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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

SSRI withdrawl

S

stuxa

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
6
Hey Guys,

I've been trying to withdrawl from Lexapro for a over a year now at the recommended 10% reduction monthly of the current dose. I work a job where I cannot afford to be mentally impaired from withdrawl symptoms so I need to go slow. At the rate I am going, I still have over a year to go to get off this drug! I happened to come across an article where a woman had surgery and was prescribed Oxycontin and decided to use the time while on Oxycontin to quit her SSRI cold turkey. She was successful in doing this and claimed it was basically a breeze getting off the SSRI she was on. I want to do this, I'm just not sure if Oxycontin is the best drug for the job. The plan is to take a few weeks off work, quit lexapro cold turkey and take X drug to help me get through the withdrawl. I also need to also be careful not to get addicted to whatever drug I decide to use. Hopefully I can just take when things get bad to avoid continuous use for 2-3 weeks.

So question is, which opiate (or other drug) would be best help numb and/or reduce the SSRI withdrawl symptoms?

Thanks!!
 
Okay, i really want to stop you right here and caution you against this whole idea. There is no other drug X that is going to do anything but mask the withdrawal symptoms for a short period of time, and when it comes to opiates/opioids, this is not a game to play with because the chances of getting addicted are seriously high.

IF you decide to throw caution to the wind, then i would advise something like kratom, or maybe even kanna (although it has SSRI properties, so that might be a bad interaction depending on the dose you take)
Message me if you have any questions
 
I'd tread carefully on taking another drug to jump off Lexapro. I remember being weaned from it and it actually wasn't too bad. Sure there was some sleepless nights and a tiny amount of anxiety but nothing like the hell of oxycodone withdrawals. What dose are you on currently?
 
I am curious too both of your current dose and what your peak dose was. SSRI withdrawal has many symptoms like brain zaps and concentration problems that Oxycontin may do nothing for at all, so will reiterate the two above posts, the risks of substituting opioids for Lexapro far exceed the benefit. And we are all constituted differently. Just because it worked for your friend is no guarantee it will for you. I would hate to see you have side effects or develop a dependency on opioids and still suffer SSRI withdrawal.

For what its worth, many doctors switch patients to fluoxetine (Prozac) in this situation because its half-life is very long and cleared from the body more slowly. I will admit, although it seems to make sense and maybe worth a shot, I have not seen enough info at anything longer than a couple of weeks investigating if people do still suffer from withdrawal, just at later dates.
 
IME, I'd been taking 150mg Sertraline (trade name Zoloft) for 8 months and dropped it cold turkey 2 weeks ago. I was up for 2 days with only a little anxiety and paranoia. No other noticeable withdrawl symptoms. But this is just my experience with an SSRI.

I definitely recommend Kratom. It's pretty good to use for people suffering from opiate withdrawl when detoxing iirc.
 
stuxa said:
I happened to come across an article where a woman had surgery and was prescribed Oxycontin and decided to use the time while on Oxycontin to quit her SSRI cold turkey. She was successful in doing this and claimed it was basically a breeze getting off the SSRI she was on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll bet. When you're buzzed up on oxy your pants could be on fire and it wouldn't bother you. I don't think you need to taper your SSRI quite that slow. Every time my doc switched SSRIs on me it was tapered reduction once a week with about one month total time. Your body gradually adjusts to less SSRI, so the brain zaps will get better over time.

Kratom isn't going to help with this. SSRI withdrawals are related to serotonin, different from opioid withdrawls.
 
Im not saying that kratom was serotonergic, but more so that using kratom (much like the woman in the story used oxy) would help mask some of the shittiness of SSRI withdrawal. It still only masks it, it would not actually help decrease the symptoms
 
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