Fear of withdrawal

[Jewel311]

I just started lexapro for my HA.  It has been 7 years since I have been on SSRI.  My withdrawal back then from Effexor was absolutely terrible.  Insomnia was the worst.  I know I shouldnt take my first dose and already be paranoid about withdrawal, but I am afraid it will be similar to the effexor withdrawal.  I have already broken my no google rule and have been googling like crazy reading horror stories. I know Effexor is a different class of drug and I know I weaned too quickly off of it.

Anyone ever wean off lexapro? I never intend to go above 10 mg. If you did wean successfully... how long did it take?

I am asking mainly because I intend to become pregnant in the next couple of years... just trying to navigate through an extremely stressful transitional time in my life right now.......thx

[2sungo]

I weaned off of it with no trouble over a period of months, just worked my way down to 5 for a long while and felt good on that, then eventually made the half pills smaller and smaller till they were crumbs.   Maybe not such a wise move as I am now going back on it due to a recurrence of the anxiety disorder, and still waiting for the benefits to fully kick in (while often not feeling too good waiting for it to do so) after about 3 weeks.

[insights]

It has been 7 years since I have been on SSRI.  My withdrawal back then from Effexor was absolutely terrible.  Insomnia was the worst.

Effexor is widely considered to have the worst withdrawal effects of all the antidepressants, due mostly to the very short half-life (~ 4 hours) of both it and its active metabolite (Paxil has the same problem for the same reason). Therefore you Effexor experience may not say anything about what may happen when you quit Lexapro which has a much longer half-life (27-32 h).

One additional thing to consider is whether you should ever  come off an antidepressant. Anxiety disorders aren't curable, they tend to stick around, waxing and waning, but never going away. As there is now growing evidence that antidepressants lose effectiveness every time they are discontinued and restarted, sometimes with more severe side-effects at each restart, there is an argument for taking them continuously.

I am asking mainly because I intend to become pregnant in the next couple of years... just trying to navigate through an extremely stressful transitional time in my life right now.......thx

You may not have to stop taking Lexapro to have a baby. With the exception of Paxil, it is unclear that antidepressants significantly increase the odds of birth defects. Studies have reported higher incidents of such defects, but there doesn't seem to be a common pattern to them which may indicate the studies aren't showing a real issue, but just reporting statistical noise. The problem is that the number of patients in each study tends to be low, the defects tend to be mostly the rare ones and the increases they report are often small.

To complicate matters,  there is a large and ever growing body of evidence that maternal anxiety (and depression) can adversely affect the fetus, both immediately, and later in life. They tend to have lower birth rates (PDF), be born prematurely and have impaired neuronal development (PDF). As children and adults they are more prone to asthma, dyslexia and to have learning difficulties. They are also much more likely to develop anxiety disorders and/or depression.

I suggest you discuss this thoroughly with your family doctor, psychiatrist, and an obstetrician and/or gynecologist when the time comes and follow their recommendations.

Ian

[Jules1963]

I know how you feel about worrying about withdrawals. I managed to taper off lexapro with very few side effects 4 years ago. Now I'm just starting meds again and my doc put me on remeron , I'm worried about withdrawing even before though I've only just started it. It's all part of our anxiety

[Kem10]

Tapering off meds is scary. I successfully did it 3 years ago with lexapro, but now am back on it and worried too.