Did antidepressant reinstatement work for you?

[gallanthero26]

I"ve tried reinstating at a low dose of 1mg multiple times after cold turkeying only 10mg for 3 weeks. Each time I've tried I get worsened WD symptoms. These reinstatements were at about a month off each time, (I'm about 3 months into withdrawal now).

I only stayed with the reinstatement for about a week but my intuition told me to get off the drug each time. (Still not 100% if this was just how my withdrawals were naturally progressing anyway). So after still not knowing if the reinstatement was actually making me worse, I tried a third time (still at just 1mg) and I woke up racing thoughts that I did not create on my own and seemed very much like auditory hallucinations but with just thoughts, high anxiety, and worsened memory/concentration the following day.

So after experiencing these, today I'm just hoping that the neuro-adaptation that happened effortlessly going on prozac will somehow translate into going back to a normal, non psychiatric drug function brain.

[Sheri755]

Bump

[icerose87]

Can you stabilize on Mirtazapine when you’re withdrawing from Lexapro (and possibly Lorazepam)? My sister cold turkeyed Lexapro twice before even knowing about withdrawal and has been in Hell for 6 months. She’s been trying to stabilize on Mirtazapine and Zyprexa for one month. Her appetite is back and it took the edge off the anxiety but she’s still very suicidal. What do we do now?? Can the Mirtazapine kick in later on?

[Altostrata]

icerose, one might stabilize on anything, including no drugs at all. Your sister's situation is a little more complicated, please see your Intro topic.

[Altostrata]

bumping -- please post about your experience with reinstatement!

[Subzero42]

I quitted Seroplex cold turkey in November 2017, reinstated a month later, it took about 4 months to stabilize

[thecowisback]

what's the longest anyone's been off a drug before they reinstated?

[Subzero42]

On 11/16/2019 at 8:07 PM, thecowisback said:

what's the longest anyone's been off a drug before they reinstated?

How come you reinstated after 2 years, you didn't feel like you were healing even after this long ?

[thecowisback]

no, not at all. mentally i was sinking deeper and deeper and felt like i had nothing to lose by trying as things were desperate. 

[Subzero42]

Ok and since you reinstated, you'd say things are getting better or not ?

[thecowisback]

my depression has mostly gone, but the anxiety panic and ocd remain. my husband thinks my ocd is a little better but i have a hard time seeing it.

[Subzero42]

 

7 hours ago, thecowisback said:

my depression has mostly gone, but the anxiety panic and ocd remain. my husband thinks my ocd is a little better but i have a hard time seeing it.

 

Have you ever thought about taking another drug instead of Prozac?

[Gridley]

3 minutes ago, Subzero42 said:

Have you ever thought about taking another drug instead of Prozac?

Subzero,

 

We are a site for going off drugs and as such we don't make recommendations about switching or adding drugs.  

[Subzero42]

3 minutes ago, Gridley said:

Subzero,

 

We are a site for going off drugs and as such we don't make recommendations about switching or adding drugs.  

 

Ok got it.

[Onmyway]

On 11/18/2019 at 8:57 AM, thecowisback said:

my depression has mostly gone, but the anxiety panic and ocd remain. my husband thinks my ocd is a little better but i have a hard time seeing it.

Have you tried CBT for OCD in specialist clinics? OCD for sure is amplified by WD, even ppl who never had it get it during WD but CBT can provide great tools for managing it.

[thecowisback]

 i was assessed many months ago at my local psych clinic but am now on an endless waiting list for cbt. god knows how long it will take until i'm seen. i first asked for help over 2 years ago and was assessed earlier this year so i'm not holding my breath

 

[thecowisback]

has anyone else been off more than a year before going back on the meds?

[Lloyd]

I was off Effexor for over 1.5 years and reinstated a full 37.5mg. Felt better within a few hours which proved that it was discontinuation syndrome. I'm currently off at the moment and my discontinuation is more severe this time around.

[thecowisback]

wow! how long did you take it before deciding to taper off again?

[Camille]

I tapered too quickly Lexapro 15mg to 2,5mg (over the course of 3-4 months) and had major withdrawal symptoms when lowering to 2,5mg. I stayed on 2,5mg for 3 days , then increased to 5mg for about 5 days, then 7,5 for 5 days and then reinstated 10mg. It took about 1,5 month after the 10mg reinstatement for me to be better again and for the withdrawal to stop.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn from my mistakes and decreased from 10mg to 7,5mg (so a 25% decrease, way too much for me) in September 2020, immediately my mood became depressed and nothing improved at all (it didn't worsen either) so I reinstated 9,375 beginning of December. Around beginning of January 2020, my mood still hadn't improved and I didn't have the patience to wait anymore so I reinstated my full 10mg. It was 5 days ago, so I'll keep you updated when (or if) things improved.

But as a conclusion, I would say that I think reinstatement is generally a good idea when you tapered too fast, but it doesn't resolve things immediately, you have to wait 1-2 months for things to be back to normal

[tryingtosurvive330]

On 8/4/2011 at 12:15 PM, Nadia said:

I think it "worked" for me to reinstate after 4 months because I put up with a couple of weeks of jitteriness and such created by the ADs and didn't freak out about it. I had JUST started to suffer from anxiety, though... maybe one or two weeks. The other stuff, like depression, depersonalization, anhedonia, etc. had also just started, and those were immediately relieved by reinstating. I should mention that I felt immediately bad after quitting the meds, but in a way I could handle... really emotional, getting back in touch with my huge sensitivity, etc. But not that creepy weird-bad that I now think of as withdrawal... probably my brain starting to spastically find its way back to normal.

@Nadia This sounds exactly like me, the way you described how you felt after quitting the meds, and how the anxiety and depression started after. Did you reinstate at a microdose? And then when you CTed in 11/10 was that from the reinstatement?

[Heath]

I came off Paxil too fast in 2006 reinstated and again tapered too fast  in 2013 reinstated. I tapered Zoloft too fast in 2017 reinstated. And I updosed once while tapering lexapro. Every time it took me about 3 or 4 months to feel better and about 6 months back to my normal self after the reinstatement or up dose. Each reinstatement was within a month or so of onset of withdrawal symptoms. 

[Ventus]

Reinstatement definitely worked for me I think anyway. I crashed around 2.5 months. Lost all appetite, had lots of heart problems from weakness' shortness of breath to super high heart rate and the final thing that got me was the inability to sleep. A few days after reinstatement all my minor withdrawal symptoms went away and my appetite returned to normal. A few weeks after my heart symptoms went away. It wasn't until about 6 weeks after that I started to be able to sleep enough to really start recovering though. And at the 2 month mark melatonin was enough for me to get 6 hours. Unfortunately though now every time I taper I get lesser versions of my 2 worst cold turkey withdrawal symptoms.  Heart issues that weaken me but my heartrate remains normal, that so far only has lasted about 1 week each time before it gradually improves and goes away. Sleep issues, however I need a small about of otc sleep aids for about a week or 2 before I can just use melatonin again. My sleep has not yet fully healed, at its best I was able to stop with all sleep aids but still got like around 2 to 3 hour chunks of sleep that added up to somewhere around 6 to 8 hours.

[Jools44]

On 7/6/2016 at 2:10 PM, Rachel1963 said:

I was on Remeron 30 mg for three years. I quickly tapered off to 0 over two months.

 

At five weeks off I went into severe withdrawal. I reinstated to a smaller dose without much effect. I was in an awful state and so the doctor tried me on two other ssri's for about a week each. I thought I was going to crawl out of my skin.

 

I reinstated to my original dose of 30 mg. I slowly got better over four months and my system has been settling down. Now at six months reinstated I am pretty much back to normal with occasional morning grogginess and a little anxiety that passes in a couple of hours.

 

I am back at work full time and am much relieved that I got better and every week the symptoms continue to fade. I am continuing to allow my nervous system to heal and will start a very very slow taper at the end of the year to get off this stuff.

 

I'm not in any rush, I did a turtle taper off Valium 8 years ago after a too quick taper and reinstatement and it worked because it was so slow that my body had time to adjust to the changes. It was almost 3 years spent tapering. It was a year off that I felt like my old self again. I had been on a very small dose of serzone years before and slowly weaned myself off and had no trouble.

 

I rushed off this time because I was so upset about the weight I gained from the Remeron. I am very regretful now, this experience was awful but I know from experience that the body does eventually heal itself. I'm a bit nervous about the weaning process ahead of me but I'll also be happy to be off this stuff.

@Rachel1963 I also failed after quite a slow taper and never actually got off the meds. I reinstated at 30mg but still didn't feel right and dropped the dose down to 22.5mg. I went in to full withdrawal. It's two months now and I feel like I should be feeling better,  but after reading your account it also took you a long time to feel well again. Can I ask what symptoms you suffered with during those 6 months? Mine is insomnia, tinnitus and noise sensitivity, feeling very flat and emotionless, and occasional crying spells (normally after a couple of bad night sleeps). TIA 😊

[Jools44]

On 12/5/2021 at 4:17 AM, Heath said:

I came off Paxil too fast in 2006 reinstated and again tapered too fast  in 2013 reinstated. I tapered Zoloft too fast in 2017 reinstated. And I updosed once while tapering lexapro. Every time it took me about 3 or 4 months to feel better and about 6 months back to my normal self after the reinstatement or up dose. Each reinstatement was within a month or so of onset of withdrawal symptoms. 

@Heath I am 2 months after reinstating, although I really ballsed it up by reinstating and then dropping the dose quite dramatically after 3 weeks as I didn't  feel right which set off even worse withdrawal symptoms. Can I ask you which symptoms persisted for you in those 3-6 months? TIA 😊

[Heath]

@Jools44 from memory the one that persisted and last one to go was a obsessive type worry anxiety. It would get better gradually over the months. I also didn’t feel myself I didn’t want to do anything but I think that may have been caused by the obsessive type worry feelings. 

[HopingNWaiting]

I wish I knew of this forum before I began my taper.  Came off 100mg of Luvox too quickly.  After a month or so, my emotions took over with non stop crying.  Someone prescribed me 10mg of Prozac and I took it twice, but the second time (last night), I went into another crying fit.

 

Finally found someone who wrote me a prescription for 1mg Luvox and a compounding pharmacy to make it.  Onmyway has been graciously helping me in my intro thread.  
 

I hope I am doing the right thing.

[eileen1111]

Anyone have any stories about reinstating with a DIFFERENT ssri than the one which caused withdrawal symptoms ? Would appreciate any info. Reinstating sertraline is not working for me and I want to try switching to use citalopram for my reinstatement 

[YachtRock]

I reinstated 0.5mg of Trintellix (viorexetine, very long half life) 15 days ago, and have tracked my symptoms and scores fairly closely. The pills are crushed and dosed at to 0.015g. The first week of reinstatement seemed to show improvement from my symptoms (4 months after a 4 months taper). But this past/second week seemed to trend back upwards (slight increase in symptoms). I had one much better day and one much worse, which has made it difficult to decide on next steps. Anxiety/fear, elevated HR, head pressure, malaise, chills, chest pain and chest "thumps" all steady to slightly worse with one true window that lasted just under 24 hours. But I seem to be tolerating the medication, if it is even having an impact at such a low dose (vs a 20-10-5mg taper). Will either stay at 0.5mg as advised or ramp up to 1mg in January. Further updates in my Intro post if interested.

[eileen1111]

On 1/1/2022 at 2:52 PM, eileen1111 said:

Anyone have any stories about reinstating with a DIFFERENT ssri than the one which caused withdrawal symptoms ? Would appreciate any info. Reinstating sertraline is not working for me and I want to try switching to use citalopram for my reinstatement 

Coming back to my post here to say that reinstatement definitely kindled me and made my withdrawal worse (although I did reinstate initially at too high of a dose, not knowing any better!). I now feel like I'm recovering from the original CT plus an adverse reaction to reinstatement, and subsequently another rapid taper off. The switch to 1mg of citalopram caused the same sensations of burning, activation, insomnia and nausea as well as increased dpdr - my body was not having any more of the drug, and I felt like I was poisoning myself. I think I kept pushing with it because I really hoped it would work, and was told by my GP that it was start up side effects / that I should actually increase even further. 

 

Anyway i'm writing this from two months down the line and I'm so glad that I stopped the reinstatement and decided to weather the withdrawal process, gruelling as it has been. 

[angela9985]

I tapered too fast and developed PWS. Acute ones like panic, pounding and racing heart, head-breaking migraine, are gone, but derealization(things look 2D), constant fatigue,  migraine, deep depression, desperation, lack of motivation are still there. As far as I have read these symptoms tend to linger for years, and the energy level and productivity may never return to the normal level.

I am only 24, and I want to finish my PhD. With migraine and fatigue like this I cannot do my daily work. I cannot afford the risk of living unfunctional for years. Is it possible to go onto another AD or the AD I have taken before, recover the functionality first, and then do a proper taper?

Thank you so much!

[Altostrata]

Also see 

 

[angela9985]

On 7/12/2011 at 7:53 PM, stan said:

you are in withdrawal, and as you have been many years on drugs, it will take many months to be better

insomnia is classic withdrawal

i would not reinstate to not lose all these efforts, or else you will be entire life on meds,

each time you will be off, you will suffer insomnia and many others,

with time insomnia improves(i had it and have it less)

hang on

I don't wanna be negative but you at least have a life of 50+ years. I am only 24, starting my PhD. If I know that coming off will ruin my life, I will choose to stay on the med until it poop-out. Then at least I have some years of life. 

[Onmyway]

4 hours ago, angela9985 said:

I don't wanna be negative but you at least have a life of 50+ years. I am only 24, starting my PhD. If I know that coming off will ruin my life, I will choose to stay on the med until it poop-out. Then at least I have some years of life. 

Dear @angela9985

It is up to you too decide what to do with your drugs and your life. We only share our collective experience and provide advice. You may choose to take it or not.

 

 

However, it is not helpful to dismiss other people's pain just because of their age. Withdrawal is hard at any age. Older people may worry about the other health effects of the drugs or what has happened to their life, being helpless and out of work. This attitude of comparing whose pain is worse is not constructive. A little empathy goes a long way on SA. If you choose to read other people's stories you can learn a lot from their experience.

 

OMG