StDymphna: Sudden adverse reaction to Lexapro 20mg after 3 years.

[StDymphna]

Took a magnesium bath tonight with about three hand fulls. I should have done one cup because I feel like I am experiencing an adverse reaction. Shortly after my bath I began feeling restlessness, anxiety so bad I wanted to cry, dry mouth, flushed face. Honestly the same reaction I had to less 1mg of melatonin. I can't believe it is possible a magnesium bath is doing this to me. It is weird because I have done foot soaks before with around two cups and I have been fine, but full body soak with a little more is not fine...

 

I guess I won't try a magnesium bath for awhile and next I will only try one cup.

 

Worried this is going to cause setbacks in the healing process.

[StDymphna]

I am having a crisis of whether or not to reinstate. I have been off all meds since April 5th of this year, but I am terrified of long lasting withdrawal. I do not know if reinstating could give me a really bad reaction, worried about being hospitalized, also I don't want to deal with experimenting with different doses because the drugs have messed me up so badly already. Regardless of cold turkey or reinstatement, I will experience set backs and unknowns either way.

 

The whole reason I cold turkeyed was because of a continual adverse reaction I suffered for three weeks of trying to be patient with them. I don't know what is safe to do.

 

I feel like i am in a wave the past 4 days. I recently came home from college after the end of my semester and have more headaches and nausea than usual. I also have been experiencing more weird tingling/burning sensations in the back of my head and more... 

[UnderstandingtheBrain]

2 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

I am having a crisis of whether or not to reinstate. I have been off all meds since April 5th of this year, but I am terrified of long lasting withdrawal. I do not know if reinstating could give me a really bad reaction, worried about being hospitalized, also I don't want to deal with all the drug experimentation because they have messed me up so badly already. The whole reason I cold turkeyed was because of a continual adverse reaction I suffered for three weeks of trying to be patient with them. I don't know what is safe to do.

You could try to contact a doctor specialized in withdrawal of antidepressants. There's many. There's a section in this site with a list of them.

[StDymphna]

Yes, currently trying to do that! It seems like the list is very outdated though, trying to narrow down doctors in my area or who will do online appointments from other states is also tricky

[StDymphna]

Is it too late to reinstate? Or should I continue with my cold turkey? Someone please help. I am afraid of SS or an adverse reaction causing a setback but I don't want to be more damaged by withdrawal. I don't know why I began experiencing reactions out of the blue to my normal dose, even 15 and 10mg were giving me reactions. I feel so indecisive because of my fear.

[Erimus]

11 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

Is it too late to reinstate? Or should I continue with my cold turkey? Someone please help. I am afraid of SS or an adverse reaction causing a setback but I don't want to be more damaged by withdrawal. I don't know why I began experiencing reactions out of the blue to my normal dose, even 15 and 10mg were giving me reactions. I feel so indecisive because of my fear.

The only way to find out if reinstatement would be beneficial is to try it. If you do so I would highly suggest no more than 0.5mg, and giving it at least 7 days before giving up, as long as you are not experiencing life-threatening reactions.

 

What symptoms are you currently experiencing that make you want to try? How are you sleeping? Are you able to function in your normal life, or is withdrawal making it unmanageable?

[StDymphna]

1 minute ago, Erimus said:

The only way to find out if reinstatement would be beneficial is to try it. If you do so I would highly suggest no more than 0.5mg, and giving it at least 7 days before giving up, as long as you are not experiencing life-threatening reactions.

 

What symptoms are you currently experiencing that make you want to try? How are you sleeping? Are you able to function in your normal life, or is withdrawal making it unmanageable?

I am so scared I would only do 0.1mg.

 

My symptom are nausea, headaches, eye pressure, bouts of tachycardia, dry mouth, weird tingling/crawling sensations in my head, body aches, pupils sometimes too tiny, insomnia, mood swings. What makes me want to try and reinstate are fears surrounding cold turkeying, such as seizures or protracted withdrawal. Also fears that my symptoms will worsen since I am still not very far out, about a month and one week. I have read some people recover from cold turkey but i feel like everything is a gamble with these drugs..

 

I am not sleeping that well.. I find it is even worse every other day, like my body is punishing me for getting enough rest the night before. On "good" days I am not able to fall asleep until between 1-2, if I am lucky and really exhausted maybe more like 12-1. After I get a lot of sleep from that, the next day I will find it even harder to fall asleep and won't go down until 4-5, and then the cycle repeats where I am able to fall asleep between 1-2.  I know that is a lot better than some people in withdrawal though. I do a lot to help my sleep but it doesn't always help (Accupressure mat, EFT, legs up against the wall, magnesium cream).

 

I think I can manage, but withdrawal makes life way more difficult and unenjoyable. A lot of what is making this too hard is my anxiety and OCD (which I am getting treatment for) I cannot stop thinking about the damage done to my body and need answers.

[UnderstandingtheBrain]

7 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

I am so scared I would only do 0.1mg.

 

My symptom are nausea, headaches, eye pressure, bouts of tachycardia, dry mouth, weird tingling/crawling sensations in my head, body aches, pupils sometimes too tiny, insomnia, mood swings. What makes me want to try and reinstate are fears surrounding cold turkeying, such as seizures or protracted withdrawal. Also fears that my symptoms will worsen since I am still not very far out, about a month and one week. I have read some people recover from cold turkey but i feel like everything is a gamble with these drugs..

 

I am not sleeping that well.. I find it is even worse every other day, like my body is punishing me for getting enough rest the night before. On "good" days I am not able to fall asleep until between 1-2, if I am lucky and really exhausted maybe more like 12-1. After I get a lot of sleep from that, the next day I will find it even harder to fall asleep and won't go down until 4-5, and then the cycle repeats where I am able to fall asleep between 1-2.  I know that is a lot better than some people in withdrawal though. I do a lot to help my sleep but it doesn't always help (Accupressure mat, EFT, legs up against the wall, magnesium cream).

 

I think I can manage, but withdrawal makes life way more difficult and unenjoyable. A lot of what is making this too hard is my anxiety and OCD (which I am getting treatment for) I cannot stop thinking about the damage done to my body and need answers.

Many of your symptoms could be attributed to anxiety. Let's say nothing bad is going to happen to you, would that improve some of your symptoms? Also remember you took it initially for anxiety, it makes sense you are very anxious now without meds. And I also get it. It's very scary to quit CT, but worse may be the uncertainty of what to do.

 

I understand what you are going through, and I also have OCD. At the start of march 2024 I was really worried because I took 2 doses of 5 mg, in an attempt to cure my mild PSSD. Some symptoms improved, however, I began having new symptoms I never had before. My main symptom was anxiety, it probably wasn't caused by the med, but by the thought of what to do next. I ended up consulting with 2 psychiatrist, who told me it was fine not to take anymore. I even post it in this website, however no one replied, not even the mod following my thread. I wish people would have told me to not take it anymore, or to be extremely careful. I ended up taking Escitalopram again (story is in my introduction thread), and in a very irregular way, I slightly changed doses each day. I ended up with strong PSSD. Now I have genitals anesthesia/numbness (can't sense touch) in some parts, can't feel much certain emotions, barely can feel love, aphantasia, I'm in permanent state of feeling "high", cognitive dysfunction, and other symptoms. I wanted to end myself in that first month, I was even preparing some letters.

 

Almost two months later, and I haven't seen improvement. Everyday I wake up in this nightmare, however I'm trying hard to get out of this hell. I'm having appointments with several doctors, and I'm trying to keep advancing, no matter what.

 

My point with my story is that it can get really bad. Of course what I did was wrong (taking it irregularly), so that makes my case special, this might not happen to you.

 

It's kind of a gamble. We don't really know. Ask yourself, can you still live like this? Are you willing to take the risk?

 

I hope I got my point across. I have significant cognitive dysfunction since the 26 march 2024. So sometimes it's a bit hard to express myself.

 

You can message me if you want to talk. I've also suffered with anxiety and OCD, since adolescence to now.

[Tweed9674]

Reinstatement is still possible.

 

It's very normal to have fears after the traumatic experience you just had.

 

The thing about reinstatement is that it's not going to make any of this go away completely. But it can make the difference between living in hell and be able to function.

When it works, you get part of the control back. You get to decide when it's time to make a dose change.

If the timing is bad or the symptoms are overwhelming, you get the chance to decide if you make a move or if you hold.

 

But it's not a walk in the park and you have to be patient. Bold move are the enemy.

 

Lets keep it real... Protracted WD is also far from a walk in the park. It gets way worse before it gets better. The only thing you can do about it is trying to cope.

 

 

Whatever you chose to do, we'll be here to help you cope with all of this.

[Erimus]

1 hour ago, StDymphna said:

I am so scared I would only do 0.1mg.

 

My symptom are nausea, headaches, eye pressure, bouts of tachycardia, dry mouth, weird tingling/crawling sensations in my head, body aches, pupils sometimes too tiny, insomnia, mood swings. What makes me want to try and reinstate are fears surrounding cold turkeying, such as seizures or protracted withdrawal. Also fears that my symptoms will worsen since I am still not very far out, about a month and one week. I have read some people recover from cold turkey but i feel like everything is a gamble with these drugs..

 

I am not sleeping that well.. I find it is even worse every other day, like my body is punishing me for getting enough rest the night before. On "good" days I am not able to fall asleep until between 1-2, if I am lucky and really exhausted maybe more like 12-1. After I get a lot of sleep from that, the next day I will find it even harder to fall asleep and won't go down until 4-5, and then the cycle repeats where I am able to fall asleep between 1-2.  I know that is a lot better than some people in withdrawal though. I do a lot to help my sleep but it doesn't always help (Accupressure mat, EFT, legs up against the wall, magnesium cream).

 

I think I can manage, but withdrawal makes life way more difficult and unenjoyable. A lot of what is making this too hard is my anxiety and OCD (which I am getting treatment for) I cannot stop thinking about the damage done to my body and need answers.

Like I said before, I would seriously be considering reinstatement in your position. None of us can predict how bad withdrawal might get in the coming weeks and months, and at just over a month out you are still in a prime position to test the waters. I've been where you are now and nothing could have prepared me for what was coming, so I'd urge you to consider reinstatement.

 

The anxiety and OCD you mention could easily be from cold turkey of the medication. The wild fluctuation of chemicals in your brain that abrupt cessation causes can lead to the most insufferable mental states.

[StDymphna]

I am worried about the safety of reinstating. I cold turkeyed in the first place after weeks of bad adverse reactions my psychiatrist thought were SS after hearing about some of my symptoms. I was absolutely fine for three years on 20mg, no illicit drugs ever were in the mix. Only thing I changed was introducing a probiotic, which since I have stopped. That is why I am so concerned, because I don't know what began causing my reactions in the first place and I am worried I am going to hurt myself if I reinstate.

[Erimus]

5 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

I am worried about the safety of reinstating. I cold turkeyed in the first place after weeks of bad adverse reactions my psychiatrist thought were SS after hearing about some of my symptoms. I was absolutely fine for three years on 20mg, no illicit drugs ever were in the mix. Only thing I changed was introducing a probiotic, which since I have stopped. That is why I am so concerned, because I don't know what began causing my reactions in the first place and I am worried I am going to hurt myself if I reinstate.

Ultimately only you can make a decision on what to do. If you do not want to reinstate you will have to prepare yourself for the turbulent waters of withdrawal. We do not know how long it will last and how bad it will get. All we can do is point you towards the resources on the site, and offer support when required.

[Ariel]

Hello @StDymphna

So sorry for what you're going through. 

 

I understand how scary and overwhelming it might feel to make a decision about reinstatement. 

You've gotten some solid advice from moderator Erimus as well as other members. 

 

Just wanted to chime in to say I CTed off of lexapro and at the time I didn't know about WD or reinstatement. If I had it to do over again (of course I wouldn't have CTed to begin with), I'd seriously consider reinstatement. Lexapro is a beast of a drug, it's one of the most potent SSRIs. I've been in protracted withdrawal (PAWS) for the past 6 years and am still struggling. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. 

 

That being said, I don't have personal experience with reinstatement, so cannot speak from experience.

Reinstatement can be a real game-changer for some, but there are no guarantees.

As everyone else has already agreed upon, it's your decision to make. 

 

Do you have anyone you trust (not some clueless prescriber) with whom you can discuss the matter? A close family member or friend, someone who will listen with compassion and empathy, someone who might of assistance in thinking things through together with you? 

How/who is your support system? 

 

Here's the help topic on reinstatement, in case you'd like to review it: 

 

 

Know that either way, you will get through this, you will heal. 

You are already on the path to recovery. It's a long, hard road, and you are walking it! 

 

In solidarity and support,

A.
 

[Ariel]

Are you familiar with this help topic? 

It might serve to provide an overview of how to manage post-CT WD: 

 

 

[StDymphna]

Thank you for your response and sharing these resources. I appreciate your support.

[StDymphna]

how do i know if i have developed protracted withdrawal?

[Tweed9674]

From my experience and from what I read, it takes at least a few months to enter protracted WD.

At first you get better from the acute withdrawal (what you are living right now).

Then after a few months (somewhere between 3 to 12 months I think?? For me it was 3 months 3 weeks) you start getting worse and worse.

 

The symptoms vary from one person to another. The pattern is similar, I believe.

I was able to reinstate succesfully with @Erimus help after 4 months. I got lucky.

 

I'm a grateful for my reinstatement. I am much better now.

[Erimus]

19 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

how do i know if i have developed protracted withdrawal?

The consensus amongst experts suggests protracted withdrawal, or post-acute withdrawal, is when withdrawal syndrome has lasted 6 or more months.

[StDymphna]

I am still hesitant about reinstatement just due to the nature of why I stopped. I was having adverse reactions (possible serotonin toxicity- upon waking every morning I had dilated pupils until I went down to 10mg, along with other things such as the horizontal eye darting). I was fine on the drug for years but then cold turkeyed because of these awful reactions I forced myself to suffer through for 3 weeks. Does my body just reject any SSRI now? It happened when my doctor tried to put me on Zoloft as well... It is not like a cold turkeyed because I wanted to be done with them with no prior problems, I got off of them BECAUSE of the bad reactions i kept having..

[StDymphna]

4 hours ago, Tweed9674 said:

From my experience and from what I read, it takes at least a few months to enter protracted WD.

At first you get better from the acute withdrawal (what you are living right now).

Then after a few months (somewhere between 3 to 12 months I think?? For me it was 3 months 3 weeks) you start getting worse and worse.

 

The symptoms vary from one person to another. The pattern is similar, I believe.

I was able to reinstate succesfully with @Erimus help after 4 months. I got lucky.

 

I'm a grateful for my reinstatement. I am much better now.

I am curious if you plan to go up from your 1.25 hold or just wait more and then taper from there? If I reinstate like 0.5mg, I wouldn't even know how appropriate it would be to keep going up especially the fear of getting to a dose level that gives me a bad reaction.

[Tweed9674]

Healing without reinstatement is also a valid path to take.

I cannot tell you which path to take. Sadly I don't have that answer.

 

I can only tell you that you'll get better but it's going to take some time, patience, self care and a lot of compassion toward yourself.

 

4 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

I am curious if you plan to go up from your 1.25 hold or just wait more and then taper from there? If I reinstate like 0.5mg, I wouldn't even know how appropriate it would be to keep going up especially the fear of getting to a dose level that gives me a bad reaction.

My current plan is to hold 1.25, wait to be as stable as possible and then taper from there.

If you reinstate at 0.5mg, you updose the same way as you would taper. Max 10% from the previous dose. If you have a bad reaction, you can go back. If not, you hold minimum 7 days (ideally more) before making another move.

 

That being said, I understand that the drug did not work for you anymore. We're stuck with only bad options.

[StDymphna]

Thanks for your reply. I read your intro posts, you seem like you have an optimistic outlook about your situation, at least by the way you write (tell me how???).. it must be difficult managing symptoms with a family of your own. I have just made it to my 20's and want a family myself, but it hurts to go through this now when I am young and feel like I should be accomplishing things...I guess it's a dream to look forward to on the other side though. But, no time is a good time to get hit with this. And you are so right about being stuck with bad options...I need to pick my poison (quite literally!!!)

 

I didn't think about updosing by 10% the same way you would taper by 10%, so that is very helpful info! Correct me if I am wrong, but it seemed like you had a bad reaction to the 1.25 even after going down from 5mg? How did you decide to stick it out? What were your symptoms like a month out from your cold turkey, if you remember? How are you doing holding on 1.25, what are your symptoms like?

[Tweed9674]

10 hours ago, StDymphna said:

Thanks for your reply. I read your intro posts, you seem like you have an optimistic outlook about your situation, at least by the way you write (tell me how???).. it must be difficult managing symptoms with a family of your own.

I'm optimistic because I kept seeing small improvements here and there. The waves I have aren't too big. The most important thing for me is to stay functional.

 

14 hours ago, StDymphna said:

I have just made it to my 20's and want a family myself, but it hurts to go through this now when I am young and feel like I should be accomplishing things...I guess it's a dream to look forward to on the other side though. But, no time is a good time to get hit with this.

I know the feeling. Anxiety forced me to go on disability when I was in my early twenties. That's how I ended up on AD.

I did not stay on disability for long, but recovery took years. I learned a few "tricks" to help me cope with all of this during that time.

 

I still got to build a family, found a decent job. You can get there too. You don't have to let go of any of this.

But we have to accept that things are going to suck for a while. Sometimes it's going to suck very, very bad. Acceptance is f*cking hard.

 

15 hours ago, StDymphna said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seemed like you had a bad reaction to the 1.25 even after going down from 5mg? How did you decide to stick it out? What were your symptoms like a month out from your cold turkey, if you remember? How are you doing holding on 1.25, what are your symptoms like?

When I went from 5mg to 1mg, I knew that I still had a LOT of that 5mg dose in my blood. That's because of the drug half life. It takes a while to leave your body (a bit over 6 days with escitalopram is I remember correctly.) That's why I knew I had to stick with it. It was still activating and VERY bad but there was no way to know if the dose was okay without holding for 4-7 days. @Erimus warned me about this.

After about 4 days on 1mg I started seeing improvement from the bad reaction.

 

On april's 11th I felt like the WD were a bit much so I decided to updose. I still have WD symptoms to this day but they are very manageable so I'm holding in hope that they will fade in the coming months. Then I'll start the slowest taper in history 🤣

 

From what I can remember, a month from CT I mostly had... a LOT of anger, irritability, crying spells, vertigo, intense brain zaps and insomnia...

[StDymphna]

So I bit the bullet today with reinstatement. I tried 0.2 mg of Lexapro, I know, probably too small. I do not think I have experienced adverse effect yet, but that's not to say I could have adverse effects at 0.5mg+. I was testing the waters to see how my body would react to the drug (especially since the whole reason I went cold turkey was due to horrible adverse reactions)

 

My question for you all is what I should do next. Should I continue taking 0.2mg over the course of several days to test for worsening symptoms or adverse reactions? It is difficult to tell what is an adverse reaction and what is a normal part of my withdrawal.

 

Or, since 0.2mg is so little, should I try a little higher tomorrow? Should I risk 0.5mg? Or should I try 0.3 or 0.4? My main goal with this is to test if I will have adverse reactions to even small doses, since my adverse reactions my normal dose 20mg, and even 15 and 10mg were so extreme..

 

Also, if this reinstatement fails, does that mean I am set back even more? Say I have a bad reaction if I work my way up to 2mg or something a little less. All those weeks leading up and increasing Lexapro in my system...would that all make it harder to recover?

[UnderstandingtheBrain]

19 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

So I bit the bullet today with reinstatement. I tried 0.2 mg of Lexapro, I know, probably too small. I do not think I have experienced adverse effect yet, but that's not to say I could have adverse effects at 0.5mg+. I was testing the waters to see how my body would react to the drug (especially since the whole reason I went cold turkey was due to horrible adverse reactions)

 

My question for you all is what I should do next. Should I continue taking 0.2mg over the course of several days to test for worsening symptoms or adverse reactions? It is difficult to tell what is an adverse reaction and what is a normal part of my withdrawal.

 

Or, since 0.2mg is so little, should I try a little higher tomorrow? Should I risk 0.5mg? Or should I try 0.3 or 0.4? My main goal with this is to test if I will have adverse reactions to even small doses, since my adverse reactions my normal dose 20mg, and even 15 and 10mg were so extreme..

 

Also, if this reinstatement fails, does that mean I am set back even more? Say I have a bad reaction if I work my way up to 2mg or something a little less. All those weeks leading up and increasing Lexapro in my system...would that all make it harder to recover?

I think it's better to stay for some days at 0.2 mg now, before making any change.

[Erimus]

56 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

So I bit the bullet today with reinstatement. I tried 0.2 mg of Lexapro, I know, probably too small. I do not think I have experienced adverse effect yet, but that's not to say I could have adverse effects at 0.5mg+. I was testing the waters to see how my body would react to the drug (especially since the whole reason I went cold turkey was due to horrible adverse reactions)

 

My question for you all is what I should do next. Should I continue taking 0.2mg over the course of several days to test for worsening symptoms or adverse reactions? It is difficult to tell what is an adverse reaction and what is a normal part of my withdrawal.

 

Or, since 0.2mg is so little, should I try a little higher tomorrow? Should I risk 0.5mg? Or should I try 0.3 or 0.4? My main goal with this is to test if I will have adverse reactions to even small doses, since my adverse reactions my normal dose 20mg, and even 15 and 10mg were so extreme..

 

Also, if this reinstatement fails, does that mean I am set back even more? Say I have a bad reaction if I work my way up to 2mg or something a little less. All those weeks leading up and increasing Lexapro in my system...would that all make it harder to recover?

Take 0.2mg for a week.

[StDymphna]

small update:

experiencing some muscle twitches and tics, started shortly after I took the dose. Now experiencing heavy-headedness/sedated feeling. Slow deep breathing, some emotional blunting. Feeling a bit uncoordinated and confused. I have not felt this symptom cocktail since the last time I took Lexapro

[Erimus]

45 minutes ago, StDymphna said:

small update:

experiencing some muscle twitches and tics, started shortly after I took the dose. Now experiencing heavy-headedness/sedated feeling. Slow deep breathing, some emotional blunting. Feeling a bit uncoordinated and confused. I have not felt this symptom cocktail since the last time I took Lexapro

Probably reaching peak plasma concentration. Just monitor how you feel over the rest of the day.

[StDymphna]

Just now, Erimus said:

Probably reaching peak plasma concentration. Just monitor how you feel over the rest of the day.

What does that mean? All I know is that this definitely isn't usually what I feel during withdrawal and feels like a side effect of Lexapro. I am worried by continuing to take it I will mess up my CNS further, especially if after a week I feel worse, I am worried I will suffer more withdrawal after a failed reinstatement.

[Erimus]

Just now, StDymphna said:

What does that mean? All I know is that this definitely isn't usually what I feel during withdrawal and feels like a side effect of Lexapro. I am worried by continuing to take it I will mess up my CNS further, especially if after a week I feel worse, I am worried I will suffer more withdrawal after a failed reinstatement.

The drugs reach their highest level in the blood plasma so many hours after ingestion. For atypical SSRIs this is normally 4-8 hours later.

 

You won't cause dramatic damage after 1-7 days worth of taking 0.2mg. You need to work on managing your anxiety around this journey.

[StDymphna]

1 minute ago, Erimus said:

The drugs reach their highest level in the blood plasma so many hours after ingestion. For atypical SSRIs this is normally 4-8 hours later.

 

You won't cause dramatic damage after 1-7 days worth of taking 0.2mg. You need to work on managing your anxiety around this journey.

Oh ok. Should I still keep trying to reinstate if I am still experiencing these side effects a week later?

 

I know..my OCD surrounding this is really bad and I am really anxious about trying to do the right thing, and more anxious that there really aren't any "right" answers, everything is experimentation. I just have to keep moving forward with my decisions

[Tweed9674]

Hi @StDymphna!

 

Symptoms are to be expected when introducing / reinstating. In my experience, most of these should fade away in the coming weeks.

This is why holding periods are so important. You need to know how things evolve.

 

Keeping track of your symptoms while not becoming anxious about them is the goal. It's not an easy spot to reach.

Try to keep yourself busy if you feel capable!

 

And remember that you are safe.

 

Take care!

 

[StDymphna]

Thanks! Did you feel anything similar to what I described? I guess I am wary because the last experience I had with Lexapro was weeks of adverse reactions...it is hard to tell if I am going to be experiencing these symptoms because my body is rejecting it, or if they are the result of reintroducing it only.

[Tweed9674]

I did have most of these symptoms at some point. Nothing that you are describing screams like an adverse reaction to me. It sound like reintroduction combined with withdrawal symptoms.

[StDymphna]

How can I tell the difference with a subtle adverse reaction though? Increased muscle twitching was always a sign of hyperactivity for me when experiencing adverse effects from higher doses or other supplements 

 

update: took 0.2mg again today about 24 hrs after my last dose. almost immediately after taking it I experience dry mouth, sedated/confused feeling, slow breathing, muscle twitches, head pressure, and just feeling out of it

[Erimus]

1 hour ago, StDymphna said:

How can I tell the difference with a subtle adverse reaction though? Increased muscle twitching was always a sign of hyperactivity for me when experiencing adverse effects from higher doses or other supplements 

 

update: took 0.2mg again today about 24 hrs after my last dose. almost immediately after taking it I experience dry mouth, sedated/confused feeling, slow breathing, muscle twitches, head pressure, and just feeling out of it

When you reinstate you can often get an increase in symptoms, but this often improves as the dose reaches a consistent level in your bloodstream. If you're not happy with how you feel in a week or 2 you can stop, and it won't cause any drastic change to your withdrawal situation. It's a risk and reward scenario, we'd hope that with a bit of time your brain and nervous system starts to stabilise again with the helping hand of the drug it was dependent on.

Edited May 22 by Erimus