I started taking lexapro fall of 2021 for depression. I was on it for about a year and then weened off no problem. 6 months after weening off, I experienced severe dizziness. I got a lot of blood tests that all came back normal. One doctor thought maybe it was chemical. So I decided to give lexapro another go. I started taking 10 mg and was overwhelmed with dissociation - uncontrollable zoning out and feeling flattened. I figured I just needed to adjust so I stayed the course. It didn't get much better. I then started taking 5 mg before bed. It started to help a little bit but I was still white knuckling my way through work and life, powering through the dissociation. Gave it some more time, eventually cut it down to 2.5 mg and at a certain point I wanted to get off of it so badly I decided to take the 2.5 mg every other day to ween off. The weening off didn't work as well as I wanted and I ended up getting stuck on taking 2.5 mg every other day for a year. I recently had a panic about doing the every other day thing, thinking I'd hurt my brain doing that so a month ago I started taking it every day again to "start over" essentially. I had HORRIBLE reactions - eyes heavy and fatigued, big anxiety in my chest when I woke up, lots of dissociation. I was in that state for about 2 weeks and then decided (using liquid lexapro for smaller dosage) to drop to 1.5 mg. I felt SO much better on the 1.5 mg. The best I've felt in years. Very little dissociation and overall a lot more energized. I thought the weening off was working so after two weeks of 1.5 mg, I thought surely 1 mg could be fine. I was WRONG. I started having dissociation again, brain zaps because of withdrawal, etc. A few days ago I went back up to 1.5 mg realizing I had dropped too quickly and I now feel how I felt during those two weeks of 2.5 mg. All that to say is I am miserable and am worried I have done harm to my brain over the last 2 years being on this medicine. Any personal anecdotes or advice or words of encouragement are welcome here. I should mention, yes I have a psychiatrist, but he has not been super helpful throughout the whole experience and is confused as to why I'm having these reactions....
u/FlanSavings5349
I started taking lexapro fall of 2021 for depression. I was on it for about a year and then weened off no problem. 6 months after weening off, I experienced severe dizziness. I got a lot of blood tests that all came back normal. One doctor thought maybe it was chemical. So I decided to give lexapro another go. I started taking 10 mg and was overwhelmed with dissociation - uncontrollable zoning out and feeling flattened. I figured I just needed to adjust so I stayed the course. It didn't get much better. I then started taking 5 mg before bed. It started to help a little bit but I was still white knuckling my way through work and life, powering through the dissociation. Gave it some more time, eventually cut it down to 2.5 mg and at a certain point I wanted to get off of it so badly I decided to take the 2.5 mg every other day to ween off. The weening off didn't work as well as I wanted and I ended up getting stuck on taking 2.5 mg every other day for a year. I recently had a panic about doing the every other day thing, thinking I'd hurt my brain doing that so a month ago I started taking it every day again to "start over" essentially. I had HORRIBLE reactions - eyes heavy and fatigued, big anxiety in my chest when I woke up, lots of dissociation. I was in that state for about 2 weeks and then decided (using liquid lexapro for smaller dosage) to drop to 1.5 mg. I felt SO much better on the 1.5 mg. The best I've felt in years. Very little dissociation and overall a lot more energized. I thought the weening off was working so after two weeks of 1.5 mg, I thought surely 1 mg could be fine. I was WRONG. I started having dissociation again, brain zaps because of withdrawal, etc. A few days ago I went back up to 1.5 mg realizing I had dropped too quickly and I now feel how I felt during those two weeks of 2.5 mg. All that to say is I am miserable and am worried I have done harm to my brain over the last 2 years being on this medicine. Any personal anecdotes or advice or words of encouragement are welcome here. I should mention, yes I have a psychiatrist, but he has not been super helpful throughout the whole experience and is confused as to why I'm having these reactions....