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Success Story: Stopped Olanzapine (Zyprexa) Cold Turkey

Posted , 50 users are following.

kate85501
kate85501

First off thank you for this wonderful forum.  I looked long and hard for success stories of people who came off Zyprexa cold Turkey successfully and was unable to.  I took zyprexa for 2 months (started at high dose foolishly by psych doctors @ 30 mg) and then self lowered to 10 mg once I got out of there 1.5 weeks later.  Abruptly switched to abilify (10 mg).

The withdrawal was hell on earth.  I thought it would not get better.  After about 3 - 4 months off zyprexa and 1.5 months off abilify, I am much better and feel much like normal self again.  My sleep still needs some work, sleeping 5 hours now, from zero sleep once I stopped taking zyprexa.

So I wanted to start this thread to let anyone stopped zyprexa cold turkey or plans to stop cold turkey, that it can be done. Most people on the forums warn against it however due to difficulty of withdrawal I think.

I will post more details on how I did it soon.

7 likes, 88 replies

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  • nvta84148
    nvta84148 kate85501

    Edited

    That nice to see. It was the opposite to my experience. I went from Zyprexa to Abilify within 1 month and i suffered unbelieveable restlessness, insomnia and suicidal thoughts... And i was lose dose too only 5mg.

  • bronwyn43244
    bronwyn43244 kate85501

    Posted

    how long was your withdrawal? i am on day 184 and it is hell. some say it ends at 8 months some say 10 months and others a year. apparently there is a timeline available and i am searching for this. do you know where i can get it?

    • diamond98403
      diamond98403 bronwyn43244

      Posted

      Withdrawal depends on speed of initial taper; if you came off quickly and were on the drug for a long time, then it can be longer. If you want to know more, feel free to PM me.

  • daniel50698
    daniel50698 kate85501

    Edited

    hi kate, thanks for your success story it is really a god send to us trying to deal with withdrawels. I was on a depot of 2x 150 mg of clopixol where im 3 weeks into withdrawel and zyprexa 20mg stopped it 4 weeks ago. Just wondering when you started feeling improvements, im currently bed ridden with restlessness, general depression and suicidal ideation.

    is that much longer before I start to feel normal again? any advice would help thanks

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