SaltedGinkgoNuts Benzo and SSRI Withdrawal

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Am seeking support as my journey has just begun.AntiDepressant Nightmare Complete.pdf

[Altostrata]

Welcome, SaltedGinkgoNuts.

 

I see you've appended a 7-page closely spaced pdf about your medical history.

 

Could you please summarize your benzo and antidepressant situation and your current questions here? Thanks.

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

The short version: been on 10mg Fluoxetine for 4 years. Decided to stop Cold Turkey. Was off of it for 3 months than begin experiencing Discontinuation Syndrome. I didn't know it was Discontinuation Syndrome. Went to see my doctor. He said my symptoms were from Diabetic Neuropathy. Didn't even mention such a thing as Discontinuation Syndrome. At that appointment he suggested I go back on the Fluoxetine - double the doseage I had been taking - and added Lorazepam. I went back on the Fluoxetine and added Lorazepam. I took the Lorazepam for about 21 days, then I stopped. It was only supposed to be for the short term anyways. A couple of days later I freaked out. Was suicidal for days, etc. That's when I started investigating just what the heck I was taking. That's when I found out about SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome and Benzo Withdrawals. I am currently still taking the Fluoxetine at 20mg per day. Am hoping I'm over the Benzo withdrawal since I wasn't a long-term user (today has been my best day in a long while). So, finally hoping with the Benzos gone and the reinstatement of the Fluoxetine I can stabilize in a few months, then begin the long taper from there. I want off!!!

Thanks,

-Tim

[Altostrata]

Okay! You're in a good position to learn about tapering.

 

Please see Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine) and the other topics pinned to the top of the Tapering forum.

 

PS Please put 2 returns between paragraphs, it makes posts easier to read. Thank you.

[lexicon]

Good morning Ginkgo ..I hope your night was peaceful ..

Wishing you a serene, and blessed day ..Lexicon

[dunerbug]

Hope you are hanging in there.

 

I wish I had this place when I started weaning. I know now, I weaned way too fast and in the wrong way.

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Not sure how I feel after returning from my visit with my general practitioner today. Went in extremely anxious, was shaking like a leaf and could barely get out more than a squeak-of-a-voice. The nurses were doing their best to calm me down. I weighed in and saw that I dropped 2 ½ more pounds this week, for a total of 16 pounds over the last few weeks. My blood pressure was ok (120/69), but my pulse was racing though at 101 bpm.

Doctor finally came in and could plainly see that I was in bad shape. As he talked I tried to calm down a bit. It was somewhat reassuring to know that he had read my 7-page ‘diatribe’ beforehand and seemed to understand my concerns, although he surely didn’t agree with everything in it. He went on to restate his position for why he put me on an antidepressant in the first place years ago, and I still believe his intent was good. He got a little flustered as I interrupted him often to correct things that I knew as fact concerning the use of antidepressants (because I’ve now become somewhat of an expert in this area). He didn’t much care for that. He brought out all the phony psych-terms like ‘chemical imbalance’ and ‘bipolar.’ The fit really hit the shan when he stated he thought I should go see a psychiatrist to discuss my newfound symptoms. I couldn’t believe it. Hadn’t he been listening to me? The only reason I have any ‘newfound’ symptoms in the first place was because I tried to STOP taking the antidepressants he already had me on! I told him there’s no way in H*#% I’m going to a pharmaceutical-pushing psych-idiot. He got the point right away. I re-clarified what had already happened to me when I stopped taking the one antidepressant, then the other; and didn’t even begin the third one he prescribed to me. Oh, I guess what you’re experiencing are withdrawals from stopping cold turkey? DUH!? Well, didn’t I read the warnings that came with the medications? Well, did you tell me what could happen? Guess it was all my fault.

Since I squelched his psychiatrist-plan, I made him agree to MY PLAN: try and level off on the Prozac for a month or two, hopefully get to a place where I feel ‘normal,’ then begin the slow taper process and be rid of it FOR GOOD, no matter how long it takes.

So, that’s where we stand right now. I’m on the Prozac-train until it slows down enough for me to step off for good.

PS No jumping off this time, Tim.

With God, all things are possible.

-Tim

[Altostrata]

Yes, doctors are difficult. Sounds like you handled that well, though. He knows exactly why you might need him to prescribe liquid Prozac for you, for example.

 

I moved your post here because it was more like a personal journal post. Intro topics are like journals, where you can track your progress.

 

Acupuncture might be helpful to bring down your pulse rate.

[strawberry17]

SaltedGinkgoNuts, thanks for your friend request here. I also want to congratulate you for standing up to your doctor, it's not easy I know, I always write things down before I go as well. I've also been tapering Prozac, for a long time, because years ago this site or one like it didn't exist so I had many failed cold turkey withdrawals before I found out the correct way to go.

[Rhiannon]

Let me add an "amen" to your standing up to your doc! The more they hear these stories and people don't just go along with the "chemical imbalance" B$, maybe they'll wake up sooner or later and realize Big Pharma has pulled the wool over their eyes. By the way, there's chemical imbalance, all right, CAUSED by the drugs, which is what makes us sick when we try to pull the drugs out of a brain that's remodeled its chemistry to adapt to them.

 

You go! :-D

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

You need to let your nervous system stabilize after reinstating. How long this might take depends on how long you've been off the drug and other factors.

 

If you were off only a couple of days, you might stabilize for a month before trying to taper. If you've been off longer, to be safe, you should give your nervous system longer to stabilize, even if symptoms go away right away.

 

If you've been off months, it might take months before you stabilize.

 

Do not attempt to taper again until you feel symptom-free.

 

(Cold turkey off another psych drug simultaneously compounds the situation.)

 

 

Asking for more advice regarding my reinstatement of Prozac. When I stopped Cold Turkey, I had been on a daily dose of 10 mg for 4 years. When I reinstated (after three months off), I was told by my GP to up the daily dose to 20 mg. Today marks Day 14 at the higher dose. I've felt like GARBAGE ever since. I am now having new symptoms never experienced before when on the 10 mg daily dose: neuromuscular twitching, dry mouth, night sweats, horrible dreams, insomnia, blurry vision, numerous anxiety moments, zero appetite (I've lost 16 pounds in just a few weeks), and more.

Since Prozac has such a long half-life, do you think it would be advisable to do a daily alternate 10 mg dose/20 mg dose to see if I could get down to just 10 mg quicker, then begin the longer taper off of that? I've only been on the 20 mg daily dose for 14 days and I don't want to NEED to be on 20 mg if I don't have to!!! Besides, I FEEL HORRIBLE now and I never did on just 10 mg!!!

My brain is SO TIRED . . .

-Tim

[basildev]

Hi Salted,

 

Firstly, it's never advisable to alternate doses. As it has been said on this forum before, that is akin to playing ping-pong with your CNS. You have to choose a dose and stick to that dose.

 

Secondly, regarding the new symptoms, there could be one of two things happening:

 

1) The 20 mg is too much for your already sensitised nervous system;

2) your body is responding to (yet another) change in dosage.

 

When I updosed from 11mg to 20 mg in late February this year, I was already experiencing withdrawal insomnia. After the updose my symptoms got progressively worse. My insomnia worsened, my anxiety worsened and I had a whole new set of symptoms such as depression, ruminating thoughts ('I'm never going to get better'), dry mouth at night, night sweats, waking with anxiety and hot flushes.

 

This went on for 2 weeks and got progressively worse. Thinking that my body could not cope with such a high dose, I dropped to 19mg for a week. If I thought I had troubles before, well this was arguably the worst week of my life! The drop made things even worse.

 

Finally on the 18th March I made a decision to stay put on 20mg and have been doing so ever since. Slowly my symptoms subsided. After 7.5 weeks on 20mg, I'm still not happy with my sleep but it is better. All other symptoms are gone.

 

So the point I'm making is:

 

1) Any change in dosage, whether you go up or down, may cause unwanted symptoms. This is because any change in dosage when you have a destabilized CNS is going to add to that destabilization.

 

2) If you are attempting to stabilize on one specific dose for any given period of time and you choose to alter that dose (up or down), this has a tendency to 'reset the clock' in your nervous system so that any gains you may have made with regard to withdrawal symptoms improving or subsiding before you changed the dose are kind of 'wiped out' and you have to start all over again (at least this happened with me)

 

3) It can take a long (LONG) time to stabilize so you have to be patient. Some people stabilize in a week. For other is can take months. If your symptoms aren't improving or are getting worse after an updose, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need drop your dosage; in some cases it certainly does, but in mine lowering the dose made things worse. Having said that, if you're experiencing serious issues such as elevated blood pressure and headaches you do have to be careful and discern between a serious adverse reaction and plain old garden variety withdrawal symptoms.

 

Hope this information helps in some way:)

[Altostrata]

Salted, this Intro topic is the place to discuss the details of your taper.

 

basildev makes excellent points. It sounds to me like 20mg Prozac is too much for you. If I were you, I'd lower to 15mg.

 

It's rarely necessary to reinstate with a larger dosage. Your doctor probably thought heavy artillery was required to get your nervous system to calm down. This is not the way to treat a nervous system.

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Salted, this Intro topic is the place to discuss the details of your taper.

 

basildev makes excellent points. It sounds to me like 20mg Prozac is too much for you. If I were you, I'd lower to 15mg.

 

It's rarely necessary to reinstate with a larger dosage. Your doctor probably thought heavy artillery was required to get your nervous system to calm down. This is not the way to treat a nervous system.

 

Thanks, friends. I'd like to do the 15 mg, I guess, but my script is 10 mg capsules. I suppose I could pull one apart and divide its contents in half, then refill the capsule. What do you think? Possible?

I only did 10 mg today and seem better. We'll see what the night's sleep brings.

 

-Salted

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Yes, doctors are difficult. Sounds like you handled that well, though. He knows exactly why you might need him to prescribe liquid Prozac for you, for example.

 

I moved your post here because it was more like a personal journal post. Intro topics are like journals, where you can track your progress.

 

Acupuncture might be helpful to bring down your pulse rate.

 

Thanks. Actually, I now keep a log of my daily Blood Pressure and Pulse Rate average. That 101 pulse rate was the highest it's been (other than when I exercise), and I know it was because I was going to butt heads with my doctor. For instance, my average over the last two days is 73 beats per minute.

Acupuncture could be an option but I live in beautiful Southern California and have a pool and a jacuzzi. I sit in the jacuzzi nearly every night, especially now. It always mellows me out.

Thanks again,

-Salted

[strawberry17]

Another vote here for trying 15mg as it does sound like 20mg is too much for you now. Can you get liquid Prozac? so much easier to make accurate measurements with the liquid.

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Another vote here for trying 15mg as it does sound like 20mg is too much for you now. Can you get liquid Prozac? so much easier to make accurate measurements with the liquid.

 

When I discussed the liquid versionwith my doctor, he dismissed it and said "I don't do that." Well, I've already contacted the hospital pharmacy to inquire as to whether or not I can get some. Have yet to hear back from them.

 

I'll keep everyone posted. Altostrata did hook me up with a good link on how to make the liquid solution myself, if need be.

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Let me add an "amen" to your standing up to your doc! The more they hear these stories and people don't just go along with the "chemical imbalance" B$, maybe they'll wake up sooner or later and realize Big Pharma has pulled the wool over their eyes. By the way, there's chemical imbalance, all right, CAUSED by the drugs, which is what makes us sick when we try to pull the drugs out of a brain that's remodeled its chemistry to adapt to them.

 

You go! :-D

 

THANKS RHI!!!

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Hi Salted,

 

Firstly, it's never advisable to alternate doses. As it has been said on this forum before, that is akin to playing ping-pong with your CNS. You have to choose a dose and stick to that dose.

 

Secondly, regarding the new symptoms, there could be one of two things happening:

 

1) The 20 mg is too much for your already sensitised nervous system;

2) your body is responding to (yet another) change in dosage.

 

When I updosed from 11mg to 20 mg in late February this year, I was already experiencing withdrawal insomnia. After the updose my symptoms got progressively worse. My insomnia worsened, my anxiety worsened and I had a whole new set of symptoms such as depression, ruminating thoughts ('I'm never going to get better'), dry mouth at night, night sweats, waking with anxiety and hot flushes.

 

This went on for 2 weeks and got progressively worse. Thinking that my body could not cope with such a high dose, I dropped to 19mg for a week. If I thought I had troubles before, well this was arguably the worst week of my life! The drop made things even worse.

 

Finally on the 18th March I made a decision to stay put on 20mg and have been doing so ever since. Slowly my symptoms subsided. After 7.5 weeks on 20mg, I'm still not happy with my sleep but it is better. All other symptoms are gone.

 

So the point I'm making is:

 

1) Any change in dosage, whether you go up or down, may cause unwanted symptoms. This is because any change in dosage when you have a destabilized CNS is going to add to that destabilization.

 

2) If you are attempting to stabilize on one specific dose for any given period of time and you choose to alter that dose (up or down), this has a tendency to 'reset the clock' in your nervous system so that any gains you may have made with regard to withdrawal symptoms improving or subsiding before you changed the dose are kind of 'wiped out' and you have to start all over again (at least this happened with me)

 

3) It can take a long (LONG) time to stabilize so you have to be patient. Some people stabilize in a week. For other is can take months. If your symptoms aren't improving or are getting worse after an updose, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need drop your dosage; in some cases it certainly does, but in mine lowering the dose made things worse. Having said that, if you're experiencing serious issues such as elevated blood pressure and headaches you do have to be careful and discern between a serious adverse reaction and plain old garden variety withdrawal symptoms.

 

Hope this information helps in some way:)

 

Thanks so much for your insightful advice. I'm really not sure what to do tomorrow morning as I only took 10 mg today and seem to be handling the evening better.

 

And as I have only been on 20 mg for a couple of weeks, I'm hoping I can jump right to the 10 mg that I was accustomed to for so long. Otherwise, I may try and empty a capsule and divide it's contents in half (for a 5 mg), dissolve it in some juice and drink it or something. Am going to wait and see how I feel in the morning.

 

I'm trying to get the liquid form in the meantime.

 

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy!

 

-Salted

[strawberry17]

I thought it was Oggy oggy oggy (the Welsh version)

[basildev]

Actually,

 

it's Oi Oi Oi!!!!

 

I'd vote for the 15mg option as well.

 

It's not hard to make a liquid yourself, Salted. It's easy once you get the hang of it.

[abir]

your new symptoms resembles the ones i got when i reinstated after 5 months - i was on 100mg zoloft before i started tapering and when i reinstated, the doctor put me on 25mg but it was too much for me!! i started having bad insomnia, burning hot flashes, very dry mouth, nausea, nightmares, body jumps at night and wakes me up, no appetite....etc... i stopped after 3 days... after few days most of those went away except for the insomnia... good luck Tim...

Abir

[jrpup3412]

 

Hi Salted,

 

Firstly, it's never advisable to alternate doses. As it has been said on this forum before, that is akin to playing ping-pong with your CNS. You have to choose a dose and stick to that dose.

 

Secondly, regarding the new symptoms, there could be one of two things happening:

 

1) The 20 mg is too much for your already sensitised nervous system;

2) your body is responding to (yet another) change in dosage.

 

When I updosed from 11mg to 20 mg in late February this year, I was already experiencing withdrawal insomnia. After the updose my symptoms got progressively worse. My insomnia worsened, my anxiety worsened and I had a whole new set of symptoms such as depression, ruminating thoughts ('I'm never going to get better'), dry mouth at night, night sweats, waking with anxiety and hot flushes.

 

This went on for 2 weeks and got progressively worse. Thinking that my body could not cope with such a high dose, I dropped to 19mg for a week. If I thought I had troubles before, well this was arguably the worst week of my life! The drop made things even worse.

 

Finally on the 18th March I made a decision to stay put on 20mg and have been doing so ever since. Slowly my symptoms subsided. After 7.5 weeks on 20mg, I'm still not happy with my sleep but it is better. All other symptoms are gone.

 

So the point I'm making is:

 

1) Any change in dosage, whether you go up or down, may cause unwanted symptoms. This is because any change in dosage when you have a destabilized CNS is going to add to that destabilization.

 

2) If you are attempting to stabilize on one specific dose for any given period of time and you choose to alter that dose (up or down), this has a tendency to 'reset the clock' in your nervous system so that any gains you may have made with regard to withdrawal symptoms improving or subsiding before you changed the dose are kind of 'wiped out' and you have to start all over again (at least this happened with me)

 

3) It can take a long (LONG) time to stabilize so you have to be patient. Some people stabilize in a week. For other is can take months. If your symptoms aren't improving or are getting worse after an updose, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need drop your dosage; in some cases it certainly does, but in mine lowering the dose made things worse. Having said that, if you're experiencing serious issues such as elevated blood pressure and headaches you do have to be careful and discern between a serious adverse reaction and plain old garden variety withdrawal symptoms.

 

Hope this information helps in some way:)

 

Thanks so much for your insightful advice. I'm really not sure what to do tomorrow morning as I only took 10 mg today and seem to be handling the evening better.

 

And as I have only been on 20 mg for a couple of weeks, I'm hoping I can jump right to the 10 mg that I was accustomed to for so long. Otherwise, I may try and empty a capsule and divide it's contents in half (for a 5 mg), dissolve it in some juice and drink it or something. Am going to wait and see how I feel in the morning.

 

I'm trying to get the liquid form in the meantime.

 

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy!

 

-Salted

 

[jrpup3412]

Good luck with your prozac mess! My experience with prozac was not a good one. It is very slow to come on, about seven days to really feel the side effects. For me those were anxiety, total insomnia, really insanity. I lasted about 5 days, and quit. I was told it goes away, but I couldn't take it. It took about 5 days to get out of my system. My Rx said the metabolites last in your system for up to two weeks. I guess the only real think that you can take from this is that everything needs to be consistent, and you need to be patient. I never could get a liquid form, so I am with you on that. Between the two, I would stick with 10 mg. You may feel a little withdrawal for a few days but you can work up from there. Hang in there...hope you sleep!

[Altostrata]

This topic will explain how to get to 15mg.

....

Please see Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine) and the other topics pinned to the top of the Tapering forum....

 

Since you've been at 20mg only a couple of weeks, if I were you, I'd go to 15mg for 4 days then to 10mg.

 

Yes, Prozac is available in a liquid. Your doctor is being a jerk.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Hugs and support and encouragement to you, I hear the misery in your postings and I hope it abates soon. The only helpful thing I might offer is that I think there is a great deal of collective wisdom in the experiences of those who offer suggestions here. Recurring theme seems 'let your body stabilize to dosages before changing them'. I think our bodies are very wise, they know how to change and adapt to what we do and do TO them and they just DO it, we don't have to consciously TELL them or show them or anything! How wonderful is that? But in the passage of 'time' this all happens and the body's time I don't think follows a clock or a calendar. The only thing we can do is follow good directions, try not to interfere with it's struggle to right itself. Take your meds on time, stick to a dose, give the body something stable to lean on while it is working to accommodate. Was it Basildev who said it is hard to know what is med/dosage acclimatization or withdrawal or something that requires immediate intervention? Well, it is hard, I know, but given the body's built-in will to survive at all costs, I think you will know what to do with whatever happens.

 

Distract the mind, treat symptoms gently, do whatever you can to cope. I lived in SoCal for 16 years, there is a great deal of healing energy there. I'm pulling for you!

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

This site is SO HELPFUL! Thanks to all who have been giving advice, it means so much to me.

 

Actually slept better last night - got about 6 hours - IN A ROW! I'm trying to tough out only taking 10 mg. This is day 2. I almost felt normal this morning, although I did have a MAJOR FATIGUE moment and took a quick cat-nap only a couple hours after awaking in the first place this morning (I wanted to sleep longer, but my mind wouldn't let me). The smallest sound and, BANG, I'm up. No appetite still.

 

Did 2-miles on the treadmill but then got really nauseous around late-morning, it stayed with me most of the day. I was able to get some work done in front of the computer today. Just now got enough appetite to eat some homemade soup for dinner.

 

We'll see what the night brings.

 

Try and Havahappy everyone!

 

-Salted

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Actually,

 

it's Oi Oi Oi!!!!

 

I'd vote for the 15mg option as well.

 

It's not hard to make a liquid yourself, Salted. It's easy once you get the hang of it.

 

I guess my spelling was a little more KOSHER . . . sorry 'bout that! I have a note in to my doctor via my pharmacy to change the capsules to liquid. So, hopefully I won't have to make my own, but if I do, I'm sure I can figure it out with all of the help I'm receiving here!

 

-Salted

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

your new symptoms resembles the ones i got when i reinstated after 5 months - i was on 100mg zoloft before i started tapering and when i reinstated, the doctor put me on 25mg but it was too much for me!! i started having bad insomnia, burning hot flashes, very dry mouth, nausea, nightmares, body jumps at night and wakes me up, no appetite....etc... i stopped after 3 days... after few days most of those went away except for the insomnia... good luck Tim...

Abir

 

Thank-you. I'll keep everyone posted for sure!!

 

-Tim

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Good luck with your prozac mess! My experience with prozac was not a good one. It is very slow to come on, about seven days to really feel the side effects. For me those were anxiety, total insomnia, really insanity. I lasted about 5 days, and quit. I was told it goes away, but I couldn't take it. It took about 5 days to get out of my system. My Rx said the metabolites last in your system for up to two weeks. I guess the only real think that you can take from this is that everything needs to be consistent, and you need to be patient. I never could get a liquid form, so I am with you on that. Between the two, I would stick with 10 mg. You may feel a little withdrawal for a few days but you can work up from there. Hang in there...hope you sleep!

 

Thanks. Sleep sure comes and goes on this merry-go-round, for sure!

-Salted

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

This topic will explain how to get to 15mg.

 

....

Please see Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine) and the other topics pinned to the top of the Tapering forum....

 

Since you've been at 20mg only a couple of weeks, if I were you, I'd go to 15mg for 4 days then to 10mg.

 

Yes, Prozac is available in a liquid. Your doctor is being a jerk.

 

 

I know, he is not being very cooperative at all. Well, even if he nixes the liquid form, I'll just make my own thanks to your wonderful site! I have already made a donation via Paypal, this place is marvelous!!!!

Thank-you SO MUCH!

 

-Salted

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Hugs and support and encouragement to you, I hear the misery in your postings and I hope it abates soon. The only helpful thing I might offer is that I think there is a great deal of collective wisdom in the experiences of those who offer suggestions here. Recurring theme seems 'let your body stabilize to dosages before changing them'. I think our bodies are very wise, they know how to change and adapt to what we do and do TO them and they just DO it, we don't have to consciously TELL them or show them or anything! How wonderful is that? But in the passage of 'time' this all happens and the body's time I don't think follows a clock or a calendar. The only thing we can do is follow good directions, try not to interfere with it's struggle to right itself. Take your meds on time, stick to a dose, give the body something stable to lean on while it is working to accommodate. Was it Basildev who said it is hard to know what is med/dosage acclimatization or withdrawal or something that requires immediate intervention? Well, it is hard, I know, but given the body's built-in will to survive at all costs, I think you will know what to do with whatever happens.

 

Distract the mind, treat symptoms gently, do whatever you can to cope. I lived in SoCal for 16 years, there is a great deal of healing energy there. I'm pulling for you!

 

This is such wise and wonderful counsel. I fully agree that the body is AMAZING at self-healing, given the opportunity to do so. Our contemporary lives of false foods, false stimulants, and false remedies only exacerbate our situation. I am just going to follow nature's lead.

 

Bless you again. Sending you some of that SoCal healing energy,

 

-Salted

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Thanks Salted, no wonder I felt so good yesterday! I must have caught a blast of the energy you sent

 

I arrived in SoCal in the 70's, left in 90's, memories are starting to come back. It sure sounds as though you might be feeling a bit better, even a bit is HUGE in the midst of all the chaos of recovery!

 

Cheers to you!

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Just want to remind that I have NO experience with tapering, up dosing, etc. I am a CT 'survivor'. I was reading in the tapering forum just now (I like to look at the 'Today's Posts'), got there from a post by Strawberry, the concept I was fumbling around is 'stabilizing'. The (leaning) tapering concept is (I think) using the drug(s) in a novel way (not really fully scientific/doctor accepted way YET). Start with a dose (up or down), STAY there, change with micro doses and be patient while the body adjusts, all the while trying to maintain a certain consistency as to diet, sleep, judicious (or very small) use of supplements and just wait it out.

 

Sheesh, I'm still fumbling. If I'm not making sense, please note the last line of my sig.

 

More cheers!

[SaltedGingkoNuts]

Today is Day #4 of only 10 mg Prozac. Yesterday I awoke trembling and with very dry mouth. Still having stressful, vivid dreams. Now have some sort of rash on my upper left arm. No exercise. Took a quick mid-morning nap. By evening I felt about an 8 out of 10 though. Had decent evening appetite. Voice wasn't as shaky. Maybe I'm evening-out on the dosage.

 

I think I'm definitely sticking with the 10 mg. Hoping I made the right decision about jumping so far from the 20 mg. We'll see what today brings.

 

Havahappy Everyone!

 

-Salted

[basildev]

Hope the 10mg works for you, Salted.