Withdrawl symptoms of Lexapro

[dncnbear]

I have been asked by my dr for over 2 years to start taking celexa due to chronic anxiety which I have dealt with since I was 2. I always said no but then finally agreed. I took it for 2 days and felt like the inside of my brain was rearranging, I couldn't sleep and had restless legs. I felt psychotic like I was going to jump out of my skin, so I immediately stopped. A couple of months later I was placed on Lexapro (although they are made from the same companies and are essentilly the same drug) Anyway, I took the Lexapro and felt great (except for the 15 lb weight gain) I really wanted to be a better mom to my kids.I hated that I had absolutely no patience with them and they deserve better than that! About 2 months into it I slowly started getting those side effects to a lesser degree and I also was having urinary hesitency like I had to go but couldn't. I am a female and since I don't have a prostate haha. One day I woke up and literally couldn't move all my joints hurt and I really couldn't close my fists I was that stiff. I was in excruciating pain so I called the dr and he told me to stop Lexapro and start effexor. I took the effexor and immediately had the same effects initially as the celexa (trust me I know why some people go wacko on these kinds of drugs)Well I had had it I didn't want to feel like that  anymore so I stopped. I knew better to just stop but I figured with all the side effects I was having I didn't want to try another one out. I would much rather face my nerves without the extra help from my ssri friends.
My question is this... It has been about 2 weeks since I stopped taking anything. Besides feeling like I am a complete terror to my children still I feel slightly dizzy and extremely nauseated. I actually have taken 3 pregnancy tests thinking/hoping that was the problem but to no avail. Besides concentrating on all the things that could be wromg with me as I am convinced I am slowly dying. I have narrowed it to ssri withdrawal. Could the effects of withdrawl still be going stong after 2 weeks? My joints still hurt a bit too.
Thanks

[Jackie41]

Hi!  I know exactly how all of you feel.  This is actually my second time to go through this agony with SSRIs.  The first time was after tapering off Paxil.  I have tried every SSRI out there for panic disorder.  The only one that works for me and has very little side-effects or withdrawal symtpoms is Serzone.  I stopped taking Lexapro about 2 weeks ago as directed by my physician (he switched me back to Serzone).  I feel like death would be less agony.  
Just to answer some of your questions about this drug.  I have had panic disorder, depression, and OCD (all of these things usually go hand in hand when you have panic disorder) for 26 years.  Like I said, I've tried every SSRI there is to try.  Paxil and most definately Lexapro have had the worst side effects and withdrawal symptoms of any that I have been prescribed.  Yes, those electic Zaps are from Lexapro withdrawal!!  Yes, the fatigue, constant nausea, stiffness, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hair falling out, weight gain, agitation, tingling sensations, muscle pain, severe headaches, neck pain, vision problems, tremors, sweating, chills, sore skin, bruising, insomia, vivid dreams and nightmares, increased urination, flu-like symptoms, severe dizziness or a feeling of being off balance (like the V8 commercials), not being able to concentrate or do simple tasks, the wrong words coming out, zoning out, diarrhea, and feeling like you are going out of your mind are all thanks to Lexapro withdrawal.  So you are not going crazy!!!!  I have been through this before and sad to say I'm going through it again.  The good news is that although it does not seem like it, it will go away eventually.  The bad news for some of us is that it may take up to 2 months to start feeling normal again.  This is how long it took for me to get through my Paxil withdrawal symptoms...2 1/2 months.  Don't even think of going back on this drug.  Although I must make it clear, I am not a physician, I have been through this.  Tapering off the medication does not stop the intensity or the length of the withdrawal symptoms.  So going back on the medication just to taper off of it will not make going off it any easier.  I do promise you that you will get through this.  Don't give up!!!  You will survive and start to feel better!!  You will get back to normal.  Although right now I feel like I'm going to die, I know I will get this out of my system and start to feel good again.  We just have to hang on and keep the faith while going through this difficult time.  I have to admit, it may be one of the most difficult times in your life.  Just keep looking to the day when the symptoms will finally disappear and they will!!  You will get back to normal.  It may take a couple of months for some of us, and it may just be half that time for others.  If the symptoms do continue for over a month, don't worry, they will finally disappear.  If it makes you feel better, see your physician!  I do have to warn you though, that many physicians will deny that these are withdrawal symptoms.  I have heard this too many times...."SSRIs do not have withdrawal symptoms"...these so-called physicians do not know what they are talking about.  These are real, very physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms...your body has become physically dependent on these drugs.  Do not make the mistake of letting a physician tell you that these symptoms are all in your head or are part of your depression or anxiety symptoms...they are not!!!!  I hope I have helped some of you understand what you are feeling is very real and is indeed withdrawal from SSRIs.  However, do be safe and see your Doctor.  I hope I have been of some help to all of you who are suffering as I am.  I will pray for you and hope you do the same for me!  God Bless!!

[julie85]

Ditto!  Everything you guys are saying goes for me too.  I'm now 4 weeks from first starting the withdrawl process.  2 weeks taking 20 mg every other day and 2 weeks completely off.  It has been a very hard and long road and I'm still not 100% through this yet.  I can however say that I'm doing better.  I can function better because my head isn't always ahead of my eyes when I move.  I still do get a shock every now and then and I have stopped sweating so much!  Now I am dealing with wondering when and how I am going to lose the 25 pounds I have gained in the last year since on Lexapro.  I am so swollen.  I think I'm even more swollen now than when I was taking Lexapro.  I guess I figured once I got off this stuff the weight would fall off.  I am really trying to be positive and rational since it hasn't been that long yet.  I am definitely going to write back in once I'm over this **** and tell everyone how long it took to feel myself again with no withdrawl symptoms.  I sure wish someone out there whose been down this road would jump in and tell their experience.  I desperately need some encouragement with my weight loss.  I've read that Lexapro shuts your metabolism down and I'm scared that will make it way too hard to lose this weight. I didn't lose weight very easily before Lexapro.  Help!

[Kairi]

I've been on 40mg and I just went off cold-turkey.  I know I should consult my physican, blah blah blah, but I know he would have just convinced me to stay on it, or go on something else.  I have been severely depressed in the past, but when I went on Lexapro (at the urging of my therapist), I didn't feel like I needed it.  

Anyway, today I felt all weird and dizzy.  Also the electric shock sensations in my brain.  I feel very angry, and perhaps this is part of the withdrawal symptoms (aggression?), but I think my doc should have told me before I went on it that it would have these types of withdrawal effects.  I was on Effexor before, and when I went off, I had severe nausea.  It was a big concern for me before starting the Lexapro that I wouldn't have to go through that hell again.  I understand that the doc was probably just trying to make me "not depressed" but it isn't right to withhold information like this.

I'm hoping that these symtoms won't last up to eight weeks (I read that somewhere online).  Has anyone been through this and how long did it take to feel "normal" again?

[betterdaysahead]

I have been on Lexapro since July of this year and I decided to take myself off of it, and I am having the w/d symptoms that everyone is talking about.  I have been reading all the comments out there about this and I wonder if anyone can tell me how long the side effects of withdrawal last?  It has only been about 6 days since I stopped taking it.  Please let me know - thank you!

[Sarah Lee]

My doctor put me on Lexapro (10 mg) in April 2003 - "a very small dose to get you through this difficult time", as he put it. I was deeply grieving over the death of a close friend and was bursting into floods of tears even at work.

To its credit, the medication really helped with the overwhelming sadness I had been experience. In fact, I discovered feelings of deep happiness and inner calm that I realized I had not actually experienced since early childhood. When I told this to the doctor, he said that I had probably been depressed without realizing it, and for much longer than anyone had realized. He advised me to continue taking Lexapro, since it had no known side-effects.

The medication certianly relaxed me considerably. I had always been a bit of an over-achiever, but I stopped doing unnecessary overtime at work, started to pamper myself a bit and really began to appreciate my leisure time. I no longer felt so horrendously upset about being single, and my generally happy and newly confident state no doubt helped me feel attractive to men, and finally to fall head over heels in love, some eight months after beginning the pills. Ten months later, I was married, and I must say it has been the most blissful year of my life. Everyone has commented on my altered state, and although I know deep down that it is due almost entirely to having met my husband, I am aware that the medication helped push me in the right direction at a time when I had been going through unbearably sad feelings.

Despite the benefits, I was aware, however, that Lexapro might be responsible for all or some of the following, NONE of which I had experienced before taking the medication, and all of which I have experienced consistently since April 2002:

- Need for at LEAST nine hours sleep a night, or I would be extremely sleepy and yawn during the day. By the end of the work day, all I can think of is going home to have a nap. I sometimes even nap for an hour at lunch.

- Concentration difficulties. I had been a real bookworm before taking the medication, but I stopped reading entirely.

- My productivity figures at work, revealed to me for the first time some 15 months after starting Lexapro, showed a significant drop. My productivity, counted in pages of edited text, had actually HALVED in a one-year period!!

- Lack of energy. This was accompanied, however, by a feeling of well-being: I took lots of luxurious bubble baths while listening to music and had no particular desire to exercise.

- Weight gain. I can no longer even zip up the dresses I wore last year!!

- Problems achieving orgasm, but since I had no reduced interest in cuddling, and since my huband and I have a very good relationship, I have not been too worried about it.

- Tendency not to keep papers and accounts in order. For the first time ever, I started to forget to pay bills, claim for money owed to me or return administrative forms on time. Most surprisingly, this did this worry me in the slightest. I attributed it to being in love and having my mind elsewhere, but who knows?

POSSIBLE LEXAPRO WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

Just over a month ago, we went on our honeymoon and I completely forgot to bring my pills with me. I was feeling so blissfully happy and relaxed, I decided I probably didn't need them any more, and didn't bother to renew my prescription when I returned home. Thoughts of the friend who died no longer saddened me so much. In fact, I mostly found myself smiling at happy memories of her.

Recently, however, I have been feeling strangely unwell, and it suddenly occurred to me that I can more or less date the problems to the time I stopped Lexapro (September 2004). I thus entered the words "stopping Lexapro" in a search engine, and was directed to your site. Reading some of the other comments, I realize I may have been going through Lexapro withdrawal.

These are the symptoms I have been experiencing:

- Severe, pounding migraines or headaches that feel as if I have something clamped round my skull.

- Increased motion sickness in cars and buses.

- Severe dizziness with strange visual disturbances. Sometimes, when I am standing still, the whole world suddenly seems to jolt up and down, or side to side, for a split second, as when an elevator lands. It is a sensation very hard to describe, but I feel as if something is passing through my brain when it happens.

- Emotional fragility and worsened PMS. I find myself bursting into floods of tears for no apparent reason. My husband always responds with reassuring hugs, but we are both a little perplexed by it, since it is totally out of character, and I can never actually explain why I am upset, no matter how much I try to analyze things.

- Tonight I had a horrendous argument over the phone with my parents and got very angry at them for not telling me that a family member had been hospitalized the previous day. I really shouted at them, and they slammed the phone down on me. Since I rarely get angry, I am wondering whether this too might be related to Lexapro withdrawal.

- Tiredness and general fatigue.

- Problems concentrating and accomplishing simple tasks on time, difficulty making important decisions, tendency to postpone household tasks I had been doing immediately.

- The strangest yet: In the last five weeks or so since stopping the medication, I have had an odd tendency to come up with the wrong word in the middle of a sentence. I told my husband he was my darling "suitcase" instead of "sweetheart", and although we laughed about it, I am aware it was not the first time I have said something strange in recent days and weeks.

- I frequently forget what I was about to say and have moments of uncustomary blankness. For a few seconds, I am unable to answer a question, or to remember what I was doing. Usually my husband and I just laugh it off, but it has been getting worse not better since stopping the medication.

- Loss of appetite, slight nausea, frequent (but unproductive) desire to urinate, and some diarrhoea, constipation and upset stomache.

- Runny nose and sneezing (which could just be a cold - we can't blame everything on Lexapro!)

- Sleeping difficulties: not falling asleep for ages, or waking up too early.

- Blurred vision. The optician is quite perplexed about it, and has issued me with no fewer than THREE sets of glasses: one for reading, one for the computer and one for long distance. I am only in my early 30s!

My question is this: Would you advise me to go back on Lexapro? We'd like to have a child in a year or so, and I don't want to become pregnant while on an anti-depressant I am not sure I need. I am also concerned about my productivity at work, which had been consistently high for the eight years preceeding use of the medication, but suffered badly while I was taking it. How often do the withdrawal symptoms usually last?

I know that if I see my doctor, he will advise me to go back on Lexapro in order not to rock the boat, as he puts it. Indeed, the dizzy spells do make me feel I am on some sort of rocking boat.

Can anyone suggest anything?

[jenphill]

Sarah, you just summed up EXACTLY what I am dealing with right now.  I went on Lexapro back in Sept of 2002, am now coming to terms with living life off of it.  I have been working on weening myself of of it for the last 2 weeks.  It's been horrible.  The loss of words, forgetfullness in sentence structure, sudden shocks that shoot through my body, undirected mean and angry comments towards my loved ones.  I don't know what to tell you other than just to know that you are not alone.  I have been talking with many friends that have gone off of one antidepressent or another and this seems to be par for the course.  I know how unstable and scary it makes you feel.