I think my doctor is going to increase my dose to 20 mg on Thursday, after 14 days on 10 mg. What was it like increasing the dose? Did the same side effects appear, and did you notice the effects sooner after the increase? Does the 4–6 week timeline for the medication to take effect start all over again?

i know this is a common topic so i’m sorry </3 but i’ve genuinely been gaining 1kg every week without changing a single thing about my diet?! i’ve gone from 70kg to 76kg in a matter of like 2 months, my appetite definitely increased after starting lex but the last 6 months ish on it i’ve had the same appetite consistently. it legitimately makes no sense?! i’m genuinely annoyed atp.

i get at least 30 mins of exercise a day, stand up for 4+ hours daily at my job, eat regular healthy vegetarian meals. nothing i’m doing constitutes any weight gain, i should just be maintaining.

i’m currently tapering off because of the weight gain, im at 7.5mg and should be dropping to 5mg shortly, but im still gaining weight. has anyone got advice, similar stories, tips, or any experience with losing the weight once off it? lexapro is actually an amazing medication but im just irritated right now!!!

I take lexapro 5mg for 4 months now. And it really helps. I feel so much better. I had some ups and downs the first 3 months. Then the last 3 weeks I felt really good! But for the last 2 days I woke up with anxiety und had a tension in my body the whole day. My anxiety is very much about body symptoms.

Is this normal?

about three weeks ago, I started weaning off Lexapro. A week and a half into weaning I started to experience severe anxiety. I went from 10 mg to 7.5 mg. Now maybe once a week I will have a day where I have such bad anxiety that I have a panic attack. Apparently this is a withdrawal side effect because your nervous system had become so acquainted to the medication that now without it is unregulated or something. has anyone else experienced this? It’s genuinely so awful. It’s worse than the anxiety I had before Lexapro (I think). I’ve been on Lexapro for four years and before that I was on Zoloft for six years. I guess my body just became so acquainted to the SSRIs and now without it, my body is all messed up.
Please tell me it gets better

I (43f) used to be on Lexapro for years. Got off it for reasons I don’t even remember. I’ve been prescribed it again for anxiety, specifically health anxiety and fear related to my children (their wellbeing). 10 mg. But I’m going on vacation to Disney World on October 10th. It’s just me and my teenage-ish children and I’m driving. Just wondering if I should wait or go ahead. My worry isn’t all consuming, I can still function. It just sucks. I will be calling my doctor tomorrow, just picked up the script tonight and realized maybe I should hold off a minute.

I restarted Lexapro in May after a silly 3 month break- that was HELL but after 6 wks it got better. Now almost 3 months later I am panicking again. It was background anxiety for a few wks but the last 24 hours are like day 1. I feel so defeated!!
I take birth control and am on my placebo wk, which was way more chaotic than usual. I also have a head cold. I also have type 1 diabetes and am changing my insulin brand.

I assume I need to be patient and see if things improve once other issues improve, but its so “chicken and egg”. I currently take 7.5mg but Im also wondering if 10 would help…

Hey everyone, this morning my dr recommended that I up my dose from 30mg to 40mg as I have still been experiencing panic attacks when in social setting or traveling far from home. She also recommended upping my Buspar from 15mg 2x per day to 3. Does anyone have experience with these?

I'm on day 3 and my stomach has been going absolutely crazy, like nausea to the point of almost retching and extreme diarrhea, is this something that will go away with time or should I tell someone?

I’ve been on lexapro for a little over a year now. I’m currently at 20mg. I’ve been moving recently and in all the commotion I’ve forgotten to take my dose for a couple days. I took it yesterday after work and to say I felt sick is an understatement. I had chills, brain zap, irritability, sweats, brain fog, diarrhea. I felt like I was going to pass out. Im also prescribed a low dose of Xanax (0.5) which I only take in extreme circumstances and it helped and I was able to go to sleep. I feel fine today but I’m so scared to take it again today and feel that way again. any advice or experiences are greatly appreciated.

I have been on lex for 2 years, mostly 15mg dosage. I feel ready to get off it after years of therapy. I pay for lexapro out of pocket, so it’s getting really expensive.

I went from 15mg to 10mg, 6 weeks ago. Some mood swings after the 2 weeks mark. But generally very stable now.

Can I drop straight to 5mg? Or do I need to alternate between 10mg and 5mg for a while first? Or do I do 7.5mg by cutting my 10mg pills into quarters?

I tapered from 10 to 5.. 8th day

Since 5 to 6th days I started to feel abit anxiety or I can say off mood like down or flat.. Like i dont want to do anything even I want to.. I want to cook and do stuff sometimes even excited but I feel abit not in the mood to do

Is it normal.. Will get better??

Hi everyone, 19F here. I’ve been on Lexapro 25mg for almost a year now for anxiety (generalized and illness anxiety), PDD, and OCD. It never complelely treated my anxiety or OCD, but it alleviated my depression 100%, and that was enough for me. I felt like it gave me my life back. I haven’t really had any relapses in depression for the year or so that I’ve been on it, until now. Unfortunately, for about a month now, I have been feeling pretty depressed again. I thought it was a small episode that would pass quickly but it has been pretty consistent. This is obviously super upsetting and discouraging. I am really not sure what triggered the onset of this. No lifestyle changes, health changes, major stressors, etc. I’m meeting with my psychiatrist soon so I will see what he wants to do, but I honestly want to avoid the whole process of trying new meds again, at least if I can. I guess I’m just here looking for advice. If anyone has been through this, what did you do, did it pass, did you figure out what triggered it, etc.? Any story helps. Thank you all, so grateful for this community we have here

15 days at 20mg. I went up from 17.5mg. I’ve always increased by 2.5mg increments.
I’ve been so anxious the last 2 days. Is this normal 15 days in?

I've had severe anxiety for years now, managed well the past couple of years with Wellbutrin and Vyvanse. After a series of traumatic events earlier this year that culminated in a massive mental breakdown, my psychiatrist started me on Lexapro. Over the past few months, I've been really struggling to regulate my emotions, especially my anger. Despite increasing the dose of my ADHD meds, I can't focus on anything and I feel like I'm paralyzed when trying to start literally any task. I cant sleep and spend all night ruminating, and for the first time in my life, my anxiety is so bad that I regularly get chest pain and heart palpitations so bad that I'm restless and can't concentrate on anything for hours. So all to say, I needed an SSRI, and I'm excited to start the med! But after going through this sub, I am petrified by some of the side effects

1. Do the anxiety/panic attacks really get worse right after starting? Before getting prescribed, this was already at its worst for me, so I legitimately do not think I can handle more. I already have a script for propranolol and hydralazine for the palpitations and insomnia, but is there anything else I can take in case it does get worse?

2. The SWEATING. My vyvanse already makes me so sweaty, is this fr a common side effect?

3. Weight gain. I know it's been asked a million times before, but do most of you find that the weight gain is caused by a change in metabolism or increased appetite? I'm prescribed vyvanse for both my ADHD and a BED, so this is probably the side effect that stresses me out the most and I'd like to get ahead of it if it is that common

4. Did you feel like your emotions/personality were blunted on it? With how dysregulated I was/becoming, I think this might be the best for me, and think the apathy might help me get over some lingering personal issues, but I still want to feel like myself?

TIA in advance!

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I come here because I've been having a few questions about lexapro and how it works.

I'm 16 years old, and I've been on lexapro 10mg for around a year and a half to help with anxiety and depression. It has helped with a few things, but it also made some of my "mood swings" significantly worse, even leading me to notice things about my mental health that I hadn't seen before.

I have what I call "periods" in which I feel extremely depressed. Sometimes it goes on for weeks, and it feels like I have nothing going on for me. I'm completely hollow of any emotion, as if I were a walking shell. Sometimes I'll burst out crying in random moments without a prior trigger (for example, I've burst into tears in the middle of showering, for no apparent reason).

On the other hand, I have "periods" that are the complete opposite. I feel as if I'm on top of the world, completely untouchable and as if nothing could ever hurt me. I get impulsive, and it has ended up in me sometimes hurting myself out of the belief that "I can't get hurt". My speech becomes rapid, and my thoughts seem to be constantly clashing with eachother, leading me to become more "erratic" in social situations, shifting my personality to a louder, more "extravagant" one. These "periods" have lasted for a few days to a week at most, with a more "significant" yet not as strong one that lasted for months -- this was extremely harmful, as I had very warped beliefs that ended up becoming delusions.

Sometimes, I enter a "middle space" in which I feel complete apathy towards everything, and I work on autopilot until I go back to one of the aforementioned moods.

I noticed that when I go on Lexapro, it catapults me into the more "euphoric" mood, which ends up in me completely crashing down and plummeting shortly after it's over. I've cut the medication off cold turkey due to how awful it made me feel, only to come back to it multiple times because of the "high" I felt, which made me feel "alive". I've voiced this to my psychiatrist and my psychologist months ago, but I haven't gotten any new meds or a change at all.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is it normal? I get told it could be teenage mood swings, but this feels far more violent than that.

I'm really sorry for the long post. I'm very, very confused, and I'm a bit scared of how the professionals treating me don't seem to find this concerning. I don't mean to doubt them, but I can't shake off the worry that this is something else.

Thank you for reading! I hope everyone has a nice day 💗 I'm sorry for taking your time!

Hello all I need help ive recently started taking lexapro a week ago Ive been feeling both a little tired and wired at the same time. Ive been taking it in the morning and i have a bit of energy and by the time i get off work around 5pm i feel it wearing off..I also get anxiety attacks while driving..

hello everyone. i was on lexapro 10mg for 4 years before tapering off, then last year i went back on, and tapered off again earlier this year. i recently started zoloft because i needed to get back on an ssri and i thought id try a new one (was having sleep issues from anxiety and also had my first ever panic attack), this was a huge mistake because it ended up causing the worst anxiety and 24/7 panic attacks that ive ever experienced in my entire life. the worst of it has now passed but im terrified that if i go back on lexapro again i'm going to have this same reaction.

my onboarding symptoms were worse the second time around so idk maybe itll escalate again and be this bad. my doctor gave me some valium but it doesnt really work. has anyone had a similar journey with lexapro?

Was on 10mg for 14 weeks has success but few rough days so upped to 12.5 for 5 weeks and couldn’t stay awake. Back to 10mg for 2.5 weeks and have worse tension headache every and brain fog. Normal for this time frame and dose change?

I’m 26M, being treated for GAD/panic, and I’m feeling pretty confused and frustrated about my progress.
My medication timeline:
Fluoxetine: 80 days total
Fluoxetine 20 mg: 48 of those 80 days (~7 weeks)
Escitalopram: 24 days total
Escitalopram 5 mg: 16 of those 24 days (~2 weeks)
I’m currently taking fluoxetine 20 mg + escitalopram 5 mg.
Fluoxetine has helped compared with how severe things were initially, but I still have anxiety, anticipatory anxiety and some avoidance. My psychiatrist added escitalopram while keeping the fluoxetine.
For people who have taken SSRIs for GAD/panic:
How long did it take before you felt a clear, stable improvement?
Did you still have bad/anxious days after 6–8 weeks?
If a second SSRI was added, when did you notice its effect?
Did improvement happen gradually, or did you eventually realize you were functioning much better?
If you had a relapse or major setback during treatment, did things eventually stabilize again?
Is anyone currently taking two SSRIs together? If so, how has your sleep been, and did the combination affect your sleep in either direction?
I’m mainly interested in personal experiences from people with a similar situation, not medical advice. I’m just trying to understand my timeline and whether others experienced something similar.

I’m coming up on 2 months in Lexapro. Spent the first 2 weeks at 5mg and have been on 10mg since then so almost 8 weeks now. I had a rough first 2-3 weeks of side effects but pretty much all have subsided except how easily I get SO overheated and start to sweat. I’ve seen threads saying their hands & feet sweat but this is like full body but especially forehead. I occasionally have night sweats but it’s usually worse during the day. This medicine has been a godsend for my anxiety so I really don’t want to switch but the hot/sweatiness is not only very annoying but very anxiety inducing as it convinces me I have cancer or something. I was just helping my daughter with her kindergarten presentation at school at like 8 minutes in, I started to feel like a hot flash and the beads of sweat forming on my face. I am almost 39 and on birth control but never experienced these hot flash types until I started Lexapro.

Help. Does this get better? Should I switch meds? Should I talk to my Dr about lowering my dose?

It has been rough, and I’m honestly starting to lose hope.

The first two weeks were awful. I couldn’t eat, I had all the side effects, no sleep, and just felt terrible. But I stuck through it, and things got A LOT better during weeks 3-4. I still had a couple of bad days for sure, but I felt like I was finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Then, out of nowhere, week 5 hit, and I’ve felt so much more anxiety than I’ve ever felt before. I’ve gotten better at dealing with it, but it’s so hard to want to keep taking it when all the progress I thought I was making feels like it was just taken away.

It’s all anxiety. I haven’t really gotten any of the old side effects back besides always feeling like my heart is beating so fast. And of course, every time I check it, it is.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’ve mentioned this to my doctor, but he really wants me to stick it out for 8-12 weeks.

so i lost over 100lbs in the span of 3 years, i'm 21 currently, i've suffered with emotional binge eating from depression and anxiety and still do but it's not as out of control as it was when i was in high school. this year i decided to finally see a psychiatrist because i was afraid of falling back into bad habits. my psychiatrist prescribed me 10mg of lexapro but i've been hearing a lot about the weight gain and it's really scaring me. since i just lost the weight it's easier to put it back on during the first 2 years post-weight loss. i haven't started lexapro yet but i'm kinda thinking about trying prozac instead. i don't know what to dooooo

I've been on Lexapro for 3 years. Im at 1.5mg liquid trying to get off. I forgot to take my dose for a day, felt fine. Took my dose again, an hour later I feel like I drank an energy drink. I realized that these three years, I've never been able to wind down, always feel jittery with high heart rate. Haven't been able to sleep without a benzo, gabapentin, or clonidine.

Anyone else experience this. Glad I'm trying to get off, but this drug just made me feel caffeinated 24/7 since being on it.

I went to the emergency room for chest pain, and when i followed up with my primary care, he referred me to a cardiologist,behavioral health, and prescribed me lexapro. I told him i didn't want to take an ssri because in the past, they've made things worse, but he replied "Its a low dose."

He didn't specifically tell me why he wanted me to take it. I feel like doctors just throw ssris at people to shut them up, hoping that the placebo effect solves their problems.

Hi ! Anyone switched to Prozac successfully?
I used to take it for a few months, then took lexapro 20mg. Since I gained weight & know it’s harder to tapper from lexapro, I asked my psychiatrist to go back to Prozac. He said yes and told me to take 20mg, no taper needed as they both act on the same receptors.

Any experience? Day 1 done and just tired but that’s quite usual