I had a situation where I had a loss causing me to go into a depression, WOW, never thought that could happen to me! Never really understood what depression meant or felt like either! People talk about depression and feeling depressed but when you hit REAL depression it is totally different and absolutely HORRIBLE! Well, I had just lost my 45 pounds and all this happened and the last thing I wanted was to go back on an antidepressant that causes weight gain but I had no choice. I tried to hold back until my depression hit rock bottom and I had no other choice. I did okay maintaining my weight loss for the first 4 months or so and I thought, okay this is not going to be that bad but in the last 2 months – BAM, the weight gain began even without me eating! I can’t go back to be overweight again, I am already pissed at the 6 extra pounds I have on now! So, I decided it is time to see if I can go off the Lexapro. It isn’t just the weight gain that Lexapro messed with. It killed my ability to enjoy sex, it made my face break out in terrible acne, it made me crave sweets like no tomorrow, and made me so sleepy. I was up to 20 mg of Lex. I couldn’t handle the sex and sleep side effects so the doctor reduced me to 15 mg and added Wellbutrin 150 about 6 weeks ago. It helped – not totally but made a difference. But, that made my weight gain worse – I think the serotonin amount increased a lot from the addition of the Wellbutrin. So, I have decided (no haven’t had a chance to talk to the doctor yet, going to try some experimenting first and then call doc) to see if I can go off Lexapro or reduce myself to a super low dose and see if that decreases side effects.
So – my start was 20 mg of Lex
Then I went to 15 mg of Lex and 150 of Wellbutrin – this caused an increase in weight gain, increase in acne, less sleepy (good), can enjoy sex a little more (still not normal though)
My next move was to go to 10 mg of Lex and 150 Wellbutrin – I seemed to tolerate this move okay so far. I have had 1 really bad migraine and a few extra headaches. No changes in side effects noticed though with this decrease.
This week I am playing around with 5 mg – 7.5 mg of the Lex and 150 Wellbutrin. I took 5 mg. the other day but felt it – I was dizzy and had really bad insomnia but the dizziness could also be because I was trying to eat less because of all the weight gain. I have been feeling a little less hungry but still craving sweets. I think I need to mostly stick with 7.5 mg and just do an occasional 5 mg as I am impatient and want to drop to 5 mg but I know it is really too soon and a 7.5 mg drop is better. It is a pain though since I have 10 mg pills so I have to take 3/4 of a pill and that is a lot of cutting! I also know that I should stay at these dosages for a couple weeks but again I am impatient and wonder how far I can push it to get down to a solid, comfortable 5 mg. Once I feel stable at 5 mg for a while I will call and ask my doc for some 5 mg pills to work with.
I did wean off Celexa before – I have read other people who get to 2.5 and just “stop” – I have learned you don’t want to do that. You want to cut down that pill smaller and smaller and take tiny pieces of it for a week and then even tiny pieces every other day for another week, in the end that is the time to go as slow as possible because stopping all together is the hardest part and going 2.5 mg to 0 mg is too hard on the body.
My biggest fear is that my depression will return but since the thing that caused the depression isn’t in crisis raw pain anymore (just sadness but you are moving on) I pray that is okay!
Well – onward I go, I will try to keep this up to date!