Advise on how to stop 2.5mg olanzapine..

Hello to the community.

At first i'd like to apology for any mistake in my english because i am from europe.

Then i'd like to write a little info about my history.

The last years i was not taking any specific medication. I didnt had any specific problem.

Only at some point i was taking betahistine for diziness..

I was an anxious type in general but i managed it.

At 2016 in my family my grandpa died and at the same time i got the flu and i was hospitalised for gastroenteritis problems also.

And there it starts my history..

For an unknown reason i had extreme anxiety, shortness of breath, i could not eat or drink, i was consistently nauseous etc.

That continued for weeks before i was hospitalised, i got into the hospital but not for mental reasons.

At start they gave me a diazepam im shot injection to calm me down, before the admission, immediately felt better and after the admission they treated me with paracetamol for the fever and for the flu, lansoprazole for the stomach problems, antibiotics and i had an iv also to replace the lost electrolytes.

I was in for a week more or less.

They checked me out and also i had an upper endoscopy test, lower abdomen ultrasound and mri, ecg everything to check my heart, xrays to check my lungs also. They did not found anything wrong with me physically, everything was normal according to the doctors and they released me.

The problems at home continued.

I had super extreme sudden anxiety that i could not explain, i could not eat or drink.

I was 65kg and after some weeks at this state i went to 54kg and kept dropping.

Then i went to the hospital again, they checked me again and found nothing wrong physically with me and they said to me to visit a psychiatrist.

And so i did.....

The doctor started me on alprazolam 0,25 x 8 max a day.

I was not taking all the 8 pills on the day, i was taking less but almost immediately i felt super better.

I started eating and continued my life. Time has passed and i was feeling ok, but in general i was feeling down, meaning not a at all happy.

I went to the doctor again and it started me on paroxetine 20mg and it upped my dose on alprazolam to 0,50mg x4 max per day.

After the first side effects of the ssri the first days, my life started being better completely. I was calm. And i started eating, my weight increased. And in general i was very good, but at the back side of my head i was thinking what i will do when the time comes to stop these meds.

I kept going for this almost a year and a half. But at some point the side effects of paroxetine was too much for me, also i noticed that as the days passed my symptoms were coming back and i was not feeling the calmness i was feeling at start with paroxetine.

Then i went to the doctor again. She said to me that we have two solutions. 1) to increase the paroxetine, which meant more side effects. Or 2) to change to other newer ssri.

We did the second.

She changed me to escitalopram 20mg.

Just a note here.

It was not good when i was making the transition from 20 paroxetine to 20 escitalopram but anyways.

The escitalopram worked and i kept going perfectly like this for almost 4years until now.

My weight upped to almost 70kg after all this medications.

Just a note i am 1.73 at height.

Recently few months ago i started feeling anxious and very very down emotionally but not up to a point to affect my daily life.

In general i didnt do anything, i didnt gave it much attention and kept going like this.

At the same time i visited the dentist for a tooth problem, i think he used on me procaine or novocaine together with clove oil.

Needless to say this, if it matters, this jumped me through the roof!!!

The next days i felt nausea, tachycardia, my blood pressure was increased, i was feeling cold and sweating at the same time, i was shaking and i was feeling very very badly.. I started to have eating problems again.. I was feeling very nauseous.

After reading online, I think it was the clove oil, eugenol, interaction with the ssri, that made me feel like this.

Anyway.. The symptoms continued, I went to the doctor again and now a different doctor because the previous was replaced, he said that we have 2 solutions because i was experiencing an ssri poop out.

Almost like when i changed the paroxetine to escitalopram.

Anyway.. He said..

1)to take olanzapine to augment the effects of the ssri. Because the escitalopram was already maxed out at 20mg.

He also said that my appetite will increase..

And that this med will take away my extreme and shaking anxiety.

2)or to change the ssri to other medication.

We chose to do the first with the olanzapine..

I started at 2.5mg everyday..

I immediately felt super better, my appetite came back but this lasted only a month and my symptoms came back.

At the same time i did a general blood test, as i do yearly, and we noticed an increase in liver enzymes.

A problem that i never had and was probably due to the olanzapine affecting my liver.

We left it like that with a prescription to re do the specific blood test after two weeks.

Then we noticed that my body was adjusting to the olanzapine and the increased liver enzymes were dropping. So he kept me on olanzapine.

Then the doctor said that the olanzapine had not managed to fix the escitalopram poop out and decided to switch me from escitalopram to venlafaxine xr. Due to the symptoms coming back as i said before.

So i started venlafaxine xr together with the olanzapine and the alprazolam.

The alprazolam was never stopped all these years.. But i managed not to increase it.. I was taking max 2mg per day and managed to drop it to 1mg.. I couldn't go below this dosage.. The alprazolam is the only thing that was not changed all these years in my meds..

What i was saying.. Yes..

I started the venlafaxine xr and upped it to a max tolerable 200mg.

Again the ssri to snri change was not easy at all... But i started feeling ok slowly as i was increasing my venlafaxine xr dosage.

We continued to increase the dosage because i wasnt feeling very ok up to the point to say ok here we are..

We upped it up to a point that i was not feeling ok..

I tried 250mg but i wasnt feeling ok..

So we kept the 200mg finally..

It is half a year now that i have stopped the escitalopram and i am taking 200mg venlafaxine xr and 2,5mg olanzapine and 1-1,5mg alprazolam per day.

Today, after 6months on olanzapine my weight increased to 90kg and my blood sugar has started to kinda increase.. Due to the olanzapine i think.. I never had problems with obesity or with my blood sugar.. I was always at 60kg.... With olanzapine i gained almost 15kg in 6months..

Recently my doctor advised me that i should stop the olanzapine because of the long term side effects and because i didnt need it anymore.

He said that any good that i was to take from this medication i have taken it.. That was to take out my extreme anxiety from the ssri poop out and stop it after.

Secondly he said that we should start tappering the alprazolam because it is bad for me..

He said exactly. Per word..

Olanzapine and Alprazolam is not good for you and you should stop it..

Specifically the Alprazolam should go...

Our goal is that i stay only with venlafaxine xr for 2 years and stop it when i feel better.

He said that this is our base, or main medication.

He also said that when i was taking the escitalopram, the previous doctor should have stopped giving me these medications while i was feeling better and not continue it..

He said i should have stopped these medications at that time..

I forgot to say that the diagnosis of the doctors before giving me these meds was combined depression with anxiety..

I tried to built a history for you guys in order to have an idea so that you can advise me correctly.

Now with my doctor we are at a point to first manage to stop olanzapine and after some time to stop the alprazolam.

We tried to switch the alprazolam to diazepam in order to stop the benzo after sometime but diazepam was not working for me so we stayed with alprazolam until further notice.

Today, this month my problem is on how to stop the olanzapine...

The doctor said to me, because i was on a very low dosage, to try to cut the pill and to drop from 2,5mg to 1,25mg for 4 days and stop it completely..

I did it and i stopped the olanzapine..

The next days i started feeling strange but the doctor said that this medication has no withdrawals and that what i feel is not from this medication..

Two weeks have passed and one day it suddenly hit me.. I started having sleep problems, feeling very nauseous, extreme anxiety, i was sweating and feeling cold at the same time and i couldn't calm down, i just couldn't sleep.. Alprazolam was not helping.. I stayed two days without sleep and the third day i forced my self to sleep and i slept but not very easily.. I just couldn't enjoy sleep as before..

Almost a month without olanzapine and my symptoms started to normalise but not completely.

Last week I visited my doctor again and he prescribed olanzapine to me and said to take it only when i really really need it.. Not everyday as before.. Only when i have extreme anxiety.

Two days ago i was feeling bad and i took one olanzapine pill.

My symptoms subsided immediately and after sometime went to bed.

I dropped to bed like a stone.. I really slept good after three days..

Yesterday i felt that i need it again and took one more pill, and again it kinda helped me..

Today i am kinda ok but i don't know what to do..

Should i take it again or continue with the stop?

I dont know if i am stopping ok and i dont want to go back to everyday dosage..

Dont get me wrong, i like how i feel with olanzapine, i really like it..

But the cons are more than the pros.. Weight gain, blood sugar and all the bad things that come after long term use of these meds.. Tardive stuffs etc..

I am feeling that i am stopping the olanzapine very fast? and dont know what to do.. Although nearly a month has passed that i stopped the everyday olanzapine dosage.

I feel ok but not very ok.. Basically i have mixed emotions..

My doctor says that what i feel is not from the withdrawal of the olanzapine..

But i know that it is? I have read a lot of stuff on the internet and on the forums..

I said to my doctor these things that i read and he said not to read all these things and that the 1 % of the population that showed these withdrawal symptoms according to the olanzapine leaflet, that this doesnt mean that will occur to me too..

Any idea on what to do with the olanzapine?

Thanks..

And sorry for the long text..

I tried to leave spaces but it came one thing all together as text..

I would appreciate any advices..

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