DJones: Celexa kindling reaction

[Christian]

DJ. I'm very sorry. I'm in bad shape too after a failed reinstatement. I want to caution you though. I did feel a little better once I stopped lexapro in early March. But I did decline in the last 30 days and I lost more of my sleep (down to 4 hours a night even with Remeron). Insomnia and extreme fatigue is not a good combo. This might be just a brief wave but I was already in bad shape and thought the worst was behind me. I'm not going to reinstate again as I have to move on. I'm not going to stabilize on it it just lowered my anxiety some. Be careful my friend. I'll include you in my prayers.

[Djones1984]

So I have been on lamictal for a few months doc wanted to start slow and work me up to 50mg and than taper the celexa. I am a mess just want it all to end.

[Djones1984]

Doing very poorly doc said he thinks most or all of my problems are due to Celera withdrawal and kindling still. Wish in would have never went on this lamictal since it has not really done anything to help and I have been on it for 2.5 months now. Seem to be more agitated on it but I don't really know he wants me up to 50mg but I don't think I am going any higher if anything think I am going to drop it down some. Going on 4 years now and I am almost in worse shape than I was when all this started what a nightmare.

[Altostrata]

Dj, what do you mean when you say you're more agitated on Lamictal? What happens after you take it?

 

What is your daily symptom pattern, what times do you take your drugs, and at what dosages?

 

More Lamictal may not be better. Please do NOT taper Klonopin until we get this sorted out.

[Djones1984]

Hey alto,

 

Lamictal 35mg 8:00am

Celexa 1.5mg 8:00am

 

Klonopin .25mg 7:00am, 1:00pm, 7:00pm and around 12:00am

 

Wake up at 7am and lay around and eat breakefast usually am bad upon awakening a get a little better by 10am. I am bad again after lunch at 1230 by 130 I am usually a little better until 4 or 5 worse and than better by 6 or 7pm until around 9 or sometimes all night not feeling well. I usually sleep through the night.

 

I just upped the lamictal from 30mg to 35mg starting on Sunday and I am feeling worse akathesia. Seems since I stated lamictal I have been getting more headaches and agitation. I may have been better off on 20mg. Do you think I should go back down.

 

Honestly at this point I am ready to sell my truck and business or file bankruptcy because I can't function in society, I don't give a **** anymore and am sick of trying anything. I am ready to flush all the pills down the toilet and have my mom take care of me for a few year's.

[Djones1984]

I see the doc in the morning again but not sure what he is going to say and don't really care anyway.

[Altostrata]

I don't understand why you're playing with the Lamictal dosage.

 

It doesn't look to me like you're getting adverse reactions from Lamictal -- you're taking the Celexa at the same time.

 

If you get a headache from increasing Lamictal, go back to 25mg. Did you have headaches when you were taking 25mg? You said it helped a little, what did you mean by that?

 

Please report your symptom notes like this:

 

7:00 a.m. Wake

7:00 a.m Klonopin .25mg

[symptoms after that??|

8:00 a.m. Lamictal 35mg, Celexa 1.5mg

[symptoms after that??|

10:00 a.m. Feel better

??? Lunch

[symptoms after that??|

1:00 p.m Klonopin .25mg
[symptoms after that??|
 

and so forth. The way you're reporting them, it's hard to understand what's happening. When do you get "akathisia"? You must keep notes on paper every day.

 

What do you mean by "akathisia"?

[Djones1984]

I was playing with the lamictal dose because the doctor thought it would be good for me to get to 50mg so I have been slowly increasing. I have akathesia throughout the day everyday and usually comes and goes it seems when the klonopin wears off and feels like inner torture, bugs crawling under skin and like anxiety times 100 and i have a hard time sitting still or thinking when its bad.

 

I went back to the doctor yesterday and he said if I felt the lamictal was to much to go back to 25mg he also said that he thinks the klonopin is a big part of my problem and he wants me to try and crossover to valium try to get a little more stable and than try and taper off the remainder of the celexa by the end of the year.

 

I need to keep better notes but it seems most of my symtoms still come and go dependent on the klonopin doses. what do you think? 

[Christian]

DJ,

I'm sorry you are still having a tough time. I have to say I find it amazing with all the anxiety and akasithia you have had for a couple years now and your sleep has remained stable. And no fatigue too. Usually that comes after suffering from anxiety and stress. I can't think of many that has had as much as you have had. I'm hoping you remain strong.

[Djones1984]

God help me I listened to this doc again and am now in worse shape on this lamictal he wanted me up to 50mg and that wasent working and now back at 25mg but think I am in an uproar from that I don't know who to listen to I am so crazy I can't keep track of anything and dont know who to listen too.

[Djones1984]

I have no idea how I am continuing to work and live through this I dropped the lamictal down and now am dizzy and completely electrified through my whole body. I don't know whether I am coming or going most of the time.

[Djones1984]

I have a sinus infection I think after cold and I am scared to death to take antibiotics. If I have to what is the best one to take in withdrawl? Will they mess me up badly?

Edited September 3, 2016 by scallywag
merged from created topic "antibiotics"

[scallywag]

Djones - I've moved your post from the standalone topic "antibiotics" you created to your introduction topic so that all the information about your situation will be in one place, or one of two places the other being your benzo taper topic.

 

 

Some people have treated nasal and sinus infections with weak saline solutions in a neti pot.  To find more information, try a web search (google) for  "neti pot" infection

 

Generally there are different antibiotic medications indicated for a specific suspected infection. Doctors will have better information about this than we do. 

 

Here's a thread that discusses antibiotics during withdrawal:  Cipro Levaquin, Z-pack

 

Read that and come back here to post your questions.

[LexAnger]

Hi DJ, Just check how you are doing.

[Djones1984]

Not doing to well I have been tapering the celexa and now down to 1mg and they switched generics on me and I feel totally messed up. Never really stabilised and considoring just throwing the celexa away and being done with it.

[Djones1984]

I feel it's just prolonging my suffering at this point.

[LexAnger]

God, this mix of more drugs is hard to figure out what's really happening.

For the kindling reaction from lex dose increase, all the windows I got so far were from quick drop of lex. The WD symptoms are still there but the reaction ones are much much worse so I'm riding the WD out and cutting very fact ( 1% everyday lately it actually made things better).

[Djones1984]

Hi everyone I am still in the thick of battle with this. As you can see from my Sig I am off the celexa on 25mg a day of lamictal and crossed over to Valium from klonopin in hopes of stabilizing and having an easier withdrawal. I am a mess doctor said I could try more lamictal but honestly don't want to be on anything but I have heard it's worked for some people. 

 

Dont really know know how I am ever going to make it out of this mess.

 

 

[Djones1984]

Hi there, I am still struggling been off the celexa for coming up on a year now been dealing with this for 5 years and still taking 10mg of Valium a day I doubt I will ever recover while still on the Valium and still on a low dose of lamictal. Nothing seems to help just in hell most of the time with akathesia being there everyday will it ever go away? Please help.

[ChessieCat]

Hi Djones,

 

Please update your drug signature.  Clicking on this link will take you to your own signature:  Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature

 

What is your current symptoms pattern?  Are you keeping notes on paper of when you take your drug and when your symptoms worsen?

 

Are you still taking 25mg Lamictal?

[Djones1984]

Yes I am still taking the lamictal symptom pattern is I feel horrible upon awakening at 7am than take my morning dose of lamictal and 5mg of Valium usually gets a little better for a couple 3 hours than back into akathesia by 10am very bad usually until after lunch than a tad better in the afternoon by late afternoon dinner time usually bad again. Take my second dose of 5mg Valium at 7pm and usually but not always am better at night.

 

 

[Shep]

On 6/25/2016 at 12:39 AM, Djones1984 said:

Hi been away from forum for awhile still suffering without much relief. Been listening to this doctor who has me on around 30mg of lamictal and have noticed some symptoms are a little better but 30mg may be a little to activating. Really not much has changed he wants me to get up to 50mg very slowly stay put for a long while than slowly taper the rest of Celera by around a 10th of a milligram per week or so and than start tapering the k which he said would take a year. So I suppose 3 years in already have another 3 years to taper and than try and recover it seems to me I will be in tell for another 5 years. Makes me sick and it just feels like the benzo is making me sicker but I am stuck.

 

Hi, D.

 

Just a thought. ChessieCat mentioned that 25 mg of lamictal is a high dose, especially for someone in withdrawal, so I went back to your benzo thread and found where you had posted about it back in 2016. You found 30 mg to be too activating, as I've highlighted in that old post. 

 

Do you think that the 25 mg lamictal may be too activating? 

 

Please see Alto's post, which I've copied from the thread Lamictal (lamotrigine) to calm post-discontinuation withdrawal symptoms:

 

 

On 10/3/2011 at 6:21 PM, Altostrata said:

Here are a few tips about using Lamictal that I learned from my doctor. I'm not an expert and I don't know how this would be applied to any particular person:

 

- Dosages are individual, need to be started at very low amounts, and slowly titrated up.

 

- He starts everyone out at 2mg or less. Because I was so hypersensitive, he started me on .5mg. He likes to give a dosage a try for 4 days to see how it works, get beyond initial wooziness, etc.

 

- The trick is to find exactly the right "sweet spot" for your nervous system. At one time, I started at .5mg, went up to 2.5mg, backed down again to 1mg, eventually settling at 1.07mg. In a second phase, I titrated up to 5.4mg. (I am currently tapering off.) Now, someone else's optimal dose may be 24.3mg or 38.2mg or 10.1mg.

 

- For someone with withdrawal insomnia, the "sweet spot" is a dosage at which sleep is increasing towards normal and side effects are negligible.

 

- Lamictal does increase GABA somewhat while decreasing glutamatergic transmission. However, the GABA system needs glutamate to make GABA so too much Lamictal will have a paradoxical effect -- you don't want to go too high.

 

- Signs that you're taking too much Lamictal: Queasiness or headache (or both), sleeplessness, agitation.

 

- Initial side effects can be wooziness, grogginess, sleepiness, lack of energy.

 

- To firmly establish the newly revived healthy brain patterns, expect to stay on the Lamictal for about a year. He has had patients who went off the medication and were fine, they didn't need to take it anymore.

 

- In severe withdrawal insomnia, deep sleep is the first to go and the last to come back. It's important because human growth hormone is secreted in deep sleep and it is physically and mentally restorative. When deep sleep returns, emotional numbing will lift.

[Djones1984]

I don’t really know what is causing what wish I would have never started the benzo or the lamictal. I do know the lamictal is not doing anything helpful and maybe I should just stop taking it.

[Djones1984]

Thank you for all the help shep I just don’t know what my next move shall be it has just been so long with little improvement.

[ChessieCat]

On 19/02/2018 at 7:07 AM, Djones1984 said:

I do know the lamictal is not doing anything helpful and maybe I should just stop taking it.

 

I hope by this you don't mean cold turkey.  tips-for-tapering-off-lamictal-lamotrigine

 

[Djones1984]

No I don’t mean cold turkey just am sick of all of this if I would have just stayed off the benzo and not started the lamictal I would have probably been better by now.

[ChessieCat]

1 hour ago, Djones1984 said:

No I don’t mean cold turkey

 

That's good.  I was a bit concerned so I'm glad that's not what you meant.

[Djones1984]

Still here and in a bad way it’s been over 5 years now I started tapering the Valium down from 10mg to 9mg. I am back at square one again the akathesia has never went away and at this point it’s probably perminant damage from the celexa reaction.

[SquirrellyGirl]

I am so sorry you are still having so much difficulty!

 

SG

[Djones1984]

Ya I don’t know what to do anymore I am back in acute suffering again.

[Altostrata]

What time of day do you take Lamictal? Does it do anything for you?

[Djones1984]

Alto I take the lamictal in the morning along with the Valium I don’t think it does a thing. Doctor was trying to get me up to 50mg but I don’t know I tried before and don’t think it went well.

[Djones1984]

Alto at this stage do you think it’s the Valium keeping my nervous system so messed up? And preventing much healing? What your thoughts? Thanks

[Altostrata]

I don't know. Why do you take lamotrigine and Valium at the same time?

 

The lamotrigine might be more helpful in split doses. The way to do this is to move 12.5mg later by an hour or so each day until you're taking it 12 hours later.

 

What times of day do you take your drugs, and their dosages? Are your symptoms better or worse at any particular time of day? What is the effect of the evening Valium? Please keep daily notes on paper about your symptoms, when you take your drugs, and their dosages.

[Djones1984]

Alto I take my lamictal and 4mg of Valium at 7 in the morning when get up with fish oil. I take my night dose of Valium at 7pm. There was a symptom pattern of feeling better after I toke my morning dose of Valium but that has went away. For the last few days I have just been meserable pretty much all day. Usually my evenings were better but I had the worst night ever last night with pain in my legs, chest, and depersonalization and anxiety so bad I couldn’t fall asleep till 4am and only slept 3 hours so getting back into insomnia that I have not had for awhile.

[Freedom1975]

New to the site. Just read this posting from the beginning.Djones I can only hope to have the courage you have as I begin my journey off these meds. Your story seems all to familiar to me and my story