I started Lexapro 10mg 5 days ago. 5mg taper up week.
Reading stuff like this scares me. However based on my depression scales for months my LCPC and MD recommended it.
Major life upsets back to back to back to back.
I have light momentary nausea starting out.
I hope it doesn't get worse. :(
I'm only using it as a footing to work some recovery programs. Then I'm done.
Withdrawal from Antidepressants
101–110 of 131 posts
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#102Even tapering off Cymbalta and tapering on to a different med at the same time.. Worst sickness of my life. Felt like death flu. Uncontrollable vomiting, diarrhea, chills, shivering, fever. I spent 4 days between bed and bathroom. Then suddenly on day 5 I was fine. While I was on it, it completely turned off everything below the belt. No response to stimulation at all. And mentally I was a zombie. Evil stuff. No such…
I've come off Lexapro with some odd 'brain' sensations but nothing super serious, 2 week taper from 15mg.
I ended up coming back on it though. It helps a lot!
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#10310mg Lexapro every day... it saved my life . I am not joking
Me too :)
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had this too with Zoloft and the doctors didn't believe I was on a high enough dose to experience the side effect. It was bad for a week and was sporadic for another week or two. I was surprised that the doctor was so skeptical about a known side effect. It's not like I was trying to get more of that sweet sweet Zoloft. Medical devices have an incident reporting database that are required to be updated by companies…
Reporting for drugs is a standard for a long time now. You should report any adverse event to your physiciand and they are under obligation to report it to the pharma company who in turn sends annual reports of adverse events to the authorities. Serious side effects get reported to authorities within 24 hours and can lead to further investigations. A bunch of drugs were stopped in the past because of post marketing r…
Very good. I work preclinical and am familiar with the devices version. Glad the same is in place in general pharma too. Although it does seem the results are not well communicated. Do you know the rules in place for a recall vs update to recommended protocols?
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#105On a related note, there's no good half-life calculator on the web for people tapering off SSRIs. The issue is that in order to actually have as gentle a taper as possible, you need to halve your dose only every few weeks because of how long the half life of these drugs is. So ideally you'd want something where you would enter your starting dose and how much of the drug you plan on taking each day, and it would show…
I second this. I was on zoloft for IBS. Getting off of it was terrible. I had to taper down 25% each step and each step lasted weeks. Overall, it took the same time to taper off of it as when I needed it. I quit taking it because my IBS was not really IBS, it was a defective gallbladder. It was removed and my symptoms went away.
IBS - irritable bowel syndrome?
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Mad in America" is obviously not willing to make a fuss of things like bipolar where people will take their lithium for decades and bear the side-effects [...] The creation and promotion of "Bipolar" as a DSM disorder is covered in Anatomy of an Epidemic , Robert Whitaker's followup to Mad in America . > [...] because the alternative is to go actually mad-crazy. The whole point of Whitaker's Mad in America foundat…
Erm, manic depression as distinct from schizophrenia was basically established by Emil Kraepelin in the 1880s. Dr. Whitaker could be going full Foucault, but as well established by Hollywood, you never go full Foucault .
> Erm, manic depression as distinct from schizophrenia was basically established by Emil Kraepelin in the 1880s.
The physiological basis for scihzophrenia wasn't figured out and ignored until the 1970's.
> Dr. Whitaker could be going full Foucault, but as well established by Hollywood, you never go full Foucault.
Robert Whitaker is a journalist, not a doctor. He's sort of like the kid who points out that the emperor got swindled by his tailors.
I like the reference to the quote from Tropic Thunder, but I'm not up to date on Foucault's contributions to philosophy.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#107I have experienced discontinuation effects from Paroxetine, Venlafaxine and Fluxoetine in the past, Paroxetine was by far the worst, but absolutely within the boundaries of what the doctor and the tab mentioned. With Paroxetine itself the worst effects would be "blackouts" when I would loose all my senses for a split second, just short enough that I would not fall if walking, but long enough that people would notice…
I've taken sertraline, venlafaxine, bupropion and fluoxetine.
Fluoxetine is the only SSRI I experienced no withdrawal from. I was on a low dose (10-20mg) though, and it mostly worked (went from severe depression to mild/none). I have a standing prescription for this as a fallback, but haven't taken it in 3 years. I avoid taking it because of the sexual side effects. I like having orgasms.
Bupropion triggered a seizure after the first dose. Immediately discontinued.
Venlafaxine was mostly effective, but I went from depressed to robotic/apathetic. When I stopped taking it, I tapered off, but I had brain zaps and developed acute tinnitus for over a month, alternating in each ear. To this day, 15 years after treatment, I still experience moderate hearing loss in my ears several times a month for about 60-90 seconds at a time.
Sertraline was the worst. I got up to 150mg before the problems. It triggered a hypomanic episode that lasted for about a month. I didn't sleep at all for the first three days it manifested. The doctor stopped treatment immediately and put me on risperidone, which is a new level of awfulness. I just quit taking it after a month, and told my doctor I would never take any antipsychotic again.
I have a great doctor now. He's not even a psychiatrist, just a generalist, but he's treated many cases of depression over the past 20 years. He figured I didn't have unipolar depression, but bipolar, due to the hypomania. SSRIs are bad, and not recommended, as monotherapy for bipolar. So he put me on lamotrigine and I haven't had a depressive (or manic) episode for over two years. I've also experienced no noticeable side effects.
I've found the only thing that matters in the treatment of mental/behavioral disorders is your doctor's skill and knowledge. Don't be afraid to dump a mediocre doctor; it's your wellbeing on the line.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very very uneasy when doctors are too handwavey on your issues. You don't know if they're skipping beats because they don't want to explain 10 years of med school so you obey, or if they just don't want to investigate more than what the usual answer is. I tried to nitpick on things that mattered for me, but you cannot easily claim "I'm more up to date than you on illness" to a legal doctor without feeling a litt…
You may or may not be more up to date on a particular illness, but you are the best authority on your specific case.
But you have your own bias. The amount of fuzz from your personal data can be huge. That's why I wish I could have objective monitors and not rely on sparse visits to the doctor when symptoms aren't here.
One dared me to reproduce heart failure on the spot because there was some tension between me and him.
It odd.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good to know, I had to take paroxetine for cripping anxiety, and will probably attempt end of treatment in a month. I remember being off one day (10mg per day) and having the same sensation you get when an elevator stops after going up. A chill in your spine, except it was very intense, and located in my brain only. Lasted a day, only thing that would relieve it is swallowing something.. I really hope I don't have to…
I recognize the irony in giving dire warnings to someone about to discontinue anxiety medication but: * Research the potential withdrawal effects. They're much more upsetting and disruptive when you don't know what to expect or how to attribute the effects. But don't panic preemptively and expect all of them, just commit them to memory so that you don't panic if and when they occur. * As others have suggested - taper…
Thanks, I think I can handle it now, I came back from the dead, any temporary shit that still allow for eating and walking will be water under the bridge quick.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#110Even tapering off Cymbalta and tapering on to a different med at the same time.. Worst sickness of my life. Felt like death flu. Uncontrollable vomiting, diarrhea, chills, shivering, fever. I spent 4 days between bed and bathroom. Then suddenly on day 5 I was fine. While I was on it, it completely turned off everything below the belt. No response to stimulation at all. And mentally I was a zombie. Evil stuff. No such…
I've come off Lexapro with some odd 'brain' sensations but nothing super serious, 2 week taper from 15mg. I ended up coming back on it though. It helps a lot!
I had occasional brain zaps when first on Lexapro (the first SSRI I ever took) but it wasn't bad.