Um dos melhores testemunhos sobre sintomas de descontinuação que já li

por FSL Qua Set 03 2014, 11:52

Este testemunho é brutal. Foi do melhor que encontrei. Ela fala de tudo sem tabus, principalmente sobre os pensamentos intrusivos que muito pouca gente fala, por medo ou vergonha, mas muitos experienciam. Eu já os tive de forma ligeira agora na pós-fase de desmame.

"Hi Everyone, I just wanted to share my story of Lexapro withdrawal and let you know where Im at with my journey. I was put on Lexapro in 2006 for "Generalised Anxiety Disorder" after the birth of my first child. I wont go into too much detail, however I believe now looking back, that I was wrongly diagnosed. I started off on 10mg and slowly got up to 20 mg and continued on that for approx 3-4 years, I tried to come off several times but the overbearing dizziness and increased anxiety got me every time and I re started the drug. I then decided to lower my dose going down to 10mg and then 5mg and then simply stoppped ( I had no idea about withdrawal or tapering) and then several weeks after stopping had my very first panic attack. I felt crazy and I wasn't sure what was happening to me and why. I returned to my dr and was given .5mg of Xananx for my now diagnosed "panic disorder" and put back onto my lexapro of 20mg. My doctor told me I would be on them for the rest of my life. To say the least I was devastated. I found that re-instating for me, increased my symptoms threefold. I had panic attacks that seemed to last for hours, incredible anxiety, depression (for the first time in my life), tremors, I literally felt like I was going mad. I quit my job and I thought I was going to land in a mental institution. However I kept on with the tablets. I stopped the X after a couple of weeks as it made me feel like a zombie and I would lose my bowels for no reason (It was horrible). I continued on with the lexapro, my Dr had me convinced, it was me. I thought that if I kept going I would feel better and my symptoms would ease as my body adjusted to the medication. Unfortunately this as not the case and things did not improve, in fact I developed more anxiety, depression and my mind would not shut up, it was constantly talking and I would repeat words in my head like OCD over and over again and I didn't know why. I thought to myself that I had to get off this medication. I had never felt like this before and I had never suffered such symptopms in my life. So I decided to taper, I tapered way too fast, as I just wanted my mind to stop talking and for the panic attacks and depression to stop. I cut down from 20 mg to one evey second day for 2 weeks and then would go down to 15mg and so on until I reached zero. Then my hell began... I have had so many symptoms that I now wonder how I every got to where I am now. I had the brain zaps, sever diziness,heart palpitations numbness in my face, vomitting, diarrohea, hot flushes, dry mouth, crazy mood swings, constant mind chattering (where I couldnt concentrate) - OCD like repeating of words, anxiety, depression, electric zaps in my knees, crying spells, adrenalin rushes, nausea,insomnia, breahtlessness, no appetite, bad dreams, fuzzy head, cravings (unsure of what), aggression and irritation, numbness in hands,depersonalization, tingly arms - burning sensations, confusion, obsessive/intrusive thoughts and images, suicidal ideation, hypersensitivity and more. With withdrawal I have found that with a lot of the symptoms they were constant for a long time and then would come and go. I found that early on, I would have mini mood tornados I would call them. I would feel happy, sad, angry etc all with half an hour. Then I would have days of quilt, sadness, happiness, anger - as if my moods were re-establishing themselves one by one. Then certain phases would last longer eg the anxiety at first was relentless and then I would get weeks of it and then days. The same with the depression, I felt so empty, hopeless and dead inside for months - I remember saying to my husband at one point. I could die right now and not care. That went from months, to weeks and now days. The same with the relentless mind chatter, I could not sit and talk to a friend because my mind would not shut up. I could not concentrate. I had months of this, then weeks and now days. And this has happened for the entire withdrawal process - not sure if others can relate to this process. I personally found that from the first day I quit lexapro up until month 9 were the worst months of my withdrawal. At month 4 I started to get horrible images in my head and at month 8 I started get intrusive thoughts - these are still with me today, but they are not as constant as they have been. Not alot of people talk about this part of withdrawal, but I have heard of a lot people that also get this. For example I would look at a knife and automatically see images of my wrists being cut - never before have I ever thought of this (until withdrawal) and I have several others - the thoughts and images have been the scariest part of my withdrawal, but Im learning to let the come and go. At month 9 I felt like I was going backwards. I thought I was losing the plot and for sure had some other type of mental illness, bi-polar - ocd - perhaps I was a crazy person but never realized. Withdrawal makes you think about everything - your childhood, your parents, situations in your life, what type of a person you are and what you could and should have done. Anyways, alot of my symptoms got really bad at month 9 and during the midst of such episodes you don't see reason and you truly believe you are getting worse rather than better. However that really bad wave passed and the windows have become better. I remember crying all the time, it was getting ridiculous and I didn't know what I was crying. Now at month 13 I don't have those days of tears, I have maybe a day a month where i cry (usually around my menstrual cycle) and I get moments in days where I get teary. A big improvement. At month 9 I also started to get muscle twitches and spasms really bad, my memory became strange and I had troubles with getting out the right words when I wanted to say something, I also found that one of my legs had some weakness - all of these things freaked me out and I thought that I was getting MS or parkinsons. I read further into withdrawal stories and found that this was quite common to happen. Now at month 13 I still get these symptoms but they only last for days at a time, rather than weeks. So all in all, since month 9 it has been onwards and upwards, I have been more confident and much more happy within myself. I am doing things I love again and a lot my passion in my life has come back. I am not healed and I know I still have a long way to go, but I do see that I am making progress even if its incremental. Last week I had a really bad wave but it lasted for only days, rather than weeks or months. To date I can say my biggest improvement has been my anxiety and depression - it has really lifted which makes dealing with the other symptoms much more manageable. I will keep you updated on further progress. "