Posted by Robert_Burton_1621 on February 27, 2015, at 22:02:41
In reply to SSRI withdrawal symptoms really scare me!, posted by fido on February 26, 2015, at 20:34:17
> Last year I was 4-5 months of Lexapro which didn't work.
> When coming off I got brain zaps after a few days and felt sick. The brain zaps lasted as long as I got onto Anafranil. The brain zaps instantly vanished. After getting off Anafranil, which also didn't work, the brain zaps quickly came back!!
> Then I got onto Cymbalta. The brain zaps vanished. Cymbalta didn't work. Now I have been off Cymbalta 2 days and the zaps are back and I feel really bad.
>
> This is starting to scare me. What if this doesn't go away anymore at all?!
> I tapered down Cymbalta. I took like half a 30mg pill for a week. I thought maybe this would prevent the withdrawal symptoms from coming back but it didn't!
>
> This means I am basically forced to get back on a SSRI ONLY to get rid of the withdrawal! But once I stop the SSRI with brain zaps will come back and they will probably be even harder to get rid off the longer I have been on a SSRI.
>
> What happens if you've been on a SSRI for years and then want to get off it? How are you supposed to do this without withdrawal?
>
> Seriously, this isn't funny anymore.
>
> I cannot walk around for weeks with these brain zaps hoping that one day they will get away.
>Have you tried taking an SSRI with a long half-life as a "bridge" over the discontinuation period? I also experienced terrible brain zaps, nausea, and gastro-intestinal cramps when coming off paroxetine. I took fluoxetine the help with these symptoms for a month and had no further trouble. Fluoxetine (SSRI = prozac) has a half-life of around 5 weeks I think. It should work for getting off the cymbalta, too.
poster:Robert_Burton_1621
thread:1077156
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150223/msgs/1077195.html