Not sure whats going on

I was recently diagnosed with depression and anxiety (generalized and social) and prescribed generic lexapro. The medication has been helping as I no longer feel as depressed in terms of sadness or as anxious but something still doesn't seem quite right. I have had no motivation to do any school work for around a year now. I am in graduate school so this obviously causes problems. I have no passions and my interest of working out is hard for me because I get so anxious about all my school work that I dont work out. I also get very very angry over very small things sometimes. I dont know what I hope to gain from posting this but I just wanted to get it out there because most of the time I feel trapped inside my head.

Hi,

I'm not sure that what I'm going to write so much qualifies as an answer, but from what I've gathered in the time that I've spent reading about the experiences that patients with mental health conditions have with their medications, the way that your medication is affecting you seems to be pretty common. Not everybody responds to SSRI antidepressants (and Lexapro/escitalopram is one SSRI antidepressant) in the same way, so I'm not sure that there's a such thing as a "typical" SSRI response, but I'd definitely say that the sort of response that you're noticing doesn't seem to be unusual. Without a doubt, both the benefits and the drawbacks of any medications that we might take for the mental health conditions that we have are things that we have to keep paying attention to, and when the negative effects of any medications that we might take become difficult to tolerate, discussing your treatment options with the professional who prescribes your medication is something that I'd most certainly advise.

At any rate, thank you for posting and for having recently joined the forums here. Sometimes just expressing our frustrations in writing can help us understand certain things that we're going through a little bit better, even if it doesn't always do much else.

Welcome and enjoy!!!

Motivation is most often lacking in my own life. When I do experience it it is generally a side effect of an upswing in emotion approaching Hypo/mania. It will go hand in hand with irritability - not a nice mix.

I am inclined to blame the medications. i am very unhappy with that but I realise it is the cost of relative stability.

Do you find this gets worse during the dark and cold winter months?

Perhaps start with small tasks - like journalling every day. Yep it's awfully hard to get motivated to do so but in my own case it took about 4wks to fall into the routine. And I try to also do some art. Again, I just didn't have the where with all at first. Both are far easier. They are great exercises for being more motivated.

Something that might help is to sechedule yourself activities. I admit I am still lousy when it comes to being spontaneous. Planning activities ahead however seems to be easier.

Im not sure the lack of motivation is related to the medication as it is something I have been struggling with for around a year now and have only been on meds for about 3 weeks. I will say that the medication has definitely helped stabilize my mood. I do not freak out over little things as bad as I did prior to starting medication. I have another psych appointment next week hopefully it will reveal more about what is going on. I think they want to check me for OCD and possibly a borderline personality disorder next.

Talk to your GP about this and check that this is not a physical condition.

It can take 6 weeks or more before SSRIs are at therapeutic level. Hang in there. In the meantime, can you do things to pamper yourself? Self-care during this time is essential.

I think most of the meds keep us down. Almost all the ones I've been slow me down. It sucks the motivation out of you.

Thank you for explaining. I somehow incorrectly assumed that you had been taking your medication for longer than the three weeks than you've been taking it for, so your explanation helps. I agree with the statement that was made in this thread that said that it can take six weeks (or sometimes longer) for the full therapeutic benefits of antidepressants to take effect, and I'd recommend giving the medication that you're taking longer to see if you might notice more beneficial effects with more time. It might still be the case that what you've been noticing as far as motivation has been concerned isn't something that your medication will help with, and looking into other approaches that might help you to feel more motivated (such as doing some of the things that another poster here suggested) would probably be worth looking into regardless as to how much your medication might eventually help with motivation. But it's also possible that once you move a few weeks farther into your antidepressant trial, your medication might help you in ways that it's not yet helping you with.

I wish you luck with your treatment as you go forward.

It takes a while to bounce back to "you" even if the meds are working fine and you feel well. Be patient with yourself, and DO pamper yourself. Give it a few more weeks for the med to get optimum in your system. Do tell your doc if you have unpleasant side effects or unusual thoughts, or don't feel like you are getting better.