Lexapro Round 2-my story

jete23

ABout 2 and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with anxiety and panic disorder. I fought it for about 2 months, occasionally using Xanax to treat the attacks, but eventually found myself on Lexapro.

I moved out of my apartment and home to my mom's because I was convinced that I was pretty much dying and that was my comfort zone. The first day, I tried taking 10mg, but just had a horrible reaction, and bumped it down to 5. It took me probably about a month to get up to 10mg, but those first three weeks or so were hell. I had probably every symptom/side effect associated with the drug, thought it was never gonna end. and thought I was gonna end up in a strait jacket somewhere.

But, the side effects wained, and the Lex did its job. In 2 years on it, I only had 1 full blown attack, and that was about a month into taking it. Sure I had had little bouts with anxiety, but nothing that I felt I couldn;t handle.

This past May, I started to ween myself off of it. I cut the 10 into 5, and then I got Bronchitis, and felt like {REMOVED} anyway, s I just stopped all together. Even doing that, which you are so not supposed to, I felt great.

In October, I got married and went on my honeymoon to Aruba. On our last night there, we were at a hibachi place, and I started to feel anxious and overheated and very ill. I was able to calm down, but never felt right once we came back.

I was so tired. In mid November, my tooth got infected and I had to have it removed. At about the same time, I started to develop numbness in my fingers and toes, vertigo, head pains, nausea, etc. I had like 2 minor attacks, but nothing that seemed like the anixety was out of control.

Finally, last week, {REMOVED} the panic came back with a vengenance. I had convinced myself that my symptoms were not that of anxiety, but MS or something else. I spent all day yesterday and today in the ER and at the neurologist, had CT scans, bloodwork, and MRIs, for them to tell me that I needed to go back on the Lex immediately.

So, I started it tonight, and am still up at 5:50am, b/c the hellish side effects are back. Ofcourse, I am also freshly married and have been sleeping at my mom's for basically the past three weeks. At this present moment, I am SO regretting ever going off of it!

But, it makes me wonder how long I can keep taking this stuff, and have it still work. I would think that one builds up a tolerance to it, like anything else. And what happens when I want to have kids-I was off for 5 months and ok, but not 9. Has anyone taken it while pregnant, without complications to their child? Ah, the thoughts of an anxious, insomniac person at 6am...