[Medicated]

A couple weeks ago I stopped taking most of my medications. I tried to wean myself off of the Lexapro, but maybe I did it too fast because I'm having really annoying withdrawal symptoms. (I went from 20mg/day to 10mg/day for one week, then 5 mg/day for eight days, then off completely two days ago.)

The constant facial and hand tingling is annoying, but the brain spasms (it feels like my brain is twitching... I don't know what else to call it) are downright disturbing. And the general feeling like crap part sucks too.

Has anyone here come off Lexapro and experienced the same things? How long did it last? I'm going to try to tough it out until the symptoms go away, but if it gets much worse, I might not be able to function at work...

Thoughts?

[netsavy006]

All I had when I had to discontinue lexapro in the hospital was dizziness that lasted about a month but for everyone YMMV.

I hope you feel better soon.
Andy.

[Eliza Jane]

I went off of Lexapro in a similar manner and had no problems. Pdoc said Lex is usually easy to discontinue. Could another drug be the culprit?

I would call up pdoc asap and ask for advice and/or meds. I had a nasty w/drawal from Paxil and some prozac and ativan were helpful in dealing with the w/drawal.

Good luck!

EJ

[Medicated]

Oh dear... a MONTH?? You're lucky you were in a controlled environment and not trying to function in daily life.

*sigh*

Thanks for the reply.

[Medicated]

Originally Posted by Eliza Jane

I went off of Lexapro in a similar manner and had no problems. Pdoc said Lex is usually easy to discontinue. Could another drug be the culprit?

I would call up pdoc asap and ask for advice and/or meds. I had a nasty w/drawal from Paxil and some prozac and ativan were helpful in dealing with the w/drawal.

Good luck!

EJ

Yes, it's possible that it was another drug. My feet and hands went numb for a day or so about five days after I discontinued the trileptal and abilify (but before I stopped the Lexapro). That was weird. ...but I've experienced THIS before and it feels like SSRI withdrawals. It's just been a long time (10 years?) since I've gone through it and I can't remember how long it lasted.

As per calling the psychiatrist... uhm... this wasn't exactly his idea. At all. I think he would be less than completely cheerful to find out that I stopped half my medications and decreased the doses on what I kept. I'm meeting a new psychiatrist in September, and I was planning on kind of just disappearing from my current doc's practice and starting over with the new guy...

[sugahorse1]

I stopped cold turkey from 20mg (Bad girl - I know)
I felt terrible. Tingling brain, migraine, nausea. I eventually started up on 10mg again, and slowly worked my way down, but probably only over a 2 week period. That time round I felt much better.
I really think it could be one of your other meds...?

[Hanuman Dass]

Lexapro is the worst psych med I ever withdrew from. Its been about 5 years since I was on it so I can't remember the dosage. I do remember I tapered off of it for around a month. I remember the withdrawal symptoms vividly though! Brain spasms, twitching, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, disassociation (I.e. Out of it), dry mouth, etc., etc., the list goes on. Perhaps I tapered to quick however I'd only been rx'ed Lexapro for 4-5 months. I became dependent on it quite fast. Becaus of Lexapro I gave up on meds to treat my bp/depression/anxiety until recently when I couldn't deny or live with this condition any longer. It will get better I promise, it just takes time. It would be a good idea to contact your doctor as well just to be safe as well.

[sassyseattle]

I think Lexapro is the same as citalopram? Ive just been singing its praises in another thread, but have experienced the withdrawals. For a few weeks when I could not afford to get it, I ended up going cold turkey when I ran out, and good gosh I was sick. I thought I had some death's door flu or something, I had no idea that there were withdrawals from citalopram!! Later when I was able to return to the doctor, he set me straight on which of my meds I could "safely" discontinue if I needed to, but the citalo was NOT one of them! He insisted I never do that again, that it would need supervised tapering.
I hope you are feeling better!

[Medicated]

I took 5mg yesterday morning because the withdrawal symptoms were so bad that I knew I'd be unable to function. I've been okay without it today though. I have to face the psychiatrist tomorrow and tell him what I've done. Not looking forward to that...

[Medicated]

Update: the symptoms finally seem to be subsiding today. Yay! They're not entirely gone, but they're much less bothersome. I'm hoping I'll feel totally better in the next couple days.

In other news, my psychiatrist was astonishingly cool about me discontinuing half of my meds...

[Hanuman Dass]

Good to hear friend. Praying for you.

[Medicated]

Drat. Shocks and brain spasms are back. I can't function like this. I'm not tired, but I just want to curl up and sleep it off. I have a lot to do today, and it's not conducive to productivity.

When I'm finished with school, I will be vary wary of prescribing lexapro for anyone because this REALLY sucks.

[Hanuman Dass]

I recall sleeping a lot, just to curb the side effects. If I was asleep the horror subsided.

[Medicated]

Yeah, I took 5mg followed by a 2-hour nap and woke up feeling much better... although frustrated by the wasted time.

I want this to be over with soon.

[noname1000]

I had miserable withdawal symptoms from lexapro - and I did a much slower taper (over about 5 months). I had the "brain zaps," dizziness, nausea, headaches... it was really awful, I would say the physical equivalent of how bad the emotional part of the depression was that made me start the lexapro in the first place. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms until I got to 2.5 mg, and then nothing seemed to help, not even going back up to 5 mg. My psychiatrist switched me to prozac (much longer half life, so less withdrawal) and it helped but didn't take away the symptoms 100%. It has been a few months now since I have been off the lexapro, and it turned out to be somewhat difficult to taper the prozac, although the withdrawal symptoms I have are much milder and I am able to go to work and function in my daily life.
Try ginger (I like the candied ginger pieces, and also ginger tea) - helps a lot for nausea/dizziness. I also sometimes take meclizine (over the counter) if the nausea gets really bad. Nothing much helped my brain zaps except sleep.
Good luck, it is really an ordeal but there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel and it sounds like you are pretty close.

k.