7 weeks off olanzipine, terrible insomnia
Posted , 3 users are following.
I was on 15 mg olanzipine for 13 years due to depression, anxiety and insomnia. i was misdiagnosed as bipolar when all the symptoms started with perimenopause. i started tapering a year ago, went down to 10, 5, 2.5 then cut the pills in half to spproximately 1.25mg did these tapers for three months at a time. went off at 1.25 and am now 7 weeks off. i was also prescribed xanax all those years but never took it consistently until I went down to 2.5 then became more anxious with insomnia. took mostly .25 but increased up to 1mg til now because of the anxiety. told doc I want off so he prescribed klonopine. having nausea as well. How long til some sense of normalcy returns?
0 likes, 2 replies
D_A_Z gail97920
Edited
Your taper was very, very fast. The symptoms you mention are likely because of the way olanzapine works on your brain's GABA receptors. If you are really suffering sleepwise, I'd suggest you go back to the absolute minimum amount of the drug necessary to facilitate good sleep, then start tapering at (the absolute fastest) rate of 10% per week, using a pill crusher and milligram scales. Without good sleep, you will find it very difficult to get back to normal because your brain has adapt, and that cannot happen without sleep.
joshuapryce1987 gail97920
Posted
7 weeks is a long time, i say perhaps you should lower of dosage over time and then stop taking the medication and speak to your doctor about progress.