Posted by bleauberry on July 23, 2012, at 18:12:28
In reply to Please help me kick Lexapro!, posted by Mimi on July 20, 2012, at 20:10:23
I've done it. Yeah it was hard. That's because it is so darn powerful on serotonin,, it messes up everything else. All that other stuff has to learn how to operate again, and that takes time....weeks and months, not days. Zyprexa was the hardest to get off, Paxil second hardest, Lexapro third hardest.
Different people have different approaches. For me, it was basically tiny steps and not watching a calendar. By tiny steps, I mean for example 30mg yesterday, 29mg today and the rest of the week, 28mg next week, I might get brave and jump down to 25mg the next week just see if i can, if not I will go back up to where I was and then continue the tiny step weaning.
To do that you just need a sharp razor blade to chip a tiny bit off the pill. Unless you have a digital meter of course you won't be able to measure the actual dose, but it doesn't really matter. You know the difference between a small shaving and a chunk. As long as the pieces you are removing from the lexapro are generally getting larger as weeks go by, cool.
At any time if things get weird, just stop at whatever dose that is and stay there for a few days. If it doesn't smooth out and stabilize, then go back to the next higher dose you came from, stay there a few days, and then resume the weaning journey.
Prozac can be helpful. You don't want to combine the two meds every day, due to serotonin syndrome risks, but prozac once a week will allow you to be more aggressive in getting off lexapro without coming unglued while doing it. Lexapro has a half life of one day, but prozac is 7 days. It provides a smooth backdrop for weaning off other serotonin meds.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1021870
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120718/msgs/1022009.html