Anyone CT Lexapro?

[[al...]]

If so, did it cause insomnia during w/d?

[[Ba...]]

I take lexapro and so far no insomnia for me. Are you already on lexapro or about to start it?

[[sn...]]

Don't cold turkey any psychotropic drug, it is I'll advised.  Plan a taper with your doctor.  Best of luck.

[[Ba...]]

Ignore my last post, I misunderstood. Didn't realise ct meant cold turkey.

 

As snow4fun said, Do not under any circumstance cold turkey lexapro. Go and get a taper plan with your gp.

 

Lexapro cold turkey can be absolutely brutal. Please don't go ahead with this plan!

[[al...]]

The damage has already been done. I CTed Lexapro 10 mg approximately 2 years ago. I had taken it for 9 years. I might be in w/d of that AD and blaming it on the benzo. My main problem, above anything, is excruciating insomnia.

 

Ignore my last post, I misunderstood. Didn't realise ct meant cold turkey.

 

As snow4fun said, Do not under any circumstance cold turkey lexapro. Go and get a taper plan with your gp.

 

Lexapro cold turkey can be absolutely brutal. Please don't go ahead with this plan!

[[ky...]]

I c/t'd Lexapro after a few months use last year and have not slept more than a couple hours a night since.  I was also taking a benzo so I'm unsure where to place the blame but it's been absolute hell for the last year.

[[al...]]

I c/t'd Lexapro after a few months use last year and have not slept more than a couple hours a night since.  I was also taking a benzo so I'm unsure where to place the blame but it's been absolute hell for the last year.

 

When you say a couple of hours, how many exactly? I'm trying to figure out what's behind my chronic insomnia and I've been blaming the benzos for everything up until a few weeks ago when I started thinking about my Lexapro CT 1.5 years ago. I'm also sorry about your pain, no one should have to suffer like this.

[[ky...]]

It's become increasingly difficult to quantify my sleep.  A couple hours is an optimistic estimate as most nights I feel like I'm getting no sleep at all.  Earlier this year I would wake 2-4 hours after going to bed drenched in sweat with my heart pounding like a jackhammer.  Not pleasent, but at least I know I was sleeping before the disturbing awakening.  Now I have very few clues I may have slept such as remembering waking, or having a dream.  I'd like to believe I nod off a little during what seems like endless tossing and turning. 

[[Ch...]]

Lexapro is the only AD I took and I took it for about a year and a half following my mother's death.  I rapid tapered from it and the only thing I noticed was brain 'zaps' for about six months or so.  That would've been about eight years ago.  I had insomnia during my taper and for a few months afterwards but it has mostly resolved now.  I was first prescribed a benzo for sleep, so no surprise to me that I don't sleep perfectly every night even now, but it's much, much better.

 

[[Se...]]

I was on SSRIs for about 13 years, the last one being Lexapro, which I tried to come off 5 times before finally being successful with in early 2011.  Unfortunately, I didn't know I was supposed to taper over many months and have been in protracted withdrawal from it ever since.  I started taking xanax on an irregular basis for symptoms, then it became more regular and my symptoms just got worse and worse. 

A nervous system sensitized by SSRI withdrawal and rebound withdrawal from a short acting benzo, then CT from said benzo.  Then rescue doses out of desperation until I figured out what was going on.

 

I didn't get insomnia until I started xanax while in lexapro withdrawal.  I had been able to take it occasionally without problems before I stopped the lexapro.  I think the lexapro withdrawal has sensitized my CNS and made all other drugs go paradoxical.

 

I think your problem could very likely be lexapro withdrawal, exacerbated by benzo use, all these drugs effect the CNS in similar ways and need to be tapered very carefully, one at a time.

 

I'm sleeping much better now, but it took quite a long time for regular sleep to come back.

[[al...]]

I've been blaming benzo use all this time with zero consideration about the Lexapro CT I did 1.5 years ago. The symptoms like nausea and GI issues are being masked by the Remeron. But the Remeron and Klonopin won't help me sleep. I first experienced the insomnia after my first hospitalization, this year, so about one year after the Lexapro CT. During my second , I was given another mg of K and I still couldn't sleep. The Remeron ade me sleep ONE night, the first night I took it. Nothing works.

 

I'm scared I'll never sleep again. How long before you regained your sleep? Should I continue tapering the Klonopin or will that make things worse? What about the Remeron? I'm in big trouble.

 

I was on SSRIs for about 13 years, the last one being Lexapro, which I tried to come off 5 times before finally being successful with in early 2011.  Unfortunately, I didn't know I was supposed to taper over many months and have been in protracted withdrawal from it ever since.  I started taking xanax on an irregular basis for symptoms, then it became more regular and my symptoms just got worse and worse. 

A nervous system sensitized by SSRI withdrawal and rebound withdrawal from a short acting benzo, then CT from said benzo.  Then rescue doses out of desperation until I figured out what was going on.

 

I didn't get insomnia until I started xanax while in lexapro withdrawal.  I had been able to take it occasionally without problems before I stopped the lexapro.  I think the lexapro withdrawal has sensitized my CNS and made all other drugs go paradoxical.

 

I think your problem could very likely be lexapro withdrawal, exacerbated by benzo use, all these drugs effect the CNS in similar ways and need to be tapered very carefully, one at a time.

 

I'm sleeping much better now, but it took quite a long time for regular sleep to come back.

[[Se...]]

My sleep slowly improved over about 6 months.  But I was really messed up until early 2013 when I found a web site called survivingantidepressants.org and started to learn about what was going on.  I learned that the nervous system heals when there is stability, that means not making changes until symptoms have settled down. By that time I wasn't taking anything regularly, but was trying to control symptoms with rescue doses of various drugs. Every time I took something it would send my NS into chaos again, but I didn't know this. 

 

When several drugs are involved, it can get complicated.  Have you reduced the Remeron at all?  Tapering Remeron often causes insomnia and that has to be done very slowly. 

 

I don't think you are in big trouble, but if I were you I would stop tapering everything for now and get some advice from other withdrawal sites which take other drugs into consideration when offering suggestions.

[[al...]]

Yes, I'm on SA, trying to investigate how I can mend my situation, if even by a mere portion.

 

Remeron at 15 mg was not sedating and I dropped it to 7.5 mg. I don't think it's working, in fact one could say it's gone paradoxical on me, as has the Klonopin. I was exposed to and removed from too many drugs, far too many, during my hospitalizations this May.

 

Yes, I was told to stop tapering (as I was tapering both the Remeron and the Klonopin at the same time). Trouble is I'm already in protracted w/d from Lexapro, have Remeron to deal with (without it, I cannot eat and the nausea is excruciating), and then, as if this form of hell would be deemed far too insufficient, I have to come off a whopping 2mg Klonopin (1 extra mg which was "accidentally") added in the hospital. Honestly, I'm just mortal, don't think I can handle 3 wds like that.

 

 

My sleep slowly improved over about 6 months.  But I was really messed up until early 2013 when I found a web site called survivingantidepressants.org and started to learn about what was going on.  I learned that the nervous system heals when there is stability, that means not making changes until symptoms have settled down. By that time I wasn't taking anything regularly, but was trying to control symptoms with rescue doses of various drugs. Every time I took something it would send my NS into chaos again, but I didn't know this. 

 

When several drugs are involved, it can get complicated.  Have you reduced the Remeron at all?  Tapering Remeron often causes insomnia and that has to be done very slowly. 

 

I don't think you are in big trouble, but if I were you I would stop tapering everything for now and get some advice from other withdrawal sites which take other drugs into consideration when offering suggestions.

[[Se...]]

That's good you are getting some help from SA, the owner of that site has a lot of experience with helping people who have problems getting off these drugs.  If you stop tapering and hold for a while, perhaps you will start to feel better, I know it can take a long time though.  I'm on the protracted boards here and some people take years before they fully recover, but it does happen eventually.

 

Try not to think about what you still have to come off, but focus on what you can do now to feel better to get through each day.  I'm also in protracted withdrawal and that's how I manage to cope.

[[al...]]

I havent had any trouble tapering the Remeron. My issue is before that, the CT Lexapro seems to have brought about the insomnia and made the Klonopin and Remeron paradoxical.

 

I'm all for stabilizing if it will help, but I'm in a bit of a dilemma since my insurance will expire in March as a result of losing my job to this very insomnia.

 

There's not much I can do throughout the day. I'm dizzy, very weak, I can't open a water bottle anymore. The more the sleep deprivation is added onto the months, the more crippling things become. Don't mean to sound negative, it's just what I see that's happening with my body.

[[Se...]]

Its difficult not to be negative when life as we know it starts to fall apart and there's not much we can do to control it.  I feel the same way a lot of the time and have lost a lot over the last few years.  I've also been having trouble opening water bottles and have lost most of my muscle strength and ability to exercise.

[[al...]]

You know the few times that I do manage to crawl, literally, out of bed, i sit on a rebounder and try to exercise. A normal person would jump on it but I'm too weak and lacking any balance. Maybe that can help you, I don't know.

 

Oh, the losses. If I go back and recall my former self I get ideations. Best not to.

Hope your day has been at least tolerable.

[[Se...]]

Is a rebounder a small round trampoline?  I don't think I would have the balance to be able to jump on one of those either.  Not long ago I used to be able to do 3 advanced gym classes in a row, now I struggle to change the sheets on my bed.

 

Before I found these forums, and didn't know what was going, on, I had no hope of recovery, but now I know its possible, so I'm more accepting of how bad it is now.

 

Have you tried sleep hypnosis?  There are free ones on youtube.  Jody Whiteley has some really good ones that last for up to 8 hours.

 

 

 

 

[[al...]]

Yes, that's what it is. Believe I cannot jump on one now, but I can sit on it on 'better days' (ha!) and bounce on it. It still helps the immune/ lymphatic system. Better than nothing. I understand you though. I'm bedridden too, it's just on the days when I can get up , tolerate the vertigo, then get down and CRAWL to the area where I have to go. Otherwise, I fear falling as I have in the past. This is coming from a 36 year old. Truly laughable.

\

 

Actually, someone suggested a sleep hypnotherapist so I'm trying to hunt one down. But oddly enough, my issue is sleep maintenance and not the onset of sleep. I can get to "sleep" immediately. I just wake up after a few minutes and then cannot sleep again until the following night.