Senior Member (female)
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 264
| Lexapro Round 2-my story
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...
Last edited by msmod; 12-13-2006 at 12:31 PM.
Reason: Always use proper language. Ms_Mod
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