Posted by JenStar on August 25, 2004, at 2:30:31
In reply to Tapering off Lex - any suggestions?, posted by captain on August 24, 2004, at 11:19:21
hi Captain,
congrats on your decision to taper! I hope it goes well for you.When I tapered from 10 --> 5 --> zero, I had to go slow. I went to 5 mg for a week, felt anxious and weird, went back to 10 for a week, then went back to 5.
When I went to zero I did OK -- no nausea, no headaches, no electric "zaps" that others have talked about. My only problem was dizzy patches. It was weird -- it wasn't dizziness like standard dizziness; it was sort of a weird swooping feeling of "otherness" and "surreality" that would come upon me. Sometimes I would feel like my head suddenly became completely weightless and that I was dropping; sometimes I felt like I was swooping on a wave. Sometimes I felt like I was receding fast, like on a train, from the world around me. This would only last for a second and I'd shake my head and it would go away. Sometimes I felt like I was going to pass out, although I've never passed out in my life, and I'm not sure what it would feel like. None of this made me lose balance or stumble look weird or anything like that - it was just an odd, odd feeling.
Three weeks after going to zero, the swoops/dizziness have subsided mostly but are still there a bit.
I AM feeling more anxious again. I can tell because I'm worried that the swooping dizziness is not actually a side-effect of quitting Lex, but in actuality a coincidental issue with my heart that just happens to be occurring at the same time as the Lex-quitting. I KNOW in my head that it's the Lex leaving my system and my brain acclimating, but my anxiety whispers to me, "It's a heart condition!"
But I think I can overcome this too with careful treatment and a little TLC.
I think you'll be OK tapering off. And congats on the impending marathon - very exciting!
JenStar
poster:JenStar
thread:381692
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040821/msgs/381999.html