Relapse after success. Advises!
Dears,
apologizes for my english I am not a native.
Long story short: I started with PPPD symptoms back in JAN 2022 after a BPPV attack that lasted no more than 10 seconds. First 45 days normal life with vague residual dizzines in the background. Since it was not 100% resolved I found this PPPD s*** on the internet and I literally freaked out. For months I was all the time reading papers, forums, scared and anxiety started. It was very bad... symptoms also started to develop more.
From that moment until September 2024, so almost 3 full years, I was moving between a scale of 2-6/10, never stop doing my life, sport, etc. but the frustration feeling of ´´this will never stop´´ was there the 90% of the time of course feeding the anxiety and the loop.
In SEPT 2024 I decided to take meds. My Dr. is very knowledgeable in PPPD even writing books where he mentions this condition and MDDS. He was very straight with me: you have developed PPPD, chill, it can be cured/manageable.
He gave me just 5Mg of escitalopram/Lexapro (started with half of the pill) and it only took 3-4 weeks to start having what he calls ´´windows of normality´´. Since that moment until 3 weeks ago (almost 20 f**** months!) my life was exactly the same as it was before PPPD. Living at 90-95%, it was almost never in my mind anymore. Still some feelings very spaced in the time but never lasted more than few days and it was all the time chill and calm.
Important info: I only took the escitalopram for 5 months, so basically after leaving it I have lived 13-14 months without it.
Suddenly 3 weeks ago I started to feel a bit bad again, not to what I exprienced in 2022-2024, but still... and since It is not going anxiety knocked my door again. Some days with poor sleep, palipations and here I am, trying to ignore it but quite difficult.
my questions to you my fellow warriors:
Are relapses normal? What can I expect? any trick to avoid focusing in the stupid PPPD ... I am really trying but seems difficult.
It is normal that after +1 year witouth medication/symptoms, symptoms can come back? I read a lot of stories that they indeed can be present again just after weaning medication off, or at least couple of months but not that long.
Can I be ´´quiet/chill´´ since my body responded well the first time to escitalopram, so there is not reason to think in case I take it again it wont work?
Thanks to everybody for the answers!