All about Lexapro

Hi All,
I just joined this group and am on day 5 of starting Lexapro. This is
my first real serious try with an SSRI. I’ve always been a bit leery
of SSRIs as I had a really bad experience with one in the past. I was
misdiagnosed with nervous disorder about 6 years ago when I really had
amoebic dysentery and was put on Paxil by my stupid rubber stamp HMO.
That was awful to the nth degree - I felt suicidal. Luckily, I went
to another doctor and got the right diagnosis and was taken off the
Paxil and put on something to get my GI tract cleared up, of course by
then I’d developed a bit of a phobia about eating which took a while
to get over and a lot of work.
I’ve been going through a lot of life changes lately and am really
starting to deal with a lot of stuff that I sort of shoved to the back
of my emotional closet. This, naturally, has caused me to just spike
into the upper stratosphere of anxiety - I’m not great about change,
even positive change, when it centers around things I really care
about. I’ve been somewhat depressed for the last few months and have
really avoided dealing with my problems in a serious, proactive way
(if I just hide and avoid, maybe it’ll all go away…) I got a
horrible case of the flu about 2 weeks ago that just totally
debilitated me and I think my mind just could not handle the stress
anymore, so I started having serious anxiety attacks and wretched
insomnia. After 4 days of no sleep, I finally made an appointment to
see a psychiatrist at the local hospital that I really trust. He put
me on Lexapro and Ambien to help me sleep. The Ambien has been great
for the insomnia, though this is my 5th day feeling like I need to
take it, which is making me a bit nervous as I understand it can be
somewhat habit forming.
The doctor decided to put me on what he called a “ramp up” dose of 5
mg for the first week to help me ease into taking it, particularly for
the side effects. When I’m in a nervous spot, like I am now, I tend
to have digestive issues, so he wanted to really take it easy around
that given that Lexapro can cause that to worsen when first taken.
I’ll be starting on the 10 mg dose on Wednesday and I’m both nervous
and excited. Made it through the first few days with a bit of nausea,
but that seems to be behind me. I’m not really eating much - that’s
been historically how I react to serious stress or emotion upheaval
since my bout with the dysentery, I get fearful of food and stop
eating. I can control and focus on food as my big bugaboo and thus
continue to avoid the real issues at hand. It’s not anorexia in the
classic sense, just a phobia of eating, though I can subsist easily on
liquids and smoothies, though I’d prefer to eat normally. So far I’m
not really feeling any therapeutic effects of Lexapro and have
continued to seesaw with anxiety and the food phobia - one day I’m
okay and eat well, the next I’m quivvering in fear at the thought of
lasagna. I was hoping I’d be in the magic few percent who feel better
right off, but I guess I’ll have to deal with the fact that I’m
hopelessly average that way. It also may be that I need to start the
higher does to really start feeling the positive effects.
Sorry to ramble, but I wanted to introduce myself and see if anyone
could relate to my issues. I need to hear some positive stories about
Lexapro and helping with anxiety, IBS, eating and sleep. Patience is
not one of my many virtues and I am of the MTV generation, so waiting
to see if this stuff kicks in is really frustrating. I have managed to
solider on and even continue to make the changes I really want (got my
office cleaned out so it’s no longer a junk room, but a real art
studio and office!) but I feel really uncomfortable all the time, not
knowing if I’ll be fine or in a panic from one day to the next.
Lynn R.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 26th, 2005 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.