Side effects when starting Lexapro

Hello all. I am on my 4th day of Lexapro (10mg).  It is giving me insomnia.  I have trouble falling asleep, and then when I do fall asleep I wake up at 2am or thereabout and stay up for an hour and a half before I can fall asleep again.  Last night I took .25mg Xanax and that helped me sleep (not a great night's sleep; but better).  But I really don't want to take a lot of Xanax.  The Lexapro is also making me jittery, which is pretty uncomfortable -- especially because I am tired from bad sleep.  I sort of feel like I drank 6 cups of coffee, but am still tired. 

Have others had these effects?  Any idea how long it will last?  Really makes it hard to get through a work day.

 

Sorry you're not feeling too great, hope that it subsides. :)

Those are pretty common side effects of the medications, and happens when you first start taking it and often when you try and stop taking them as well. If you're still having problems weeks later, then you may need to try a different medication. Even though this sounds normal, I would still encourage you to mention it to your doctor and just put out there any concerns you have.

Hope you feel better. :)

Sounds like a good thing to try. It helps me. And melatonin is natural.

Best wishes on getting some sleep.

Hugs, Karen

Tried the melatonin (3mg) last night. I managed to fall asleep but was up much of the night. Now I am exhausted and feeling jittery. I really don't want to quit the Lexapro before it can do any good, but I don't know how much longer I can put up with the side effects of insomnia and that nervous/jittery feeling during the day.

Thanks Packer. My doc told me to try 3mg melatonin and then I could go up to 6 if necessary. The 3mg helped me fall asleep (or, in any event, I did fall asleep -- don't know if it was becuase of the melatonin or not), but then I got up during the night and could not fall back asleep. When morning came, i needed 2 cups of coffee to function. Doctor said I could use both melatonin and xanax. But I really hate taking all this different stuff! I think tonight i will just try .25 mg xanax and see how that does. I never before fully appreciated the value of a good night's sleep! I still wonder how long the Lexapro side effects will last. I guess nobody can say for sure. What is typical? We are going on a vacation pretty soon and I sure hope they have gone away by then!

Hey medved,

I did post to you in A & P as I understand how you are feeling.  Just wanted to check and see if you are taking the Lexapro in the morning or if you have asked your Dr. to cut back your Lexapro dose to 5mg and then increase it very slowly once your body adjusts to this medication.

You have my support and remember we know where your coming from and what your going through.

Kindly,

Kitt

 

If I ask the doc to reduce me from 10 mg to 5mg Lexapro, should I expect push back? Maybe that is a ridiculous question because it depends on the doctor and the patient, etc. But all this is very new to me. First time with a pdoc. I could see more concern about a patient who wants to increase a dosage than reduce it. But what the h... do I know?

Thanks for checking, Packer.  Last night I took xanax and got about 6.5 hours sleep.  But I felt terrible this morning -- very jittery, exhuasted.  I really need to get this under control.  I have a call into my doc to see if he can move my Thursday appointment to today.  I think I want to reduce the Lexapro from 10mg to 5mg and try that.  I hope it does not cause withdrawal type symptoms (that's all I need!) -- but hopefully it won't after only one week.

Thanks Karen. Yes, the day is getting better. I drank some coffee this morning and it perked me up a little. I must say I don't much like the cycle of taking a drug at night to enable me to sleep and then another "drug" (caffeine) in the morning to wake me up. But that's where I am right now.

I am hoping the doctor will agree to allow me to try 5mg Lexapro, and that this will give me the help I need (along with therapy) without the side effects.

Is it typical to have a therapist (psychologist) who is separate from the psychiatrist?  I have not really discussed that with my psychiatrist, since only seen him twice so far.  All he said is that we would meet every week, initially, and then maybe every other week and see how it goes.  I have heard that many psychiatrists these days are mostly into psychopharmacology (med management) rather than therapy.  I guess my preference, though, would be to have one person rather than two. 

 

Just came across this forum and found it very helpful to hear that I'm not alone with some of the issues discussed above. I started on Lexapro 5 days ago with an initial 5mg dosage. Didn't initially fare well as it seemed to increase my anxiety which was probably my body's reaction to a new drug. On the 3rd day, I tried the full 10mg dose which was a huge mistake and made for an absolutely miserable day. Thus, I've since cut back to 5mg and taking it slowly and systematically....even though it might delay the desired results. I take my dosage in the am (4:30-5:00a) which is when my symptoms awake me. However, I'll take between .5mg - .75mg of Xanax which help me fall back to sleep. To date, the worst period of time for me from a side effect standpoint is from early morning to mid-afternoon. After that, my symptoms fade which I'm assuming is due to that day's dose tapering somewhat. I, myself, will have a few beers each evening along with a Rusty Nail which really helps me sleep. As one of you already pointed out, lack of sleep makes for an even more miserable recovery process. Good health to all.

Thanks, Karen.

Hi Jmarg,

Welcome to the depression forum. I stopped my sleeping pills and do meditation to get to sleep. This might help you too, plus with the anxiety. Or you may need additional medication for anxiety.

Either way I hope you get restful sleep soon,

Hugs, Karen...