Ninabird: Tapering Lexapro

[Ninabird]

Hi all, 

Been on 20mg of Lexapro (5 months) & .50mg of Klonopin ( 8 months) I was having breakthrough anxiety (it could also be tolerance to the Klonopin?) and my Psychiatrist upped my dose to 25mg. After two weeks of horrible side effects she had me come back down to the 20mg. I have felt horrible the last 3 weeks. Occasional burning in stomach, anxiety, depression, feeling mentally off, burning in my head, some tingling in my head, muscle tightness, not feeling well at all. Is this common? 
to give a little bit of background, anxiety is relatively new to me. I was put on Effexor and Klonopin 4 years ago. 75mg of Effexor. .25mg of Klonopin once a day. After 5 months I weaned myself off of the Klonopin over 5 months. When I started my taper, I was taking Half of the .25. I did ok on the taper. No horrible side effects. Then over the next 9 months weaned off the Lexapro. Anxiety was much better and manageable. Then Covid hit and my mother died. 6 months later my nephew passed away. Anxiety returned w a vengeance. Was put on Zoloft ( was on it for 2 and Klonopin .50mg and it was awful. Zoloft put me in the hospital for 5 days. Dr’s CT me off of Zoloft and put me on Remeron. Even worse reaction. After two weeks, took me off Remeron and put me on Prozac 20mg. 
prozac helped a bit but I had headaches everyday for 6 months. Cross tapered to Lexapro over 3 months. 
 

I don’t drink. I eat clean. I don’t do drugs. No caffeine. 
 

I know this site is for coming off of antidepressants. With my anxiety it would not be a good thing. I become debilitated. 
 

We are going to cross taper to Effexor slowly. 
I’m very scared. I need to function so I can work. 
 

My long term goal is to stabilise on Effexor. Wait a month and start tapering off of the Klonopin using the Ashton method as I had before. 
 

Any advice would be appreciated. I’m so so thankful to have found this forum. 

[Kiasofia]

Welcome @Ninabird

I'm sorry you are suffering. These drugs tend to make the condition they are meant to treat even worse. The body adjusts to the drug and then the only effect of taking them is to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Benzos, like klonopin, are known to cause rebound anxiety after using them for a while.

What is withdrawal syndrome?

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen's withdrawal symptom checklist

 

20mg lexapro is the absolute maximum dose of a very strong drug, so raising it to 25mg can explain the symptoms you got. It was too high a dose for you to handle.

 

What happened when you took Zoloft? Why are you planning to switch back to Effexor? I would advise you to instead, taper to a less potent lexapro dose and stabilize there. A cross taper can result in lexapro withdrawal if Effexor isn't able to cover it. Starting and stopping psychiatric drugs is bad for the central nervous system (CNS). Each time we start and stop it becomes more and more sensitized. The risk of a bad reaction to restarting the drug or starting other drugs or supplements increases.

Tips for tapering off escitalopram (Lexapro)

 

As there are common misconceptions about how these drugs work I found this post helpful to understand what is going on:

How Psychiatric Drugs Remodel Your Brain 

 

I highly recommend reading  Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker (interview) as well as A straight talking introduction to psychiatric drugs by Joanna Moncrieff to better understand these drugs and their effects. The Council for Evidence based Psychiatry also has a lot of good information.

 

To help us better advise you, can you please create a signature with all of the drugs that you are taking and have been taking in the last couple of years following these instructions:

How to List Drug History in Signature

 

This is your Introductory topic, where you can ask questions and connect with other members.  We're glad you found your way here. Please stay in touch and let us know how you are doing.

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Kiasofia

[Foxclover6]

My stomach burns all the time now

[Ninabird]

@Foxclover6

Good morning. I am sorry your stomach burns all the time. Mine burns from time to time but it passes quickly. I pray this passes for you soon. 

 

@Kiasofia I am NOT going back to Effexor. Our care plan is to wait to stabilize after the CT/crossover from 37.5mg of Effexor to 30mg Cymbalta. My former Psychiatrist took me from 25mg of Lexapro to 10 in less than a month. So, the last 3 months my poor brain is not doing well. 

 

Zoloft caused my anxiety to soar and stop sleeping. My former Psychiatrist just kept raising my dose and added Klonopin but I just got worse. I ended up in a hospital and they CT me from Zoloft and put me on Remeron which was awful. I was confused, DP, thoughts of serious aggression, high anxiety..that's when I was switched to Prozac. I had been on Prozac 2 years earlier and did ok on it. Not this time. I had a lot more depression and headaches every single day for months. I had an MRI and it was normal. Thank goodness. 

[Ninabird]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:57 PM, Ninabird said:

We are going to cross taper to Effexor slowly. 

This was from Jan.