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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by chess on May 13, 2005, at 20:49:34
can Lexapro be stopped cold-turkey?
or do you have to taper off it?
how do you taper off it if you have to?
Posted by Mike Rosoft on May 14, 2005, at 6:06:21
In reply to Lexapro: have to taper off it?, posted by chess on May 13, 2005, at 19:37:01
I too am having really bad withdrawals comming off Effexor which I have been taking for 2years at 75 mg per day.
Some doctors are ignorant to the fact that there even is a withdrawal process.My Doctor told me that I may experiance nothing worse than a flue like symtom.
A lot she knew because these withdrawl symptoms that I am having are just so dam bad,, it's hard to explain just how bad they are. I gave up smoking after a 30 year habbit and it was a piece of cake compaired to this.
I have gone 1 week now cold turkey and the withdrawals still feel exactly the same.I hate it so much and I wish it would stop.But I am too pig headed to give in and have another capsule so i guess i am stuck with this feeling for a while.I just hope it doesnt get any worse.I hate my doctor now for doing this to me.Surely she must have realised what I would go through when it was time to call it quits. No wonder she seemed to want me to keep taking the drug,,She probably found out what the withdrawals where like and decided to keep me drugged up to the eyeballs so I wouldn't go punch her in the head when these withdrawal feelings started.
Thank god I found this place. I thought that it was just me feeling weak or something and that the brain zapps where me just going Nuttso. Wow,,, so every one gets them. I don't mean to be rude,, but thank god for that fact.
Take it easy if you can,,, and sorry about the spelling mistakes but I just cant think straight at the moment
Rob
Posted by SLS on May 14, 2005, at 10:19:17
In reply to Re: Lexapro: have to taper off it?, posted by Mike Rosoft on May 14, 2005, at 6:06:21
> I too am having really bad withdrawals comming off Effexor which I have been taking for 2years at 75 mg per day.
> Some doctors are ignorant to the fact that there even is a withdrawal process.My Doctor told me that I may experiance nothing worse than a flue like symtom.
> A lot she knew because these withdrawl symptoms that I am having are just so dam bad,, it's hard to explain just how bad they are. I gave up smoking after a 30 year habbit and it was a piece of cake compaired to this.
> I have gone 1 week now cold turkey and the withdrawals still feel exactly the same.I hate it so much and I wish it would stop.But I am too pig headed to give in and have another capsule so i guess i am stuck with this feeling for a while.I just hope it doesnt get any worse.
>
> I hate my doctor now for doing this to me.Surely she must have realised what I would go through when it was time to call it quits. No wonder she seemed to want me to keep taking the drug,,She probably found out what the withdrawals where like and decided to keep me drugged up to the eyeballs so I wouldn't go punch her in the head when these withdrawal feelings started.
> Thank god I found this place. I thought that it was just me feeling weak or something and that the brain zapps where me just going Nuttso. Wow,,, so every one gets them. I don't mean to be rude,, but thank god for that fact.
> Take it easy if you can,,, and sorry about the spelling mistakes but I just cant think straight at the moment
> Rob
Hi Rob.If I were to discontinue Lexapro, I would either restart it and taper off of it gradually over the course of a few weeks or cross over to Prozac for a week as a substitute. The substitution method usually works well.
Personally, I don't like the idea of allowing the withdrawal syndrome to persist for any length of time unmitigated. I think it might provoke the system to manifest an extended withdrawal period, even after the last dose is taken.
Perhaps you could wait another few days to see if there is a trend towards improvement. If your withdrawal symptoms remain as intense as they are now or even worse, I would give careful consideration to restarting the drug and taper or using the Prozac cross-over method of weaning.
Good luck.
- Scott
Posted by Ashana on May 27, 2005, at 21:27:29
In reply to Re: Lexapro: have to taper off it? » Mike Rosoft, posted by SLS on May 14, 2005, at 10:19:17
I'm glad i'm not the only one going through this, I've been taking Lexapro for a while now and I took Celexa before that and I started out with Paxil before that. I just feel like these "doctors" lately just want to keep feeding you pills to make everything better, it's silly. I even confronted my doctor that I wanted to stop taking meds because I was sick of it, I started taking stuff for Anxiety back in high school that and I just graduated college, but my doc didn't understand that I figured out that anxiety was all in my head and a pure mind game with myself, the drugs just helped at first but then you begin to rely on them too much, so I stopped taking Lexapro, and I was looking to see if anyone was in the same boat as me. I found doctors out there that will help my anxiety problems without drugs. My symptoms right now are some dizziness and kind of a feeling like I'm just out of it and i feel tired. wow, this felt so good just to vent all this crap, thanks.
This is the end of the thread.
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