off cipralex

[alwaysanxious]

hello ive been off cipralex for over a week now , i was on them for 2 years and the past couple of months ive been forgetting to take them so last week i didnt have any for 4 days and felt fine but been off them now a week and having terrible electric shocks in my head and body feel so flippin irirtable 2 like ive got serious pmt. any 1 know if this is normal also concentration not as good , i dont have anxiety just feel crap. could any1 give me any advice on this please i dont want to go back on them as its been 2 years scince ive felt better . am i rambling???? sorry

many thanks lisa
:shrug:

[nomorepanic]

Lisa

Wow yes going cold turkey after being on them so long is not a good idea and your body will take time to adjust to it.

This could last for a couple of weeks.

[alias_kev]

Yeah, it would be much more normal to have a reducing dose and gradually reduce the total daily dose by 5mg every few days, or even slower for some people. Even the manufacturer says it should take at least a fortnight and they often exagerate how fast you can go. Remember in their trials no-one is usually on any meds for a long time.

If you are like me its quite possible that the medication and seratonin load in your system carried you across the first few days without any problem.
A quick google suggests that many people are ok if they taper down the dose over a month and very good results were recorded by people who took two months. The biggest sign you've gone too fast is "brain zaps" kind of like a mental electric shock.

I'm actually am coming off Escitalpram pretty fast myself at the moment BUT I'm going on something else (Buspirone) which I'm hoping will buffer/fake the seratonin level a bit. If not I'm going back to my GP to get a taper dose.