[mufan]

I would like to start by thanking my doctor for giving me rat poison. The stuff worked great for anxiety but not so good for my sex life. I had the sex drive of a tree.

So I decided to quit without any idea of withdrawal symptoms and it hit me like a truck. I have been on 10 mg of lexapro for about a year and have been off for 5 days going on what seems like 10 years. I have my sex drive back but unfortunately I'm insane. I'm irritable and cuss alot which i never did before. The brain zaps or shivers is just what everybody says it is. They don't seem like they are getting any better. I'm not dealing with it well.

But I've always been a cold turkey kind of guy and will stick it out but is there anything that can facilitate the process. Lot's of running, fasting, blood-letting? Whatever it takes man. What causes these side effects anyway from a biological standpoint?

[Robert_325]

Originally Posted by mufan

I would like to start by thanking my doctor for giving me rat poison. The stuff worked great for anxiety but not so good for my sex life. I had the sex drive of a tree.

So I decided to quit without any idea of withdrawal symptoms and it hit me like a truck. I have been on 10 mg of lexapro for about a year and have been off for 5 days going on what seems like 10 years. I have my sex drive back but unfortunately I'm insane. I'm irritable and cuss alot which i never did before. The brain zaps or shivers is just what everybody says it is. They don't seem like they are getting any better. I'm not dealing with it well.

But I've always been a cold turkey kind of guy and will stick it out but is there anything that can facilitate the process. Lot's of running, fasting, blood-letting? Whatever it takes man. What causes these side effects anyway from a biological standpoint?

Those "electric zaps" or electric shock syndrome as it is sometimes called is a drag. The same or very similar symptom also happens when a person detoxes from benzos. I have done major detoxes from all kinds of serious opiates, SSRIs like you are doing, and benzos. I don't think I ever had any w/d symptoms that I hated any more than the electric zaps. They would literally lift me off the floor. And they hurt. I not only got them in the head but throughout my body. It sucked big time. There are also w/d symptoms with SSRIs that are sometimes described being similar to cymbals being banged in the head. It's for real. These are some bad w/d symptoms that hit us in our head.

SSRIs totally wipe out our sex drive for both males and females. Or at least that is a very common side effect anyways. That was one of my reasons for getting off them. I told the dr that no sex would depress me more than whatever was bothering in the first place. So I simply refused to take any more of them. Detox from antidepressants is tough. Thankfully you were not at an extremely high dose when you stopped. It could be a lot worse than Lexapro 10mg. But it is what it is and shouldn't be minimized.

Your dr should be having you taper down from the regular dose. It's really not a good idea to stop abruptly. It's not like throwing the pain pills in the toilet and saying that is it. There can be more serious repercussions with stopping SSRIs abruptly.

In the Featured Drugs index that you are in with this thread there is also a thread specifically dedicated to Lexapro. It's title is Lexapro - Withdrawal Symptoms. I would strongly suggest that you check it out. Just scroll down through the thread titles and you will see it probably on the first page. Then if you go to the Featured Conditions index you will find another thread with the same title that has over 9000 posts. It's one of the largest threads on the entire Drugs.com forum. It has been viewed over a million times. Can you believe that?? It's amazing how many people come here with problems related to lexapro. You are not alone in this battle with the lexapro. No sense even wasting your time on a new thread. The threads specific to your problem is where the traffic is at on this subject and where you will likely find the most answers. Hope you find what you need. Good luck and God bless.