lexapro

Hi. Lexapro is the first and only medication I've ever taken for my anxiety/depression, and I only took one 10mg pill. This was yesterday...

I thought I was going to die. My heart was racing and pounding, my pupils were hugely dilated and my eyes felt like they were gonna pop out of my head (even a day after, my eyes are still sore). I had blurry vision, nausea, chills, and my arms and hands felt numb. I felt grindy like I had taken an overdose of some sort of speed. My head felt floaty and disconnected and I had a hard time focusing...

So I called my doctor this morning and was informed through an "advice nurse", since I wasn't able to speak directly with my doctor, that she wanted me to continue taking the lexapro, that I was feeling like I was because it was changing my brain chemistry and that she wanted me to take Klonopin for the next week or so while I adjusted to the medication.

I told her there was no way in hell I would put another pill of that stuff into my body. It literally felt like poison.
If it had been mild, or even moderate side effects, I would have been willing to try, but this just felt so wrong.

Has anyone else had a severe reaction anything similar to mine?
At this point I'm terrified to try anything else. If I have this kind of reaction to one, it makes me wonder if this whole class of drugs is off limits to me?

Any thoughts would be so appreciated.

Not personally , but a close friend tried Lexapro and her description of how she felt is really close to how you describe yours ! Like you, she was told to continue it - and she actually did for 3 days, along with quite a bit of Ativan, and finally said enough is enough! SHe gave it the 4 days cause she is new med phobic and was afraid some of her "side effects" were from her fear of having side effects (anxiety can do that to us for sure). They changed her to Wellbutrin and she is doing great now.

ALmost all meds give up some nasty side effects when we start them, but WE have a right to decide whether we want to continue feeling 1000 times worse for a week or so ! From what you describe, I know I would not take another dose - even though I know many who take it and the side effects went away and they are glad they stuck it out. I am sorry it made you feel so bad, and hope they can find another medication that will not give you such side effects !

I too am taking Lexapro and it made me feel great, had kind of a feeling of butterflies in my stomach at first but it eased up. Every now and then I still have them. However, I am on several meds for B/P disorder so maybe my chemistry was already in limbo. The Lexapro has helped me regain myself though and I wouldn't stop taking it now for anything. I have tried several antidepressants and could not tolerate the side effects. Not so with this one. Hope you find what works but don't give up hope. Feeling better is the one thing I yearned for when I finally got the Lexapro.

I had an equally severe reaction to Zoloft, after only a few doses. Was told to stop taking it immediately, was then given Lithium, one dose of that made me really sick, so I did not continue.

I've also had a bad reaction to St. John's Wort, an herb with some similiar properties.

But now I am trying Lexapro, nearly three weeks so far, and no problems. My guess is that you also can find success with another drug, definitely continue to pay good attention to your response, and in my opinion, you can chalk Lexapro up to a no go. I think that advice nurse is silly.

Sarah

God, it's such a relief to hear other people's experiences. Thanks so much for sharing, I feel a lot better knowing I'm not alone.
Tomorrow I talk to my doctor directly. So, hopefully we'll figure something out that will work a lot better for me.

I've been taking it for a couple of months now and my doc started me on a 1/2 dose for 4 days and then told me step up to a full dose. I couldn't sleep when I took the full dose so I reverted back to 1/2 dose until this week.

I'm having a much easier time with the full dose now and I can only attribute that to the "stepping system" approach my doctor used. Maybe you could ask your doctor about this.

Missi

While uncommon, these effects do happen to some people taking Lexapro. I might suggest Paxil (won't make you anxious as long as you don't stop it suddenly), or Remeron. Both of these occasionally increase appetite but won't give you the type of initial reaction you had. Don't take Celexa either, as it is a slightly "messier" version of Lexapro and you would have the same reaction. As Paxil is an SSRI antidepressant it may be a better anxiety medicine. I current ly have a patient on Lexapro that we have had to adjust her dosage in increments of 1/4 of a 10mg tablet for exactly the effects you mentioned. Don't feel too bad!

I have been taking Lexapro for 5 months now and it is the best thing that ever happened to me! Side effects were that I was EXHAUSTED for the first 3 months, but in retrospect I had been seriously sleep-deprived for years before my doctor prescribed it. I now sleep much more than I ever used to, but I'm not exhausted anymore. I recently started having nightmares almost nightly and switched to taking Lexapro in the morning instead of before bed, and that seems to have helped a bit, although you never know what triggers a nightmare.

I took lexapro for anxirty/stress. I was extremely tired. Had I wanted to cry, I could have. The thing I hated was that it made me feel like I was having a heart attach. my left arm would ache and my chest would hurt. My heart would race and I would be sick at my stomach.
I stopped taking it. It was too scary for me

Well, I'm starting buspar.
I ended up going to another Doctor, and since I had such a severe reaction to the lexapro, she wanted to try something out of the whole SSRI class of medications. So, we'll see how it goes. I'll let you guys know...

Thanks everybody for sharing and supporting and all that. I really appreciate it.

Hi. I too, just took my first dose of Lexapro earlier today (Tuesday), and had the exact same symptoms you describe. It was just like a Panic Attack. I have never heard of this happening with just one pill - but a couple of years ago I took one dose of Neurontin and had the dry heaves within 20 minutes.... needless to say, I never took another one.

I think I might stick with the Lexipro, but cut them in half, to make them 5mgs instead.... lessen the side effects.