How long for my brain chemistry to revert to normal after six days on Eescitalopram?

[Cpjds1]

I was on Escitalopram for 6 days. Two days on 10 mg, then 4 days on 5 mg after I experienced bad side effects. The lower dose didn't seem to help my side effects, so my doctor decided to change medication after six days. Because of how poorly I reacted to the Escitalopram , I really didn't want to take something else and I have not since then.

It has now been five weeks since I took the last dose of that Escitalopram. My question is, is it possible that my brain chemistry is still returning to normal after just six days on the medication? According to what I have read, the drug should have been out of my system after just one week but I am still experiencing mental anxiety and racing thoughts that I never had until I started on the medication. Before the pills, I only had physical symptoms that my doctor thought were anxiety related. It feels like taking those pills set something off in my head. I have been to other doctors and am seeing a therapist now but I want to see if the drug could still be affecting things?

[Cpjds1]

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate it...that makes a lot of aense. I forgot to mention that I did take 100mg of 5HTP before going on the medication and that made me feel like I was going psychotic. So, between that and the Escitalopram, if I am sensitive to them, my brain could still be trying to "right" itself?

Most of the symptoms I deal with now are negative/intrusive thoughts and difficulty staying asleep, which sometimes produces physical symptoms of 'hot flashes', sweatiness and a woozy/dizzy feeling.

[Paxiled]

By the way, I should add, after only six days, the latter case is by far and away the most likely, especially given the fact something wasn't going well or you wouldn't have taken the drug in the first place.

[Paxiled]

Normally the drug doesn't start working in only six days, but the side effects start immediately.  And yes, anything can happen with these drugs though this is an unusual situation.  Two things could have happened:  you could have been inordinately sensitive to the med, and thus should have tapered slowly off of it even though after only six days that doesn't normally need to be done but it is safer, and second, it's possible you became conditioned to feeling anxious because of the side effect of the drug just as people can become conditioned to anxiety after a bad trip on any drug that affects the brain.  In the latter situation, talk therapy to recondition your thinking is the best option, but if the first situation is true, then time will either take care of it or you'll have to go back on it and quit it more slowly.  It's no fun to be the unusual case, believe me, I know.