Well, as a wannabe doctor, I had already made a spreadsheet using the half life to work out when my plasma levels would be at their max, and I just got a bit too anxious at 20mg about 7 days in (I've NO doubt that it would have leveled out given time) so I went to 10mg/20mg alternate days. When I felt a bit better I went to 10mg long term.
I started on 20mg as a first dose, but put myself onto the equivalent of 15mg (via alternating 10mg vs 20mg each day). As I say, I imagine my brain would have adapted to 20mg but I was very reluctant to take antidepressants in general.
I'd also read an interesting paper that GPs (who, like all of us, are punching in the dark with regards to SSRI use) tend to up a dose when a treatment response isn't achieved, but that similar outcomes were found I patients given more time at a mid dose, than being put to a high dose. In other words, sometimes time on a smaller dose is equal to moving up dose. So I maintained 15mg, and then 10mg (and then 5 for a while!, which was akin to not being on them). I'm starting them back up again now on 10mg because I am just finding that my personal circumstances (violent ASD DS) are still challenging.
FWIW, bear in mind that depression usually coexists with a dramatic battering of the brain - loss of the ability of neurons to grow and recover, actual loss of size etc. - and so much of the initial SSRI wobble can be attributed to the brain being in awful shape in the first place. Side effects (I had very few and felt much calmer within days, happier much later) do tend to reduce dramatically/go away with time..