Comforting words needed

Hello! I am sorry you are going through this too. My insomnia every other night and taking trazadone. I did restart and it’s been 10 weeks I have appointment today with Dr. i got up to 15 and now weaning off now on 5. Very scared. I don’t want to rely on sleep stuff. I too am now on progesterone and estrogen but it’s not helping. What does your Dr say?

The lexapro didn’t help one bit looking for alternates and praying something cuts this anxiety.

@whatr4do

Thank you. So Pristiq didn’t help insomnia? What else do you take for it?

@ancl123

Hi, sorry you’re still dealing with this. The Progesterone helped me sleep on 2.5 but tried 5 of Lexapro yesterday and the insomnia came back so now thinking might go back down to 2.5 but want to talk to my Dr. the Lexapro is helping with the anxiety/panic, but not with the insomnia yet. I did use Ashwagandha last night and it finally helped me drop off into sleep. I can’t take too much of it lowers my mood unless I’m on the Lexapro but it worked to help with sleep last night, just 150 mg.

Keep me posted on how you’re doing and if you find anything that helps and I will too. Hearing about the Trazodone from a few people do if that’s helpful short term I might try some. I don’t want to become dependent on something either but something for the short term could be helpful. I was reading last night that some people who stop a medication like we did and restart can be more sensitive to it than they originally were. So that might be what’s going on. It definitely seems to spike my serotonin more now. I’ll speak to my dr this week, he’s been very sick. Keep me posted on what you find out and best wishes. Will be thinking about/praying for you!

@ancl123

Also I noticed we’re both on amino acids. The L-Tryptophan does work on serotonin so that one could be impacting you with the Lexapro. I stopped my 5HTP for now (L-Trptophan is a precursor to 5HTP I believe) as I wonder if it could be bumping up my serotonin as well. We’ll see. Right now it seems my body needs a little bit of Lexapro for “feel normal” and not panic but then I can’t sleep. Might get better as my body gets used to it or might drop down to 2.5 again when I speak to my dr. I’d be interested in if the Ashwagandha helps you with sleep/panic. I’m trying the FutureBiotics brand of 150 mg per capsule.

@tawnycgeorge
Thanks I need
All the prayers
I can get! Where did you see that about sensitivity to restarting a med and did they find another drug that helped. Scared nothing will work again maybe that my anxiety talking

@tawnycgeorge
I stopped the tryptophan when I went on lexapro and taking cortisol manager at night 2 nights not helping. Took a trazadone last night. Makes me feel scared to rely on. Have done sleep restriction in past helped a bit. Not so much these days.

@ancl123 it’s called “kindling” and I’m reading about it on StoppingAntidepressants.org

“ Hypersensitivity and Kindling

What causes hypersensitivity?
Some people may experience minor difficulty in stopping a psychiatric drug one time, but the next time they start, startup symptoms are much worse, and the next time they stop, the withdrawal symptoms are worse. The nervous system can become destablilzed or sensitized from repeated adverse drug effects and withdrawal events.

If someone goes on and off multiple psychiatric drugs, they may be in a state of overlapping withdrawal reactions and often a persistent hypersensitivity.”

“ What is kindling?
Kindling is a neurological reaction that comes about after repeated withdrawal or adverse drug reactions cause hypersensitivity. When the same drug or a different drug is introduced, there is a hyper-reaction. That is the kindling response: An exaggerated adverse reaction to exposure to a drug, due to pre-established hypersensitive.

You may be vulnerable to kindling if you have a history of repeated rapid taper or cold turkey withdrawal and / or a history of heavy or chronic alcohol use, especially binge drinking -- in effect, going on and off the drug, with hyper-reaction when the drug is taken again.

Generally, kindling is an activation reaction -- a sense of overstimulation, which may be an inner electrical feeling, anxiety, nervousness, panic, or at the extreme, akathisia, which includes an urge to move to relieve intense inner agitation.

Here is an excellent explanation on the Benzodiazepine International Coalition website: Benzo Kindling.

While the exact mechanism of kindling is unknown, some of the details on kindling have been written about in papers on alcohol withdrawal, which like benzodiazepines, affects GABA (here is one such paper - Kindling in Alcohol Withdrawal).

While this phenomenon has been documented in the scientific literature for benzodiazepines for a long time, any drug that effects the nervous system and causes dependency can have a traumatic impact on the nervous system when changes are made often and abruptly. Research is now also pointing to kindling in antidepressant use.”

@ancl123
I’m wondering if your symptoms might stabilize if you stay on the same dosage and take the Trazodone just now for sleep? Or try the Ashwagandha for sleep? Then wondering if our systems would stabilize again on the Lexapro if we’re not changing around doses?

@tawnycgeorge

Just spoke with psychiatrist and her approach a bit different from nurse practioner. Should would of upped lexapro to 20. Now she said stick to one sleep aid and try cymbalta or Prozac