Posted by lil' jimi on September 15, 2003, at 16:05:25
In reply to Re: Lexapro Side Effects, posted by BLKVETTES on September 15, 2003, at 13:08:15
hi Patty,
you wrote:
> > Help -
> >
> > I've been taking 10mg of Lexapro for just a little over ten weeks now for depression. I noticed significant improvement almost immediately and really felt back to my old self. Suddenly today, I have been so anxious and feel like I'm ready to jump out of my skin. I have never had problems with anxiety in the past and am wondering if it's a side effect of Lexapro or perhaps my body's way of telling me I no longer need it? Ten years ago I was on Serzone for approximately six months for depression. My doc at the time told me my body would tell me when I no longer needed the meds. Butterflies in the stomach and overall anxious feelings seemed to come about the time my doc said I was okay to stop taking meds. I was able to withdraw with no problems. Though depression runs in my family, I'm generally not reliant upon meds to get me though. However, the past year has been overwhelming with the deaths of three people very close to me, cancer diagnosis in my father, and two other people who have been my rocks my entire life, moving across country. Now that I seem to be feeling better and accepting all of the difficult situations in my life recently, could the anxiety be an indication that I no longer need Lexapro? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Patty
> >
> >
>
>
> I truly just wanted to avoid this post all together. But after reading it the last couple of days, what the heck!!!!!! Your post is very unique!! I have read where traumatic events cause the chemicals in the brain to get unbalanced and going on a med sometimes straightens them out after awhile. Even my own situation I believe everything that has happened to me was triggered by events over a 2 year period. That might be true and then again not. Even Jim, I wonder about this also. I have also read where your body will tell you when you hit the right dose. Meaning if a person never has side effects they up the dose until they do. I will tell you this I was on a med before and felt pretty good and then everything went away very quickly. I wont get into why because it was rare. I dont believe anyone here can tell you what to do. As for me I cant take the chance of stopping my med. Once you have had a panic attack its a constant reminder never to stop your med, if your lucky enough to recover. TAKE CARE!!!!!!!
> WAYNE
>i want to add my voice to Wayne's here ... ... this is not like any other post we've read here ... ... but because you're considering going off your lex, we have to take it seriously ... and want to help you ... very much ...
how some ever, i have never heard your theory of this kind of experience you're having being an indicator of no longer needing your lexapro, or other med for that matter ...
... now Wayne and i both saying it's new would only amount to a little over a year's worth of lexapro experience ... but when you add in all of the reports we've read here and all that Wayne's reads everywhere else ... then we may have accumulated a LOT of collective knowledge ....
... and we ain't heard of this before ...... which ain't saying it ain't so ... at all ... but it is very different from anyhing i've heard or read here ... that's all
... now i don't have a theory on when to quit, other than intuition ... ... and this does seem to be a form of intuiton ... ... so it could work for you ...
those are my disclaimers (along with "your mileage may vary"):
here's my feelings about this ...
... after only ten weeks total, it just seems early to be recovered completely ... ... then one might face relapse, which could be devastating (as Wayne fears it might)(i do too) ...alternatively, you might want to try lowering your dose to see if you could get by at a lower dose and still feel good ... and this could then turn into just titrating down your dose in order to quit without withdrawals ...
... in every event, you should discuss these options extensively with your doctor, before making any changes ... ... especially to help get relief from possible withdrawals aka "discontinuation syndrome" ...
as for Wayne's theory of the origins of chemistry imbalances ... ... i agree ...
.... i look at like this:
somethings, we brought here with us ...
somethings, we got since we arrived ...
either one or some combination of both, could cause inadequate neurochemistry ... ... Has caused an imbalance in our neurochemistry ... ...we aren't real likely to know which caused the imbalance ... ... and we aren't going to be able to be sure, if we do think we know ...
if we are fortunate enough to have lexapro gives us our balance back ... .... ... that is a truly rare blessing and we should treasure it ... ... and if we think we have our balance and want to walk away from our lexapro ... ... then we think we are cured ... ... i would pray that this is true for you ...
... but i would walk away very carefully ...
GOOD LUCK!
~ jim
poster:lil' jimi
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030912/msgs/260348.html