Hi everyone

New to this forum but have been an observer for years. However, the time has come for me to finally post. I'm in a bad way right now.

I've been on and off escitalopram for the past 7 years or so. I've taken other meds in between but nothing ever worked quite as well as the escitalopram for treating my anxiety and OCD.

About 8 weeks ago I stopped taking it. Not cold turkey - controlled taper over the course of a few months with the doctor's help. The reason for stopping was because I'd been feeling good for a long period and wanted to try life without it. Big mistake, hence me being here. I was off it for 5 weeks, until 3 weeks ago I could take no more and went back to the doctor and he put me back on 10mg. Since then, things have got steadily worse, in particular the past few days when my anxiety and obsessive/intrusive thoughts have been through the roof.

I want to know if being off it for 5 weeks meant I was completely free of it and so I need to experience all the startup side effects again or that there could be a chance of it never being effective again. Like I said, it's been 3 weeks since restarting and things are still grim. How long should I give it or should I go back to the doctor and ask that I be tried on a new med? I am also taking diazepam to combat the anxiety etc but it's only short-term relief.

Hope there's someone out there who can help or have had similar experience s.

Many thanks in advance