5% drops and withdrawal side effect issues.

[ray34iyf]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering... I figured that hopefully, given I would make 5% drops instead of even 10%, I'd maybe side step the issues all together on my ween.

Well, I noticed that a week and a half after my last drop, I'm still having weird feelings and thoughts, and just feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin.

Do people still have problems like this when cutting by such a low dose?

Just need a bit of reassurance...
THANKS!

Dan

[matthew T]

Originally Posted by ray34iyf

Hey guys,

I was just wondering... I figured that hopefully, given I would make 5% drops instead of even 10%, I'd maybe side step the issues all together on my ween.

Well, I noticed that a week and a half after my last drop, I'm still having weird feelings and thoughts, and just feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin.

Do people still have problems like this when cutting by such a low dose?

Just need a bit of reassurance...
THANKS!

Dan

ray were you in poop out stage when you started your taper?

[ray34iyf]

It looks like I maybe went into poopout in April, attempted to taper quickly in July, and then reinstated to 10mg in August. While I never fully got stable on the 10mg after 3 months or so, I was significantly better than during my c/t-ish experience.

And I was better than this last week before my 5% cut. It just surprises me that such a small cut would make such a difference.

[westeewoman]

This is just a guess and an observation from reading posts on this site for two years, Ray, but it seems like the closer some folks get to 0, the more difficult the drops can be.

How is your diet? Are you taking any supplements? It may be time to experiement with the many options that people on PP have discovered?

[whirlpool86]

Dropping from 10mg to 5mg (after 8 months on 10mg) for me brought no side effects.

Dropping from 5mg to 2.5mg (after 1 month on 5mg) brought mildish side-effects.

Dropping from 2.5mg "daily" to 2.5mg "every second day" brought strong side-effects.

So going from 10 to 5 after eight months on 10 had no effect. But once I started dropping below 2.5, all hell broke loose.

Dunno if this is any help to you.....

[carolyn]

Originally Posted by whirlpool86

But once I started dropping below 2.5, all hell broke loose.

Well, you did 50% drops and then went to a non-daily dose....I think that was much more responsible for the side effects than being below 2.5.

Ray, I found that my drops had a definite pattern for most of my tapering. I'd feel the majority of my side effects for the first week or 10 days, then they'd peter out, and then the third week was generally symptom free. This would repeat for every drop down to about 4mg.

Keep doing your small consistent drops (whether 10% or 5%) and things WILL get better.

I know I'm just one person, but I can't even tell you how much better things are getting for me the lower and lower I'm going. Once I hit about 4mg I stopped having noticeable symptoms from my drops at all. Slow and steady wins the race!

[whirlpool86]

Yeah that's true carolyn. I think skipping days was the worst choice I could have made. The month I spent on 2.5mg was very tolerable and only mildly unpleasant. So yeah actually I think it was the skipping days that brought on my w/d symptoms, and not the low dose itself.

[Mixter]

Yes for me 5% can hit hard sometimes, espically in beginning of taper.
Afterwards onwards it has been easier now.

My headaches is not severe anymore, my thoughts is better.
You can slow down to 4% or 3.5%, taper at this rate until you feel more comfortable, increase the percent by 0.5 or so amounts.
This is what I am doing. I drop 15 mg every month (roughly), slowly increasing the percent from 5 to 6.25 - at 225mg.

[horizon]

I think its the time in between you need to worry about not the dosage,
maybe you are tapering too quickly....just a thought!

[Songbird]

I hardly felt my drops until under 10mg. Now I'm doing less than 5% drops and still feel them, however the symptoms are relatively mild. Slow tapering doesn't mean no withdrawal symptoms, but in general it produces less severe withdrawal symptoms. Many people do have more difficulty at lower doses, though not everyone.

I also believe that for many people there is a certain dose range that is difficult. For me and many others it is around 5mg. I believe this is the point that there is no longer enough of the drug to be effective. Once through the difficult patch it may get easier, as the body has adapted to the lack of the drug and the remaining tiny dose is not really doing anything. This tallies with Carolyn's account of it getting easier for her below 4mg. Of course there is a lot of individual variation, and there is no way to predict which drops will be easy or hard, so going slow with small drops is the best approach.

[carolyn]

Yeah, I agree, SB. My difficult patch was right around 10mg.

[JessG]

My last 2 drops have been under 5% and I have still felt them. Everyone is different. Some hardly feel the drops and some are more sensitive.

Well, I'm just coming to 10mg and still plan on 10% drops but am anticipating that I will have to rethink this strategy the closer I get to being off.

My current withdrawal is a bit different than some others. I normally don't feel much until the second week of a cut and by the third week, I'm really feeling it. It subsides quite a bit over the 4th week and then I start the whole process over again.

2010, I hope, will be a banner year for me. After a 13 year odyssey on SSRIs, I will finally be off towards the end of next year. I will also be a year removed from my divorce (signing the mediation paperwork today) and fully on the road to my new vocation, a college instructor in psychology. Life has improved...

Ray, I agree with the others who have said withdrawal symptoms will most likely be present regardless of the percentage of your cut. Tolerability is the key word here. Good luck on your path!

[pboy]

If you check on the drugs.com thread, the person who started it had her daughter taper off Lexapro doing drops of about 1-2% every 3 or 4 weeks in order to minimize symptoms the most. She said it enabled her daughter to cope with school and get good grades in the meantime. It did take her a long time to wean off though.

Personally, I am currently doing 10% and it's been a bit rough but bearable. I don't think you can totally eliminate symptoms, just space them out over time more so they don't hit so hard.

[pboy]

Originally Posted by jwbrent

My current withdrawal is a bit different than some others. I normally don't feel much until the second week of a cut and by the third week, I'm really feeling it. It subsides quite a bit over the 4th week and then I start the whole process over again.

This sounds like what I experience after a dose reduction. The first 5 days are usually fine, then between the second third week is very rough, gradually improving on the fourth week.

[ray34iyf]

For me the pattern has been as follows:

Make the cut, feel it really bad the next day and for the next week or so. By week 2, things are less intrusive but still uncomfortable. By weeks 3 and 4 things tend to even out.

I'm wondering if I should just tough it out and do 10% instead of 5%. Things do seem to be twice as harsh when doing the 10%, but if it would take half the time, I'd deal. Hopefully it does get better the more I drop.

[Songbird]

Originally Posted by pboy

I don't think you can totally eliminate symptoms, just space them out over time more so they don't hit so hard.

It isn't just about spacing them out, it is about how much you are putting your body out of balance and how much it has to adjust.

Originally Posted by ray34iyf

I'm wondering if I should just tough it out and do 10% instead of 5%. Things do seem to be twice as harsh when doing the 10%, but if it would take half the time, I'd deal. Hopefully it does get better the more I drop.

Everyone is different, but if you can tolerate the 10% cuts (assuming you're giving yourself at least 4 weeks in between), then it does get you to your goal faster. At least, that's my way of thinking on my own wean. However, I'm prepared to change strategies as soon as my functioning becomes severely handicapped, which I hope does not happen.

Oh, to be drug free!

[Mixter]

Try increasing the percent instead, to be on the safe side.

Increase 5 to 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ? It is not about getting it off fast, it is about getting off it with a life quality too.

[pboy]

Originally Posted by Songbird

It isn't just about spacing them out, it is about how much you are putting your body out of balance and how much it has to adjust.

Do you think this is why those who CT get symptoms that last for longer, because it damages their bodies? I can sorta see how that might work.

Ray, my last reduction was a 10% one and looking back now I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It's been very rough and I haven't yet stabilized like I did when doing 5% cuts. I've been feeling terrible depersonalization over the last several days and emotionally empty. Like Mixter says I'd maybe try 6 or 7% instead. The way I've felt recently is enough to convince me to make the reductions lower.

[ray34iyf]

This sucks so much.

[Songbird]

Originally Posted by pboy

Do you think this is why those who CT get symptoms that last for longer, because it damages their bodies? I can sorta see how that might work.

I believe it is because homeostatic processes are usually correcting small deviations. If you suddenly throw out the balance by miles, the body is really going to struggle to adjust.

[Mixter]

Originally Posted by Songbird

I believe it is because homeostatic processes are usually correcting small deviations. If you suddenly throw out the balance by miles, the body is really going to struggle to adjust.

Yes the processes is also on a big scale (think millions of miles of nerves and impulses to get feedback loop working in the brain and body)

Homeostatic change adapts better in the big scale by small deviations, larger deviations is more difficult, the feedback loops need to be corrected.
Taking into account of the vast nerve system, millions of miles of nerves - it makes sense for me now.