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Anxiety Medication

rmmadden

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rmmadden Contributor
rmmadden
Posted

I went to the doctor last week for a check-up and told him about some anxiety/panic attacks I have suffered over the past 7-months and he gave me a prescription for 5mg of Lexapro.

Does anybody take this? Can you please reply with good or bad before I start taking another medication.

Thanks!

Cleveland Bob :)

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KaitiUSA Enthusiast
KaitiUSA
Posted

I used to take Lexapro and Xanax for anxiety Lexapro everyday and Xanax as needed. That was around the time I went gluten-free. Lexapro made me act very sober alot of the time and I got off of it after my body didn't need it after a few months gluten-free. Lexapro was just not good for me it made me act like a different person and made me extremely moody. I still have Xanax to use as needed but I haven't taken it in about 10 months.

judy05 Apprentice
judy05
Posted

I tried both Lexapro and Prozac and I could not stay awake.

I kept falling asleep all day. I do have a script for Amitryptiline

also known as Elavil and I sometimes take it for about a week

at a time for IBS symptoms which I do get occaisonally like

when I tried to do dairy again and got bad pain on my right

side. Just remember you cannot stop taking them unless you

talk to your M.D. about tapering them off to stop them.

Lexapro seems to be the drug of choice this year, my husband

was prescibed it, he can only tolerate 1/2 tab because he was

sleeping all the time. He was prescribed to calm him down,

it has, but he is not himself. I want to talk to the neurologist

on Friday. He doesn't have Celiac's.

plantime Contributor
plantime
Posted

I was on 10 mg of Lexapro a day, but it kept putting me to sleep, so the dosage was dropped to 5 mg. I tapered off of it when health insurance got cancelled. I just can't afford $73.00 a month!

  • 2 weeks later...
sfortney Newbie
sfortney
Posted

I was prescribed Lexapro back in September, before they actually figured out what was going on with my body. I was extremely anxious and had a lot of attention and concentration issues. It doesn't seem to make me sleepy and it did help with the other problems. Now that I have been gluten-free for 3 months I can tell a big difference in my anxiety level, attention span, and ability to concentrate. My doctor wants to keep me on 10mg per day for a couple more months and then back off and see what happens. She seems to think the celiac disease actually may have had more to do with my mental state than the stresses of life.

  • 1 year later...
ms-sillyak-screwed Enthusiast
ms-sillyak-screwed
Posted

.

jenvan Collaborator
jenvan
Posted

Bob-

Have you been able to identify any contributing factors or causes for your anxiety? Years ago I had a bout of panic attacks, brought on my a serious health incident. I did biofeedback and was able to work on controlling the attacks and they totally went away... Just a thought. Perhaps you've already looked into this...

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StrongerToday Enthusiast
StrongerToday
Posted

I've been on Lexapro since January, and it's very effective for me! I still get anxious at times, but it's not nearly as bad and overall it's a huge improvement. I take it at bedtime, so if it is making me sleepy I don't notice (although I do seem to need 8 - 9 hours now). It also has helped the IBS too.

penguin Community Regular
penguin
Posted

I took lexapro for one whole month. I stopped because I felt like a zombie and decided I could figure out my panic attacks on my own.

JerryK Community Regular
JerryK
Posted

Ya, I have been on 2.5 mg of Lexapro daily for a couple years now. I tried 5mg but it was too much and

put me into orbit mentally.

The good and the bad...let's start with the good. SSRIs have the potential to substantially raise mood in

a large percentage of people who take them. It's quite possible you will be one of those folks and that lexapro will help you.

Lexapro seems to have one of the lowest side effect profile of all the SSRIs out there.

SSRIs are viewed as not addicting, although I think this is total baloney as anyone who's come off Paxil will tell you.

The bad: SSRIs tend to make anxiety worse intially and are not as effective as Benzodiazepines like

Xanax, Ativan...Valium. Some folks need a combo of both an SSRI and a Benzo, especially during

the ramp up phase.

Badder: SSRIs have the real potential to damage your sexual function(King Kong will just go numb)

and this is not an especially pleasant thing to have happen. Especially if your mood lifts and you are

feeling better..only to find you cannot..you know. Anecdotal evidence exists that SSRIs cause this

sexual side effect by actually lowering your testosterone levels....I've had mine measured while on SSRIs and had the levels of an 80 year old....

Baddest: Serious side effects, including suicide have and do occur. These happen much more frequently than doctors realize and pharmaceutical companies admit. Playing around with your brain chemicals is serious business....

Not trying to scare you, but want you to have the information I wasn't given when I started on an SSRI.

Follow the number 1 rule of medication taking and never take anything that makes you feel worse. Be your

own advocate.

Sorry for the thesis but this happens to be a subject I (unfortunately) know a lot about

Guest imsohungry
Guest imsohungry
Posted

Good grief...I take a lot of Lexapro, 20 mg!

Actually, JerryK, I experienced those side effects that you warn of. Only, it didn't occur with Lexapro, but with Keppra (a drug that I take for seizures)...I ended up "crazy," depressed, and emotional/somewhat "out-of-control." However, I still have to take Keppra because it helps my seizures. In order to do this, the doctors have pumped me full of Lexapro to keep me sane. :rolleyes:

The irony of medical "help"...taking one drug to counteract the insanity the other drug causes. :blink:

But, nonetheless, I'm glad the help is out there...I'd rather take Lexapro than have seizures! :)

-Julie

angielackner Contributor
angielackner
Posted

lexapro is a Godsend for me!!! i ended up with postpartum depreesion after i gave birth a couple of months ago, and went on lexapro and it has been wonderful!!!! good luck!!!

angie

ms-sillyak-screwed Enthusiast
ms-sillyak-screwed
Posted

.

shai76 Explorer
shai76
Posted

I was on lexapro for post-partum depression for about half a year. I was also on 5 mg. It made me not feel depressed. It made me not feel anything. A asteroid could have been hurling towards the Earth and I wouldn't have cared on lexapro. That was the problem. I wanted to feel something, even if it wasn't always good feelings. I take the bad with the good. When I went off of it I had a very difficult time in withdrawal. I got the brain shivers (you know if you have had it what I mean), even though I was weaning off of it. And I had flu like symptoms. I had a pill cutter and just kept cutting it smaller and smaller and taking it less and less until I was off of it completely. I will never go back on it again.

But I have very adverse reactions to meds all the time because I am so sensitive to that stuff. You will probably just get a bit tired. Most people I know on it say it just makes them sleepy more then they would like.

If you have never been to Crazy Meds, you have to go. Here's the link: Open Original Shared Link

Just scroll down on the left until you find Lexapro under "anti-depressents."

ms-sillyak-screwed Enthusiast
ms-sillyak-screwed
Posted
If you have never been to Crazy Meds, you have to go. Here's the link: Open Original Shared Link

Just scroll down on the left until you find Lexapro under "anti-depressents."

Thank you for that link -- very interesting

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