My 15 yearold has been on 20 Mgof Lexapro for anxiety and depression due to lyme. Wewere told it was a safe drug. New reports are staing that ALL SSRI are not safe and have horrible withdraws like paxil.
S

When she gets real upset her eyes glaze over and she strted getting rigid body spasms.

I don't know if this is her Bartonella or Lyme or adverse reaction to Lexapro?? Any experiences or advice.Have a call into Dr. J. She is fine now.
.

PLEASE anyone quit lexapro

aunty

I take Lexapro, 30 mgs. a day. I've gon two weeks without it before with not one terrible sympyom.

Except severe depression.....but that's why I was on it to begin with.

Prozac too. No strange withdrawal symptoms.

Goodluck, Guiney

The doctor I was seeing at the time was handing them out like they were candy.

This was at the beginning of my symptoms and the doctor thought it was 'all in my head'.

I would have some terrible side effects or reactions to these drugs and she would just switch me to a different one.

Some of them made me have major anxiety, which was never a problem before, and panic attacks for the first time.

I was scared to go outside, I was scared to drive, etc.

When the last one I took had the worst reaction, she prescribed me nerve pills to counter-affect the pill.

It made no sense to me.

I will never take another drug like that again.

I was only on Lexapro for about 6 wks. I just stopped taking them and was fine. BUT, I had only been taking them for 6 wks.

anyway,in the morning i do experience a sort of hangover.which tell's me it is a withdrawal symtom.my durgesic patch prevent's ,full withdrawal.

when i take the lexapro(10 mgs) and nortriptyline(20mgs) in the morning,everything is better after 45 min's.."normal"...

this is the only info i can give you.i hope this help's....good luck,gary

Jordan wasn't able to stay off Zoloft. He felt he really needed it. He was having withdrawal symptoms if we tapered off too fast.

Their LLMD would like him to stop the Zoloft and take Alprazolam as needed. We tried that but it wasn't enough for him.

I think it really depends on the person. Jake went as high as 200 mg of Zoloft and didn't have any withdrawal. Jordan was having problems and his max dose was 50 mg.

Would your doctor prescribe Alprazolam or Diazepam to help her get through the withdrawal?

I do think the symptoms you are describing can be from Lyme or Bartonella.

I often feel like I'm playing a guessing game with their meds.

Good Luck!

------------------

Like you all neded another obstacle..

I went through this with Ryan, his case similar to your daughter, though I know everyone is different..

He was not doing well even with small dose of Celexa..and he was better for going off it, but withdrawal was bad.

This site is very interesting, and I have to search it some more and get back, because when I used it for Ryan over a year ago, it had a detailied withdrawal plan with use of Immunocal (a form of getting Glutathione to work in the body as you withdraw very slowly, week by week)..

But I don't see that guide on the site anymore.

They do go into lots of facts and info, and I see also on withdrawal and nutrients, ect..

So here it is, and if I can find the outline I used I will post again.

I don't know if searching Immunocal for withdrawal will help..

Bur here's this:
http://www.prozactruth.com/lexapro.htm

I will taper off the Lexapro slowl

Anyone that has any additional knowledge.please post.
Thanks,
aunty

The reason being that an SSRI can tip them into a manic phase.

You could ask this question of a pharmacist, they would know for sure.

Take care,
Carol

Can you cut the pill in 10 pieces?

You can get 5 mg and 10 mg pills. The smaller doses would be easier to accurately get the amount you need.

I would go a week or two with each reduction unless you are in a hurry for her to stop.

My daughter was never diagnosed with bi polar, this seemed tocome about after taking the Lexapro.........sometimes Lyme can also bringabout bi polar symptoms.

She was given the lexapro for anxiety and to help her TMJ joint from dislocating
aunty

For continued daily head pain over the last two years, she has been on both Paxil and Zoloft. Both had weird side effects: Paxil affected her moods and Zoloft caused diahrrea, weight gain and a physical eating disorder. So she has tapered off SSRI's twice.

We did very slow tapers. On the MGH neurology/headache site, they recommended taking months to get off even a low dose. We didn't go that far w/our caution. However, you can get a liquid for Zoloft I think, which can make tapering off easier.

You can use time as well as dose to taper off these drugs. In other words, if 1/4 pill is the smallest you can cut, then space the 1/4 pill first 12 hours apart, then 16, then 20 , then 24 at which point you will be taking it only once/day,. And so on until 48 hours, when it will be every other day. You can stay at each level a few days.

We were most afraid ot the Paxil withdrawal, which wasn't bad at all. Headache returned, but we expected that. Maybe some moodiness.

However, Zoloft, which we thought would be more benign, caused a lot of withdrawal problems: electric brain zaps, pain, fluishness, weakness, more weird absence experiences, visual disturbances etc. This happened even w/a two month taper from a low dose. My duaghter persisted and is starting to heal now, 4 months later.

Another tip is that you can use tiny amounts of another SSRI to help with this. We actually used tiny bits of Lexapro to help w/the Zoloft withdrawal.

Doctors don't seem to know about side effects or about withdrawal from these drugs. They treat me, the mom, like I'm crazy when I describe these things. There is a lot of information online if you look up SSRI's, including various withdrawal plans, and a lot of class action suits are going on too.

Make out a schedule with gradually reduced doses and/or more time between doses, for a few weeks, and have your child commit to following it. itmade us feel much better to look at a plan on a calendar, which ultimately led to being off the drug! Good luck.

Thank you for your reeply........did your daughter ween off ALL antidepressants?? Did her anxiety/depression return.

Our family doctor prescribed it but her LLMD said to gooff the 20 mg by tapering the dose for one week. I think I will taper it by several months to be safe. I justworry about the withdraw symptoms.

Why did yourdaughter need to get off.......Mine is fatigued, depressed, mania then depression and very hostile at times. Itis so scary.I thought it was the lyme and Bartonella.never suspecting the antidepressant

I think the worst withdrawal happens as you get down to the lower doses. In other words, you could probably cut it in half to start.

Maybe try that for 5 days, then cut in half again. Your daughter would then be down to 1/4 dose. Keep her at that level for a week, then start a slower taper over 3 weeks, using 1/8 pill , a liquid, or the time increments I described. She can alternate at some point, taking 1/8 on Monday, nothing on Tues. and then 1/8 on Wed. for example.

It sounds like the activated stuff like mania and seizures ON the drug is MUCH worse than any withdrawal. In other words, it's possible you need to worry more about getting her off faster than about withdrawal symptoms., This happened to us w/amitryptilene: my daughter was having seizures and we did get her off in a week or so.

it's very possible that Lexapro withdrawal won't even happen. I tried to make the point that this is all idividual. MY child ahd mroe trouble getting off Zoloft than paxil, which really surprised us. Lexapro is the newest and most benign of them all, so it might go fine.

Remember too that if withdrawal symptoms happen, you can backtrack a little. So if she gets headache, fluish, electric zaps etc., on 1/8 every other day, the you can temporarily go back to 1/8 every day unitl it stabilitzes, and taper more slowly from that point on. The whole process is under your control w/careful observation.

My daughter chose to continue to taper off even with withdrawal symptoms, she wanted to get it over with. After another month, things were better. I just needed to be aware and interpret various things that she experienced as withdrawal, not new neuro problems.

My daughter took SSRI's for headache pain, not for her mood problems. But her moods have been better off the drugs, honestly.

Thanks for your input.

aunty

The FDA recently advised against giving kids
SSRI's. They can be dangerous, though the need can be greater than the danger.

Have a friend whose son stopped taking Lexapro without tapering it off. He took his life a week after he stopped.

It doesn't sound like it's agreeing with her at all...and while I do not mean to scare you I felt I had to share this.

Sounds like you are on the right track chopping them up and weaning her off.

Good luck...your experience must have scared you to pieces! She'll be ok and probably better off without it!
hugs...nan

My kids are possibly bipolar and neurologists won't give them SSRI's but the psychologist says that he believes the ssri does not trigger anything that would not happen w/o the med (not sure i believe this so I have not put aaron on an SSRI).

Her LLMD is going to ordera EEG to tryand determine if she is having seizures.I think that she is for sure.

I will have a phone consult with himtomorrow AM inhopes of trying to figure this out. My daughterdoes take Biaxin and that says its contraindicated.nooneeverwarned me???

Maybe because of that (the Biaxin) the load is toxic and that is why she is so sick.

Plese pray for her.if anything happened to her I would not want to live.