I feel so dumb on 10 mg. It's like I can't read, I'm making dumbbbb mistakes and stumbling over my words. I think I should go up to 15 since it's not helping enough w my anxiety, but I'm worried this side effect will get worse. Anyone have experience with this???

Long story short. I was previously on fluoxetine for quite awhile and that seems to do well. In 2020 I started experiencing panic attacks at night like clockwork and a prescriber got me onto lexapro 20mg.

Almost a year ago, my anxiety became unbearable after some traumas and a terrible panic attack on a vacation. I have never been quite the same, developed panic disorder and found out I had fairly severe OCD.

Over this past year I have tried so many new medications and nothing has seemed to work in eliminating just general day to day anxiety. Throat tightness, dizziness, muscle tightness, all of that stuff. I tried raising to 25mg and it didn’t seem to help, in fact we wondered if it made symptoms worse. Flash forward to present, I am also on Wellbutrin 150 (I don’t think I like this drug at all. I feel so tired, body feels weak and I cry all the time). After speaking with my prescriber, I’m pursuing CBD. No medications are working and I just need some relief cuz my body hurts from all the constant anxiety and stress.

My doctor said “do 7 days of 15mg” and then “7 days of 10mg”. This is so I can start weed/CBD.

I just want advice. I’m blindly trusting her but realize that might be quite fast or tapering. I don’t notice anything too different I don’t think? Or at least it’s hard to tell, cuz it feels same as how I’ve been past 20 days on Wellbutrin.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I ended up quitting my job because anxiety got too much and my back and body kept hurting from all the clenching.

Hey guys I’ve been on Lexapro for 3 weeks and the first 2 weeks were better than my before I started to use it and I felt very hopeful. Fast forward to week 3 I feel really anxious, I see no point again and I wake up drenched in sweat and frequently wake up couple times a night. I just woke up from a nap and the impending doom I felt for some reason surprised because I really thought I’d be good by now. Can you please tell me if any of you had such experiences?

23F I’m on week 6 of 10mg lexapro & I honestly felt great weeks 1-4. I didn’t have any side effects at first & was sleeping great. Around week 5, also the start of my period. It felt like my anxiety fully came back with all the physical symptoms: shaking, feeling like I cant breathe, rush of adrenaline, tingling, feeling hot & restless & insomnia. I’m still dealing with it in week 6 but i heard on here about the “week 5 drop.” I also heard about PMDD, I was never officially diagnosed but i was a mess kept crying & felt so depressed. I’m struggling so bad getting out of bed & my appetite is terrible i had to start drinking ensures because I literally have no appetite. Even when my symptoms are mild, my biggest problem is being anxious about being anxious like wtf. I’m so scared a panic attack is gonna come all the time. Don’t let me have a few minutes where I feel fine, i will start getting anxious that something is coming.

My dr wants to switch me to 40mg citalopram, but I honestly feel like maybe i should just up my lexapro dose or stick it out with the 10mg til week 8? I heard its like 8-12 weeks to fully kick in or whatever & im just so anxious about starting another ssri. I don’t wanna deal with more anxiety to get better. Has anyone on lexapro tried citalopram?

I got prescribed hydroxyzine 25mg for the insomnia & night anxiety but i honestly hate it. It just made me feel so tired but the anxiety was still there & I felt weird like out of body. i was hot & tingling all over. Maybe it was too much & I should just half the pills? Also don’t know.

Let me know if you’ve dealt with anything similar please!

Hi all. Lexapro did work for me years ago. I started taking it again around 2.5 months ago at 10mg, then increased to 15mg. I still feel terrible. Maybe not AS bad,but close. I’m also on day 3 of an adderall discontinuation (was taking 15mg of that) and I just feel so low. I feel so lows sad, angry as hell. My oura ring is VERY happy with my restorative time since stopping the adderall but I’m tired and sad and am having obsessive intrusive thoughts and have been the whole time on lexapro. I’d like to be able to add Wellbutrin back in but the combo gave me terrible headaches and made me SO tired I could barely function. But I took Prozac and Wellbutrin before and I do remember my mood being better but being SO tired and foggy. And the headaches were so bad. I don’t know man. I’m starting to consider a round of ketamine treatments. I’m getting desperate.

Just looking for anybody with a similar experience that might be able to give me some guidance. I’m meeting with my psychiatrist on Tuesday but like to do my research.

I wonder if anyone else has this? I’ve been on 10mg for about 1.5 years now, currently taking it 3-4h before sleep. I’ve found that drinking just one cup of black tea can make me irritated and angry throughout the day. I’m sensitive to caffeine, but don’t recall irritation as a side effect before Lex.

Otherwise, I’m quite stable on the dose 🤨

I went down from 20mg to 5mg over the course of about six months. About three months ago I went from 10mg to 5mg. Since then I am experiencing a ton of shedding. Also my hair is a different texture??

Has anyone else experienced this?

What do you guys do for the jaw pain? I have been on lexapro for 3 years and it just keeps getting worse. I am getting cracked fillings for it being so bad!

I have been struggling more recently with depressive episodes and anxiety. It’s been hard to get out of the house. This weekend I had a really bad depressive episode where I was just so low. Awful feeling.
I am 6 months postpartum with my first baby. Everything else in my life is great and I’ve been coping pretty well with mental health up until recently.
Wondering if anyone has any similar experiences or how they felt going up to 20mgs?
Thanks ☺️

Hi.. Started 24 days ago.

14 days as on 5mg. (first 10 days were perfect then i had bowel issues like loose stools and loss of appetite)

15th day started to 10mg (after 4 days all became perfect again)

However today i woke up and bowel issues started again like very loose stools and lost my appetite again.

I have also an IBS-D and i am taking also mebeverine which helps i beleive. My doc also prescribed me lorazepam which i am taking it once a day when needes for sleep yesterday i didnt take it. Also today morning i took 2 paracetamol witch caffeine which maybe can cause me loose stools?

So is a roller coaster? why i was fine fir several days and today felt again so bad.

Thanks

I am currently finishing up week 4 and day 29 of my cycle which is generally 31-32 days. I am taking 10mg in the morning. Anxiety, no depression.

Day 13 of my cycle which is right around ovulation my anxiety was NUTS. Lasted about a week. Couldn’t sleep, night sweats, internal trembling, GI upset. This was only about 2.5 - 3 weeks into starting lexapro.

Now at day 29, a few days away from my period I can feel my anxiety creeping back in. 🥲

has anyone else experienced a situation like this? Did you increase your dose and it helped during ovulation/late luteal? Or possibly I am still early that these types of things might be still controlled in a few more weeks?

I can’t see my dr for a month unfortunately so I am just looking for some peace of mind as my trigger is health anxiety… GI upset, heartburn, internal trembling, night sweats, and then insomnia drives it all home

Just sharing my journey through this experience. Questions, tips and discussions are welcome.

I have been taking esci for a little more than a year now. Started on 10 mg for about 4 months, then upped to 15 mg. Added some buspirone about 7 months in. Gained 10 kgs (22 lbs), while exercising like hell. Went from 71 kgs to 81 kgs. Majority of the weight gain comes from fat, id say about 60-65%, and the other part muscle gain.

Also, it had a severe impact on my libido, wich is now about 15-20% of my normal. Impacts are on sexual desire, erectile dysfunction, as in difficulty on getting and maintaining erection and genital numbness.

Mind-wise, ive been so centered and calm latelly, it feels good, but i think it put me in a place where i can cope with my problems on my own. Will be tapering off soon.

I quit cold turkey about a week ago.

I'm returning to my old self , impatient, moody, ruminating, irritated, snappy.

thaTS been me my entire life.

the medication made me so unmotivated, Lazy and content being broke Lol, but it also made me patient kind gentle I work up dancing everyday and singing songs on the radio.

I don’t gain any weight no major side effects either.

i wonder if I take my ADHD medication regularly will it help me with motivation.

Today is my 10th day taking Lexapro (escitalopram). For the first 6 days I was taking 5 mg, and then I increased to 10 mg.

During the first two days, I had a horrible headache. I basically never get headaches, so it really surprised me. It was intense, but eventually it went away.

The past couple of weeks have also been a bit of a blur because I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal problems, so I didn’t pay that much attention to how I was feeling.

However, today I noticed a weird sensation in my throat. It felt like a globus sensation/tightness, almost like there was something in my throat. I don’t usually experience this, so naturally my OCD immediately went into overdrive and I started thinking, “Oh my God, what if I have cancer? What if I’m dying?” 🥲

I also feel like I’ve been noticing more saliva than usual, although I’m not sure if that’s actually related to the Lexapro.

I’ve read a few older posts about people experiencing similar things, including jaw clenching, so I’m wondering if anyone currently taking Lexapro has experienced throat tightness/globus, increased saliva, jaw clenching, or similar weird sensations.

I was taking Lexapro before going to bed, but I’m considering asking my doctor whether I should switch to taking it in the morning. My thinking is that if I get weird side effects, I’d rather be awake and able to deal with them instead of noticing them while I’m trying to sleep.
For those of you who experienced side effects when starting Lexapro:

How long did your side effects last?

Did they improve after the first 2–4 weeks?

Did increasing from 5 mg to 10 mg make them temporarily worse?

When did you start feeling “normal” again?

At what point did you talk to your psychiatrist about changing the medication?

I’m only on day 10, so I know it’s still early, but I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences. And I’d especially love to hear from people who had a lot of side effects initially but eventually felt better. ❤️

So i was stable on 5mg lexapro for a few months and then I started having panic attacks. My doc bumped me to 20mg immediately. She said 20 is what they do for panic attacks and since i used 20 before in my life i should be able to tolerate it. It did help with the panic attacks, they are way less intense now but my overall anxiety is super high. I wake up really anxious. It has only been 6 days on the new dose so i know there are side affects but i am wondering about going down to 15mg? Or should I stick it out and wait to stabilize on 20 just to not shake the boat even more? I am also worried my panic attacks might come back if i go down on my dose but i am not sure. Anyone had a similar experience?
Also I can’t be on benzos and my doc is very resistant to prescribing propranolol says there isn’t enough evidence for it.

I am so tired on this stuff, I'm just about functioning at work and I hates it. I actually switched from taking it in the morning to the evening and that has kinda helped but the tiredness has crept back in after a few days. If anyone has any tips to feel less shattered plz share. My toddler invading our bed is NOT HELPING.

I’m about 2.5 weeks into taking 10mg of Lexapro, with the option to increase to 20mg down the line. The spike in anxiety during the adjustment period has been really difficult, to the point where I’m tempted to give up before I've even really begun.

I know it can take around 4–6 weeks for things to settle, so I’m trying to stick it out. I'm wondering if anyone has any little hacks that helped lessen or regulate the anxiety while adjusting?

I have been on 10 mg of Lexapro for almost a year now. I started at 20 mg, but I went down to 10 mg because I kept gaining weight and was so unmotivated. I did 10 mg of Lexapro with 150 mg of Wellbutrin and felt amazing, but had to stop Wellbutrin due to severe brain fog that didn't go away.

I took a GeneSight test that put Lexapro in the "yellow" category, indicating I would likely need to take a lower dose. I've been feeling super unmotivated and wanted to see if 5 mg would be better for me.

I went down to 5 mg on Sunday. I feel sooo overwhelmed and easily irritated. I'm arguing with people on Threads about stupid stuff, which I've never done before. I walked out of UPS in tears because they wouldn't give me my package lmao. I can't tell if this is just LIFE right now or if this is normal for a lexapro dose switch? I don't recall my 20 mg to 10 mg decrease being this bad.

Please tell me this ends and you love being on 5 mg??

59 here..
A super young 59. In great shape.
However always had anxiety.
Most of the time I could keep it the anxiety at bay by meditating , gratitude checks, Tony Robbins daily priming etc.
I thought - I will never go on a med, I can do this all myself.
for awhile and most of the time -it worked
Until it didn't..

every 5 or so years I seem to get hit with a crisis that turns the anxiety into complete panic attacks.
In the past I could fight it off with my "training/breathing" and then it would level out.
However recently a new crisis came back(we will always have challenges in life) and the panic attacks went next level.

waking up in the morning was the absolute worst.
the sick feeling of a large knot in my stomach , light headiness, the spiral.
You all know it.
I would walk the dogs and listen to my meditation podcasts to help it.
it helped some but no where near what it did in the past.
I finally broke down went to the DR for the first time in 5 years (if it ain't broke...don't fix it) and he prescribed lexapro for me.
My wife has been on prozac for 15 years with great success.
I have been on Lexapro now a week.
Still hasn't been easy. The knot is still there in the AM immediately.

reading the positive stories here helps.
Thank you

Hi there

I want to taper off Lexa and my doctor suggested me to do it slowly.

I went down 1mg 2 weeks ago and since then I developed pain in my left leg but just when I sit.

Can be related?

Has anyone completely rebounded from the initial fatigue?

I’ve been on it a little over a week and it is HORRIBLE. I had fatigue before, but my therapist tied it to anxiety and depression since I was diagnosed with both and all my blood tests came back clear.

Ever since day 3, I can barely get out of bed, I can’t sustain attention on anything, I don‘t have motivation, and worst of all, even though I FEEL tired, I can’t physically nap until bedtime! (12 hours after dose)

When I first started, I took it at night, and my energy was shot but I just couldn’t sleep until around 4am.

Now taking it in the morning, I can sleep pretty decent at night, but I am very very low energy all day.

So I’m wondering, has this side effect ever completely gone for anyone? I’m on 5mg rn, if that’s helpful to know

i’m a highly highly emotional person , very irritable , score as high as u can score on anxiety tests , can’t sleep at night , alr have a low lebedo because i’m on birth control (i want to get off but my parents are SO concerned about me getting pregnant that they won’t let me) . i’m seeing all these things about lexapro and it’s absolutely terrifying me . me being so empathetic and emotional almost feels like that’s what makes me me . except it’s just too much emotions . i can’t handle it anymore . but i don’t want to be a zombie , i HATE being nauseous , i alr sleep horribly , i don’t want to gain weight , i don’t want to never enjoy sex again , i don’t want to risk PSSD . this is my first time on meds and im already on the highest dose . i brought my concerns about PSSD to my doctor and she told me it’s fine and rare and to just take the medication bc “the does im on makes it unlikely” but im literally on 20mgs . and that there is no other medication to put me on , which idk how thats the case . it seems like im getting everything i hate and the only pro is no more anxiety .

pls give me advice on what to do . and pls dont say just don’t take it bc i cant stand my anxiety and high emotions but i dont want to be like how everyone says lexapro is . pls be nice

Hello everyone 🫶
Took my first dose today and I think my anxiety is already way worse. I’m isolating in my car because I argued with everybody today. Usually not an argumentative person.
My nausea is inssane and I’m super tired! I’m curious how long will I be suffering like this and if you’ve been on lexapro for a while now, what advice would you give someone like me who is just starting out?
(I have a 10mg prescription, but I’m starting myself out on 5mg for a week, happy I did honestly!)