Advice needed on akathisia

[[Wa...]]

Hi all,

I'm trying to determine the best path forward to heal. The worst symptom is the akathisia. I'm trying to determine the most likely cause.

• A rapid increase/decrease in Celexa because of severe anxiety - 10 to 30 mg in 2 weeks, followed by a reversal to 20mg after 5 days, suspecting it was actually causing the anxiety to be worse.
• Klonopin withdrawal - was on 0.5mg for 2 months, then decreased by to 0.375 for a week, then 0.275. After two days at 0.275 I woke up with very bad akathisia. Had lots of other withdrawal side effects. I then got worried and went back to 0.5mg. All the side effects went away except for the akathisia. It does reduce it for about two hours.
• I'm also on 100 mg of lamictal, propanolol as needed and trazodone as needed for sleep.

I've felt instances of what I'm pretty sure was akathisia even before I started tapering Klonopin (during the Celexa change), but not this bad.

I'm not sure what to do going forward. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm leaning toward tapering off the AD first.

Edited April 20 by [Wa...]

[[Re...]]

Hello @[Wa...] Welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I am really sorry what you have to endure, akathisia is a difficult symptom to deal with. I have no experience when it comes to this condition, but I am certain our Buddies will share their insights soon. 

Take very good care, 

RR

 

[[PE...]]

Hi!

Akathisia was my nr1 worse symptom. Ir became better when i was around 2 months out of benzos. 

As i understand it both benzos and AD can cause this. Just hang in there it will pass. But you having it before might mean not totally.. but to a more manageable amount. I was up MARCHING, for 14 hours a day at it worst. 

[[PE...]]

If you get pain in your legs from all the walking. A Chinese chili balm helped me very much. I managed to massage my legs while i was walking.

[[Bu...]]

Hello @[Wa...],

I'm sorry that you're dealing with this.  I've had very minor akathisia and even that is miserable.  I was wondering how much time there was between the changes you made to the Celexa and the Klonopin?  Doing too much at once can really mess up our system.

[[Wa...]]

It was about 20 days. I thought the Klonopin was making me depressed so I wanted to get off of it. I'm going to go much slower after I get the Celexa down.

[[Bu...]]

@[Wa...],

That's a lot of changes in a very short period of time, so it could be the combination of changes that is causing all this.  If I were in your position I would hold everything for a while and see if things calm down some. 

When you say get the Celexa down, do you mean to a more therapeutic amount or completely off of it?

[[Wa...]]

3 hours ago, [[B...] said:

@[Wa...],

That's a lot of changes in a very short period of time, so it could be the combination of changes that is causing all this.  If I were in your position I would hold everything for a while and see if things calm down some. 

When you say get the Celexa down, do you mean to a more therapeutic amount or completely off of it?

For the Celexa, I was hoping to get it down to the 10 mg I had been taking for many years, thinking that may help with the akathisia.

I think you're right about all the changes. I am going to just hold everything and hope it calms down. Then I can think about a very long taper of the Klonopin.