Golrabs: Antidepressants since 2000

[manymoretodays]

Hi Gorabs,

You would not necessarily need to be tapering to experience interdose WD from either the oxcarbazepine or clonazepam.

 

Can you do a nice objective lay out of your drugs and symptoms prior to Altostrata coming around again?

Daily drugs and symptoms diary

 

Do like the example given in that link ^

Present day, not just this is how it always is........as something might stand out with one or the other of those 2 drugs.  I know oxcarbazepine is often split into 2 doses to get the total daily amount in, and sometimes clonazepam too.......so this will really help Alto to see what is what even better than narratives.

 

Times to the left, drugs by name and dose on the right, and also symptoms on the right as they occur throughout the day.

 

I think you've done some already.  Stay objective out of emotions or cognitive chatter and just give us the facts of a day or 2, or even 3.  Each posted separately.  Might help with further stabilization prior to any more tapers.

 

Rooting for you!

mmt

 

 

[Golrabs]

@manymoretodays

 

Sorry, I haven't posted a layout of my day and drugs/symptoms. It's really the same every day for the exception that the symptoms listed previously are significantly worse on the bad weeks, enough where I can't function, and on the good weeks I'm pretty functional and my nervous system seems to hold up to the most basic of stressors.  Like I had said, my body is in some kind of weird windows/waves pattern the last 10 months. The windows last ~7-10 day and the waves last ~7-10 days. It's almost like clockwork. I haven't noticed any triggers that can put me in a bad week or any amount of calm, meditation, or reduction of stressors that aids in getting me out of a bad week. You just live through each of them as they come.

 

At the ending of April I tried an experiment and split my 300 mg Oxcarbazepine pill in half and took half (1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night) instead of the full pill at night. At first my body reacted pretty strongly. I was in one of my bad weeks and the swings of adrenaline were intense for a couple of days. Eventually it smoothed out and after a week I started to have better "good" weeks and slightly less distressing bad weeks, mostly because the akathisia was less intense on the bad weeks. I was sleeping a little less, maybe 1 hours less, so 5-6 instead of 6-7. After consulting with my doctor we decided to try and reduce the Lexapro 5 days ago. This cycle of good week to bad week wasn't breaking after nearly a year and other than splitting the Oxcarbazepine dose 4 weeks ago, I've been on the same doses and drugs and for 6 months with no change in this pattern of good/bad pattern. The only noticeable change is the good weeks are slightly better and the bad weeks just a touch better, although I'm not certain that I'm not just better at handling the distress of akathisia though. I wasn't reaching the stabilization that I would be comfortable with to start making cuts in Lexapro like I had hoped and I wasn't sure that Lexapro wasn't causing some of this pattern to begin with.

 

I insisted on going slow so I cut it by 1 mg from 12.5 to 11.5 mg. 5 days in and it's a pretty big step back. My body wakes up at 6 am (5 hours of sleep max) and the intensity of my shakiness is about as bad as it was at the beginning, when this whole windows/waves thing started when I quit Pristiq CT last year. I wake up at 6 am tired and restless and my akathisia is humming strong by 7 am. Nausea, no appetite, hot skin, burning eyes, some involuntary muscle movement in arms and legs...it stays this way until late a night sometimes until 9 pm. It's only been 5 days and the reduction was less than 10% but it clearly had a pretty strong effect. I obviously worried/scared since I absolutely don't feel like I can handle what I went through those first few months when I tried to go CT last year and I slept 1-2 hours a night and had all the worst symptoms, along with panic and some depersonalization for a few months straight with almost no let up. I don't want to just jack the Lexapro back up to 12.5 mg, but I wanted to know if I've gone too quick or if you've noticed any major mistakes I've made.

 

Below is pretty much my exact pattern every day the last 8-10 months, except that I split the Oxcarbazepine 4 weeks ago.

 

Bad week

7:00 AM      wake-up; drowsy but unable to rest, inner restlessness and shakiness

8:00 AM      Take 12.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine

9:00 AM      Eat breakfast       

9 AM - 5 PM     Akathisia has increased where it's difficult to sit and I'm nauseous and have no appetite. It often gets bad enough where I cry because it's so uncomfortable, painful, and relentless; it's different from depressed crying if that makes sense. Sometimes constant movement then some stretching and meditation will drop it down a notch and I can sit and focus on TV or something distracting, but it comes back just as strong so after. This goes on all day well into the evening. Depending on how bad the day is, I can get headaches, burning eyes, sensations of hot skin, and sensitivity to noise and light.  

12:30 Lunch -If I can eat I do, even something small.  

6:00 PM   Dinner; symptoms sometimes start to lessen at this time

8:00 PM   Akathisia is decreasing but not gone. 

9:00 PM take Oxcarbazepine 150 mg  

10:00 PM   Symptoms have usually subsided, except for maybe a headache and burning eyes

10:30 - 11:00 pm  Take Clonazepam .375 mg

11:30 Usually tired enough to fall asleep

 

 

Good week

8:00 AM      wake-up; drowsy but able rest, sometimes too drowsy, but only with mild restlessness

8:00 AM      Take 12.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine

9:00 AM      Eat breakfast       

9 AM - 5 PM     Akathisia has decreased, no nausea and good appetite. I may not feel joy or happiness, but my body feels pretty calm and relaxed. I can go for walks, do some mild exercise, converse with others, run errands, and if I was working, I'd probably be functioning where no one could tell the difference.

12:30 Lunch -Eat a good meal  

6:00 PM   Dinner; few symptoms that I recognize. Sometimes a drowsy.

9:00 PM take Oxcarbazepine 150 mg       

10:30 - 11:00 pm  Take Clonazepam .375 mg

11:30 Usually have more energy at night on than on bad weeks, so going to sleep can take a couple hours

[Shep]

On 12/20/2022 at 6:00 AM, Shep said:

There may be ways of changing the timing of your drugs to prevent adverse drug reactions and paradoxical reactions. As you can see from this drug interaction report, there are several potential moderate drug interactions:

 

Drug interaction checker - lexapro, oxcarbazepine, clonazepam

 

@Golrabs Just a reminder about the drug interactions in your cocktail. It's okay to split the oxcarbazepine to take in the morning and the evening, but you may want to keep it at least 2 hours apart from the other drugs due to the interactions. 

 

19 hours ago, Golrabs said:

I insisted on going slow so I cut it by 1 mg from 12.5 to 11.5 mg.

 

In the drug journal in your last post, you have 12.5 mg listed (not 11.5 mg). Are you still keeping a journal of your drugs and symptoms? Feel free to continue to do this and post recent days that include your reduced dose. 

 

Please update your signature to reflect your changes. 

[Golrabs]

@Shep @manymoretodays

 

I just changed my dose of Lexapro 6 days ago from 12.5 mg to 11.5 mg. I'll update my signature. At the bottom is short journal for the last 2 days, pretty similar to what my last 6 days have looked like. 

 

9 hours ago, Shep said:

In the drug journal in your last post, you have 12.5 mg listed (not 11.5 mg). Are you still keeping a journal of your drugs and symptoms? Feel free to continue to do this and post recent days that include your reduced dose. 

 

I may try this with to space out the morning doses by a couple of hours, by taking the Oxcarbazepine a couple of hours later than the Lexapro.

 

9 hours ago, Shep said:

Just a reminder about the drug interactions in your cocktail. It's okay to split the oxcarbazepine to take in the morning and the evening, but you may want to keep it at least 2 hours apart from the other drugs due to the interactions. 

 

 

Yesterday

6:00 AM      wake-up drowsy. Difficult to get out of bed, but unable to sleep. Inner restlessness immediately grows as my body awakens; stretch, meditate, try breathing excises.

8:00 AM      Take 12.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; by this time I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable

8:00 AM      Eat small breakfast; no appetite     

10:00 AM     By 10 am the akathisia (my description) has increased where it's difficult to sit and I'm feel a bit nauseous and have no appetite. Force myself to to do push ups, jumping jacks when the inner restlessness is so it's unbearable to distract myself with TV. It's hard to say if the akathisia gets worse because after I take the morning drugs or not. When I have weeks where my akathisia is mostly calm I don't feel any change at all after taking my morning medication. When it's a week where it's bad it get worse the first few hours of the day until it plateaus, then fluctuates as the day goes on regardless of what I do.  

12:30 Lunch -Eat something small because nausea and no appetite. Continue to to distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time. 

6:00 PM   Very small dinner; it's been a really long day already. Symptoms are still strong. My eyes burns and my skin is hot.

8:00 PM   I dissolve a little magnesium 50 mg in some water and drink it. Akathisia is decreasing a little

9:00 PM Still restless but a little better. Take Oxcarbazepine 150 mg  

10:00 PM   Symptoms have subsided a little although I'm more restless than I usually am at this time. Mild headache and burning eyes; some anxiety

11:00 pm  Take Clonazepam .375 mg; takes a while to fall asleep. I have to get up and stretch to calm down the restlessness at around midnight. May have fallen asleep around 1 - 2  am.

 

 

Today

8:00 AM      wake-up drowsy. Difficult to get out of bed. Inner restlessness grows as my body awakens and shakiness starts

8:00 AM      Take 12.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; discomfort from shakiness and fear

8:30 AM      Eat small breakfast; no appetite     

10:00 AM     By 10 am the akathisia has increased. I take a walk, come home and shower. 

12:00 Lunch - Force myself to eat a decent lunch. I distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time. Meditate and rest

3:30 PM Answer post on SA; restless, nausea, although not as bad as yesterday 

 

[Shep]

13 hours ago, Golrabs said:

I may try this with to space out the morning doses by a couple of hours, by taking the Oxcarbazepine a couple of hours later than the Lexapro.

 

Please let us know how you do as you separate your drugs. It may take a few days to a week or more before your system fully adjusts, but hopefully you'll see results soon. 

[Golrabs]

5/15

6:00 AM      wake-up drowsy. Difficult to get out of bed, but unable to sleep. Have been sleeping less since reducing my Lexapro by 1 MG (12.5 to 11.5) Inner restlessness immediately grows as my body awakens; stretch, meditate, try breathing excises.

8:00 AM      Take 11.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; by this time I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable

8:00 AM      Eat small breakfast; no appetite     

10:00 AM     By 10 am the akathisia (my description) has increased where it's difficult to sit and I'm feel a bit nauseous and have no appetite. Force myself to to do push ups, jumping jacks when the inner restlessness is so it's unbearable to distract myself with TV. It's hard to say if the akathisia gets worse because after I take the morning drugs or not. When I have weeks where my akathisia is mostly calm I don't feel any change at all after taking my morning medication. When it's a week where it's bad it get worse the first few hours of the day until it plateaus, then fluctuates as the day goes on regardless of what I do.  

12:30 Lunch -Eat something small because nausea and no appetite. Continue to to distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time. 

6:00 PM   Very small dinner; it's been a really long day already. Symptoms are still strong. My eyes burns and my skin is hot.

8:00 PM   I dissolve a little magnesium 50 mg in some water and drink it. Akathisia is decreasing a little

9:00 PM Still restless but a little better. Take Oxcarbazepine 150 mg  

10:00 PM   Symptoms have subsided a little although I'm more restless than I usually am at this time. Mild headache and burning eyes; some anxiety

11:00 pm  Take Clonazepam .375 mg; takes a while to fall asleep. I have to get up and stretch to calm down the restlessness at around midnight. May have fallen asleep around 1 - 2  am.

 

5/16

8:00 AM      wake-up drowsy. Difficult to get out of bed. Inner restlessness grows as my body awakens and shakiness starts

8:00 AM      Take 11.5 mg of Lexapro; 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; discomfort from shakiness and fear

8:30 AM      Eat small breakfast; no appetite     

10:00 AM     By 10 am the akathisia has increased. I take a walk, come home and shower. 

12:00 Lunch - Force myself to eat a decent lunch. I distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time. Meditate and rest

3:30 PM Answer post on SA; restless, nausea, although not as bad as yesterday 

5:30 PM Small dinner; still very restless 

7:00 Therapy telehealth appointment hopelessness at it's worst right before appointment; talked it through with therapist and talking reduced some of it

9:00 PM Take 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; eyes burn, restless, jumpy and easily triggered most of the day but starting to get a tad better

11:00 PM take .375 mg Clonazepam; cannot sleep, toss and turn until well after 1 am. Not sure when I fall asleep.

 

5/17

5:00 AM      Roused from sleep. Can't fall back asleep. Get up a half hour later extremely drowsy, but restless limbs and heartrate elevated. Do some stretching and breathing techniques. Amazingly fall back asleep around 6 am.

8:00 AM      Roused from sleep even more activated than earlier. Take 11.5 mg of Lexapro; discomfort from shakiness and fear

8:15 AM      Eat small breakfast; no appetite; very restless. Pacing.

9:00 Try some meditation but too restless and shaky, thoughts racing.

10:00 AM Take 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine (2 hours later than my Lexapro)      

11:00 AM     Shower and lie down to calm down and distract from intrusive thoughts. 

12:10 Lunch - May have actually napped from 15 minutes, but wake up with a jolt. Not a brain shock, but my whole body pulsed awake like a cattle prod touched it. Very restless. 

12:30 Go for walk and pick up medication from grocery store

2:00 PM Force a lunch down

3:30 PM After distracting myself with word searches for an hour my body hits a big wave and I'm hypersensitized. Extremely shaky and unable to sit still. Break down and cry to a family member.     

 

 

[Shep]

@Golrabs How is your diet? I know you're struggling to get food down right now, but are you able to get enough protein? This is extremely important. Many people find that their blood sugar drops a lot during withdrawal, so eating a enough protein and eliminating sugar and high glycemic carbs can be very helpful. Not only can low blood sugar lead to some of the same symptoms as withdrawal, so can dehydration. It's easy to stop drinking water when your appetite is poor, so make sure you're getting plenty of water throughout the day. 

 

You may find that eating a few bites of protein and drinking a glass of water when you first wake up can be helpful. It doesn't have to be a lot of food, just a handful of almonds or a scrambled egg can help until you're able to eat more. 

 

Please continue on with your journal. It's very helpful. 

[Golrabs]

So I've made a second drop of Lexapro (updated in my signature). I dropped 1 mg and waited 4 weeks. I dropped another 1 mg 8 days ago. Last few days of journaling are below. 

The last 8 weeks have been the most stable I've been in the last 12 months, although I still have my days-long episodes. In 8-10 months previous I had somewhat predictable alternating periods of 7-10 days: 7-10 of relative stability, then 7-10 of hell. The last 6-8 weeks, especially since I've split the Oxcarbazepine into two doses (one morning dose and one night dose) my stable weeks have been better and longer lasting and my bad weeks have been shorter (about 4-6 days), but still intensely uncomfortable.

 

I'm posting because I'm speculating about the Clonazepam that I take at nightly.  Since I am still having really bad episodes, although shorter, where I'm debilitated, could the Clonazepam be causing interdose withdrawal?  The reason that it doesn't make sense is that I don't have strong symptoms every day, just the awful episodes that last multiple days in a row. Plus Clonazepam has a longer half life. The genetic test I took indicated I am an ultrarapid metabolizer on a couple of genotypes which means that the dose may not be that effective because I metabolize it quickly, which complicates this theory. Plus I restarted Clonazepam after being off of it for 2 1/2 years because I wasn't sleeping for that whole time (RLS) and didn't go back on Clonazepam again until I went CT on my antidepressant 13 months ago and I went back on everything to reduce the withdrawal and help me sleep.  

 

 

5/14

8:00 AM      wake-up drowsy but physically restless and uncomfortable. Have been reducing Lexapro last 2 months; now at 10.5 mg. Terrible night of sleep. Restless leg and restlessness caused significant sleep disturbance and broken sleep, maybe 4 hours total. 

8:00 AM      Take 10.5 mg of Lexapro; eat small breakfast; weak appetite

9:00 AM restlessness getting strong with depression and anxiety      

10:00 AM     Take 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine. Restlessness is strong enough that I can't sit still so I pace, meditate, try jumping jacks.   

12:30 Lunch -Eat something small because nausea and no appetite. Continue to to distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time. Restlessness and depression are very uncomfortable. 

6:00 PM   Very small dinner; it's been a really long day already. Symptoms strong. Flu-like symptoms; eyes burns, skin feels hot, ears ringing, pounding heartbeat.

9:00 PM Restlessness a notch better but still strong. Take Oxcarbazepine 150 mg  

10:00 PM   Symptoms have subsided a little although I'm more restless than I usually am at this time. Mild headache and burning eyes; some anxiety

11:00 pm  Take Clonazepam .375 mg; difficult to fall asleep because of restlessness. Stretch to calm down the restlessness, eventually fall asleep around 1 - 2  am.

 

5/15

7:45 AM      wake-up drowsy. Restless body and tired

8:00 AM      Take 10.5 mg of Lexapro; Eat small breakfast; restlessness, anxiety, depression continue to grow as my body awakens  

10:00 AM     150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; shakiness and fear, depression; take a walk, then and shower. 

1:00 PM Lunch - Force a lunch I distract myself with word searches and TV to pass the time, breathwork and meditation. 

3:00 PM Very restless and shaky; keep moving to burn off some anxiety following by breathwork.  

6:45 PM Small dinner; still very restless with depression 

7:00 Therapy telehealth; EMDR

9:00 PM Take 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine; eyes burn, restless, ears ringing, jumpy and easily triggered most of the day but starting to get a tad better

10:40 PM take .375 mg Clonazepam. Fall asleep in about an hour. 

 

6/16

7:45 AM      Roused from sleep. Can't fall back asleep. Drowsy, but less restless than previous two mornings after a good sleep. 

8:00 AM Take 10.5 mg of Lexapro

8:15 AM      Eat small breakfast; little appetite

9:00 AM Restlessness increasing and body awakens

10:00 AM Take 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine      

11:00 AM     Shower and take a long walk  

12:30 Eat lunch; restless, intermittent depression, anxiety, flu like symptoms of burning eyes and hot skin

3:30 PM Distract with TV and reading news. Anxiety increases after reading about and speculating about psychiatric and benzo damage. Takes some time and focus on other things like TV and writing to calm anxiety.

6:00 PM Eat dinner; restless; moderate flu-like symptoms    

[Shep]

10 hours ago, Golrabs said:

So I've made a second drop of Lexapro (updated in my signature). I dropped 1 mg and waited 4 weeks. I dropped another 1 mg 8 days ago. Last few days of journaling are below. 

The last 8 weeks have been the most stable I've been in the last 12 months, although I still have my days-long episodes.

 

Golrabs, just so we're on the same page, are you reducing by 1 mg going forward? Please note you're going to be tapering faster than 10% per month (based on the prior month's dose) if you continue on with 1 mg reductions for each reduction. It's best to taper no faster than 10%. 

 

If you drop another 1 mg from your current 10.5 mg dose, it will be about a 10% reduction. However, if you reduce 1 mg from 9.5 mg, that will be slightly more than 10%. And then another 1 mg decrease (down to 7.5 mg from 8.5 mg) will be a 12% decrease. 

 

10 hours ago, Golrabs said:

I'm posting because I'm speculating about the Clonazepam that I take at nightly.  Since I am still having really bad episodes, although shorter, where I'm debilitated, could the Clonazepam be causing interdose withdrawal?  The reason that it doesn't make sense is that I don't have strong symptoms every day, just the awful episodes that last multiple days in a row.

 

I agree that it doesn't make sense that it's interdose withdrawal for the reason you mention. It's possible what you're experiencing are waves. 

 

How many hours are you sleeping most nights? 

 

Do you feel you're stabilizing overall? You mentioned, "The last 8 weeks have been the most stable I've been in the last 12 months, although I still have my days-long episodes." It sounds like you're doing better overall, which is great to read. 

 

[Altostrata]

16 hours ago, Golrabs said:

8:00 AM      Take 10.5 mg of Lexapro; eat small breakfast; weak appetite

9:00 AM restlessness getting strong with depression and anxiety  

 

This indicates the activation is from Lexapro and may well continue into the night to disturb your sleep. 

How has your sleep pattern changed with the two reductions?

[Golrabs]

My sleep had stabilized a bit before the last two medication changes (splitting the Oxcarbazepine and reducing the Lexapro). Since then changed I've had a much harder time falling asleep. Then I sleep about 4-5 hours, so sleep has worsened whether I'm going through a more stable week or an awful week. 

 

[Altostrata]

What has your sleep pattern been since you reduced escitalopram June 12?

[Golrabs]

Since my reduction on June 12th I've had a pretty similar sleep pattern from when I made my first reduction on May 12th. Difficult to fall asleep, with restless leg symptom for 1-2 hours, then about 4-5 good hours of sleep. 

[Altostrata]

Suggest you not make any more drug changes until your sleep improves.

[Golrabs]

@Altostrata

 

Assuming my sleep improves, approximately how long should I wait after that to being tapering again? 

[Altostrata]

Wait until your sleep is stable and satisfactory.

[Golrabs]

Just an update, since I haven't posted in almost 7 weeks. In late May I started a slow taper of Lexapro from 12.5 mg.  I was encouraged that my akathisia-days cycles had reduced from about 7-10 days long to 4-5 days long, which gave me the courage to start my taper. I have now made three drops. With each drop I made I usually had a precursor of few days of headaches (w/ other symptoms which are less debilitating) followed by 7 days of akathisia (although somewhat milder than in the previous 12 months). I don't know if it's milder because I split the Oxcarbazepine from nighttime only to half in the morning and half at night, but since made the split these rough weeks have "generally" been less severe. Another important thing I've noticed is that my biggest rough patch usually occurs 4-5 weeks from when I make the drop. Wondering if this could have anything to do with Lexapro's longer half life?

 

When I dropped down to 10 mg on June 24th this year I had my initial bumpy week, but it wasn't until 4-5 weeks later that I had 10 days pretty debilitating akathisia. Since then I've had about 20 days straight that have been ok - I wake up restless, tense, and depressed, but after after vigorous 30 minute bike ride, shower, food and an hour of relaxation my body relaxes and I can have a pretty functional day. I'm more than a little disappointed that my sleep has been difficult - about 5 hours a night where restless legs/insomnia takes several hours to sleep and sometime wakes me up a couple times for an hour. 

 

All in all, just hoping to stabilize sleep here at 10 mg and staying hopeful I can keep up with this pattern where my symptoms are minimized to the first few hours of the morning.   

[Altostrata]

What times o'clock do you take your drugs, with their dosages?

 

1 hour ago, Golrabs said:

Wondering if this could have anything to do with Lexapro's longer half life?

 

Lexapro does not have a very long half-life, only 27-33 hours. A dosage decrease would take full effect 7-10 days later.

 

1 hour ago, Golrabs said:

When I dropped down to 10 mg on June 24th this year I had my initial bumpy week, but it wasn't until 4-5 weeks later that I had 10 days pretty debilitating akathisia.

 

Please explain what you mean by akathisia. Did this occur at any particular times of day?

 

On 6/17/2023 at 9:58 AM, Altostrata said:

This indicates the activation is from Lexapro and may well continue into the night to disturb your sleep. 

 

In June, we determined the activation was from too much Lexapro, it wasn't really akathisia.

[Golrabs]

1 hour ago, Altostrata said:

What times o'clock do you take your drugs, with their dosages?

 

I take 10mg of Lexapro at 8 am, 150 mg of Oxcarbazepine at 10 am, 150 Oxcarbazepine at 9 pm, and then .375 mg of Clonazepam between 10:30 to 11:00 pm. 

 

1 hour ago, Altostrata said:

Please explain what you mean by akathisia. Did this occur at any particular times of day?

 

I call it akathisia because that's the description by people on this site and other resources most closely resembles how it feels to me. Basically it's an intense inner restlessness that is so strong that sitting down feels unbearable. I feel like I have to pace, do jumping jacks, push ups ever or rock back and forth. Sometimes it's so intense I'll just cry from the helplessness and discomfort of the feeling. It used to happen every day, all day when I first unsuccessful when CT off Pristiq last year. Since then it comes in cycles, roughly 7-10 days where it's bad and then 7-10 days where that particular symptom isn't really a problem. It's what often wakes me up in the morning, but sometimes it starts just a few minutes after awakening. 

 

I've made a couple of changes the last 2.5 months that has seemed to change things a little. First, I split the dose of Oxcarbazepine. I had originally been only taking at 300 mg pill at night. Next, I've dropped from 12.5 mg to 10 mg of Lexapro it's been a little different. Since then the sleep has been a bit worse, with some RLS, and the akathisia is milder but it usually comes every day when I wake up, regardless if it's "bad" week or a "good" week, and when I get up and get some exercise, food, and shower it usually subsides by 11 am to 12pm. It's kind of an improvement I suppose, but I'm thinking I should hold a bit longer to stabilize the sleep and maybe gain some confidence while I'm able to help this restlessness subside in the early morning.

[Altostrata]

You've been taking 0.375mg clonazepam at the same time each night since March?

 

What time do you go to sleep?

 

41 minutes ago, Golrabs said:

the akathisia is milder but it usually comes every day when I wake up

 

This occurs before you take Lexapro every day? When did this symptom start at this time of day?

 

 

[Golrabs]

13 minutes ago, Altostrata said:

You've been taking 0.375mg clonazepam at the same time each night since March?

 

What time do you go to sleep?

 

Yes, I've been taking the same amount of Clonazepam since approximately March. I go to sleep at 11:00. 

14 minutes ago, Altostrata said:

This occurs before you take Lexapro every day? When did this symptom start at this time of day

 

Yes, this occurs before I take Lexapro every day. This symptom has been occurring first thing in the morning since I quit Pristiq last year. At first it was nearly every day. Then it settles into cycles. But over the last month or so it's been every day, although, like I mentioned, it's usually not as severe. The last 20 days I've it's just the first 2-3 hours in the morning.  

 

[Altostrata]

3 hours ago, Golrabs said:

The last 20 days I've it's just the first 2-3 hours in the morning.  

 

So it's been lessening as time goes on?

[Golrabs]

Ever so slowly, I think.  It's gone from the really intense restlessness that lasts 7-10 days, followed by 7-10 days where I didn't have the crazy restlessness to what it's been like this month: less intense restlessness, but I have it every day for shorter periods. 

[Altostrata]

That indicates you are slowly moving towards stabilization.