, chocolate and any food may affect serotonin (like curcumin and ginseng), most important is keep healthy to avoid virus infection, I read a lot that Covid will trigger setbacks. For retrospective, I think my last setback was trigger by Trazodone, I dosed myself for a tiny dose multiple times without any bad result until it changed me. On 2022 I got worse because I continued taking the Cyproheptadine because I believed it can help with my symptoms, but as it is a 5-HT2A antagonist which is same as Trazodone, it up-regulation the 5-HT2A receptor levels so made my anxiety level high to the sky when I have inter-dose withdraw for that. So for my lesson and learn, I should not touch any meds affect with my serotonin receptor to “cure” my problems. Here is what I had tried during my setback, and this is not a medical advice, this is only my experience, everyone is different please do not try any medicine without medical professional’s advice. Which make me worse: Trazodone, as I said I believed it triggered my setback, and it cause serotonin syndrome combine with Tandospirone (Similar with Buspirone). Tandospirone (Similar with Buspirone), which prescribed from my doctor, it made my serotonin level very high and caused my akathisia for almost 2 years. Not help for anxiety at all. Cyproheptadine, it helps at very beginning, it can lower the serotonin level and have mild effect for anxiety, but as it is the 5-HT2A antagonist, when you keep taking this, you will experience the revenge like all others did. CBD oil, lavender oil, this is very tricky and let me know everyone is different. On my first withdraw journey I got nothing bad from CBD oil, but during my setback, due to my high serotonin level cause by 5-HT1A agonist, any tiny dose can affect the serotonin would cause every bad reaction to me. Both CBD oil, lavender oil, make me sick during my high serotonin level stage. When I first touched lavender oil, I can take a whole capsule of that, it made me calm, but when I continued taking that for days, I became to intolerance it and a tiny dose (like 1% capsule) of that would made me sick. So if you have experienced serotonin syndrome before, avoid these. CBD oil, lavender oil can affect 5-HT1A receptors. Curcumin, it is a MAOs can higher the serotonin level, yes it may help for some kind of withdraw, but not suitable for my situation. When I started to take this, I didn’t notice to much bad effects, but if you continued took MAOs it will change your serotonin / dopamine / norepinephrine level and makes you out of control. Because high serotonin may lower the dopamine level, I started to experience the stiff muscles, but as I took too many things, after taking 2 months curcumin, I found my symptoms were caused by that, if I continued taking it, I experienced the bad reactions for this, but if I stopped it, it also has bad withdraw! Curcumin is the last things I took, after I withdraw this, I started to heal from this nightmare. Which are useless: Lamotrigine，as I said, everyone is different, it looks like Lamotrigine is promising after I read on SA topics, but it didn’t help me, it make me feel strange when I fall asleep, and sometimes made me akathisia worse. But luckily, I didn’t have good result on that so I just tried a few times, so only one time bad feeling after I took this. Quetiapine, prescribed from my doctor, started on a very tiny dose. Caused RLS and morning akathisia. Very weird every time after I took it, I have some windows, but due to the bad reactions I only tried few times. Memantine，no benefit but make me muscle symptoms worse. Ashwagandha, Resveratrol, Alpha-linolenic acid, do not have any good or bad reactions, stop taking that without any withdraw after months. Which might helped me: Redoxon, a mixed vitamin C / D and zinc, I think most useful is 1000mg vitamin C, it calms me very quick for my mild chemical anxiety, don’t know why, I drank it every day for months. NAC, calms me during my withdraw, both for anxiety and akathisia. Gaba/ L-theanine, mild calming effects, and L-theanine has mild effect for akathisia. I think I had brain leaks because I had very quick response for gaba, but as I’m afraid it will affect for my gaba receptors, so I just took is on very limit situation. Gabapentin, I think it is similar like lamotrigine, but it was much suitable for me, it doesn’t affect dopamine receptors. A tiny dose helped me to tolerance the symptoms better, not totally but made me feel a little better. I took it regularly with a very tiny dose which I can feel the effect, and when I feels better, I taper it by 10% method to stop it without any problem. I took it for almost 1 year. Riluzole, it calmed me and made me returned to inner peace. I had tried two rounds of this. First time because I took curcumin at the same time, so I thought that was Riluzole cause the problem (muscle stiffness). But second time after I stopped curcumin, no bad reactions from Riluzole. Still a very tiny dose, like 1/50 pill, need to taper, tinnitus will get worse if taper too fast. I only used it for weeks. Others like fish oil, magnesium I didn’t feel anything good or bad, but I believe that they are good for my health, so I still keep taking these as needed. All I want to say, there is no magic cure for this, only listen to your body and let time to heal you, a right medicine and supplement can helps you from 50% to 60%, but if you try wrong, it will makes you much much worse even back to square one. Hope everyone can heal very soon!

Day 17. I've been getting worse stinging eyes and worse reflux pain over the last few days. Can't tell if it's the bugs or withdrawal. Ears still hurt. Have headaches (not as bad today slightly but still painful), ear pain, aches and pains everywhere, eyes stinging, worse reflux. I want to continue and not go back to 75mg extended. I'm sure these problems will eventually go away.

You're exactly right. Especially when the therapist is hitting a wall. No one thinks these are causing these things and that the reason people act out is because they NEED them. I made the trip around the sun 55 times so far and I have never seen society like this until the mid ro late 90's and that is precisely when these SSRI's came out and regular general practitioners started prescribing them like candy. Wow, you said exactly what I've noticed and have been telling people. I work in thousands of peoples homes and have to clear bathroom countertops to do work sometimes and I can tell you that when 7-8 out of 10 people has this garbage on their bathroom sink countertops. This is madness..

I'd do it the other way around: use a 1ml syringe to remove 1ml, then drink the remaining 19ml. I find it is easier to be accurate with a 1ml syringe than a 20ml syringe. It's generally best to move the dose by no more than 1 hour per day so the change is slowly adjusted to. I'd set an alarm for the exact same time each day, rather than "between 5 or 6pm". I get up at the same time each day, so I do this. But again, you'd only move the dose by an hour a day. Another member pointed out to me that this AD has a long half-life (66 hours), so it's not likely you'd notice anything immediately...maybe you do, but more likely it's the mind playing games. I haven't read anywhere that this is necessary. Hope this helps.

I understand the feeling of fighting for nothing. But now I go through tons of changes. It is not pleasing for me, but at least now I am much closer to being in life than where I was before. I believe this will happen to you, too. I am sorry if this sounds irrelavant to your sitiation. I still do not have enough strength to read other people's posts. Take care.

Yes, I’m feeling a little bit more capable, and able to look after myself during the day which is good. the brain fog is really hard, but I am working on nailing myself to the present moment and accepting where I am. I really don’t want to make it worse and only want to get better, which is why I don’t want to up my dose at all. but I I’m just wondering if that might hinder me from finding the right dose to stabilise, could I potentially not find stability at all if I don’t find the right dose?

This is good to read. Highly likely from the October '23 CT...it'll take time. It's your call. Stability is key. If you did increase, small increases are better so you can monitor for any adverse reaction, such as an uptick in your tinnitus. If you increase, you'd want to hold again at the dose for 3-4 weeks to feel the effect of that increase.

@OnmywayThank you for replying. I first contacted SA in May 2020 after having withdrawal symptoms for 10 months from dropping to 5 mg from 10 mg Citalopram. By Jan 2022 symptoms had eased, still on 5 mg at this point. April 2022 my husband had a TIA and other health issues that took it's toll on me also. I was driving at this point, taking him to appointments, caring etc. Sept 2023 I visited my doctor for migraine relief, that's when problems started. I came off Citalopram cold turkey, tried various meds outlined in my signature. I was ok the first few weeks but then withdrawal symptoms began, probably from everything. Jan 2023 I reinstated 0.5 mg Citalopram. The past few weeks it's been morning anxiety, crying spells, feeling low, no appetite. I am doing less now than I did before reinstatement. A visit to A&E just over a month ago (feeling faint and weak) showed bloods ok, little low in iron, CT. Scan of head and body ok. ECG ok. Advised to eat and drink more, stop stressing and look after myself. There is still stress at home which doesn't help. I do keep a log but symptoms come and go throughout day. I'm wondering if there are inaccuracies in my doses, I dilute a 10 mg tablet in 20 mls water and draw up 5 mls (0.5 mg). This cannot be perfect each time and I know how a slight variation in doses can make a difference. I cannot get liquid citalopram, I've tried. I'll continue holding and see what I'm like after my holiday. I appreciate you taking time to reply and I thank you for your support.🙏😊

Did you find anything on fluanxol?

@Onmyway, so true. I didn't have any antibiotics thank god. My inner dialogue is pretty harsh indeed. A lot of thoughts are like" I just started tapering for a little bit and look what is happening.... Is the rest of the taper going like this etc etc." also lost of thoughts on the wave not going away etc etc. They seem to be automated during waves but I'll try to remind myself to stay realistic. And I have a hard time accepting the way I feel. I'm trying to work on that to. Yes I will do so soon. Thank you @Onmyway!

I am in the pits of despair. I don't know what to do about the excruciating pain I'm in. Any of the meds the doctor tried either did not touch it or made me feel ill. The pain is not under control and I don't know how to get it under control. My MRI was run again, they said some degenerative changes in the facet joints but can that honestly be the cause of how much pain I'm in. I'm at a loss of what to do. This is the most desperate I have ever felt. If this pain isn't sorted I don't think I am going to make it out of this. Without the pain I might have said I was heading in the right direction for healing but this pain is the worst thing ever and I'm terrified. I don't understand what's happened to me

Hi @Emonda hope you are well! I’ve been holding at my dose of 0.11ml (0.44mg) of Prozac for 17 days now. I’ve seen a slight improvement in my symptoms. I’ve also been seeing a healer so that might also be helping. the main symptoms I’m dealing with is the brain fog and cognitive functioning that is really quite bad, find it so hard to talk to people and hold conversations and I can feel it hurting my body at times. This seems to progress during the day after I wake up. I’m also dealing with a lot of anxiety when I wake up in the mornings now. im just wondering should I move my dose up higher or should I just stay on this dose as it is until I stabilise? Can I find stabilisation staying on a low dose? Let me know if you have any questions about how else I’m feeling and I can share with you to help your understanding thanks so much Josh

Hi Guys, I just wanted to update after the nightmarish experience of trying to reinstate the 1mg of liquid Lexapro (it brought on never before panic attacks and agoraphobia), I threw the remaining liquid in the rubbish bin. Since going cold turkey on the 30th of October 2023, it was obviously too long a period to reinstate the SSRI. I know there is nobody on this site that is going to coerce me to reinstate the medication at the lower recommended dosage of 0.5mg but even if that was the best course of action, I threw it away out of sheer terror. I guess I was wondering if there's any chance of just not taking Lexapro again or if resuming another former medication like Paroxetine, would it bring out the same allergic side effects? I probably not using all the correct terms but in Australia, nobody has any information in regard to this withdrawal process. The pharmacist told me it should only last 2 weeks but as you can tell, it's been going on for months. Is it normal to feel flu like, have chronic fatigue and tire out easily? I can't sleep at night and constantly wake up every 2 hours with bouts of anxiety, I have lost weight as my anxiety makes me nauseated and my nerves still feel like they are screaming especially after trying to reinstate the 1mg Lexapro. I've read that exercise is important and try to walk as often as possible, but my body feels so weak and faintish. I used to be quite active, and I use to exercise and do pilates...now I feel exhausted, and all my confidence has gone. Sorry for the complaints but it has taken so much joy out of my life and have lost the ability to smile, laugh, watch a movie or read a book as my focus is totally shot and my anxiety is skyrocketed with my agitated nervous system. I know that meditation and exercise is an important part of recovery but find the energy and focus really hard to have to follow through on this process. Sorry for the long rant...I hope I made sense. I'm so tired and feel totally lost. I will appreciate all your help guys ThreeLittleBirds

Hi @sandnit Yes, unfortunately, all part of the game. The good thing is, we know it's time limited and waves pass. It's no wonder that this wave is harder - not only have you started tapering but your poor body has been dealing with physical illnesses, extra demands from kids being sick, injury that got cleaned without an anesthetic, tooth issues (antibiotic?). Withdrawal is hard under stable circumstances. Life challenges make it even harder. Please give yourself a break and compassion. This is difficult. Not sure what your internal dialogue is but if it is as harsh as most of us, remember to remind yourself to be gentle to yourself. Just as a reminder, can you please update your signature @sandnitwith your taper up to now so we can have a quick look when we advise? Wishing you some respite soon Omw

I ordered the stabilisation strip and I'm holding on 4,5mg. I think my body and mind are definitely having a hard time adjusting. This wave is much harder compared to the ones I felt holding om 5mg. I hope I stabilise a bit soon because this is so hard. I can barely function...... But I'm doing my best. @Onmyway, last week I had bouts of nausea and bowel issues on top of the DP, DR, chemical feeling of anxiety etc. And this night I had a nightmare (that's new for me). These are all part of the game right?? Praying for some relief soon! Wishing you all good healing

Hello LostInCanada, I'm completely lost in my quest to regain my life back and my sanity. To be completely honest reinstatement of even a smaller dose of Lexapro is terrifying to me. I know nobody on this site is a medical professional but I am interested in how you did it or are you still in the process? My GAD, depression and Suicidal idealation is through the roof and everyday is an emotional roller-coaster. I can't get any professional medical advice and wonder if my body would accept another SSRI (like Paroxetine) to calm down the withdrawals and my nervous system? I really just want this nightmare to end. I cannot get out of bed most days and feel incapable of handling any type of employment with such chronic physical and emotional distress 😭😭😭😭 Does your mind ever really recover and mend itself from all the damage done to it?

Thank you for your support. Sometimes I feel like I will never reach the end of this nightmare that is now my daily reality. I wish there was real life support groups for people to meet up and encourage each other to continue to fight and maybe share stories of hope.

Hi @Sonia009@Sonia009, Sorry you've been suffering so much with withdrawal and anxiety over the years. I haven't read your whole thread but looked at your signature and see you've made lots of drug changes during that time. Withdrawal causes nervous system disregulation. Changing drugs or doses does the same thing. It's hard to advise on what to do because we only get a glimpse of your symptoms here and there. Do you keep daily symptoms log? Are your symptoms worse now than they were before reinstatement? I see you have been having dizziness from the beginning. Keeping a log of symptoms is important also because our memory is clouded by our mood. If you feel miserable you may imagine that you've felt this way for the last few weeks X weeks whereas the truth is different. You need to decide whether the drug causes side effects for you. Usually an effect that happens after you take the drug may be from the drug itself but it could also be related to the time of day - lots of people have worse symptoms in the morning. You can lower your dose and track your symptoms and see if they get better. We can't tell what's what. But in general, you need stability for your symptoms to subside. Going up or down can both cause symptoms. You see why this decision is hard to advise on. Hope you start feeling better soon Omw