Ouroboros Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Hi, hope everyone is in a window today. I am looking for successful stories of late reinstatement. My story: I stopped Effexor from 37.5mg - 0mg CT for a period of 13 months before reinstating at the same dose (all of these were advices from my doctor...). On month 12 I took a St John's wort supplement for a period of 3 days to calm my anxiety as I didn't know it could trigger my nervous system. My doctor suggested reinstating Effexor at 37.5mg and told me I would be fine to do so after having stopped the St-John Worts for a 2 days. I don't know if it was the combination of the St-John's Worts and the AD, but the day after taking my first pill of Effexor I was completely out of it. I than took nothing for the following two weeks and remained in a state of complete panic (shaking, terror, pounding heart, vomiting). I then tried to reinstate again (2 weeks after my first trial) as my doctor told me I probably had a panic attack and should try again. This time around my body accepted the AD and I saw some improvement in the first month of reinstatement (I thought I was going to be ok) and then I completely crashed. Since then I have been having windows and waves. The waves are horrible and the windows are bearable but I still can't function properly. I have been back on this dose for a bit more than 3 1/2 months. I think the windows and waves are getting a bit better everytime. Some of my symptoms prior of reinstatement have stopped, but new ones have appeared. I don't know if the AD is simply trying to suppress them and making them show up differently or if they are completely new. During a wave I now have will these symptoms: - Vomiting - PGAD - Anxiety - Lost of appetite - Inner jitteriness - Burning sensation in chest and sometimes stomach - Tingling in arms When I am in a window the symptoms comes and goes: - Burning sensation in chest - Tingling in arms - Anxiety - Inner jitteriness Prior to reinstating these were my symptoms: - Intense fear and constant feeling of doom - Tremor - Vomiting - Pounding heart - Insomnia - Extreme anxiety - Lost of Appetite - Feeling of electricity/emptiness in chest I am looking for HOPE. Has anybody reinstated this late and eventually stabilised? Or have you hear of other people stories that have eventually stabilised? I have been reading the forum threads to find some reassurance, but since most of us are having a hard time here it is just really scaring me more than anything! I had stopped Effexor from 300mg - 0mg 5 years ago too quickly. At that time I started having panic attacks and I think I reinstated probably 9 months after stopping. That previous reinstatement worked for me. I still occasionally has panic attacks, but they were pretty rare and manageable. Other than that I had no symptoms. Thank you so much. I sincerely hope that every single person on this forum gets better. 2008-2011 Citalopram 2011-2012 Seroquel 2012-2017 Venlafaxine 300mg 2017 Venlafaxine fast taper 300mg-0mg in 3 months 2018 Reinstate Venlafaxine 37.5mg for Panic Attacks 2018-2022 Venlafaxine 37.5mg Happy & Stable 2022 Sept Stopped Venlafaxine no taper 37.5mg-0mg 2023 Oct Reinstated Venlafaxine 37.5mg after severe protracted withdrawals - Now holding Supplements Magnesium & Cod Liver Oil No alcohol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenD7123 Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 Hello all, I am looking for some insight on my current situation from those who are smarter than me... I started tapering 20mg of Lexapro on September 1st, 2023. I tapered 2.5mg a month (yes I know it was too quick, but it was before I found you guys) until December 5th, 2023. That is when I first dropped down to 7.5mg. I never had any withdrawal symptoms hardly at all. Then, the day after Christmas, I started to spiral down hill. I some stomach issues, fatigue, and my anxiety came back. The biggest problem was when I went out of town for the weekend, I triggered a panic attack that lasted all weekend and carried into the following week. Being far away from home is what my original anxiety started with three years ago. I went to my Psychiatrist on January 29th, 2024 and he said my anxiety was starting to re-emerge (which it was), and he said to step it back up to 10mg of Lexapro. Once I got on 10mg I was a little bit better, but three weeks in I was still feeling pretty crazy and anxious some. I was on 10mg of Lexapro until I was bumped up by my psychiatrist back to 20mg on February 23, 2024. I started 15mg on February 23, 2024. I felt pretty good while I was on 15mg, but I still felt agitated some, tired and sluggish, and had the tight and very dry feeling in my throat at times. On March 1st, 2024, I bumped up to 20mg of Lexapro after tapering up on 15mg for a week or so. The first week or so I felt pretty good other than the tight, dry feeling in throat. Ever since March 7th, 2024 (this past Thursday, today is Sunday) I feel like I have started going down hill. I have had diarrhea, loss of appetite, sluggishness/drowsiness, not sleeping well, agitation, sweating, ruminating thoughts, and I have the hot skin sensations throughout my body. Yesterday March 9th, 2024 is when my anxiety jumped up really high. I had a massive anxious spell almost like a panic attack around 1:00 when I tried to take a nap. This is the most anxious I have felt since I started the lexapro 3 years ago. This anxious period lasted about 2 hours and then faded out and had a good rest of the evening other than some slight agitation. Today is March 10th, 2024 and I have been at 20mg for 10 days. I slept good and was even able to lay in bed and deep breath and fall asleep for an extra hour. I felt good most of the morning, other than the burning skin sensation from my anxiety. Around 12:30 or so I started to feel anxious and did some deep breathing and I did not have a full panic attack like I did yesterday. These anxious spells have happened at home so there is no real trigger. My question is heightened anxiety normal when increasing SSRI dosage? I overall feel better, other than lack of appetite. The agitation is pretty much gone, sluggishness is gone, and I overall feel better and more stabile, but I still have lack of appetite and anxiousness. Any help or advice would be appreciated! Started Zoloft 07/2021 - adverse reaction. Stopped taking it three days in. Started taking 10 mg of Lexapro around 09/2021. Stayed at 10 mg for a couple months. Upped to 20mg around 01/2022. Everything was great on 20mg. No complaints. Started tapering off 09/2023. 15mg at first. Went down to 12.5mg on 09/19/2023. Went down to 10mg 10/24/2023. Went down to 7.5mg 12/05/2023. Updosed to 10mg on 1/30/2024 due to anxiety coming back. 2/23/2024 upped to 15mg due to anxiety still being around. 3/1/2024 Upped to 20mg to stabilize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsthestart Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 About reinstatement - has anyone seen a limit to how long you can hold at a low dose? For example, if you reinstate at 1mg (or any of the sub therapeutic levels) can you feasibly hold here for as long as needed (a couple months, a year, etc.) before continuing your taper? I reinstated 4 weeks ago at 1mg and would like to hold here for the foreseeable future due to some major life events coming up this spring and summer. 20mg citalopram - 11/2010 ~ 2014 (prescribed for panic attacks) 20mg escitalopram (Can't remember why i changed meds) - 2014 - 3/2020 10mg citalopram - 3/2020 5mg citalopram - 4/2020 Withdrawal from 4/2020-7/2020 Reinstated with 50 mg Sertraline - 7/2020 - 6/2023 25 mg Sertraline taper and micro dosing Psilocybin - 7/2023 12.5mg Sertraline taper every other day and micro dosing Psilocybin - 8/2023 0 mg Sertraline and micro dosing Psilocybin - 9/2023 Micro dosing ~125mg Psilocybin off and on July 2023-January 2024 Withdrawals began in early November 2023// Found SA in January 2024 Attempting Reinstatement: 1 mg Zoloft liquid solution 2/22/2024 - present Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YachtRock Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 I hope that one of the new volunteers can offer some advice for the recent posters @Ouroboros and @BenD7123. I know the site and staff are reorganizing so bear with them. I would encourage all of you to just keep searching through the historical forum posts and I bet you can find answers and guidance in there like I did. And to @ThisIsthestart I believe you can stay on a reinstatemen dose as long as you want to. In fact the trend I have seen are people wanting to drop back down too quickly. Get stable and stick with it as long as you need to and feel comfortable with. I reinstated and stayed there for about 5 months before slowly tapering back down to where I could barely weigh out the powder. Stay strong, things will improve! My Introduction thread 2002-2003 Celexa/Lexapro (first ride, very mild withdrawal). 2004-2012 Drug free 2013-2018 Cymbalta 60mg | 2019 Effexor 75mg - 150mg (can't recall specifics) 2020-Apr 2021 Trintellix 20mg | May-Jun 10mg | Jul-Aug 5mg (stopped Aug 12th, 2021) WD symptoms began 4-6 weeks after last dose, increased severely at the 4 month mark 2021 Oct 9th Propranolol 10mg 2x/day (10am and 7pm) tapered to 5mg. Stopped 2/1/22. Lorazepam (Ativan) 0.5-1mg as needed Started a 0.5mg Trintellix reinstatement on 12/17/21 Tapered to ~0.4mg and 0.3mg by end of May 2022 Stopped Caffeine 1/1/2022 and Nicotine on 4/1/2022. Jan 19, 2022 - Added Vitamin D3 (2000iu), Super Omega-3 (2500mg) December 2022 - Finished taper of reinstatement dose around 0.09mg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsthestart Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 @YachtRock, thanks so much for your input, i really appreciate it! I plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. I'm still either having serious waves of depression/anxiety or, I'm just responding incredibly poorly to stress - who knows could be either, the fun of WD! I came back to this thread to ask if anyone had a recommendation for liquid dosing syringes? I'm taking 4ml of my 25mg Sert pill dissolved in 100ml water. I'm just using a plastic syringe I got for free from the Walgreens pharmacy, and i put the liquid in a large empty amber glass pill bottle from a supplement I use. Does anyone have a better set up they recommend or syringe that is most accurate? I couple mine with our kitchen scale to measure -4ml water weight leaving the bottle. 20mg citalopram - 11/2010 ~ 2014 (prescribed for panic attacks) 20mg escitalopram (Can't remember why i changed meds) - 2014 - 3/2020 10mg citalopram - 3/2020 5mg citalopram - 4/2020 Withdrawal from 4/2020-7/2020 Reinstated with 50 mg Sertraline - 7/2020 - 6/2023 25 mg Sertraline taper and micro dosing Psilocybin - 7/2023 12.5mg Sertraline taper every other day and micro dosing Psilocybin - 8/2023 0 mg Sertraline and micro dosing Psilocybin - 9/2023 Micro dosing ~125mg Psilocybin off and on July 2023-January 2024 Withdrawals began in early November 2023// Found SA in January 2024 Attempting Reinstatement: 1 mg Zoloft liquid solution 2/22/2024 - present Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenD7123 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 @YachtRock Thanks! I have made some pretty good improvements in the last week or two from where I was at. Mainly just have some anxiety and intrusive thoughts occasionally. I am also sleeping 7-8 hours a night with no melatonin so I know that is a good sign of improvement. Started Zoloft 07/2021 - adverse reaction. Stopped taking it three days in. Started taking 10 mg of Lexapro around 09/2021. Stayed at 10 mg for a couple months. Upped to 20mg around 01/2022. Everything was great on 20mg. No complaints. Started tapering off 09/2023. 15mg at first. Went down to 12.5mg on 09/19/2023. Went down to 10mg 10/24/2023. Went down to 7.5mg 12/05/2023. Updosed to 10mg on 1/30/2024 due to anxiety coming back. 2/23/2024 upped to 15mg due to anxiety still being around. 3/1/2024 Upped to 20mg to stabilize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StDymphna Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 "Do not expect immediate elimination of withdrawal symptoms. Though this sometimes does happen, often people feel a little better after reinstatement and then continue to gradually improve over weeks and months after that. Your nervous system has been through a lot and needs to settle down." How do I know if upon reinstating it is taking a long time to stabilize, or that I simply reinstated at too low of a dose to help me? How long would one wait for improvement before deciding they need a higher dose? I want to reinstate Lexapro after a too fast taper and cold turkey, both done out of fear of my adverse effects, which my psychiatrist believed were SS... 15mg two weeks 10mg one week cold turkey (due to a reaction to hydroxyzine on the third day in a row I was trying 25mg of Zoloft and 10mg of Lexapro. Because of the hydroxyzine reaction, I skipped my Lexapro dose for fear of a stronger reaction, hoping to get some answers when would be to meet with a new psychiatrist 4 fays later.) Also skipped out on the Zoloft I had only been taking it for a few days on and off. My doctor wanted to me to cross-taper to zoloft after hearing about my lexapro side effects So basically, too-fast taper due to a random adverse effect out of the blue.. and then cold turkey. Is there hope for me to try and reinstate at a low dose? like probably less than 1mg. Should I be concerned about kindling? I am so anxious with all these unknowns... 2021: Lexapro 20mg for anxiety. March 2024: Started probiotic. Few days later, adverse reaction to Lexapro. Stopped probiotic. 15mg for two weeks. Continued adverse reaction. April 2024: Began Zoloft 25mg. Lexapro 10mg: took both at the same time- worse adverse reaction. Stopped Zoloft and stayed on Lexapro 10mg for 3 days. Horrible withdrawal depression. Began Zoloft 25mg again, took in the morning. Lexapro 10mg night. Adverse reaction. Took Zoloft for 3 days. Stopped Zoloft 25 mg. Continued Lexapro 10mg each night for a week with adverse reaction each time. Possible Serotonin Toxicity Confirmed by Psychiatrist Stopped Lexapro April 5th, 2024. Withdrawal symptoms began- Will soon try and reinstate 1mg or less. Supplements: magnesium, fish oil capsules, vitamin D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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