On Lexapro but still have to take Xanax - why????

mizzaj

I've heard the Lexapro decreases the anxiety for some and may increase it for others (at least initially). I would think that after 8 weeks your anxiety would diminish. I am also on Lexapro (20mg) and still get anxiety. I've been taking klonopin every day just as your taking xanax. I think that to truly know if the Lexapro is "managing" the anxiety, i would have to wean myself off of the klonopin. Maybe you can try that with the xanax? I suspect that some of the anxiety I feel is the withdrawl effects of not taking my klonopin when I should. I don't know if xanax is as addicting as klonopin, but you could ask your doctor about slowly weaning off the xanax and seeing how you do....good luck!

Natty44

Can I ask if your anxiety is mostly emotional anxiety or physical? Mine is all the physical symptoms - feeling weird, not much of an appetite, aches and pains, the list goes on.

mizzaj

It's weird...when I get anxiety, I usually think of it as being physical. The knot in my stomach which leads to trouble breathing, slight nausea and like you said, just feeling weird-- unsteady, really. I don't have any aches and pains. However, I believe that the physical anxiety is preceded by emotional anxiety-- even if I'm not feeling emotioinally anxious at the time. Sometimes the "trigger" of the physical anxiety may be something that has been stressing me out for a while, even hours earlier, and it just takes my body a while to respond to the extra emotional burden.....

miche31

I'm on Lexapro too, for two years now, and also on Xanax as needed, which is every night and sometimes daily. The Lexapro has helped with some anxiety, but mostly gave me more of a "happy" in general feeling. But the bad anxiety attacks it does nothing for. If I don't take a Xanax at night I sit up all night with anxiety about something to worry over. I tried to go off the Lexapro and see if I could just take the Xanax, but it seems I'm now hooked on the Lexapro becaues I have severe mood swings when I tried to wean off. So, when the Dr.'s say Xanax is more addictive then the SSRI's are they are full of it. Your body gets just as addicted to an SSRI as it does with Xanax or Atavan. But anyways, Xanax has always helped with me. And I have a good Dr. who says I will probably need it for life. It only took 5 Dr.'s and 11 years to find one who would quit playing guinea pig with me and taking all the other antidepressants and SSRI's to know what works. He agrees with me that Xanax is no worse than an SSRI.
My anxiety makes me feel like I have real physical symptoms, so I have a very hard time telling if I really have something wrong. I feel like a hypochondriac when I get a "physical" problem.
I've had anxiety all my life and my sisters either have bipolar or depression or anxiety too. Our grandmother and mother had it, and we are now seeing it in our children. It's no fun that's for sure.. Take Care. Michelle

Natty44

Hi Michelle - thank you for your reply - it helps to know that others like me still have to take xanax along with their SSRI and I'm not the only one. It's not fun though that's for sure. Like you when I have the physical symptoms I worry like crazy that something is wrong and they've missed it and it's a cycle I can't break. When I am feeling ok I don't worry about my health. In another thread I started a couple weeks ago - I asked about morning anxiety and if others felt worse in the mornings cause I sure do. I have no appetite in the mornings or afternoons - by evenings I can get food down. I'm not sure if it's still the Lexapro doing that or my anxiety. I'm having a pelvis ultrasound this morning at 11:30 and I'm nervous about that. I was just hoping that being on Lexapro would take away all my physical symptoms but it hasn't Worry also runs in my family - when my dear Grandmother was still alive I'd find comfort from her in knowing that she went through it and lived to a ripe old age of 93! I guess I inherited the worry gene from her. One of my kids inherited it from me so I guess this is genetic. Thanks again for your response. Hang in there and I'll do the same.

Diane

8monthslater

I have been taking Prozac for about 8 weeks and still take .25 mg of xanax in the evening. Sometimes I feel like i don't need it, but then I will wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. I still have every one of my physical symptoms though, but I was just diagnosed 2 weeks ago with iron deficiency anemia. Hoping that my symptoms will diminish once I get my iron/ferritin levels back up. I am hearing this could take quite some time, maybe up to a year so in the meantime I plan to continue taking xanax as needed. I will worry about coming off of xanax and Prozac once my health is back in order.

wangela67

Natty,
I don't think you should give yourself a hard time about taking the Xanax. You have not been on your AD that long and if your anxiety symptoms were strong before you started taking the AD it might take your body some time to get back to normal. When I first took an AD I was also prescribed Xanax with it and took it for about 3-4 months. My body let me know when I felt back to normal and I had no problems coming off of the Xanax. Give yourself 3-6 months to get used to the AD and then you start trying to decrease the Xanax with your doctor's approval/recommendation. Don't put more stress on yourself by thinking you should not take the Xanax. Good luck!

Natty44

Wangela - thank you - I guess I just thought that once I was on the Lexapro for a couple weeks that I wouldn't need to take xanax anymore, but doesn't seem to be the case. I took a tricyclic AD back in the 90s and took xanax only in the very beginning but find that with SSRIs you seem to need Xanax for longer. Luckily, it's only a very small dose that I'm taking. thanks again for your reply.

wolfpup

natty - i also take lexapro and xanax. this has been my routine since august.
but i found it interesting that my appetite is like yours. i cannot even begin to think about eating during the day. i usually dont get hungry until the evening.