Posted by SLS on February 23, 2005, at 7:28:27
In reply to Re: withdrawal from abilify, posted by niki2005 on February 22, 2005, at 23:14:20
> Dear Scott!
> Thank you very much for you post. I also took 10 mg Lexapro during 1 year, and now I stopped taking it only a 3 days ago . Now I have nausea and weakness. It is a reason why I am worried about abilify too. Thank you again.It often takes 3 days before withdrawal symptoms develop with the SSRIs (except for Paxil, which can be 1 day). You're right on schedule.
What are you willing to do to prevent the withdrawal symptoms?
Are you willing to restart the Lexapro at 5mg and taper down more slowly? How small can you cut up the pieces of Lexapro?
Are you willing to take a small amount of Prozac for a week or two, allowing you to discontinue the Lexapro more quickly? Prozac is practically self-tapering and relatively smooth.
If you intend to continue to go without doing either of these two things, you might find relief for certain symptoms by using Benadryl. Other posters here describe it as being effective.
If your are switching to another antidepressant, maybe you can begin taking it now so that it acts to substitute for Lexapro and prevents withdrawal.
If I can think of anything else, I'll post.
I have had success by taking smaller and smaller fractions of pills taken several times a day. The object is to not allow the withdrawal symptoms to reappear for more than an hour or so before taking the next fraction of pill. If the pills don't break up evenly, don't worry too much about it. You can estimate. Ideally, you will find that you can use less and less Lexapro and that the periods between the reappearance of withdrawal symptoms grow longer.
Good luck.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:461633
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050214/msgs/462172.html