Effexor, Lexapro.....Help

[emeraldeyes1646]

I have been on Effexor XR for the past 2 years.  I was taking 300 mg a day with Lamictal 200mg/day and Seroquel 100mg to sleep.  The Effexor wasn't working so my psychiatrist wanted to drop the Effexor and replace it with Lexapro 10mg/day.  He told me to "just" drop my Effexor dose by one 75 mg pill a day and I would be "off" of the Effexor in 4 days.  Yeah, right!!!  
Having once before attempted to "stop" Effexor, I knew it wasn't going to be that easy.  A very close family member is a supervisor for the company that makes Effexor.  He gave me "advice" on how to "quit" by gradually decreasing the dose by 37.5mg over every 2 days.  The last week I should break open the 75 mg caps and take fewer and fewer granuales until I was "weaned".  I thought I had done everything to a T until yesterday when I had gone without my "fix" for 2 days and hurled all over my kitchen after staying in bed all day.  The only thing that made me feel better was taking a few granuales of Effexor.  I have almost a week off soon and plan on "detoxing" during my vacation.
I had been researching Lexapro to see the side effects and wonder if this drug is even worse that Effexor (which I would NEVER recommend to anyone)?  I read the testaments and have found several even going as far as saying they (or a loved one) were suicidal after taking Lexapro when they had never been before.  HELP...now what do I do.

[porty]

i went to my doctor and told him that i have been smoking weed for 15 years, cause it helped me relax.the place i work at is doing random drug testing is the reason i did this.my doctor gave me 10mg lexapro . since i have stopped smoking i have had a hard time sleeping if getting any sleep at all it seems. i guess what i want to know is should i be taking lexapro for my problem or should i be doing something different

[orchids]

Hello,
I take Seroquel as well for insomnia and for anxiety. I take it because before I was given Klonopin and I got addicted. When I stopped, oh my gosh! It was horrible. I stopped sleeping, I was very anxious and the nerves of my body were moving by theiselves. Since that time I refuse to take any addictive medicine ( I also changed psychiatrist). But you know what worked? Acupunture. Please, try it if you can. They day after I did the first treatment, I woke up and I felt like something loosened insime me. I was feeling so good after 3 months of no sleep with 300 mg of Seroquel at night and after about 3 weeks I stopped taking any medication to sleep. Unfortunately, now I can't afford it, but I will go back to it as soon as I can.
Good luck if you try it.
Orchids

[Try_to_be_social]

It is good news that you are feeling pretty good in your current regimen. If you feel you are in complete recovery, you still have to continue the regimen for a period of time that is the length of your last episode of depression. I have cut down my Klonopin from 2mg to 1.0625mg for sleep after 10 years. I am reducing Klonopin very slowly at the rate of 0.0625mg at a time to avoid the withdrawal symptoms of anxiety. It is a good idea to find out the cause of your insomnia. Is it due to your depression or something else? If the insomnia is due to depression, you depression may not be in full remission. If it is due to something else, you have to address to it. Since Seroquel is an antipsychotic and is useful for bipolar depression, it is a good idea to find out the reason why you are given Seroquel 100mg instead of the usual hypnotic such as Ambien. If your insomnia is only very occasional, the concern is not so great. Since Lamictal is for bipolar depression, it is also important to find out why Lamictal 200mg is indicated in your unipolar depression. It is also important to understand why the adjuvant, namely Lamictal 200mg and occasional Seroquel 100mg, is much higher in dose than your Effexor 37.5mg.

[emeraldeyes1646]

Hi again and thanks to all who have offered their thoughts on my "question".  I am STILL  attempting to "get off" of the effexor...am down to 37.5g HS and am going to psychiatrist tomorrow.  I have yet to start the Lexapro but am still on 200mg HS of Lamictal and 100mg HS of Seroquel (to sleep).  Am  feeling pretty good mentally and am thinking of just staying on what i am on now.  Any comments?

[coffee girl]

I totally understand what you are saying. I was on effexor for 4 years and got off it and was so depressed and had so much anxiety so they put me on wellbutrin and I have been on it for 3 years. I am really thinking of getting off of everything. I don't think it does my body any good to use these drugs. I am scared because It seems like i can barely get through on my antidepressents let alone off them. It really suck haveing a andiety depression problem....

[orchids]

I have found to have major depression and anxiety last year and I have tried plenty of antidepressant and anxiety and sleeping pills. I have been taking effexor rx (300 mg) for about nine months (along with other anxiety pills) and it seems to be working better than other medicines. Better but not enough. I am still very depressed, I feel very hopeless, I have obsessive thoughts and so on. I have been also seeing a psycotheraphy, but she was worse than me. So I recently changed. I am starting over again. I would like to stop all these medicines because they are messing up my brain, but I got suicidal whenever I stopped any medication. I think I put myself in a circle without an exit, and when I read all your comments about antidepressant I got very scared. No one seems to get better. We all get dependent on these drugs. But do you know anybody that got out of depression and stopped taking all this ****? Please, tell me you do.
Thank you