AliceInTheUSA: Looking for advice. Withdrawal or Covid?

[AliceInTheUSA]

Looking for some opinions, advice and thoughts regarding a situation I’m currently experiencing. 

i have been on 20mg of Lexapro a day for 3 years. We recently traveled to my husbands hometown and spent a month there. My Lexapro prescription was running low towards the end of our stay and we somehow managed to get covid. 

 

Being that we had to isolate and recover, I took the last of my prescription and had the hardest time getting my prescription filled across state lines. It took my provider 5 days to finally get back to me and by that point we had pretty much completed our 10 days of quarantine and we’re ready to head back to our home state of Texas. 
 

By this point I hadn’t taken my Lexapro for 6 days and I started experiencing confusion and terrible migraines. I picked up my prescription on day 7 and took my first dose. That same day, I felt as if my sugar levels were low, I was shaky and weak, I felt these strange tingling sensations on the back of my neck and I had anxiety like I’ve never had before. I couldn’t sleep or shut my mind off. 
 

i took my next dose on day 8 and felt even worse. My heart felt as if it was going to explode and I could barely move without feeling like I was going to fall over. 
 

i messaged my psychiatrist and questioned wether It was possible that i was going through withdrawals. 
 

She laughed it off and said that I was experiencing lingering covid symptoms and that I should reach out to my PCP instead. I explained to her that we only had covid symptoms for 3 days and that I had already tested negative. The way I had been feeling felt nothing like how I felt during the rough covid days. 
 

I was so anxious, I began to cry and she urged me to go to an ED and get treated for covid again. 
 

i took another test, tested negative, and I still feel weak, dizzy and extremely anxious. 
 

I’d love to hear what you all think about my symptoms. Are they lingering covid symptoms or could I be experiencing Lexapro withdrawals? 
 

thanks in advance! 

 

[ChessieCat]

Yes it is most likely withdrawal symptoms.

 

Dr Joseph Glenmullen's WD Symptoms Checklist

 

It takes about 4 days for a dose change to get to full level in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.  So missing 6 days would have brought the dose to zero/almost zero in the blood and now that you are taking it again it will take a few days before it get to full strength again.

 

This is a very good visual representation of when a psychiatric drug is started:

 

This diagram gives a good visual of what happens as a drug is started and gets to steady state.

 

The highest part of the curve is the maximum peak concentration and the lowest part of the curve is the minimum peak concentration.  Once the drug is at steady state then the max and min are at a higher concentration than during the first four days of starting the drug.

 

 

 

Diagram has been copied from this site.

[ChessieCat]

Hi Alice and welcome to SA,

 

I have posted above what I sent to you via PM just after you joined.

 

Q:  How are you feeling now? 

 

Q:  Have you notice any improvement?

 

I will provide you with some information in case you decide to reduce/get off your drug later on:

 

Before you begin tapering what you need to know

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

never-skip-doses-to-taper

 

 

Important topics in the Tapering forum and FAQ

 

Tips for tapering off escitalopram (Lexapro)

 

are-we-there-yet-how-long-is-withdrawal-going-to-take

 

[AliceInTheUSA]

I felt awful up until yesterday and I’m finally starting to feel normal again today. 
 

Seems like the Lexapro has started making its comeback. 
 

I’m rather upset that my therapist passed it off as long haul covid symptoms and ignored the fact that I was struggling and clearly experiencing withdrawals. 
 

Should I address her about it or just looks for a different provider? 

[ChessieCat]

4 hours ago, AliceInTheUSA said:

Should I address her about it or just looks for a different provider? 

 

I think it would be a good idea to tell them of your experience.  Unfortunately at this time with Covid there is a lot of "unknowns" so it is understandable that a medical professional who has no experience with psychiatric drug withdrawal would assume that it was related to Covid.

 

Our experiences can help to educate the medical community.

 

I was recently diagnosed with diabetes and high cholesterol and young doctor wanted me to start drugs.  She would have also sent me off to a dietician so it would have been a change in my diet at the same time (but not low carb).  I said no, you only make one change at a time and I will try diet first.  I saw her yesterday and she has now seen proof that low carb can reverse diabetes.  My result 3 months ago was 7.0, it is now 5.2.  And my cholesterol readings have improved as well, but aren't quite in the normal range - yet!  I have also lost a lot of weight, my waist measurement has reduced, and my blood pressure has dramatically reduced and I have had to halve my blood pressure drug.

 

Hopefully she will suggest diet before drugs from now on.  My one little experiment with blood test proof might help people down the track.