Love Is Blind’s Stephen says withdrawal from medication contributed to the cheating scandal with Monica

love is blind star Stephen Richardson applauded critics who slammed him for cheating on his ex-girlfriend, Monica Davis.

Stephen, 34, shared a photo of him and Monica, 37, during their time together love is blind season 7 on Wednesday, October 9. It was the same day the most recent episodes of the reality show aired, showing the electrician arrested for sending “explicit” text messages to another woman.

“And telling yourself things like ‘Boohoo seems to be a recurring theme’ or ‘I don’t deserve much’ is like an abusive cop. You’re not a victim. Pretending to think you’re a disappointment because of your choices to avoid responsibility when you’re not you don’t grow up is abusive. Don’t lie and manipulate,” one Instagram user wrote in Stephen’s post.

The reality star had no problem defending herself in the comments, including saying that her withdrawal from the anti-depressant Lexapro contributed to the way she acted.

“Hey heyyy that’s a really good take! You should tune into @loveisblindnetflix to see if things ended like this last year or if we learned to communicate like mature, rational adults and move on,” replied Stephen . “It also helps now that I’m not going through Lexapro withdrawal afterwards like I did during this, so I can also rationalize and regulate my own emotions better. But it’s not over until the curtains come down, so let’s make sure— Let’s keep the same energy until the meeting! I love you all.”

In another comment, Stephen clarified that he was going through “massive” withdrawal from Lexapro while filming in Cabo San Lucas and Virginia during love is blind season 7 that caused her “hormones and mental state” to be “completely out of whack.” Stephen also responded to another fan and explained that his withdrawal from the drug was not intentional. He explained that he packed the wrong bottle and it unexpectedly ran out in the middle of the shoot.

Stephen and Monica connected at first love is blind pods, but there was trouble in paradise shortly after arriving in Cabo. At one point, Monica became irritated with the way Stephen seemed to continually interrupt her as she spoke. He promised to work on it, but their relationship completely fell apart once they returned to their shared living space in the DC area.

Monica discovered sex texts talking about “fetishes” that Stephen had sent to another woman while claiming to have been in a sleep study. He did not deny the accusation and the two broke up on the spot. Both Monica and Stephen have since addressed the incident.

“It was like a dagger in the chest at that moment. Five seconds later, Taylor was asking me, ‘What did they say?’ specifically say, ‘No one has ever been able to satisfy my kinks the way you do.'” And they just went back and forth,” Monica said during an interview with Weekly entertainment.

Stephen, meanwhile, joked that it was “probably smart to put a password on the phone” in an interview with people.

He continued: “But in all seriousness, the main things are self-talk, self-reflection, and a lot of the things that I think, I said in the pods, where it’s like you don’t know if you’re fully healed until to your next relationship.