17 Months Off Escitalopram – Looking for Advice on My Recovery

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice and perspective from people who have been through antidepressant withdrawal, especially those who are further along in recovery. I took escitalopram (Lexapro/Cipralex) 5 mg for approximately one month and stopped abruptly in March 2025. I had no idea at the time that such a short exposure could potentially be followed by such a difficult experience. Since stopping, I have experienced many symptoms at different times, including anxiety, intrusive and repetitive thoughts, emotional blunting/anhedonia, dizziness and lightheadedness, sleep disturbances, cognitive and memory problems, fatigue, restlessness, feelings of doom, autonomic symptoms, sexual symptoms, and periods where I simply didn’t feel like myself. Recovery has definitely not been linear. Some symptoms disappeared, others improved considerably, and occasionally old symptoms resurfaced. Overall, though, when I compare where I am now with the beginning, I have made significant progress. I’m currently around 17 months off medication. Many of my earlier symptoms are substantially better, but I still seem to experience waves and nervous-system sensitivity. Most recently, I developed a completely new symptom that I had never experienced previously: songs continuously looping internally in my mind. The songs change frequently and can be present almost constantly. I know the music is coming from my own thoughts/memory rather than hearing it externally. I can still sleep, and the intensity has fluctuated, but having a brand-new symptom appear this late in recovery has understandably made me question where I am in the process. More generally, I would really appreciate advice from people who have been through protracted withdrawal: • How did you approach recovery during the later stages? • Did you continue developing completely new symptoms after a year or more off medication? • How did you distinguish a withdrawal wave from something unrelated that needed medical attention? • Did you find it better to ignore symptoms and continue normal life, or actively do things to manage them? • What helped your nervous system settle — sleep, exercise, diet, reducing stress, avoiding supplements, etc.? • Were there things you did that actually made your withdrawal worse? • How did you handle intrusive thoughts or repetitive mental loops without constantly monitoring them? • For those who fully recovered, what did the final 6–12 months before recovery look like? • Did you experience new or strange symptoms shortly before things began settling more permanently? At this stage, my biggest question is simply: what should I be doing? Should I mostly allow my nervous system to recover naturally and live as normally as possible, or are there specific things that helped those of you who have recovered? I’m trying not to chase every symptom or assume that every new sensation means something is wrong. At the same time, I want to make sensible decisions and avoid doing anything that could interfere with recovery. I would particularly appreciate hearing from people who had relatively short antidepressant exposure but nevertheless experienced a prolonged withdrawal, as well as anyone who reached the 12–24 month stage and later fully recovered. Thank you for reading. Any experiences, advice, or reassurance from people who have been through something similar would mean a lot to me.