lexapro withdrawal help please

[thaiplyr]

Hi thank you to everyone in this community for their stories and comments. They have been truly helpful and critical in improving my life.

Ive been on lexapro for 4 years, taking 10mg  a day.  6 weeks ago i decide to quit. For the first 2 weeks i tapered down from 10mg down to 5mg.  After 2 weeks on 5mg, i stopped.  Its been 4 weeks since ive taken my last pill. I feel pretty miserable, not depression but irritated, dizzy, and have constant panic attacks through the day randomly.

I have now started taking Omega3 and will try Magnesium today to help. My question is should I start taking lexapro again in small doses to taper off better.  Ive been off already for 4 weeks and in hindsight I should have tapered off better.  Would getting back on it for using a smaller dose help me or is it too late given ive been off it for 4 weeks?  How long should i expect to feel like this, ive read that it could take 3 months or more.  

Thanks for your help and advise.

[Paxiled]

It probably would help you to taper off at a slower pace.  Individuals differ quite a lot in how well their brains can adapt back to working naturally, and your taper was a very short one.  It might have worked well, but it appears it didn't, which is why it's always better to be safe than sorry and taper as slowly as you need to -- not by some preset schedule whether set by you or your psychiatrist.  Withdrawals can last a long time for some people and result in new problems you didn't have before, or this could just take a little time and go away, but again, it wouldn't hurt to go back to the last dose at which you felt fine and taper off more slowly.  There is one concern, though -- if you do decide to go back on it rather than wait it out and hope for the best, it might not work the same -- it has been 4 weeks.  And don't discount the possibility that, if the problems you're having now are the same as the ones you had before going on the drug and not something different, that it could be you never solved your underlying problem, the drug was just suppressing it, but from your description it sounds more like this is something different and sounds like withdrawal symptoms.  At any rate, the choice is up to you, and nobody can predict what's going to happen to any given individual when starting or stopping these meds.  But the truth is, most people eventually get over it; only a small number don't.  But many people suffer withdrawals that last awhile, and the best way to try to avoid that is to do a slow taper off the drug.  Good luck whatever you decide to do.