How do you stop taking Lexapro?
Friday, May 7th, 2010 at
6:16 am
I have been on Lexapro for awhile now and I want to stop taking it. I know I should stop it slowly, so I wanted to know what the best way to do this is.
I take 1 10g pill a day, I was going to start taking a half for 2 weeks then do a 1/4 for 2 weeks, then stop. Ideas?
Filed under: anxiety treatment
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Hi, your plan looks pretty good, and should help to minimize the withdrawal problems with the Lexapro. I put together a "how to" for getting off Lexapro, here it is below. I hope it helps you, and gives you some thoughts or ideas.
The key to getting off Lexapro is to get off it very slowly. It took several weeks for the Lexapro to reach full potency in your system – and the same has to happen when you want to get off it. Of course, stopping cold turkey is very not pleasant and you certainly don’t want to do that!
To get off Lexapro, wean yourself to the lowest dose (5mg). If you’re on 20mg, cut them in half (to get 10mg) and take those for a couple weeks, then go to the 5mg pills.
After you’ve been on the 5mg pills for a couple weeks, cut them in half (use a pill cutter for that) and take the half-pills for a couple weeks, then take the half-pills every other day for a couple weeks, then you can stop. This will slowly remove the Lexapro from your system, and help eliminate the possibility of withdrawal problems.
If you wanted to add an extra step at the end, and take the half-pills every third day for a week, you can – but I don’t think it’s necessary.
I wish you the best of luck
.
when you get the dizzy spells you must adjust to go off slower. so you may take 1/2 for 2 weeks and start on quarter and feel too dizzy or sick so go back to half every second day
I think your plan sounds about right. Just be warned, it can be pretty awful coming off of that stuff. I did it slowly, but I still got these mysterious "brain zaps" that were quite unsettling.