Thread: Weaning off Lexapro, very stressed out. Help?

I am weaning off Lexapro because I can't afford it anymore; my mom was laid off from her job and so her benefits that the hospital offered her are no longer in effect. Since weaning, I have had terrible headaches that of course offer me no sleep, dizziness, random bouts of nausea... And recently a new installment: crying without reason. For long periods of time.

I only have eight pills left. Two weeks ago I just stopped entirely. I used to take a third of a pill once a week and then push up my dosage a day later the next week (ex.: I'll take the pill on a Wednesday, and then the next week I'll take it on a Thursday). I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly at all. In fact, I probably am not since my body is responding so strongly to the lack of serotonin being pumped into my brain.

I wonder if I should just tough it out. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me to just keep reintroducing the antidepressant into my system, but apparently it makes sense to my body because it is in such shock from the lack of it.

Any ideas/advice?

you need to wean off SLOWLY.
because you will get withdrawl symptoms like you're getting.

the general advice is to go down by twenty mg/or whatever that ratio works out at increments.
im not sure how exactly the dosage is worked out with that particular medication
but my experiences with paroxetine/fluoxetine are -
60mg is the maximum dose
so you go down to 40 the next week
then to 20 the week after
then to nothing.
with venlafaxine/effexor its slightly different because the withdrawl is so hellish
the high dose is for example 300mg
so you go down by 50mg each week.

okay right, looking it up it appears to be one of those nasty ones for coming off.

this is me telling you to see a doctor and do it that way.

right this is me telling you what i'd do in your situation -
you have eight pills left which i assume are either 10's or 20's based on what i can find out on the internet.

you need to work it out so the whole process takes about a month
so if you have enough to do half for a week
then a quarter
do that
if you have less then work it out so its less
be consistant.
thats the most important thing about coming off medication.

if you can get hold of some fluoxetine/prozac cheaper than lexapro then do that
because that'll help with the withdrawl and is much easier to come off.

without knowing about your dosage and how long you've been taking it i cant really advise you.

i hope this is a bit helpful x