Has anyone experienced brain zaps when you become immune to Lexapro?

[brainzap101]

I have been on lexapro for 9 years. A few months ago I woke up feeling slightly off balance, not in a vertigo way, I would describe it more as a slight dizziness/brain fog. It felt like the common symptoms of lector withdrawal; however, I was still taking the 10mg dose of the medication. First, I checked to see if the manufacturer had changed and it had not. I went to every doctor under the sun. I started having bad muscle tightness in my shoulders and neck. I went to my GP, ENT, Neurologist, Psychiatrist, Dentist, OT, massage therapist and Chiropractor etc. I got my wisdom teeth out and I even had an MRI done and everything came back normal. The only thing I was diagnosed with was TMD and I now have a night guard. I tired allergy meds and nasal spray. I was then told that my anxiety could be producing these symptoms (aka that is was all in my head).

I have a hard time believing this because these symptoms feel like little brain zaps that you get from lexapro withdrawal. I recently went down to 5 mg and the symptoms seemed to worsen. However, going up to 20mg made me feel weird. Currently I am transitioning to Cymbalta and I am off lexapro. It has only been a few days but the brain zaps are terrible! Can anyone please help me figure out what is going on, and how long I might experience these horrible symptoms!? Should I add back in a low dose of Lexapro to ease the side effects?

[Paxiled]

Okay, first, there are no "safe" drugs.  All alter normal bodily function and in doing so create problems for some people.  That's why all drugs list side effects on their information sites -- the side effects are created by the problem of the body not wanting artificial stuff floating around in it doing things, so it fights back, sometimes a little, sometime a lot.  Drugs that affect brain neurotransmitters are particularly problematic, though certainly not nearly as much as, say, aspirin, which used to kill thousands a year from uncontrolled bleeding.  So there are degrees of safety and degrees of effectiveness and individuals differ in their tolerance, so all this needs to be factored in when deciding if your particular problem is serious enough to require a drug.  So that's first.  Second, what might have happened is the Lexapro could have started pooping out, which could create a withdrawal problem.  Something also could have changed with your brain function as you aged, so that the Lexapro started wearing off before you were ready for your next dose.  This can also cause a withdrawal reaction.  One way to deal with this is to split your dose into two times a day so it stays in the system, but there's no way to know if this is what happened.  It also could be what you were experiencing weren't brain zaps at all and weren't at all related to the Lexapro but caused by something else nobody was able to find yet.  When doctors don't find something, to get rid of you they claim it's anxiety, or a nerve problem.  That allows them to move on to their next patient.  It means you need to see a different doctor when that happens, but there's again no way to know if that is what happened over the internet.  What's happening now is you're suffering withdrawal from the Lexapro because it sounds like you quit cold turkey.  Switching to another drug that works differently won't do anything about withdrawal.  Some people just don't have withdrawals, and so they can do this easily, but when you do have them this isn't a way to solve them.  Cymbalta is also not a likely candidate to do that anyway, as it is a different class of drug, and targets norepinephrine as well as serotonin, which is basically adrenaline and is very stimulating and can make an anxious person who isn't anxious from depression a lot more anxious.  The way to minimize withdrawals is to slowly taper off the drug you're on until you successfully get off it, then move on to a different drug when you'll be able to tell which effects are side effects of the new drug and which are withdrawal effects.  Some psychiatrists disagree with this approach, but it just makes the most sense to me.  Going down in dose also can cause withdrawal, as it's in the process of quitting the drug.  When this happens, receptors in the brain that have shut down because the drug has changed the normal way the brain functions reawaken and try to start working again, and this is what many believe causes the brain zaps.  Some believe fish oil can help with this problem.  Going from ten to twenty mg seems a big jump -- wondering why they didn't try 15 first -- but I got weird effects from Lexapro when I was raised in dose as well.  

[AlexFire]

changing from SSRI to SNRI usually has its difficulties and you should always consult with your doctor to find the right dose..and no..not everything is in your head..you might actually have different reactions to different  meds specially SNRI's..but dont worry..these are safe drugs and wont cause any damage to brain or body.