Ssriwimp: Prone to Severe withdrawals - help

[Ssriwimp]

HI All - I am currently dealing with medication issues again.... 

I was taking abilify 2mg and cylexa 30mg for the last decade - I most recently weened of abilify over 2 months and am completely off it as of last week. 
My cylexa has also stopped working so we're cross tappering me from cylexa to lexapro. I'm weening off cylexa going from 30mg to 10mg and adding 5mg of lexapro. I'm doing this for one week. Then switching to 10mg lexapro and 5mg cyxlexa. The third week will remove cylexa competely. They also want to add wellbutrin... 

At this point I've gone through withdrawals so many times. I'm scared and hopeless at this point. My wife is currently pregnant (great timing :)) and I need to be alert. Right now i'm dealing with intense anxiety as soon as I wake up - insomnia - waking up at 4-5am - light and sound sensitivity - headache - nausea/lack of appetite - depressed more so then ever. I'm fighting my way day by day but with work and life. I'm ready to just quit and go back on my original meds.

I'm very very sensitive to withdrawal. as a recovering opiate addict - heroin withdrawals don't even compare to this. I'd love to hear any tips, guidance, support anything to help. Every doctor seems to not know how to properly taper. 

[hayduke]

Hi @Ssriwimp and welcome to SA.

 

Sorry to hear you are going through so much discomfort.

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/1112-non-drug-techniques-to-cope-with-emotional-symptoms/

 

You are making much more rapid changes to your drugs and dosages than we would generally suggest.  Even at the 10%/month we use as a baseline, withdrawal can have significant symptoms.  Faster and larger changes tend to exacerbate them.  Introducing and removing new drugs is stressful in itself and can lead to further problems.

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/6632-the-rule-of-3kis-keep-it-simple-keep-it-slow-keep-it-stable/

If you were coping ok with the aripiprazole before and only stopped it last week, you might consider reinstating a smaller amount to ease your insomnia and anxiety.  You would certainly want to wait until that is settled before making any other changes to your drugs - the cross taper you've just started won't be helping, I think.

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/7562-about-reinstating-and-stabilizing-to-stop-withdrawal-symptoms/

Please help us get a better picture of your situation by creating a drug history with dates of stops, starts, dosages and any changes.  

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/24613-how-to-summarize-your-drug-history-in-your-signature/