Positive lexapro/escitalopram withdrawal story

Hey everyone, I’ve had bad anxiety for about 3 or 4ish years at this point and been taking lexapro for the last two (brand escitalopram), and have just recently stopped taking them

I had about 20/30 pills left (20 mg) and had a feeling that because things were going rather well in my life I might as well try and kick the habit now, as I don’t like taking medication I don’t need to.

Being an anxious person of course I googled the withdrawal symptoms and found story after story of how awful it was, and really psyched myself out. I decided to say fuck it and try anyway, so I just split my remaining pills in half and was going to take them until I ran out.

I wanted to share this story for those of you considering quitting who read nothing but horror stories of withdrawal and might need some encouragement.

I took the 10mg for about 2/3 weeks before going down to zero, and didn’t really notice any change aside from maybe benign a bit more tired than usual, but that was hard to blame on the pills since I just started a new job.

I’ve been at a zero dose for about a week now, and it’s annoying, but not nearly as bad as some stories make it out, I’ve been very very tired, but also have trouble sleeping - and I’ve had a weird experience where it feels like my eyes and my brain are lagging behind each other and struggle to catch up when I look around at something very quickly.

As for anxiety, I haven’t had any at all, and I haven’t had anything I would call a “brain zap” (but maybe that’s what the weird eye thing is). It was the worst around day 4, but has been getting steadily better day by day.

Overall I don’t regret doing this and should nothing get worse I hope to stay off of the medication completely. I hope finding a positive story about withdrawal helps some of you anxious folks out there and helps you feel better about quitting if you really want to!

Best of luck y’all!