Hi Everyone, Jennings from over on SA. Here's my story so far: https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/23754-jennings-down-in-a-hole/

 

I've been having some issues with my latest drops, a lot of digestive issues. So I've decided to taper less and see how it goes. Slow and steady, right?

 

Anyway, I'm going down .5 a week so 2 mg a month. I'm at 5.8mgs of Lamo right now.

Welcome to the forum @Jennings

 

Thank you for crossing over and joining here.

 

I would say that it likely is a good plan to slow the dosage drops down if you find that other drops are giving you issues. I should add that typically on SA their starting point for tapers was a 10% drop every month/4 weeks, so the taper you have been doing seems a fair bit faster than this.

 

Keep in mind that this 10% is recalculated from each dose you're taking, so the size of each drop also decreases as you lower the dose. More information here:

 

https://antidepressantrecovery.org/topic/178-tapering-information/

 

https://antidepressantrecovery.org/topic/240-preparing-doses-for-tapering-weighing-diy-liquids/

3 hours ago, Jennings said:

I'm going down .5 a week so 2 mg a month. I'm at 5.8mgs of Lamo right now.

Nice to see you here @Jennings

It looks like you are dropping way to fast...the max should be 10% of the current dose every 28 days (minimum hold)

This should be only 0.58 mg of a reduction maximum. 

So 5.8 mg - 0.58 mg is 5.22mg.

 

Hold between doses till symptoms resolve so they don't stack.

Hope it goes well. ❤️🙏

 

Hi @Jennings

 

Welcome to the forum 😀 Chippy. 

@LostinCanada I'm sorry I meant .2, lmao.  I'm dropping .2mg a month.  10% got to be too much as my dose gets lower.

 

@Chippy Thank You

 

@Luke Thanks dude

1 minute ago, Jennings said:

@LostinCanada I'm sorry I meant .2, lmao.  I'm dropping .2mg a month.  10% got to be too much as my dose gets lower.

 

@Chippy Thank You

 

@Luke Thanks dude

Makes more sense!

9 minutes ago, Jennings said:

I'm sorry I meant .2, lmao

I thought so looking at your signature but then I thought better safe than sorry....good for you for being determined...I am tapering slow as well. ❤️🙏

Well, I guess the tapering caught up to me.  I woke up 2 nights ago at 2 am with an intense panic attack.  Since then I've had some pretty intense anxiety and I only slept for 2 hours last night.

 

I'm at work now white knuckling through the day.  I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm thinking about going up .2 to 6mg.  I had a three day panic attack/anxiety issue last December and I should have listened to my body and held.  

 

Oh man, this feels horrible.

Hey @Jennings I’m sorry to hear this. Yes I think I’d do that too. Catch it quick. Hope that helps. Let us know how you get on?

Hey @Jennings

 

Just thought I’d stop by and say hello. It certainly sounds like the taper has caught up with you, sorry to hear about the anxiety. There’s nothing wrong with going back to 6mg and holding until things stabilise a little. Your symptoms are telling you you’re going too fast. As Lost in Canada says…. Your body sets the pace. I hope things ease up for you soon. 

@NBJ71 @Chippy  Thanks for checking in on me.

 

I went back up to 6mg last night at 6 pm, my anxiety got really bad at 9 pm and kept getting worse until 11 pm.  Then it felt like my body exploded with electricity radiating out to my extremities.

 

After that stopped, I was extremely tired and fell asleep, more like passed out, and I slept like the dead.

 

I woke up this morning and there's no anxiety, I just feel really tired, have a headache, and am apathetic.  It's not normal, but I'll take that over the ridiculous anxiety from yesterday.  I don't even know how I worked a full day.

 

If I even out to withdrawal normal, I'm going to hold for a good while.  I've been going down pretty smoothly until the last couple months.

4 hours ago, Jennings said:

If I even out to withdrawal normal, I'm going to hold for a good while.  I've been going down pretty smoothly until the last couple months.

 

That seems like a good plan.

 

If you reach a point where you are ready to continue, you could consider some strategies aimed at preventing this from happening again. 

 

2mg a month is faster than SA normally recommended at 10% per month, even moreso when your doses get lower.

 

You could consider having longer breaks between drops, smaller drops, or both. Maybe instead of a small drop every week, you might be better off making a small drop every few weeks, for example.

 

There are a number of ways you could do it, but it seems worth going a bit slower if and when you do.

 

I hope you stabilise quickly.

14 hours ago, Jennings said:

@NBJ71 @Chippy  Thanks for checking in on me.

 

I went back up to 6mg last night at 6 pm, my anxiety got really bad at 9 pm and kept getting worse until 11 pm.  Then it felt like my body exploded with electricity radiating out to my extremities.

 

After that stopped, I was extremely tired and fell asleep, more like passed out, and I slept like the dead.

 

I woke up this morning and there's no anxiety, I just feel really tired, have a headache, and am apathetic.  It's not normal, but I'll take that over the ridiculous anxiety from yesterday.  I don't even know how I worked a full day.

 

If I even out to withdrawal normal, I'm going to hold for a good while.  I've been going down pretty smoothly until the last couple months.

Sounds like the updose had a pretty immediate effect. Yes hold here and let us know how you are in a week or two.
 

I’d suggest trying a micro taper once you do decide to re start your reductions. You might find this much much easier one your cns. 
 

Micro taper

@Chippy thanks, will do.

 

@Luke It isn't 2mg, it's .2mg a month.  I typed that out wrong in my confused state.  It was .05 per week and .2 mg a month.

 

I could never go down the 10%, if I tried I would always get withdrawals. From 25mg to 10mg I went 1 mg a month and held a couple months after every 5mg.  The drop from 11mg to 10mg was a little bit of an issue but not too much.  Once I hit 10mg I started going down .4 a month.  I wasn't having issues so I pumped it up a little more and then in December I crashed but kept tapering even though I didn't feel great.  I'm going to hold now.

 

 

I felt better last week and most of this but now I'm getting stomach pain, burning mouth, and electrical shocks in my wrists and fingers.  Just a nasty feeling.

 

I am sleeping, so that's good.  I'm going to keep holding until July and start a micro taper then.

 

Hope every one is doing well.

12 hours ago, Jennings said:

I felt better last week and most of this but now I'm getting stomach pain, burning mouth, and electrical shocks in my wrists and fingers.  Just a nasty feeling.

This sounds awful @Jennings I’m sorry read. Hope this passes soon. 

I went back down to 5.8mg a month ago and still feel the same I've been feeling, which is up and down.

I plan on going down to 5.6 on August 1st after I come back from an intense 2 week national park hiking trip.

I will see how I feel but I am going to attempt .2mg a month until I hit 2mg, then I am going down .1mg until I hit 1mg. That's the plan, we will see how it goes.

Btw, I noticed when I get sick it's not a big deal anymore because I've been through so much worse with withdrawals, what a shit show.

Sounds like you're on the right track! This isn't a race--slow and steady is the mantra. I think the hike will be therapeutic for you' there'll be a lot to see and enjoy and it'll keep your mind occupied. Enjoy!

11 hours ago, Jennings said:

I went back down to 5.8mg a month ago and still feel the same I've been feeling, which is up and down.

I plan on going down to 5.6 on August 1st after I come back from an intense 2 week national park hiking trip.

I will see how I feel but I am going to attempt .2mg a month until I hit 2mg, then I am going down .1mg until I hit 1mg. That's the plan, we will see how it goes.

Btw, I noticed when I get sick it's not a big deal anymore because I've been through so much worse with withdrawals, what a shit show.

Enjoy your hike. Sounds amazing I’m jealous. Yes I think we gain some new skills in wd for sure.

It’s good you have a plan for your taper. One step at a time though. You’ll get there.

Yes, it's good to have a plan for tapering.

It's important to be prepared to slow down or hold for a bit if it gets harder. There's nothing wrong with doing that- the priority is your wellbeing.

At 5mg, dropping 0.1 is quite small, but at 1.1mg it will be a 10% drop so much larger than what you've been doing recently. I'm just pointing this out to emphasise that you need to be flexible and stay ontop of how you're tolerating the drops, and be prepared to adjust your plan if it is what is best for you.

I'm glad you were able to go hiking. I hope that further tapering goes well.

thanks for all the replies, everyone.

As of now I can function and pretty much do anything I set my mind to, however I feel like garbage the whole time.

I can deal with the anxiety but the stomach issues are really messing with me.

I'm going in for a scope in August, just to be safe.

I now have some type of burning mouth syndrome, I believe it's due to withdrawal, however I am going go to an ENT and a gastro just for peace of mind.

Does anyone here have any advice on how to get relief when the tip of your tongue is always burning?

40 minutes ago, Jennings said:

I now have some type of burning mouth syndrome, I believe it's due to withdrawal, however I am going go to an ENT and a gastro just for peace of mind.

I had this really badly. It’s still a factor for me but less so. Like all wd symptoms i find it can fluctuate.

Do you have white tongue to go with it?

At first i used a mouth wash to try and ‘treat’ it. But I didn’t really help and I stopped when I realised these chemicals are not likely doing me any good.

Like most symptoms time seems to have been the only things that’s helped.

Hi @Chippy,

Yes my tongue is white, except for the tip of the tongue, which is red.

It's really annoying and can sometimes be painful.

17 hours ago, Jennings said:

It's really annoying and can sometimes be painful.

Yes it is annoying, I also find my mouth feels quite dry too. I can't say I have found it painful.