Diane39
04-23-2010, 10:59 AM
Hello everyone,
My name is Diane and this is my first post on here; I usually just come on forums to read and have never posted anything. But after going through what I've been through and reading what other people have posted I felt that I really should share my experience with Lexapro...
I started taking Lexapro about 4 months ago to treat my Anxiety and Depression. I've been on if for about a month now; Thank goodness. It was recommended by my doctor as an effective treatment, not really knowing much about these types of medications at the time I said sure let's give it a shot. He started me on 15mg a day and told me that it would take up to two months to work fully. He also said that it could make my anxiety worse for the first week or so. And possibly have some other undesirable personal effects. That was certainly the truth. The first week was horrible. The first week I felt more anxious to the point of paranoia. I had crying spells and other unpleasant emotional issues.
Needless to say, it caused fairly drastic problems with my husband Chris. We've been happily married for nearly 7 years and have had only smaller, what I would call, normal problems in our marriage. You know just simple things that all people have little touts about. Well the first week was really bad for us. He was very understanding as he knew that I was going through a tough time. Now that I'm off it and looking back I realize that I was a borderline crazy B!T(H. (pardon my french, just trying to show a point). Well after the first week and a half or so I saw an improvement from the first week, but it was still not good.
I kept thinking to myself... "The doctor said a month or so...", so I was just going to try to get through it until the medicine could work well. A month went by and I didn't see the benefit I was looking for. It was marginal at best. And the side-effects more than offset the benefits from the meds. Ya my anxiety was getting better, in that I was on a SSRI high, i was calm almost all the time and felt physically "good"; but it made me numb to everything emotionally.
As time went on my relationship with my husband, who I have always loved very much always will, started to have a toll taken on it. It just felt like someone put a drop of water on our flame so it was barely burning. At about the beginning of the 3rd month I spent some time thinking to myself that this is NOT good and I needed to change something because my life was now far worse than before. All the anxiety was only being suppressed, the sources of it grew stronger though everyday. It created more anxiety to be suppressed by the meds. Me and my husband started arguing and fighting on a regular basis.
I become very "weird" if you will and began distrusting him and blaming everything on him and it was just not like "me". I became somewhat isolated and didn't want to really do anything at times. And the intimacy just dropped off, I stop feeling the strong attraction I always had for him and had up until I started taking these meds. It took even more of a toll on us when we didn't share intimate moments like ever. I just had zero drive for any of it. I didn't like any of that at all and decided that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to try to wean off as quickly as I could and deal with the emotional side-effects. And as unpleasant as it was to do that was It was nice to "feel" again. I actually cried and felt my body again. My husband was there to comfort me and guide me out of it; which of course helped a lot; and worked to bring us back together some, which was a pleasant boost into our relationship. :)
Since I've come off Lexapro I had my bouts with anxiety, but I would much rather deal with an little anxiety every so often and be able to feel and enjoy the other parts of my life, like my husband. I've read on this forum and others about more simple natural ways to help with anxiety. The most common thing I have found on the net that is the simplest and most natural is DIET, I didn't know it had such a profound effect on your mental well-being and stress and anxiety and what not. There is also a lot out there about B-vitamins and amino acids, so I think I'm going to give those a shot and see if they can help curb the anxiety that I still have.
I hope this helps people out there who are trying to find their way through the murky waters that is anxiety and its relief.
Good luck to everyone
Have a good day.
Diane Smith
My name is Diane and this is my first post on here; I usually just come on forums to read and have never posted anything. But after going through what I've been through and reading what other people have posted I felt that I really should share my experience with Lexapro...
I started taking Lexapro about 4 months ago to treat my Anxiety and Depression. I've been on if for about a month now; Thank goodness. It was recommended by my doctor as an effective treatment, not really knowing much about these types of medications at the time I said sure let's give it a shot. He started me on 15mg a day and told me that it would take up to two months to work fully. He also said that it could make my anxiety worse for the first week or so. And possibly have some other undesirable personal effects. That was certainly the truth. The first week was horrible. The first week I felt more anxious to the point of paranoia. I had crying spells and other unpleasant emotional issues.
Needless to say, it caused fairly drastic problems with my husband Chris. We've been happily married for nearly 7 years and have had only smaller, what I would call, normal problems in our marriage. You know just simple things that all people have little touts about. Well the first week was really bad for us. He was very understanding as he knew that I was going through a tough time. Now that I'm off it and looking back I realize that I was a borderline crazy B!T(H. (pardon my french, just trying to show a point). Well after the first week and a half or so I saw an improvement from the first week, but it was still not good.
I kept thinking to myself... "The doctor said a month or so...", so I was just going to try to get through it until the medicine could work well. A month went by and I didn't see the benefit I was looking for. It was marginal at best. And the side-effects more than offset the benefits from the meds. Ya my anxiety was getting better, in that I was on a SSRI high, i was calm almost all the time and felt physically "good"; but it made me numb to everything emotionally.
As time went on my relationship with my husband, who I have always loved very much always will, started to have a toll taken on it. It just felt like someone put a drop of water on our flame so it was barely burning. At about the beginning of the 3rd month I spent some time thinking to myself that this is NOT good and I needed to change something because my life was now far worse than before. All the anxiety was only being suppressed, the sources of it grew stronger though everyday. It created more anxiety to be suppressed by the meds. Me and my husband started arguing and fighting on a regular basis.
I become very "weird" if you will and began distrusting him and blaming everything on him and it was just not like "me". I became somewhat isolated and didn't want to really do anything at times. And the intimacy just dropped off, I stop feeling the strong attraction I always had for him and had up until I started taking these meds. It took even more of a toll on us when we didn't share intimate moments like ever. I just had zero drive for any of it. I didn't like any of that at all and decided that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to try to wean off as quickly as I could and deal with the emotional side-effects. And as unpleasant as it was to do that was It was nice to "feel" again. I actually cried and felt my body again. My husband was there to comfort me and guide me out of it; which of course helped a lot; and worked to bring us back together some, which was a pleasant boost into our relationship. :)
Since I've come off Lexapro I had my bouts with anxiety, but I would much rather deal with an little anxiety every so often and be able to feel and enjoy the other parts of my life, like my husband. I've read on this forum and others about more simple natural ways to help with anxiety. The most common thing I have found on the net that is the simplest and most natural is DIET, I didn't know it had such a profound effect on your mental well-being and stress and anxiety and what not. There is also a lot out there about B-vitamins and amino acids, so I think I'm going to give those a shot and see if they can help curb the anxiety that I still have.
I hope this helps people out there who are trying to find their way through the murky waters that is anxiety and its relief.
Good luck to everyone
Have a good day.
Diane Smith