HelloMyNameIsLuke: Lexapro 10mg, do I need to restart from full dose?

[HelloMyNameIsLuke]

Long story as short as possible; I have been on Lexapro 10mg for about 13 years.  I stopped it abruptly about 10 years ago after being on it for about 3 years.  Within the span of 6 months (maybe?) after stopping (most likey 3-12 months, unclear as it was so long ago) I had sudden onset illness that I have had to this day which is best described as fatigue, dizyness, lightheadedness, and brain fog. A lot of my symptom overlap with Mal Department syndrome, CFS, and dysautonomia.  Shortly after the illness symptoms started I started back up Lexapro to help manage the stress of the illness and never really thought Lexapro could be contributing to this illness until I was alerted to this forum from a illness group on Facebook which focuses on Maldepartment syndrome.  My illness has made me extremely sentitive to medications, smells, and stimulus.

 

I have tried to stop Lexapro once about 4 years ago before I know about the need for extremly slow tapering and had to get back on as the withdraw symptoms were very bad.

 

My goal is to get fully off Lexapro and see if my other illness symtoms change.  I started this process a few months ago by dropping Lexapro from 10mg to 7.5mg for a month and a half, and then dropped from 7.5mg to 5mg two weeks ago.  I now know about the 10% method and that my dropping was too much and too fast.  I did have withdraw symptoms the first 3 weeks on my initial drop and then stablized.  It has been two weeks since I dropped from 7.5mg to 5mg and have low level withdraw symtoms that seem to be getting worse the past few days.

 

Do I need to go back up to my original 10mg dose and slowly taper down in 1mg steps to properly get off Lexapro for my brain to adapt properly or should I just slow down the taper from this point? Not sure how to proceed.

 

Thanks to everyone for being awesome

[scallywag]

Luke -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

 

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.

 

Some people can cope with the 25% dose reduction in Lexapro that you took; many others find themselves having withdrawal symptoms. I would not suggest that you return to 10 mg, which you last took in mid-June.  Your CNS (central nervous system) has probably made some adjustments to the dose decrease and a return to 10 mg could be further destabilizing.  Your options at this point are either

• holding at 5 mg and riding out the symptoms until they settle down (they usually do, but it may take many weeks)
  -- or --
• sneaking up on a dose that will ease your symptoms, one small increase at a time held for several weeks.

If you want to "sneak up on an optimal dose," then you'll need to make dose adjustments in amounts that can't be done by eye, by a knife, or with a pill cutter.  People either crush and weigh tablets/powder or make a liquid:

Using a digital scale to measure doses.

Making a liquid from a tablet or capsules .

Using an oral syringe and other tapering techniques].

Tips for tapering off Lexapro (escitalopram)

 

Your symptoms are your guide in this process of updosing and in any eventual taper you do.  Please keep notes on paper of your symptoms and the times of your dose(s). This post has a useful format for a daily log:

Take notes of doses and symptoms.

 

To start, I'd suggest that you try a dose of 6.25 mg (halfway to your first step-down dose of 7.5 mg). Stay at that dose and monitor your symptoms for at least 2 weeks, preferably 3-4.  If no improvement, then you might consider another step up to 7.5 mg.  Please read this topic:

How long to stabilize after reinstating or updosing.

 

Time to taper down again will come after you've had either few/no symptoms or a steady "withdrawal normal" for a month or more. To minimize setting off new symptoms or intensifying existing symptoms we suggest making decreases of no more than 10% once per month.  One calculates that reduction for the next dose from one's current dose so that the amount of the decrease in mg is not the same each month: 10, 9 (↓1.0), 8.1 (↓0.9), 7.3 (↓0.8), 6.6 (↓0.7). For more details about this, please read:

Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.

 

A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years.
  
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
  
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
  
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
  
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
  
• Link to Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.
  
  

I've given you a fair amount of reading and at least one thing to do, so I'll wrap up this reply.   Please feel free to ask any questions and to let us know how you're doing. Asking questions in new post (reply) in this topic is usually the best and fastest way to get an answer.  Again, welcome.

[nz11]

Luke how are you doing these days , any update?