Nugget: Lexapro withdrawal

[Nugget]

ok! so where do i start ive been reading on this website almost since the withdrawal started back in october and im just now starting an account! but anyway i recently tapered from 40mg of lexapro to 20 in one month and 10 the next month and the doctor said to stop after that which i did and boy do i feel bad some of the strangest symptoms ive ever felt in my life. I should mention the reason i got off was because for some reason i developed a horrible phobia of medication like im even scared to take a flinstone gummy its so bad which from everything ive read on here would make reinstatement very tough for me. i never had any issues at all with SSRIs other than drowsiness until around august my phobia got so bad i would panic every time i took my medicine even though i had no reason too! its been seven weeks now no medicine and sometimes i feel like its getting worse although i have no issues a couple hours before bed i feel normal? i could use some guidance please!

[Nugget]

kept a level head today till i decided to eat something a little bit ago. eating almost stimulates me like caffeine sorta? Obviously this doesnt feel great   i sleep late around 6am or 7 (i would much rather go to sleep at a normal time but it is what it is) and around 3-5am i get really light headed its like a pattern taking a hot shower around 5am usually gets rid of the lightheadedness. it said to update often am i doing this right??

[manymoretodays]

Hi Nugget,

And welcome aboard. 

I'm a Lexapro survivor too!  And can relate to some of your acute WD(withdrawal symptoms).

 

And this is how you get started here.  You've posted in the correct area, and I can get you approved now and started off.

 

It looks like you did a pretty rapid taper, by our standards, and you'll see.  I'm going to give you some links to some of the introductory information now.

 

The 10% taper recommendation is a harm reduction approach to going off psychiatric drugs.

*Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

And then each taper %, is based on the previous dose, not the starting dose.

 

When we take medications, the CNS (central nervous system) responds by making changes over the months and years we take the drug(s). When the medication is discontinued, the CNS has to undo all the changes it made.  The CNS likes stability. Rebuilding the neurotransmitter production and reactivating the receptor and transporter cells takes time -- during that rebuilding process symptoms occur. And sleep is really important during withdrawal. 

 

 

 

*What is withdrawal syndrome.

Brain Remodelling

 

*Dr.Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list.

 

The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

 

*About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms
take a look, and read through this topic ^  And so you are about a month or 6 weeks off of Lexapro now.  And I think depending on the severity of your symptoms, this might be something to consider.  Keep in mind, that when we talk about reinstating, after drug discontinuation, it is only going to be a small dose, or a fraction of what you used to take.  Sometimes after being on and off these kind of meds for years, we tend to develop a sensitivity to them.  So generally, it's best to start real low, and go slow.  With careful observation, over a period of 4-7 days, at least, to look for improvement.  And then, also, after a good period of stability on a small reinstatement dose, one has less to taper off of later, using the 10% tapering guidelines.

 

*Tips for tapering off Lexapro

this ^ will come in handy, if you do opt for reinstatement.  You'll find information on how to get the small dosage of Lexapro needed.  Lexapro does come in a prescription liquid, or you could make your own liquid from tablets.

 

It sounds like you might be doing okay Nugget.  And yes, do update us somemore.  Take a look at Dr. Glenmullen's symptom list and let us know what, if any other symptoms you might be having now, than those you have already mentioned.  And also the severity of them.

Overall, how do you feel........better or worse since discontinuing the Lexapro.

If you remember, how have symptoms progressed or even improved since late October?

 

 

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 and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system.   Read through these links, at least the first couple of posts in them, to see if what you have started makes sense so far.  We've got a lot of information around here.  I hope you like reading.

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

 

Welcome aboard again and we are glad you joined us.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

moderator manymoretodays(mmt)

[Nugget]

hey thanks for replying!

 

ok so some of the symptoms would be crying spells severity would be about a 4 or 5

definitely worsened mood about 7.5, low energy around 6 usually a few hours after i wake up.

appetite is a big on i can usually only eat right after waling up or a couple hours before bed severity would be like 8.

suicidal thoughts have definitely gotten better so like a 3 only get a few a week than before when it was all i could think about i guess that means im getting better!

 

Anxiety has also been tolerable only because i know whats going on and i don’t usually panic unless i get a new symptom that freaks me out

 

only thing that i cant control is the jittery or shaking like i drank a coffee so severity would be 7.5 for that part.

 

I have had nor irritability or aggression surprisingly so i would say a 1 for that.

 

I got confused once and every now and then i forget stuff so about a 3 for that. my only mood swings would feeling normal to depressed which is often so like a 6.

 

No hallucinations other than floaters which don't really bother me its just kinda annoying.

 

dissociation and depersonalization is a big one for me that is one of the most uncomfortable feelings and thats where most of my crying wants to come out severity would be 7.5.

 

Ive had maybe one or two nightmares during this withdrawal so not too bad there.

 

my temperature goes out of whack around 3-6am half my body is shaking and the other half is hot and my face will flush but it goes away severity would be 8.

 

havent had much nausea since the beggining unless i eat too much no vomiting or diarrhea so thats a plus. i get a headache every now and then like the tight band around your head thing but i can handle it. no tremors.

 

for the first time last night i got that pins and needles feeling around my mouth super odd but tolerable. so the biggest one yet was brain zaps horrible brain zaps in the beginning almost constant, but i rarely get them anymore if maybe one or two around 3 or 4am and also only when im sleeping i can feel them thats about it and also the ringing in my ears i get too but thats not that bad only if i pay attention to it.

 

That about wraps up most of how i feel on a daily basis overall i feel like its getting better gradually maybe im one of the lucky ones? but tell me what you guys think and sorry for this being so long! 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by manymoretodays
spaced out the text as I read(mmt), extracted response from quote and removed quote

[ChessieCat]

Hello Nugget and welcome from me too,

 

Just a little tip.  When posting, please add spacing to your text.  Many members, including the moderators, have difficulty reading large blocks of text.  It can be very overwhelming and causes stress/anxiety.

 

And if there is a question that you are asking and it is somewhere in the text then it might not be seen.

 

For me personally, when I see a large block of text I immediately start to feel anxious and I do not read the post.

[Nugget]

ok chessiecat i will definitely do that in the future thanks!

[Nugget]

Another update guys!

 

my appetite seems to be getting worse i can usually eat something right before i go to sleep but i just plain don't get hungry anymore and eating makes me feel sick... 

[manymoretodays]

Hi Nugget,

I went through some weird stuff too, with eating and digestion.

Do your best to just work with some really bland foods for now, and work for eating in intervals throughout the day.

Try for grazing, every 4-6 hours and eat baby food if you have to.  Or stick some fruits and veggies in the blender or food processor, with kefir or yogurt and see how that goes.

Bland stuff are things like mild soups or broths, toast, weak teas, bananas, puddings, rice, applesauce, and yogurts........go easy with tea or yogurt or extra sugar if you can.  Just in case you have sensitivities.

 

How is your weight holding up?

 

Then, a soon as you can, add in some proteins too,  lot's of people will do nuts and other high protein snacks.

 

Right now, you get to eat whatever does not make you feel sick.

 

And take note of what does too.  This will help for future reference.

 

Best Nugget,

L, P, H, and G,

mmt

 

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by manymoretodays

[Heath]

@Nugget welcome to SA ! You are at the rt place if you want to get off these meds.  I too am a slave to lexapro! And I do have those same symptoms as you! I reinstate a little in October the anxiety crying went away in a week or so little up and down for a bit and the disconnection went away mostly a few weeks ago and the forgetfulness no concentration is getting better every day!  The mods have the rt advice and we all got you back! Hang in there! 

[manymoretodays]

And hi again from me Nugget,

Have you had a chance to read through the reinstatement topic?  Especially the first post there.

And then how do you feel about reinstatement, after reading through it.

 

Heath may have done more of an updose, similar, not exactly the same, but apparently with much improvement.

You would be reinstating completely. 

And if you came off of a 10 mg dose in late October, it's now been 6 weeks or 2 months off.

So I would just recommend a 0.5 mg- 1 mg dose to start with.

And then keeping us updated as well, once you got started with this.  Doing good observations around the reinstatement too.  I could show you how to do that.

 

What do you think, Nugget?  The links to more information on this are in my first post above.  And I had not followed up with you on this, so just asking how you feel about it all?

Thanks.

 

Best, L, P, H, and G,

mmt

[Heath]

@manymoretodays you are right I had some up and down after that .5 mg reinstatement. Looking back I probably could have went up a little and not had the waves and windows. It’s starting to settle! 

[Nugget]

Ok so first thing about the reinstatement is like i said in my first post is i have developed a horrible phobia of taking medication so reinstatement would be very difficult.

 

Even if i took the 1mg and say it worked i would still panic about taking it this is the reason i stopped it. all i would think about is if it would kill me every time i take it.

 

On another note i have noticed eating toast with a little strawberry spread doesn't mess with me too much.

 

The best advise i could use right now is how to overcome this phobia! 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by ChessieCat
unbolded

[ChessieCat]

Please remove the spaces from your drug signature and reduce the font size.  Thank you.

 

I will tell you what happened to me.  It might help you to understand what effect these drugs have on us:

 

I tried to reduce my drug by 50% because of mild serotonin syndrome and the drug only being available in 100mg and 50mg and supposedly not able to be cut the tablet.  After 2 weeks of very bad cog for I was unable to type.  Because I am a professional typist I knew that something was wrong.  SA suggested updosing, which I did, and after about 4 hours (not days) my brain fog was clearing and I was able to type again.  I knew it was because of the drug due to the fact that I had a benchmark.  I knew that it was not a placebo effect.  I was astounded then, and still am now whenever I recount my experience, at what happened to me and how I was able to know for a fact that it reducing the drug that caused the issues and that updosing resolved it.

 

If you are really worried about it but do want to reinstate you could start with a really tiny amount which will prove to you that it is okay to take it.  It takes about 4 days for a dose to get to full level in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.  It is better to start with a small amount and increase by a little bit more than to risk taking too much.

 

I found that the more I understand how the drugs work the less scared I was.

 

When we take a psychiatric drug we are adding chemicals to the brain.  Because the brain is always trying to keep things balanced out, when the chemicals are added the brain starts balancing things out and adapts to getting the chemical.  When we take the drug away the brain has to get used to not getting the chemicals and immediately starts trying to balance things out.  When we take it away too quickly the brain has more things that it has to do to balance everything which is why we can get bad and/or a wide variety of withdrawal symptoms.  If we take the drug away at a slower rate then the brain only has to do a little bit of work to balance things out.

 

I'm currently only take 0.45mg Pristiq after having been on 100mg.  But as my drug signature says, I don't need the drug but my brain does.  And I'm going to take about another year.

[ChessieCat]

And something that you may not be aware of is that Lexapro is a strong drug.  So going from 40mg in September 2020 and jumping off at 10mg end of October, it's basically a cold turkey.

  

On 5/27/2011 at 12:16 PM, Altostrata said:

If you are taking 5mg of Lexapro, it's not tiny, it's equivalent to 10-20mg Paxil or Celexa.

 

[Nugget]

by the way i post most of this using my phone im on the computer now and i can see how crazy my posts look!

 

but also i will look into reinstatement even tho its going to take some serious courage to take even 0.5mg

 

Is it possible i could take prozac 0.5mg? i read that i could and ive taken it before. theres a chance that the lexapro was messing with me in the end because i would get horrible panic attacks briefly after taking it im not sure if it was me or the medication.there were times when i would take the lexapro and not even be worried or thinking about it yet still panic about an hour after taking it. what do you think?

 

Also is reinstating a must? or can i cope and let time heal it?

[Heath]

@Nugget I will tell you after I tried several times to stop these ssris I became very fearful of changing anything doses or brand . I was scared of them, because they hurt me per say but I couldn’t stop them either.  I would just take it and go on. I did not want to think about my thoughts or medicine. I understand my fear was different than yours , but the reason I mention this like @ChessieCat says that once I started learning more about these drugs, side effects, withdrawals  and my thoughts the fear went away.  I’m still learning more and more! 

[Nugget]

@Heath thanks I'm just not sure what to do i don't want it to make me worse

[ChessieCat]

Did you have any issues when you took Prozac previously?  If not, then you might be about to take instead of Lexapro.  The other option would be to take citalopram which is a gentler cousin of Lexapro/escitalopram.  However if you didn't have any issues with Prozac but you do think you had issues with Lexapro then Prozac might be the better option for you.  But you were taking 40mg Lexapro which is a large dose so it might have been side effects and generally side effects reduce when the dose is lowered.

 

No, reinstating is not a "must", it's an option, and it is entirely your decision whether you reinstate or not.  The best thing you can do is learn as much as you can so that you can make an informed decision.

 

Please let us know if you decide to reinstate and which drug you decide on.

[Nugget]

@ChessieCat ive never had any bad reactions to any of the medications they all worked very well for me they would only make me drowsy thats it.

 

40mg was probably too much and being on it for that long and may have caused issues here recently in august or it could be that my fear of taking it caused me to panic every time i’m not sure...

 

I know i need to make a decision but i’m m really scared to make that decision...

[Nugget]

@ChessieCat i would like to also say i think im healing well because i had horrible brain zaps for most of my WD and they pretty much don't exist anymore.

 

but signs like the brain zaps going away make me feel like i should let my nervous system heal without the reinstatement other symptoms that were really bad have gotten much better as well.

 

Its still rough but i am getting better and i don't want to take the risk of ruining my progress with reinstatement.

 

I can tolerate everything else. i may look into trying magnesium and fish oil that may help even more! very small doses of course

[ChessieCat]

8 hours ago, Nugget said:

i may look into trying magnesium and fish oil that may help even more! very small doses of course

 

And only make one change at a time.

[Nugget]

Let me just say I'm getting alot better at coping with my symptoms like sometimes i will have thoughts of feeling sorry myself and ill catch it and say to myself thats not true staying positive has been very helpful! 

 

Im not saying I’m perfect i definitely still have my moments but i just feel like i’m getting better i tell myself no matter how bad i feel they are just feelings and will go away and they always do.

[Nugget]

Hey so i noticed about an hour after i woke up i had an intense feeling of anger for no reason it scared me a little because i don’t want to blow up on someone accidentally but luckily its gone right now just thought i would update you guys since it was new for me. anyone know a coping mechanism for anger specifically? i haven't read one on here.

[Heath]

Yes I have experienced this before in past and just this last time also. I was irritable and angry. It creeps up on me and after it goes away That’s when I noticed it. And look back. This is a withdrawal/side effect I’m learning to notice. There are some marriage discussions on here that talks about anger and mod changes.

[GreenFlanelBeaver95]

I too had to fast taper do to adverse reactions I couldn't stand. I quit cold turkey Currently dealing with gi issues minor heart flutters and aggravating pain in my upper back between my shoulder blades and neck just to name a few of my symptoms.

[Nugget]

@GreenFlanelBeaver95 Ya i get the heart things too mostly when I get in the shower or eat too much but they dont bother me anymore i honestly could care less at this point 

[Nugget]

Ok so an update on my situation ive actually been able to eat whole meals lately (actually can eat whatever i want now basically) and not feel bad at all im starting to sleep at normal hours again as well. dumb question but is this a good sign that im getting better?

[Gridley]

40 minutes ago, Nugget said:

is this a good sign that im getting better?

Yes, these are very good signs that you're getting better.

[Nugget]

@Gridley thanks for replying i know you guys are busy!

[Nugget]

Ok so pretty sure i was just having a window because now my sleep is all messed up worse mood lately DP etc. the windows are becoming more frequent around one or two days every week i guess thats still a good sign hopefully i get another window soon.

[Nugget]

@Gridleyhey not sure who to ask but i’ve had a concerning symptom thats been happening lately it’s basically a recurring dream and i’m paralyzed or maybe some sort of seizure with rapid brain zap sensation in this dream and i immediately wake up after. all i want to know if this is actually happening to my body or if this is just a recurring nightmare i’m having? its only happened twice in my 3 months withdrawal but they give me some concern and im completely fine when i wake up

[Gridley]

3 hours ago, Nugget said:

rapid brain zap sensation in this dream and i immediately wake up after. all i want to know if this is actually happening to my body or if this is just a recurring nightmare i’m having?

I'm not a neurologist, so I can't give you a definite answer.  Because of the connections between the dream state and the conscious state, and because brain zaps are such a common withdrawal symptom, my best guess would be that these zaps are occurring in your brain (a totally normal WD symptom) and filtering through to the dream state.

[manymoretodays]

Hey Nugget,

I had something like what you described, when I was on Effexor I think.  But then again, I was also probably in WD from something else at that time too.

And with me, I concluded that it was just a nightmare type thing, as when I woke up.....I too was fine.  I think it resulted from a lot of fears/anxiety at that time too.  That were somewhat suppressed...... I just mean that I was not aware of those feelings when awake.  Perhaps I was too numbed/dumbed down from the drugs they had me on.

 

I'm finding a couple of topics, that might fit, just as far as helping you feel less concern, and more comfort that others go through some similar symptoms too.

 

Lucid/vivid dreaming

 

Hypnic/hypnagogic jerks when falling asleep

different symptom description, but a great link to the Music for Self Care topic, in the first post

 

And oh, on the anger neuroemotion:  Managing anger

There's an online tutorial in that one ^.  And then if you come up with some good coping too, do please add to any topic where it may apply.

 

Oh Nugget, it looks like you are coming along nicely now, all things considered, in your healing.

 

And Best, L, P, H, and G,

mmt

 

 

[Nugget]

@manymoretodays i’m doing so much better i feel like i’m recovering well only thing that bothers me anymore is my odd sleep pattern and the nightmare thing which has actually only happened twice and i think your right about it being underlying anxiety or fears that come out when im dreaming which result in nightmares i dont have brain zaps at all anymore only when im sleeping actually i can eat all i want no problem (occasionally i get heartburn) and i rarely have any mood issues im mostly stable and its only been 3 months!

[manymoretodays]

That's good to hear, and I'm glad you can eat better now.

So, you might be able to figure out what causes the heartburn now......just pay good attention to what you ate before you got it.

If it's like reflux at all, that you get when you lay down or go to bed, might be better to quit eating several hours before bedtime, and watch the caffiene, or cut it out.

 

That's a great update, Nugget. 

Thanks for letting us know.

 

L, P, H, and G,

mmt

[Nugget]

@manymoretodays i havent had caffiene in like 4 months and it is like reflux but i get it all day not just laying down