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Nels: Lexapro to help kick kratom now I'm having trouble stopping the lexapro


Nels

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Hi everyone I'm glad I found this site I hope you can help me.

 

A year ago I tried some kratom tea and very quickly got hooked to the point I needed it just to feel ok
I made a plan to taper off and went to see my doctor she gave me lexapro 10 mg that I started 30 days

Before my last day on kratom I weened from a max of 40 grams a day to 16 and went cold turkey
It was tough but not too bad I had a little Xanax to ease the shakes and was feeling a little better in 3 days but stupid me stopped the lexapro at the same time and on day 7 started having brain zaps I didn't know what they were.

 

Did some reading and got back on the lex after missing 9 doses zaps stopped in an hour

The side effects on the lex were terrible constipated wicked head ache and weak legs very weak legs
Have to sit down a lot etc I cut to 5 mg 3 days ago and feel ok in the head just ok but with very weak legs
And constipated and all over weak. I think I didn't notice the lexapro sides when I was on the kratom and I don't suffer from depression a little brain fog in the low light season around Xmas but I've learned to just take it easy around the holidays.

 

Since I was only on the lex a month well 5 out of six weeks. How long will the taper take is it harder the longer your on it?

 

Love to have some help here thanks , Nels

Edited by ChessieCat
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  • Moderator Emeritus

Nels -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

Probably the best course for now is to hold where you are at 3 mg for as long as it takes for the symptoms to settle down. Your symptoms are from going off kratom and then quickly decreasing Lexapro dose. Tapering Lexapro quickly might make sense if you had no immediately previous exposure to a neuroactive substance, which is not your situation.

A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-18 months particularly?

  • Any drugs prior to that can just be listed with start and stop years.
  • You don't need to include symptoms or diagnoses other than the initial condition that led to prescribing the first drug.
  • We ask for this information in your signature so that we can see it at a glance. A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
  • You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature

You can read about our approach to tapering in these topics:
Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know
Why taper by 10% of my dosage?
Tips for tapering off Lexapro (escitalopram)

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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  • 1 year later...

Nels how are you doing these days?

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

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