How can you ease symptoms of Lexapro withdrawal?

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like a dream. I was no longer anxious to speak in front of people, I was able to concentrate better and I had an over all positive view on life. After a while, I began noticing that I have absolutely no drive. I cant get out of bed, and I dont care. I gained 25 lbs--I have been developing leg jerks at night. Alcohol cravings and carb cravings hit an all time high, I would eat and drink constantly.

So, I decided to stop. With all of the messages out there not to do what I did, I was a bit frightened, but I did it anyway. I am a little dizzy, I have brain 'shocks', and I had a slight anxious reaction when I was walking up to a group of people. BUT I can get out of bed without fatigue, I am not eating everything in sight, and I am starting to fell like myself again.

It seems like no matter if you taper or just come off it cold turkey, you will get the same symptoms. Its nothing I cant handle. I get dizzy, it goes away, I am fine. I get iritable. VERY irritable... but it is just like anything else, you CONTROL yourself.

I am begining to think that these brain meds are really screwing with peoples heads, they havent been out that long, who knows what studies will conclude in 20 years...

So far to minimize symptoms of withdrawal, I have just taken deep breathing, drank alot of water, and told myseld, that I have control over my emotions. Nothing else. I am still going thru the withdrawal, but I will keep you all posted when the symptoms subside

This Question Lacks an Answer

Previously posted answer was nonsense about herbal supplements and how we all need to turn to god (thank you, but I am fine without fairy tales to comfort me). I am currently suffering through withdrawal and came here in hopes of finding some way to ease the symptoms. Would someone with an actual answer please post?

2nd Time Posting This

Luckily, people haven't deleted the "discussion" about this yet, so I can copy and paste my response to this again. Too easy to delete answers here.

(1) On October 28, 2007 at 01:19 am Leetie [9] said:

I've gone through this two times. Do it the wrong way (stop taking Lexapro), and it can be really bad. There are no ways to "ease" the symptoms. The best thing to do is to minimize their occurrence, and to do this, you need to taper-off VERY SLOWLY. Seriously. Once you have the withdrawal symptoms, you just have to deal with them, which is just too horrible. There are no ways to ease them. So try to bring them on in the most gentle way possible. DO NOT JUST STOP TAKING LEXAPRO!!!

I cut all of my pills in half and then into quarters and dropped my dosage by the lowest possible pill denomination (2.5 mg, which is 1/4 of a pill) at a time. Stay at each lowered dosage for a minimum of 2 weeks, or one week longer than your withdrawal symptoms last; which means, every time you cut down a dose, wait until you feel "pretty good" for about a week before you cut down again. Don't rush it.

I've read that if you take plenty of omega-3 throughout the ordeal, it is supposed to help. I started taking it about a week before I even started cutting down my dosage. I have to say that overall, my symptoms these last few weeks have been a far cry from what they were the first time I tried to get off of Lexapro. It was absolutely intolerable the first time.

You need to be prepared. Do as much research as you can. Here are a few resources that I found pretty interesting: tapersafely.org; theroadback.org.

Today (10-27-07) I am on my 3rd day of ZERO Lexapro in my system, after starting a taper-down on September 10. I'm feeling jittery in my head with a constant, strange, lightheaded dizzy-ish but without the spins feeling all day. Not sure what to do about it except try to be healthy every other way that I can. I hope it goes away soon. And best wishes to you.

UPDATE: 1/19/07: Had the most horrific month after getting down to zero milligrams. Eye/ear/brain hypersensitivity, freezing cold, memory loss. If you're interested, you can read my journal about it here. Doing much better now.

Aleve helped a tiny bit. Took the edge off. Xanax too. Omega-3 is definitely good for your nervous system. Best wishes.

Here is another discussion: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How long should you taper off 20mg of Lexparo that you have been on for almost three years

First answer by ID1172926723. Last edit by Bclehner1. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 50 [recommend question]