In this Q&A session with the Founder of Alternative to Meds Center, Lyle Murphy, Top questions about Lexapro Withdrawal, and Escitalopram Withdrawal are covered.
Hello today we’re going to be talking about lexapro withdrawal my name is lyle murphy the founder of the alternative to med center first question is what is lexipro well lexipro is an antidepressant it is specifically a serotonin-type antidepressant so what this drug is purported to do is to block the reuptake of serotonin so that serotonin will hang out longer
Exerting an inhibitory neuromodulatory influence on the synapse so by keeping the serotonin out there longer it’s buffering impulsive sort of things like the desire to kill oneself the ocd type ruminations and it can help force serotonin towards melatonin which could also increase someone’s sleep it is not i mean it’s called an antidepressant but it’s not what you
Would consider a mood elevator it’s more like an anti-impulsivity or an anti-rumination sort of anti-anxiety in some way type of medication which can help people actually feel better because they’re not being so plagued with stuff that’s overwhelming them now the challenge with blocking the reuptake is the drug itself is not making serotonin and drugs generally
Have a an issue with sustainability they tend to either wear off you need more of them and the reason is is because they’re spending the neural chemicals that they’re expressing so again the the the lexapro is not making serotonin it’s forcing it to stay out in the synapse so if this red synapse this were the originating neuron this is the receptive neuron so
This is where the receptors are over here on this side is where the vesicles that hold the serotonin are stored so something i don’t know something like that i didn’t take the kids to school is this a freakout moment uh comes into your awareness and serotonin is called upon to express itself so it’s released from these vesicles it exerts an influence over here
That says oh it’s okay if i get this kids to school late it’ll be fine i’ll make a you know there’s a good explanation for this and the teacher will understand sort of inhibition now after that is over the serotonin is meant to come back into these vesicles so that it can be used again it’s literally a recycling process it’s like okay i’ll throw it over there
You throw it back i’ll throw it over there you throw it back well if it’s not throwing it back and it’s staying out there in that open space in the synapse typically it degrades into its metabolites which means that it’s no longer serotonin and can no longer exert the same effect question number two what is lexapro used for well we kind of covered that in the
Last question lexapro is used for people who are experiencing depression but specifically the type of depression that has them um it’s sort of combined with anxiety would be the target that the um allopathic pharmaceutical type based perspective would probably target for medication like this sometimes it’s also used for fibromyalgia or other situations where a
Person feels like there’s too much stimulation in their life or not enough sleep those sorts of things question number three what do i need to know about lexipro withdrawal well lexi pro withdrawal is about moderate as far as the complications of this withdrawal if you’re watching this you probably have the you know more extreme side of these complications
Um but when you’re withdrawing off of lexapro it’s it’s sort of like um i don’t know if everyone catches this analogy or it’s too extreme and many people probably don’t even like this analogy but it’s it’s similar um when somebody’s coming off of heroin the reason why they’re in such pain the reason why this thing is associated with like oh my god you’re coming
Out of heroin that’s so bad well it’s so bad in that they’re hurting everywhere their entire body’s hurting because the drug has been basically synthetically producing endorphins when you take that drug away there’s an endorphin and and keflan drop and so suddenly everything is painful the the clothes on your skin might hurt the the the pressure of your eyelid
On your eyeball might feel like burning and digestion and even taking a shower it might be complicated right so when a person goes into endorphin plunge that’s what they experience well when somebody goes into an endor to a serotonin plunge coming off a lexapro there’s a certain panoply of withdrawal manifestations that they have with that so since serotonin
Is inhibitory the typical um withdrawal manifestations of coming off alexa pro look like excitatory things excitatory in that a person starts ruminating where they can’t stop fight-or-flight sort of um thinking like oh my god i’m going to die or this is going to happen or i’m panicking that sort of thing um where they have anxiety which of course that level
Of ocd is the level of anxiety and also they have problems with their sleep they may have problems with general impulse control may even crave things like sugar or simple carbohydrates to try to boost their serotonin temporarily which again is not a sustainable way to boost your serotonin and there might be other manifestations such as brain zaps which we’ll
Talk about later what that actually means question number four what can i do to support my lexor pro withdrawal naturally well what we do here is we transition people on the nutraceuticals slightly prior to doing withdrawal so that while they’re coming down into the serotonin plunge they’ve already got something that has built up their serotonin so that they
Can meet in the middle and not go into the dark recesses of serotonergic deficit hell and that is uh the direct precursors to serotonin are tryptophan tryptophan is backed up by its cofactors and sort of um affiliate members um magnesium and also niacin so a moderate dose of magnesium a small amount of niacin can help push tryptophan towards making serotonin
And we use those things in combination with a lot of other inhibitory neurochemical precursor type amino acids and supportive things in order to sort of buffer and prepare the body for this inhibitory plunge that’s going to be going through now with that said there is another scenario which i have never seen personally i’ve read about it in the literature it’s
Called serotonin syndrome where people have generally taken more than one antidepressant and that has caused them to skyrocket their levels of serotonin which if you have too much of an inhibitory thing it could cause respiratory distress and even your heart i mean it could be actually fatal so that serotonin syndrome um could also theoretically be derived
From taking tryptophan and an antidepressant together long term so you would not want to do these things long term we do it here short term because of course one is leaving the system which is the drug which is the real culprit for potentially creating a serotonin syndrome uh uh out while the nutraceutical which by itself would not have the capacity to produce
Serotonin syndrome and so we’ve never seen that effect and um i don’t expect we ever will um but you do want to be mindful of that if you’re doing that out there you would not want to combine the antidepressant long-term with um tryptophan or 5-htp for that matter which is sort of another version of tryptophan other things you can do to support your lexipro
Withdrawal naturally is to set aside some time in your life to do this like being overstressed being in a situation where you’re having too much going on where people are going to be emotionally challenging you and you don’t have the support around you that you need you don’t want to dive into this thing in a way that could you know flip your tea kettle you
Want to do this in a way that you have the space the time and you’re doing it slowly enough so that you can be successful and that’s why people choose a residential center because sometimes people go through some real ridiculous hell going through these meds and of course they want the support around them to be able to pull it off well and it’s not always the
Best thing that you want your family to be exposed to because whatever you’re going through during this withdrawal is not really you it’s it’s it’s um it’s it’s a version of you when there’s a an imposed neurochemical imbalance that may take some very unusual dynamics and so when you’re doing it in residential center you’re surrounded by people who are familiar
With that and not beating up your family with these sorts of things that’s the ideal not everyone can do a residential center so um for those of you who can’t slow and steady is a way to get through this and working with at least someone of a holistic band who can build up your natural sort of reserves things that actually are in congruency with your innate to
Support this withdrawal as you’re doing it question number five what are lexapro brain zaps well lexipro brain zaps are probably as a result of the serotonin plunge serotonin actually is a neuromodulator the nervous system sits at a certain resting potential so you have one nerve then you have another nerve approximated in order for one to talk to the other
You need a millivolt drop and an influx of sodium ions in order to create conductivity serotonin just makes that less likely it makes it less likely that you’re going to have depolarization so what do you think happens if you don’t have enough serotonin you’re in a serotonin plunge things start misfiring and going chaotic sort of all by themselves there are
You know scientific claims that these sort of brain zaps are not damaging um that would be like somebody trying to convince me that pouring water on my computer wouldn’t be damaging i mean i guess if it’s waterproof but you have delicate electrical circuits in your brain too you don’t want these things zapping in ways that you that are not in not your body’s
Natural way of doing things so if you’re experiencing the brain zaps this is probably a good indicator that you’re going too fast or even that you need to be supported with other things to help you slide up this medication easier nutraceutical things can be enough for many people some people might need another type of bridge one type of bridge medication could
Be gabapentin i’m not suggesting gabapentin for the normative electropro withdrawal but if a person’s really having a huge problem this medication gabapentin is a lot easier for most people to withdraw off of than the lexapro i would use it as a you know i mean drugs to me are the last resort they’re not the first thing you go to you try the other things first
Like slowing down using nutraceuticals seeing a naturopath you know drinking a lot of water exercising doing healthy foods that are not inflammatory all those sorts of things first and if you’re still getting stuck gabapentin is a lot less toxic and a lot less ridiculous on the way that it can re-warp your nervous system than a drug like lexipro are there
People that have completely absurd reactions to gabapentin yes yes and there is a specific genetic polymorphism called the gad genetic polymorphism people know if they have that because they take gabapentin and it makes them actually more anxious rather than less anxious um it’s not as common but it does happen and you will see stuff out there on the internet
About people having bad reactions to everything including gabapentin it’s you know with anything else when you’re going to try something new especially when it’s a drug try the smallest amount first see how you do with that if it’s helping maybe try a little bit more but don’t just overwhelm yourself with something that could cause you another level of hell
That you you know besides the hell that you’re already in uh number six what are side effects of lexapro well since there’s a delicate balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system as it regards to sexual function that’s usually where you’re going to see a problem those are the most common side effects but honestly the side effects of
Lexar pro can almost fill an encyclopedia um uh more than what we’d want to talk about here but typically one of the side effects is it’s not really fixing the depression it’s it’s giving the sexual side effects it’s giving you sort of a numbed out you know you’re you’re not really able to feel the highs or the lows you’re just sort of in this sort of fuzzy
Range where nothing matters and you know like like you’ve been anesthetized um other side effects of lexapro could include um you know sleeping too much not being able to feel a sense of drive losing passion reward and then of course the other physical side effects generally these things are called side effects of the medication like somehow like oh there’s
This side effect no these are actually effects of the drug um the side effects so most drugs have some sort of effect that’s different than the effect that you may want they call it side effects sort of to try to push it under the rug but these are really it’s changing the way your nervous system is is regulating things it’s changing the way that you feel not
Only your physical world but the way you interpret your um sensory in your in your emotional world as well so those sort of skewings are not just surgical they’re more like a kaleidoscope where you change things and there’s a whole different panoply of changes that are the side effects so i hope this helps here at alternative to med center we have a very high
Success rate with lexapro withdrawal it is a pretty straightforward withdrawal for what we do we’ve been at it for now at the making of this video we are in our 16th year we’ve had a full 15 years we’ve ended our 16th year of helping people with lexapro withdrawal and other antidepressants so if you need some guidance please feel free to call if you’re not
A candidate for a residential center we will generally try to help you find somebody in your area that can be of use to you thank you very much and have a sweet day or night and be well you
Transcribed from video
Lexapro Withdrawal, Escitalopram Tapering Help, Side Effects and Alternatives | Alternative to Meds. By Alternative to Meds Center
