According to the very basic research I just did on this, at two web sites that you could have checked yourself, Lexapro can cause cardiovascular changes, especially in higher doses. So, it could be dangerous to your heart, it can raise your blood pressure, it can lenthen your QT interval -- which can lead to sudden death from cardiac irregularities -- and it can cause retinal abnormalities in laboratory test animals. It can also interact with drugs like aspirin and ibruprofen to put you at risk of abnormal bleeding or even stroke. None of those sound too good to me.

If you're really looking for something to make you feel better, and you know that taking more of the drugs isn't going to do anything more than make you feel as if somthing is different, how about looking for something safer? Are you in therapy? That could be wonderful for you -- and much safer than "messing around" with the drugs you're taking.

Let me ask you this: when you have a headache, what do you take for it? Do you take aspirin? How much? Are you of the "if two tablets are recommended for headache, I'll take four because this is a really bad headache" school of thought? If so, rethink that. Taking the recommended or prescribed dose is the best idea, because there are often points at which raising the dose does not increase the benefits. For Lexapro, while the prescribed dose may be a bit higher, the point of diminishing return is about 20mgs. You're already taking more than that, and that's about as much good as you can get out of it.

I'm sorry if this isn't what you want to hear. There are drugs I can see taking more of than prescribed, under certain circumstances, but never anti-depressants. No matter what the TV commercials tell you, these are very serious drugs, that have a lot of different effects in the body. What's more, so little is known of how they actually work that no one can really tell you the long term effects of taking them so irresponsibly.

I do hope you'll tell your prescribing doctor that you've been doing this. This is serious behavior, and it should affect the way your treatment is approached.