Posted by Saragram on November 11, 2002, at 9:16:58
Sorry this is gonna be long, but I want to describe past experiences with other drugs to put my Lexapro report in perspective.
I've had episodes I can now recognize as depression since childhood, including particularly debilitating times when I was 10, 19, and 22.
I've been treated for depression 4 times: 23 years ago with Elavil during my divorce (I hallucinated the first time I took it and spent about 6 hours so out of it that a co-worker had to take me to her house and put me to bed). I eventually went off it because of eye, dry mouth, and small-muscle coordination side effects.
Five years ago after my mother's death I spent about 6 months on Prozac. Can't say that I would or wouldn't have gotten better anyway, but I wasn't particularly impressed with it.
A year ago I spent a while on Welbutrin -- I was under a lot of stress with suppressed anger at my daughter who I felt was using me as an unpaid and unappreciated dishwasher/laundresss/babysitter. I felt better, and it DID stop my urge to shop -- a nice effect that saved me some money! I went off it when I decided I could handle things myself and it wasn't worth the expense (my insurance co-pay for brand-name stuff is WAY higher than for generic).
Seven weeks ago the same daughter threw out her very sweet, doting husband because she feels she has "outgrown" him and I fell apart with anger at her, pain at the obvious torture my son-in-law was (and still is) experiencing, and anxiety about the effects on their two tiny daughters. I couldn't sleep, had NO appetite, couldn't concentrate, had constant negative repeating thoughts (I think it's called ruminating?) and anxiety "jumps" that felt like electric adrenaline shots in my chest. My gyno prescribed Lexapro (at my request -- she wanted to use Effexor but I had read so many scare stories here about withdrawal I asked for Celexa instead and got Lexapro).
I took xanax and an over-the-counter (antihistamine-type) sleeping aid to get me through until the Lexapro could kick in. I didn't notice any improvement for about 10 days, and then occasionally I would get a sense of peace and well-being and would notice that I was smiling a little. About 5 days later, the peacefulness was more constant, and I stopped getting the anxious adrenaline zaps. By this time I was also seeing a pdoc, but the drug was obviously helping.
I rarely take anything to sleep now, and my xanax use has dropped back to one or two .5 mg tablets a week, usually before I have to see my daughter to pick up or drop off the babies, or when my son-in-law is being especially difficult to be around with his own out-loud negative, obsessive ruminating.
The son-in-law is a candidate for antidepressant medication if I ever saw one, but my daughter has convinced him he is an alcoholic and drug addict (typical use was maybe 3 beers a day and a little pot most days) and AA has him convinced that all drugs are bad. I finally got him to take some valerian to sleep and hope to get him to try St. Johns Wort. Any other herbal suggestions he might be open to? He's seeing a pdoc (on my daughter's insurance because the pdoc was their marriage counselor) but has no health insurance because he recently changed jobs.
poster:Saragram
thread:127236
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021108/msgs/127236.html