upping Lexapro dosage

Hi everyone. I have been on 10 mg Lexapro since January. I had a bit of a breakdown today... work stress finally got to be too much for me and I gave my two weeks notice and then spent the afternoon unable to stop crying (and I'm normally not a crier).

I went to a doctor this afternoon (emerg b/c my doc wasn't available until Tuesday). He ordered me to stay away from work tomorrow and do some non-work-related things because he is worried about my mental health.

So, he suggested that I should increase my Lexapro to 20 mg. He said that the side effects I have been getting from it (brain fog and ADD-like symptoms -- trouble focusing, feeling disorganized, feeling hyper, having sudden dips in mood [going into a black hole] every afternoon around 2pm) were signs that I was on too low a dose. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm afraid that if I up my dose those things will just get WORSE. He said the opposite is true. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I'm meeting with someone who may have a new job offer for me next week. I'm worried about changing meds (don't want to get worse) because I want the meeting to go well. I'm also worried, however, about keeping my dose at the current level because the doctor thinks I need an increase to snap me out of this crying jag/freak out I'm going through.

honey, i don't know anything about Lexapro but i support you in all that you do.........i'll talk to you later by message........

how did the day go today????? love ya, pat

I went from 10 to 20 to 30 fairly quickly...so I didn't feel a lot side effects.

Yes 30 is of level prescription...no insurance carrier allowed it...He had samples...when it ran out we switch to the general of Wellbutrin...

I'm thinking of you...

Hi Juliana,

I am on 10 mg of lexapro but I don't think that 20 is all that unusual. Interesting that you crash at 2 pm because I get anxious usually in the afternoon at around 3 or 4 and pdoc asked me what time the anxiety usually hits.

Go for it. Good luck & hope you are feeling better soon.

around four p.m., i really get anxious.....isn't that interesting about the timing?

Thanks so much for the replies and support everywhere. I think I'm going to give it a try. I think I'll start with 15mg and see how that goes first.

After 3 years on meds, I'm having some frustration about all of this. Shouldn't I be getting better instead of worse? I thought by now I would be DECREASING not INCREASING my meds.

Just needed to whine a bit. ;-) Having a feeling-sorry-for-myself evening.

Hi,

i've been using Lexapro for about 2 months. After a month my doctor upped my dosage from 10 to 20 because I still had a bit of anxiety.

Now, I feel really depressed and unhappy with life. I'm going to make another appointment with him b/c I think I'm on the wrong medication. I also miss a lot of dosages so I'm wondering if that is the result too....

I've been on meds for 3 years now too. I got off one because I like to drink and couldn't take it and it had a lot of sexual side effects. I just wish I didn't need drugs at all.

I'm going to look into natural herbs and diet changes to help me out.

I was on 15mg Lexapro and things were okay except that I'd have one huge swing upward from around 10am to 3pm and then I'd crash really badly (depressed, tired, anxious). My doc suggested upping it to 20mg but that just made me really anxious and have concentration problems. He relized that Lexapro wasn't working well for me so he switched me to Welbutrin which worked really well for me. My suggestion is try with the upped dose, if you don't like it you can always tell your doctor that and go back down, or you could discuss the options of switching to a different med, since it sounds like this one isn't working very well for you.

Good luck

I was on different meds but I was getting a post-lunch crash where I felt like I can't go on any more. I wondered if it was an accentuation of the normal post-lunch dip in energy. Now have different meds and a cup of coffee at lunchtime.