Any POSITIVE reports for coming off Lexapro???

[ComputerGeek]

I Googled "Coming off Lexapro" and came across dozens of health-related websites (similar to this) where I read report after report after report of absolutely HORRIBLE withdrawl symptoms of people coming off Lexapro.

Has anyone come off Lexapro with GOOD results?

One thing in common with most of these is that they would say they would go from, say 10 mg. to 5 mg for just a week and then off of it completely.  A week at 5mg. doesn't seem nearly long enough to me.  

I am thinking maybe going from my current 10mg to 5 mg for several MONTHS and then maybe 2.5mg (if it goes that low) for several more MONTHS may be a better way to come off Lexapro.

After reading these horror stories, I also think that I should maybe start up again with the psychologist I had visited at the beginning when my general practioner first prescribed Lexapro.  At least then I would have a back-up already in place to help me.  I would like to try coming off of it in a few months but dread the return of symptoms and ESPECIALLY the withdrawl symptoms mentioned by others - like their "brain restarting or rebooting every 5 minutes" or their "brain being turned into a sponge being squeezed every 10 minutes" or "getting an electric shock to my brain" - YIKES!

Lexapro has helped me a LOT over the last several months and has been symptom-free.  But I am past what was causing me to be depressed.  (Unless maybe my brain is just naturally lacking in serotonin or something.)

So please - if ANYONE out there has had good results from coming off Lexapro, PLEASE let me know!!!   And also let me know what method you followed.

Thanks!

[Hensley258]

Thanks for the info Computer Geek. I have suffered this strange Vertigo since my severe depression and anxiey started back in 1992.

The worse my depression is the worse the Vertigo is. It seems like none of the Psychiatrist or doctors can give me any real reson for this corrilation and what is causing it.

It feels like a heavy lead ball in the center of my brain that somehow shifts me off balance. It differnt than the normal dizzies. I will be walking and it will feel like I am walking on an un-level surface even though the surface is perfectly level.

It honestly scares the **** out of me and only served to make my anxiety worse.

Funny thing is that when my AD meds are working well then the symptom fades. So I figure these must be some corrilation between the two.

[therese83]

I gave up effexor (is that what you call it in america)

Taper taper taper + If you cant make a step down go back up for a couple of weeks.  The second time you try it usually works, if not back up again.

Or

Come down one day out of ten.  Then two days out of ten.  You dont feel it so much then.  Trick your body

Do yourself a little grid chart and you will see progress, slowly.

It did take a year you are right there.

[ComputerGeek]

___V_E_R_T_I_G_O____A_N_D____D_E_P_R_E_S_S_I_O_N___

Hensley, one last thing about vertigo.  The audiologist asked me a hundred or so different questions to see if we could help figure out what changed in the last month or so when the vertigo kicked in.  (Nothing significant had changed.)  Towards the end of the standard list of questions, he asked if I suffered with stress or depression.  He paused and explained why he, an audiologist, would even ask such questions.  He said that stress and depression can sometimes help to CAUSE vertigo.  And the more stress and depression - the worse the vertigo.  And I don't know about you, but the more the vertigo I feel, the more the stressed I am!!!

I don't even know if I should be driving.  But, to be honest, it seems easier to drive than to walk.  In driving, I simply need to stay between the lines and watch out for all the other crazy drivers.  Interestingly, I don't have my normal sense of acceleration and deceleration, so I need to also keep a close eye on my speed (not a bad thing since speeding tickets increase insurance costs).  I also don't feel gravity like I normally would going fast around a curve.  So I ESPECIALLY need to watch my speed going onto and off of the highway when te on and off ramp is a sweeping curve.

But when I start work in earnest (assuming I am still there in three months), I need to mention my vertigo to my manager so he will know that if he sees me stumble - it isn't because I had been hitting the bottle before coming to work!!!

___________________________________________________________________


I thought my general practioner and ENT doctor were insane when they prescribed 2mg and 0.5mg tablets of Diazepam and Lorazepam (respectively) - since those are also anti-depressants.  But, after I researched "DRUG TREATMENTS FOR VERTIGO" on Google, I found that it IS common to prescribe these two drugs in very low dose for vertigo.  But, through my research, I also found that Lorazepam is actually better than Diazepam when used this way.  (I am not actualling taking these prescriptions though.  Neither seemed to help.)

Of course.... both of these can ALSO cause dizziness!!!  LOL

Finally MECLIZINE (brand Antivert) is also often prescribed for vertigo. It is basically an antihistamine similar to Dramamine.  It has very few side effects except, like most antihistamines, can cause dry mouth, blurred vision and drowsiness. It definitely causes drowsiness with me - and didn't seem to help at all so I don't thake that either.  (And again - it ALSO can CAUSE dizziness!  LOL)

"When the balance system is damaged, it has little ability to repair itself. The body recovers from the injury by having the part of the brain that controls balance re-calibrate itself to COMPENSATE for the unmatched signals being sent from the damaged and well ears. This compensation process occurs naturally in most people. Some patients require help from vestibular rehabilitation therapy in order to recover from an injury to the balance system."

This is a quote from a web site (I Googled "MECLIZINE" just now). That sounds exactly like what the audiologist doctor was saying.  Especially the part about "vestibular rehabilitation therapy."  (Google "vestibular rehabilitation therapy" for more information on that.)


---HENSLEY--- we need to keep tabs on each other!!!!!!  Whenever I discover something more about vertigo I will let you know!


ONE THING somebody told me is that caffeine worsens vertigo.  Needless to say, I have been drinking coffee like it is going out of style to stay away in class.  (I am poorly disciplined and often stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning!  LOL)  I can DEFINITELY say that caffeine DOES make my vertigo worse.  And I definitely stay completely away from alcohol.

The audiologist also told me to NOT take any extra salt - be it salt that I might add to my food or even salted potato chips - another piece of advice I have difficulty following.  Especially when a can of "Salt & Vinegar" or "Sour Cream & Onion" flavor Pringles are standing right there!!!  (Seesh....)

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[ComputerGeek]

Hensley, thanks for your information also.

Um, I can't say for sure what category I fit into - chemical verses situational.

I DO know with certainty that the job I was laid off from produced a HUGE amount of stress in my life.

As proof of this (to myself), I was told about the layoff a few months ahead of time (which was to allow me some time to find another job).  As i said, after being told of the layoff, I was lucky to be getting 3 hours of sleep a night.  A person NEEDS sleep to maintain sanity, so throuought that time, the most important thing to me was to do 3 days Ambien and 3 days Benedryl so I wouldn't get hooked on either as a sleep aid.  (I got that idea from another person who posted what she did in a another thread!  It worked - I got hooked on neither of those meds!)  But still, I was getting only 3 hours of sleep every night - worrying about how I was going to support my family.

All this time (three months) I was working with my psychologist.  He was helping me to realize that i was normal.  It was just my body's way of dealing with stress.  He said I would have been the PERFECT person to do guard duty over my village a few thousand years ago, protecting everyone through the night.  But in today's society, such stress reaction is uneeded and unwanted.  But he told me that out of ALL the paitients he has ever seen, I have to be the most normal he has EVER seen - I just have a quick-reacting stress threshold.  But i still went to visit him once a week because he was doing a GREAT job of rebuilding my shattered self-esteem (also normal for a person who is told they are being laid off, he said).

Okay, so the last day at work arrived.  The next day I nop longer needed to go to work.  

I SLEPT (as they say) LIKE A BABY ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!

From that day on, I never again needed Ambien or Benedryl to sleep at night!!!

That alone revealed to me how stressful working there all these years had become to me.  My wife understood that all these years whereas I denied it to myself.  Until that last day of work.

So that helped me to see the lay off as a blessing in disguise.  That company did me a big favor by their action.  I just need that push out the door.  

My new job is with a fantastic world-wide company - I am in training now.  

I take a final exam in just another week and that is now causing me some stress again because I REALLY want to pass and stay with this company.  GREAT benefits and GREAT corporate culture.  (We are ALL just a bunch of computer geeks!!!  LOL)

If I pass the final I then have two months to prove myself afterwards - Another potential cause of stress.

I probably will therefore wait until three months from now.  I am concerned and am getting a little anxious.  Lexapro helps with depression AND anxiety.  

Yeah, my vertigo is driving me crazy.  i have been seen by an ear, nose and throat doctor.  He sent me to have an MRI done of my head to rule out a tumor or other growth pressing against the inner ear balance organs.  The MRI came back clear.

So then I needed to get a complete audiology exam from an audiologist.  The person I went to see happened to be a doctor who once specialised in a certain pathology of the ear in a huge hearing institute, but now broke away to open his own hearing clinic.

He was EXTREMELY helpful in my understanding of vertigo.  Vertigo is caused when something gets out of sync between the two ear's inner balance organs.  These consist of three tubes in each ear filled with fluid.  The tubes also have tiny hairs.  Without these organs, it would be impossible to have any sense of balance.

But sometimes the signals arrive at different times to the brain and the brain gets confused.  (I am sure the doctor was greatly simplyfying the syndrome for me - a layman.)  

One old test of vertigo (that I read about) is they used to put warm water in one ear and cold water in the other ear.  (I had read about that online.)  I asked the doctor if that is still used.  He said yes, but in a far more scientific way with precise measurements (but it wasn't indicated for me).  He said that during any such test, ANY person will completely lose their sense of balance and feel vertigo.  That was amazing to hear.  Weird huh?

Anyway, I haven't heard back from the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor.  The audiologist said that vertigo typically lasts 2 to 4 months and then the person should get over it as either the body heals whatever caused the imbalance of signals, or the brain itself makes the adjustment.

Since I have had this, MANY people have mentioned to me friends of theirs ALSO suffering from verttigo - so apparently it isn't that rare.

It WILL be rare if this continues for MONTHS.  But the audiologist said that there are actually courses of physical therapy for vertigo patients.  (IF I don't hear back from the ENT, I am calling the audiologist and will ask him to call the ENT himself because the audiologist really knows his stuff!!!)

The thing is, I renewed all my meds - Lexapro, Crestor, Flowmax, Avodart, Nexium - virtually ALL state on the side-effects panel that they can cause dizziness!!!

Lexapro especially states that it can cause severe dizziness (rare, but possible).  

Well, since I have severe dizziness, my thought was to come off as many of these as I possibly can.

(I won't come off of Avodart.  It caused my sky-high PSA to fall within completely normal range - no more annaual prostate biopsies for me!!!  And I can't come off Nexium.  I couldn't live without Nexium.  It is amazing how many people I have come across of all ages that HAVE to take Nexium.  That company must be swiming in cash flow!)

The crestor I can maybe come off of if I lose weight (maybe 20 or 30 pounds) and eat healthier.  (Too bad I LOVE breads and Pizza!!!)

Finally, especially after thinking more about it and starting to get a little anxious with the approaching final (and actually going to work with a 2-month trial period), I will put off coming off Lexapro for three months.  And, after hearing your input Hensley, I WILL start back up with my psychologist to help go through coming off Lexapro.

After I asked my psychologist about coming off Lexapro eventually, he said that I could experiment with coming off of it at some stage.  If things didn't seem to be working out, I could always go back on it.  (But I will rely on his support throughout the process to help out the rough spots, so to speak.)

[ComputerGeek]

Azalea82 - Yes, thanks for letting me know that - about the liquid form.  Liquid would make tapering off a lot easier.  I am sure my general practitioner would switch to liquid form if I asked him.      

Splitting my pill in half or quarters wouldn't be feasible.  The 10mg pill is about as tiny as a few grains of sand.  In fact, I wish they would add filler to make the pill physically larger because half the time I am not even sure the pill made it into my mouth or that I swallowed it!  

I once got clumsy one morning and spilled the entire bottle of Lexapro!  I retrieved 90% of the pills from the kitchen counter (placing them carefully back in the bottle) and then spent half an hour getting the rest from the floor (to throw those away) because our dog goes over the kitchen floor with a fine tooth comb and would have licked up those pills!

[Hensley258]

Good option for a taper off. I must have missed the boat on that Liquid form of Lexapro.

I know Prozac is avalible in Liquid form, but had no idea that Lexapro was also avalibe that way.

Just slow and gradual is the best advice I can give.

ComputerGeek, you mentioned will my Depression and anxiety return. Honestly it just depends on many factors. Studies have shown that once a person has developed Depressive and anxiety disorder that "if" they stop their meds they have about an 80% chance of an eventual relaps.

I think it really depends on how chemical verses situational your condition is. If your depression and anxiety were primarily caused by trauma or stressful life events, then I think the odds are with good therapy that you can go med free.

If your aniety and depression are more rooted in chemical and neurological factors, then I think stopping your meds would be risky.

In my case, I have had more Psychotherapy and Cognative therapy than anyone I know, and while I learned a lot about my past and myself, it did nothing to help the crushing symptoms of my depression and anxiety. Only meds offered that relief.

You mentioned that one of the symptoms of your Depression was Vertigo? That's interesting to me because my symptoms also include vertigo and not may people with Depression can relate to this symptom. The worse my depression and anxiety are, the worse the vertigo is.