Lexapro Withdrawal Unwanted Side Effects (Page 6)

I have been taking Lexapro 10mg once a day for about a year. I have had many unwanted side effects which according to my doctor there are very few side effects from Lexapro. He says it is a clean drug. Wrong. It did nothing to help me and I want off. My doctor refused to give me anti-anxiety meds to help with the withdrawals from Lexapro because once again, there are no withdrawals from Lexapro. Why do doctors lie about this. Why do pharmaceutical companies lie about this? I have read so much about people just losing it while trying to stop taking Lexapro. I have not taken it in about ten days after weaning off for about two months from 10mg to 2 mg a day. My nerves are a wreck, I am extremely irratable, and have slight headaches. This is a horrible drug with many long lasting withdrawal symptoms. The makers of Lexapro, Forrest Pharmaceutical, should be ashamed of themselves. Do not lie to so many people just to increase the market strength of your company.

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Hi all. Have any of you experienced mild to moderate achy muscles and joints since being off of your Lexapro? I stopped mine after a 3 month weaning period, in early August. Now, in mid October, the brain zaps have almost completely stopped, but I feel very tight and achy and sore all over. Thanks!!

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I have been on the generic version of Lexipro (5 mg) for about six months. The dry mouth, belly weight gain, fluid retention, and jerking legs at night waking me up finally made me quit last week. Thinking it was only such a small dosage (5mg), I quit cold turkey last Thursday. I felt horrible over the weekend and even worse on Monday. The withdrawal symptoms are awful. The doctors should warn you of these reactions up front. Odd how I searched the internet and nowhere does it mention weight gain and I gained 20 pounds in the six months that I was only on 5 mg of this medicine. I felt so bad on Monday, I thought I was going to have to go to the emergency room. I called and talked to my doctor's nurse and she said all of the horrible symptoms I was having - racing pulse, pounding heart beat, dizziness and extreme tiredness was related to withdrawal of the Lexipro. Apparently it takes several weeks of weaning yourself off of this stuff, even at a small 5 mg level. I sure hope it doesn't take me 3 months of feeling like this to come off of this drug. Odd how the doctors assume you will be on this for life once you begin taking it and never warns you of how hard it is going to be if you ever decide to stop taking the drug.

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Are you free from withdrawals now.
How long did it take.
Do you feel normal again.
What helped you most during withdrawals ?

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After years of being on this stuff, I finally realized the havoc that it was wreaking on my life. Killed my energy and motivation. I was really neither happy or sad and therefore just lost direction with things. I went from running 5-10 miles a day and running a businesses full time to a lazy glutton who couldnt care less about how things were going. Must have put on a good 50lbs. It was a complete 180 and definitely ruined my life. The dizziness also kept getting worse and worse to the point that I had a difficult time on ladders and keeping my balance. Uncharacteristic mood swings and mania also started. 2 years ago I tried tapering off a bit too fast and got really bad withdrawals including some strange bouts of hypoglycemia. I am tapering again much slower and it's going well. Very tired, but less dizzy than on the full dose. The first 2 few days of the taper felt AWESOME, but of course the withdrawals followed.

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How is it going for you now, almost a month after this post? I ask because I tapered off Lexapro over a month's time and now I've been completely off for 6 weeks. I'm still having the brain zaps. They are greatly reduced now but that's reduced from when they were nearly debilitating. Thank goodness that has improved to where I can get up and go into work. But they aren't gone and they seem to worse at certain times than others, with no identifiable pattern.

Also, I feel like I am SO emotional. My anxiety is through the roof and I'm wondering if this is going to improve as well. I did go speak to my physician about it and he was essentially useless and looked at me like I was crazy when I described my symptoms. I may go talk to a pharmacist, see if they had offer any suggestions.

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I know exactly how you feel! I've been weaning off for 2 weeks and feel VERY motion sick, tired, irritable and foggy! I wanted off so after 3uears on Zoloft, 3 years on lexapro at 10mg. I cut down 6 months ago to 5mg and 2 months ago to 5mg every other day and I'm sti feeling horrible. Hoping this goes away very soon. Does anyone know of something that could help? I thought of taking Dramamine for motion sicksickness, but I just dont feel like it would help. Any suggestions?

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I don't know if anyone checks this post anymore, but currently, I am over a month off of Lexapro. It's pure hell. I've never felt so awful in my life. I have vertigo all the time and very bad migraine headaches.
I got married in September and my husband's insurance wouldn't cover the 40 mg dosage of Lexapro I was on. Instead of fighting for me, my doc gave up after trying to talk to the insurance a couple of times and told me to come back in and see him. He quit my Lexapro cold turkey and put me on Prozac. I just felt worse. I called and told him, and he told me to stop the Prozac immediately as well.
I feel like I'm never going to feel normal again. This is worst than the OCD, anxiety and depression I was struggling with.

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I am right there with you.I FINALLY got off and out of my system after about 6-8 weeks. I feel much better, however, I am also dealing with the emotional aspect. I feel like I cry ALL the time. and sometimes I need to have an emotional meltdown. But at the end of the day I can honestly say, im relieved to be dealing with everything off the meds. I'm seeing a therapist, I told her NO MEDS and she is working to get to the root. I would recommend this to everyone. Just be patient. Stick to the withdrawals as hard as it is, cause it horrible to have in your system. Its not worth it to feel sick and miserable evweday on top of trying to deal with the initial issue. Weather: anxiety. Depression, OCD etc. The medication is far too numbing. At least thats my take. Good luck everyone. And please feel free to write anytime.

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I have been on Lexapro for almost 5 months. I gained almost 12 pounds. The drug helped me with my anxiety. I feel it calmed me to the sense that I felt good, so I started eating more. I also stopped my daily walking of 4 miles a day. This drug has also decreased my libido... and while having intercourse, it takes a very long time to have an orgasm or there will be none at all. I read all the posts of people who have been on this medication long & short term and the horrible withdrawals they are experiencing. I figured I would try to start weaning off. I was taking 10 mg a day. For over 2 weeks I have been taking only 3/4 of that pill, which I will continue to do for 2 more weeks. The first two weeks I was fine, now I am a little dizzy, light headed, & spacey. I also have fatigue & body aches. I will not taper to 1/2 a pill until I have been on 3/4 a pill for a month. Then I will take 1/2 a pill for a month & then 1/4 pill for a month, then maybe even an 1/8, depending on how I feel. It seems like you could be fine with a dosage decrease for the first 2 weeks, then the withdrawal hits you, so then you need another 2 weeks to combat that, so your body adjusts to the smaller dosage. I don't want to lower my dosage until my body adjusts to the new dosage. I will update this post next week.

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I found this article about successfully weaning off Lexapro. It involves as I mentioned weaning off very slow. This person also offers coping methods to deal with anxiety and depression. I have been seeing a therapist who is helping me work through my anxiety and learn to face my fears. Anxiety and panic are fears. There is usually a trigger and therapy has been helping me to look at my anxiety as a warning and not a fear. This link is for the website: voices.yahoo.com/quitting-lexapro-made-easy-11991123.html. It's not too lengthy. Just a good page of reading. My best to all!

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I stopped taking Lexapro cold turkey 3 weeks ago. I had been on 15mg for 18 months. Reading here I noticed my withdrawal symptoms weren't worse than people who’d been tapering off for months before quitting it completely. The first week was the most discomforting experience of my whole life. Constant brain zaps, electric shocks beginning from my upper arms stretching toward my head, feeling cold and frozen from deep inside, diarrhea, nausea, my body aching like a junkie off of his drug, feeling exhausted etc I’d take vitamin B complex and Omega 3 to relieve the symptoms and to be honest I’m not sure if they were helping. Anyway by the beginning of second week my flu like symptoms turned into actual flu, but the brain zaps and electric shocks had pretty much subsided so despite the flu I felt better overall. By the third week the stomach problems, zaps and shocks disappeared totally, my other symptoms are less severe now if I keep myself busy especially with physical activity I wouldn't notice them anymore. I still take my supplements but I take Tylenol for the dull headaches too. As for the psychological aspects I never had major depression or anxiety problems before so all the difference I notice now is that I’m able to get happy and things irritate me quicker now.

When I was suffering from my withdrawal symptoms I’d look for people’s real experience telling me how long the symptoms are likely to last so I thought I got to share my own experience too.

The reason I started Lexapro was that I had many issues occurring at the same time in my life, I’d get worried and couldn’t enjoy life the way I did before. True that Lexapro helped with my anxiety but it had made me pretty much emotionless and indifferent. I wouldn't get worried yet I couldn't become happy either. After a year Lexapro’s side effects began to emerge; 30 pounds weight gain all in belly, extreme fatigue that wouldn’t get better even with 10+ hours of sleep, lack of emotions, becoming motiveless and feeling not well almost all the time.

Wish you all- on or off - Lexapro a safe journey. Remember if you don’t have major clinical problems doing yoga, self behavioral cognitive therapy, eating healthy and doing exercise are all the safe way to get rid of anxiety. Troubling your brain with these drugs isn’t the answer to everyday ordinary problems.

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I am updating my post from last week. I was taking Lexapro, 10 mg a day for about 5 months. Since Feb. 18. 2014 I cut my dose down to 3/4 of that 10 mg pill. The first 2 weeks I was fine, week 3, I had headaches, fatigue, light headedness, sweats, a little dizzy, body aches & funny feeling in my head. I am on week 4 now and most of those symptoms have subsided a lot. I still have some of the symptoms, but it's at the point I don't notice them that much when I'm busy. If I think about it, I feel a little funny in my head. I think weaning off very slowly is the answer. I am hearing too many horror stories about people doing this cold turkey. I know a lot of people are anxious to get off this medication, because of weight gain etc. but just be patient, you'll get there.

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Hi, I found this forum while trying to find out about the withdrawal symptoms from lexapro. I too have all the symptoms you all described. Ive been taking lexapro for 8 months until o.mentiomed to my doctor about how much weight I had gained while on it. He suggested that I get off of it. I will give you some background on why I was taking it in the first place. I had taken effexor years ago and got off of it when I no longer felt I needed it. Last summer I began feeling a little depressed and thought i would mention it to my family doctor. I told him that I had taken effexor years ago and he asked me what mg it was. I said I thought it was 75 but I wasnt sure. He wrote me out a prescription for 75mg effexor and off I went. I didnt know that would be the end of my life as I knew it. I went home took the pill and about 2 hours later was in the emergency room for what I thought for sure was a heart attack. They said I was having a panic attack. For someone who had never had an anxiety issue I didnt understand what that was. It continued for weeks non stop. I constantly felt so dizzy I couldn't lift my head without felling like I was going to throw up. I would get a rush that would feel like all the blood was leaving my body leaving me with a tingling sensation all over my body. I couldn't eat or sleep all I could do was think I was dying. I finally got to a psychiatrist and he put me on lexapro and zanax. I had all these symptoms unless I took the zanax because the lexapro made it worse. By now I had developed a pill phobia from what had happend. So I didnt want to take anything. I eventually got to the point where the lexapro helped with the panic attacks and no longer took the zanax. I felt pretty good or at least I didnt need to run ro the emergency room every week because ofthe attacks. I now am going off of it and I too feel all the same things you all described. I'm so dizzy I cant hardly move, tingling all over, exhausted, loss of coordination, off balance, night sweats, crazy dreams and so over emotional! So your not alone! I feel it too.

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I had started to decrease the lexapro about 3 weeks ago. I began by taking only one half of a 20mg. tablet for about 4 days, then one fourth for about 4 days. After that, none. For about a week everything was fine. Then one morning I threw up. Following that and at the beginning of no lexapro I experienced brain zaps. If you have these you know what I mean. If the light was too bright, I experienced more zaps. Extra movement of my head icreased the zaps.
I mentioned to my co-workers about the zaps, not about stopping the lexapro. This was personal to me. Anyway, one suggested taking a med for motion sickness. The head zaps, also seemed as a swimming head. To make a long story short I did take a med for motion sickness. To my delight it worked. Only a couple of mini zaps occurred after taking the motion sickness meds.

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Peter Rabbit Mom, can you please tell us what motion sickness med you took? I'm glad you feel better!

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I am on week six of 3/4 of a 10 mg pill. I was going to taper down to 1/2 a 10 mg pill after 4 weeks, but even though I feel much better, I can still feel my anxiety, so I will give it a little more time before I taper down to 1/2 of a 10 mg pill. Even though I'm anxious to get off this medication, I feel taking my time is making my withdrawal symptoms a lot easier. My body is now used to 3/4 of a pill. Doing this slowly I found I only had very noticeable withdrawal symptoms for a 2 week period, and they were not that bad. I could still function and go to work. I don't know how anyone can do this cold turkey, but I would not recommend it.

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I was only on 10mg and went from 5 mg to 2.5 mg then off of it in 2 weeks. It was probably to fast but I've read that people who take a long time decreasing their dosage can have the same withdrawl symptoms as people who go off cold turkey. I've been off of it for 8 days and still feel really dizzy. It seems to get worse when I move my head a lot or I'm really tired. Sometimes I feel ok and I get started doing something and it will get really bad again. I feel extremely exhausted just doing little things also. The brain zaps seem to happen if I move my head to fast or my eyes , like it takes my brain a minute to catch up. As for now I'm just trying to take it easy. People say you should exercise but I don't know how the heck you do that with all the dizziness!

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She's probably talking about Dramamine. I have a prescription for something like it but it didn't help me at all.

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My teenage daughter was put on Lexapro for moderate/severe depression after a doctor had her fill out a form that took about five minutes and then talked to her for another ten minutes. After only a week, she was shaking uncontrollably and experiencing dizziness. After a month, I watched a documentary about Lexapro and found out that some people just can't metabolize the drug. They are the ones who have psychotic breaks and harm themselves or others. I got her weaned off the Lexapro, but she is still shaking. She has terrible anxiety (which she never had before) and can't stand to be touched. It has been a week and a half since she stopped the Lexapro and I am hoping since she was only on it for a month that her withdrawals will be gone soon. Has anyone else experienced similar withdrawals after being on Lexapro such a short amount of time? How long until she feels "normal" again?

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I've read that it just depends on the person as far as how long it takes to get back to normal. The anxiety is definitely as symptom of withdrawl. I've seen in some articles people saying their skin crawls too with the withdrawals. So maybe that's what shes feeling. I was only in it 8 months and im on day 9 without it. I still feel really bad. Hopefully she gets better soon.

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