Hyperarousal of anxiety is unfortunately a common side effect of starting / stopping anti depressant medication. It’s not necessarily related to pre existing conditions. In my case getting on it was not a big problem as I started of at 3.5mg and worked myself up to 15mg over 2 month. I was a lot more anxious, panicky and fearful after stopping though. This passed slowly over the course of months afterwards. I think I had some mild benefits at 15mg, but it is hard to tell as my main comparison is the time I endured shortly after.
The reason I stopped was having intrusive thoughts about being on it and lethargy in the morning. Together with some funky dreaming while awake in the bed. It’s a weird drug that hits a ton of receptors in the brain, and side effects are all over the place for people.
For Kava I recommend Kalmwithkava borongoru for a more relaxed feeling. And bestfijikava’s aaa vanuata if you want to save some money and still get good bang. It’s not cheap unfortunately and it may take a few weeks for it to start having good effect. Make sure you prepare as instructions (knead in warm water with some fat added like coco milk in a strainer bag for at least 15mins) and ingest on an empty stomach. Discard the pulp in a container for later use as you can generally wash some more goodness out of it for a second run.