Concerned its got worse every day since Sunday.

Will the body ever stabilise?!

3 hours ago, Steve1 said:

Concerned its got worse every day since Sunday.

Will the body ever stabilise?!

Waves and windows @Steve1. For myself, I've found it much more useful to look at my progress over months rather than days or weeks. You'll get there 🫂

@Steve1 Hello mate I wish you a speedy and full recovery as soon as possible. May god be on your side.

Is your activation permanent? Or does it come and go? I seriously consider to make an updose because from all the way down from 100mg to the current 6,52mg I never experienced such bad symptoms. It is very very clearly withdrawal for me so updosing might help. But I also get activation. But not persistent, it settles down after 20-30 minutes.

Hi @leminaseri I can't be sure if its withdrawal or ongoing activation from escitalopram as the predominant side effect at the moment.

As a result I am trying to hold the line at 5mg and hoping the body can stabilise at some stage.

I really don't want to up dose ideally as 10mg was horrific

21 hours ago, Steve1 said:

Concerned its got worse every day since Sunday.

Will the body ever stabilise?!

Sorry Steve you really can't tell if you will stablise over such a short period of time. Worsening isn't un common, waves come, they also go. If you choose to continue holding you need to accept the ride mate. The body needs an unreasonable amount of time to settle from changes often.

I felt okayish 5/10 for a few hours yesterday evening. But struggled to get to sleep and woken up feeling bad

Just now, Steve1 said:

I felt okayish 5/10 for a few hours yesterday evening. But struggled to get to sleep and woken up feeling bad

Take the win mate, it is a great sign. Sleep gets really messed up in WD unfortunately. Im sorry you feel bad today, lack of sleep is awful.

Hopefully I'm approaching the peak soon

1 minute ago, Steve1 said:

Hopefully I'm approaching the peak soon

I have everything crossed you have some better days very soon mate.

Thank you.....still holding out at 5mg. 7 weeks today

Still feel dreadful. Will this misery ever end?

2 hours ago, Steve1 said:

Still feel dreadful. Will this misery ever end?

I'm so sorry, Steve, but rest assured this will end.

Right now, being at the bottom of the graph you see nothing but eternal suffering, yet just a little further ahead you will be at the very top where the present moment will look like a distant nightmare..

Just hold onto hope and keep surviving with distractions alongside acceptance as much as possible, you're system is constantly healing and will recover.

Easier days will come.

Sending lots of strength.

Dr says that withdrawal will only last a maximum of 8 weeks. Is this a reasonable timeframe or is he misguided?

22 minutes ago, Steve1 said:

Dr says that withdrawal will only last a maximum of 8 weeks. Is this a reasonable timeframe or is he misguided?

Unfortunately it can last longer, as all the folk on this forum will attest. Unless you want to believe that this doctor is correct, and everyone here finished withdrawal after 8 weeks, and then we all happened to develop new and mysterious illnesses that continued after that time.

We simply don't know how long your symptoms will last. I had a patient recently who was severely ill with WD for 3 months (bedbound and off work), then she recovered quite quickly and is fine now at 6 months off. Then you have folk here like Luke, who is still far from recovered at 3.5 years off, although improving.

All you can do is seek as much support as necessary and try to hang in there. Sending you care Xx.

Feels like I can't win....10mg was too activating and now feel like I'm in deep withdrawal from 5mg (7weeks)!

1 hour ago, Steve1 said:

Dr says that withdrawal will only last a maximum of 8 weeks. Is this a reasonable timeframe or is he misguided?

Not necessarily misguided, for some it can happen within that time frame and for others it takes much longer.

Honestly, I wouldn't set a timeline even though I know how difficult the uncertainty is, our mind simply hates it, however, if you set a specific point in time and your expectations aren't met, it can be pretty devastating.

Try to focus on the present moment and not look further ahead than today, symptoms will come and go with varying intensities and when the system finishes regulating it will be over, that's a guarantee, but when exactly.. no one knows.

I hope those harsh days will be over soon for you, hang in there.

Thank you....today has been brutal

17 hours ago, Steve1 said:

Dr says that withdrawal will only last a maximum of 8 weeks. Is this a reasonable timeframe or is he misguided?

They are just old school and out of date. It is well understood now that WD and WD injury can last much much longer than 8 weeks. Continuing to believe and inform patients in 2026 in the UK where we have changes to guidelines and access to new data in the form of the Maudlsey Deprescribing Guidelines is un acceptable imo. Unfortunately very common still.

So confused what to do with my dose. Now 7 weeks 2 days at 5mg and feel dreadful

8 minutes ago, Steve1 said:

So confused what to do with my dose. Now 7 weeks 2 days at 5mg and feel dreadful

Here for you what ever you choose to do Steve.

Really worried I've done permanant damage to my body

Hello @Steve1 I've had the Escitalopram WD experience also, so I understand what you're going through. It can be a dark and scary place – I get that!

It could be likened to a prison sentence! Not sure where you are in the world, but in the UK in the 70s we had a famous TV comedy sitcom called Porridge. The lead character was always giving good advice to his young cellmate about enduring: 'keeping your head down'; 'don't let the nerks grind you down', and simply 'doing your 'Porridge' (sentence). Acceptance I guess, being the point. I often called this to mind as my own Escitalopram Porridge ticked on…

Of practical help I found that in those darkest moments, turning the focus of my mind away from what I couldn't control (the random WD symptoms which you just cannot predict) to something that was within my control helped me endure.

Either a small 'mindless' task, say like making your bed; vacuuming; washing-up, (I know that can be challenging also!) Or, for me learning to control my reaction to the cascade of symptoms through breathing.

Google 'Box Breathing', and tips for calming the Vagus nerve – like pinching the ear lobes! Sounds whacky – but works!

Learning to modify our anxiety responses when we can't actually change circumstances and facts, has helped me. All the best.

Its so bizarre....I go from thinking its withdrawal to then thinking its ongoing activation from the 5mg pill

Just now, Steve1 said:

Its so bizarre....I go from thinking its withdrawal to then thinking its ongoing activation from the 5mg pill

You can't really know for sure. Aiming for replacing thinking – with doing (like the controlled breathing) helped me greatly.

Not sure I can recover from this