davidcpp: Escitalopram withdrawal

[davidcpp]

Hi LexAnger,

 

I have access now to pharmacy liquid  (w bottles) and I've decided that I'll do everything to have access to pharmacy liquid to zero because of doubts caused by homemade liquid. Therefore I've asked questions 1. and 2. in earlier post and next questions at the end of my last post. These questions don't apply to homemade liquid:

On 9.03.2018 at 2:53 PM, davidcpp said:

1. Could I use pharmacy liquid more than time indicated on the leaflet? If I could, how long can I extend using liquid after opening?

2. I understand that you made liquid for not more than for 4 days. What did you do with remained diluted solution? Did you pour it into the sink?

 

12 hours ago, davidcpp said:

I want to switch to liquid to ensure stability , but I don't know what dose should I choose. Can I choose smaller dose or should I keep current dose?

I don't know how long will I bear so strong side effects and if side effects will increase after few days on liquid, will I can reduce the dose immediately?

 

I ask also because of information from the leaflet about using drug during 8 weeks from openning. 

[LexAnger]

I see.

 

I believe I did use the liquid couple months after expiration date and didn't notice any difference. My liquid was good for 1 year though.

 

For the diluted solution, I used left over too for the next couple days. The diluted solution does get blurry from contamination of the water added or the container I used so I threw away it when I see it's not clear. I used tap water and a clear plastic container, the type you can see through. 

[brassmonkey]

There is very little information available on the expiration of pharmacy liquids.  Everything on line points to the printed limit of 8 weeks.  I know other members use it past that time, but there has been some indication that problems start to show up if it is used past 16 weeks.  It appears that it loses potency and can cause a spike in WD symptoms as a result.

 

When switching between homemade and pharmacy liquids the dose should be kept the same, but there should be a transition period equal to your normal time between dose changes to allow for your body to adjust to the new liquid.  Some people will do a cross taper over several weeks.  Maintaining the same dose but gradually decreasing the amout of homemade while increasing the amount of pharmacy.  This can work very well.

 

There is no good way to dispose of the expired liquid, we just do the best that we can.

 

Are you asking about side effects or withdrawal symptoms there is a difference.

[davidcpp]

Thanks a lot for your replies brassmonkey and LexAnger!

They are very helpful for me and it was what I needed. My question about homemade liquid was asked only supposedly if I would like to use it in the future. Today I started using pharmacy liquid and I want to use it to zero. 

 

Is it better to keep refrigerated both original bottle with pharmacy liquid and my dilluted solution? Sorry that I am so meticulous, but now I am concerned about every detail.

 

[LexAnger]

My solutionn says store in room temperature so I just left it that way. 

 

I doubt yours requires to be kept in refrigerator.

 

It should be same for diluted version.

[davidcpp]

Hi,

 

I come on this forum after long time. I've done a lot of stupid and big mistakes: unnecessary tapering too fast thinking that taking drug harms the most, then reinstating but store drug in refrigerator and find out that was mistake atfer 2 years. Then reinstating but on too high dose instead of starting from smaller dose to check. Then tapering because of too high dose effects. 

 

I haven't work from 3.5 years, During this time there were periods with working on some programming projects but always I've done something wrong and I broke my chances to come back to normal life. If I had thought about the basics better, I suppose I would have been back a long time ago.

 

From February this year I started to come back to programming gradually, but still feel too weak physically to take a job. More and more often I worked around 8 hours on my projects, but still it wasn't often, usually, it was about 6-7 hours, but it was about 80-90% of my standard effectiveness. During this time I tapering because of still too high dose, but usually I can't taper rapidly because sometimes withdrawal syndroms occured and too high dose effects were smaller.

 

At the end of April I get withdrawal syndroms because of the drug expired after less than 8 weeks after openning, despite of storing in proper temperature. Few days after taking from new bottle of drug were improvement and then it turned out that I was taking too much (about 1.0mg). After about month I started to feel too high dose at about 0.9mg stronger than before. I started to taper raidly for 2 weeks and at the end of this period I started to feel that these drug dose symptoms let go - clarity of mind improved, more physical strength, better humor, the sex drive kept coming back, feeling pleasure coming back, I feel more slack.

 

Unfortunatelly I take levocetirizine for allergy during 2 days at the end of these positive days (the most positive days from about one year). On the end of second day of taking drug for allergy I started to feel overdose symptoms again. The next period is in my signature.

 

When I taper too much before I started to have following characteristic withdrawal symptoms: dizziness, reduced sense of satiety

When I have too high dose I had following symptoms: lack of feeling pleasure, depressed mood, sense of gray looking at the world, lack of sex drive, anxiety, anger, too much satiety, hunger before falling asleep, muscle tremors, a strong sense of regret, inability to perform constructive actions, sticky hands and feet, dry skin between the fingers.

 

Now I don't feel characteristic withdrawal symptoms although a few days ago I felt short dizziness, short reduced sense of satiety. I am taking about 0.05mg from few days but some terrible symptoms rising now, mainly the same as at high doses but dry skin between the fingers let go. I feel that i can't reinstate, because these symptoms will be rising. Earlier when I reinstate I feel that it will be a relief and so it was, but now I don't feel that, I'm afraid.

 

I'm afraid I've fallen into a trap by taking this medication for allergy. I could have taken allergy drops but wanted a convenient solution. I cannot forgive myself for spoiling my way to normal because of such stupidity. I had failed myself and my loved ones who had been supporting me all this time.

[davidcpp]

I don't know If I should stop taking the drug or wait despite of symptoms escalation. Maybe I should try stop taking the drug for some time to test the result. Could doses like 0.01mg just cause such severe symptoms? I'm afraid of up dose because I feel that it will not give relief as it used to be. I feel less and less hungry and thirsty, I feel some artificial fullness of my stomach, I loss my wieght during last days. Yesterday I did not eat breakfast, I ate half of what I had before for dinner, also for dinner and I had to eat something before going to bed. I have been losing weight in the last few days.