Increased anxiety and feeling spaced out when increasing dose of anti-depressant

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well and have had a nice weekend?

I have been on Escitapram for 8 days now at 10 mg but yesterday I ended up taking 15 mg by mistake(I thought I was taking half a sleeping tablet lol)and I felt okay-ish until yesterday evening and then anxiety was high which then leads me to feeling really spaced out and not with it which is so scary but I didn't put it down to the tablets and thought I might as well take 15 mg this morning as 5 mg extra cant be that bad but again all day I have had increased anxiety like shaking and feeling out of it and I realised that it must be the increase because I felt high anxiety when I first started the tablets last Monday and ended up going to hospital on the Tuesday evening because I felt so out of it.

Has anyone else experienced higher anxiety when upping the dose of their anti-depressant? I think I would prefer the physical symptoms of anxiety but I get it worse in my head and mind which then leads me to think I am going mad which hasn't happened yet thank God.

Really hope you are all feeling positive :)

Hey Karen,

I didnt last long did I lol, How are you?

Yeah I must admit when I have the anxiety that I tend to lose focus of my breathing and am quite tense so I do need to concentrate on the breathing more.

Weird thing was I started to feel a bit better yesterday morning just after I took the extra 5 mg but then the dose increase side effects must have affected me last night and today, I am going back to 10 mg tomorrow and will see how that goes for a while.

Have you been okay?

Sean

Hey Thundercloud,

I was wondering how you was doing too lol, sorry I decided to take a little break from this site after reading the linden method which basically stated that I was feeding my anxiety by constantly questioning it and researching it but I had to come back :)

How are you? I have been on these new tablets for just over a week now and it has been a rough week which was kind of expected but no matter how much you expect it, you never are quite ready for the higher anxiety and what that brings. I think the worst part is trying to convince yourself that your symptoms are just anxiety and depression because your mind will be running at high speed and will have you feeling like it is something more insidious.

I started to feel better a bit on Monday but I took 5mg extra by mistake on Monday and then did the same(not a mistake)yesterday morning and that has increased my anxiety and made me feel more spaced out but I am able to keep calmer because I recognise the pattern of anxiety that comes with the increase, doesnt make it much easier though lol.

I hope you are okay??

Nope. The only time I took an accidental overdose of effexor, I was anxious because I had taken an accidental overdose. A day later, all was well.

Don't overthink it. As I am so fond of saying, correlation does not imply causation. Just because things happen at or near the same time does not mean they are linked.

That being said, any overdose is dangerous and should be monitored closely.

Hi Sean,

Hang in there, I know how hard it is but hopefully the Lexapro is going to kick in soon.

Is there anything you can be doing during the day to keep busy so you'd be able to get some sleep at night?

When I have been in a deep dark depression I'd sleep all day and be awake all night, something about the daylight, could not stand it, somehow it felt like I was being tortured! my mind was mud. I was that way for months and eventually went to the Dr, only because I was in pain from a car accident. My Wellbutrin had to be almost doubled after a concussion to keep working.

It is good to try and keep busy during the day, then again I also think if someone just feels so ill it's perfectly okay to sleep whenever and hopefully the med will start working, not to push yourself too much and not to beat ourselves up over anything. When the med starts working you will be able to get back on track.

Got to take good care of yourself, are you eating well?

Try to relax (I know it's hard) try to do something you enjoy, get enough rest.

Let us know you are okay?

@seanbigshow
I am very sorry you are feeling this way. I am in the exact same situation as you right now. I am currently updosing my paxil and have had a very rough month. I have been on paxil for 11 years, and was in the process of weening off the medication. I did a slow taper and got all the way down to 5mg, then WHAM anxiety and depression hit me with full force. I went back to 10 mg for a few days and then 20mg, where I am at now. It seemed like I was doing a little better at first, but I am slowly feeling more depressed and anxious again. Like you, I am having another relapse of depression. I think all we can do is find the right medication at the right dose and let time pass and heal us. I see that you are taking escitapram. Is this the same medication you took during your earlier bouts of depression? If not, what did you take before, and why did you decide to try something else?

Hey Will thank you for your message and I am really sorry you are suffering also.

Basically when I first was diaganosed with depression I was 16 and they gave me prozac which worked fine for a few years and then I think I came off it for a while and then I went on Paxil when I had a relapse many years ago and I carried on taking this until early this year when I realised it was not working as well and I was on 50 mg per day then, so I switched to Sertaline 50 mg at first for a month and felt no different, then I went to 100 mg for another month and out of nowhere I had a bad anxiety attack and after that I felt really spaced out(which I always get after a panic attack because my brain shuts down to protect itself)so I decided out of desperation to start taking the Paxil again but 60 mg a day and it helped a little bit but I took it for about a month and was still feeling rough so I decided to give Setraline another go and went back on 100 mg a day for one week and then 150 mg after about two weeks and I stayed on that for a month but I knew it wasnt working so I went to docs and asked about Escitapram after reading good things about it online and I have been taking that for 11 days now.

Sorry that was so long winded lol....I dread upping a dose now because you normally always get higher anxiety for the first week or two but I have read so many reviews and it just tells you to stick it out because it is worth it.

How does the depression and anxiety make you feel in your head ?

Best wishes

Hey Bananas20,

Thanks for your message. I wish I had some sleeping pills right now so I could at least take one and then not have to worry about staying up hours over thinking things in my head.

I have a few of those guided mediation tracks on my laptop and I do listen sometimes but I need to be in the right frame of mind and right now I can feel the churning in my stomach again grrr...

How are you Bananas?

Do you know the most bizarre thing about all this? I have been to many job interviews in the past and never got nervous, I have jumped out of a plane before and never got nervous, I can talk to pretty much anyone in the street and not get nervous but then you get hit with this and you get anxious and nervous for no reason whatsoever lol

Seanbigshow
Good luck to you, I hope that you start feeling better. I will pray for both of us. No matter how bad it gets, do not give up hope.
Sincerely,
Will

Hi Sean,

How are you today?

No need to apologize for anything, this is a good place to be able to come and "talk" to people who truly understand what you are going through :) I find I never mention depression to anyone except my family as people just don't understand a lot of the time.

You've jumped out of a plane!!? Eeek! I would have passed out on the way up, wouldn't have got to the jumping out part!

To answer your question, when I was in the worst part of depression I could not function at all, it felt as though I was out of reality and in some kind of dream if that makes any sense. Stayed up all night and slept all day, hardly ever went outside, just couldn't do it. For me it's always that way when I'm so ill.

I didn't even like to talk (and I'm a talker:) I become a totally different person. Only when I'm on the right med and dosage do I begin to get well.

You are so right, we can't see of course inside our heads, not to take away from any physical pain but it's scary when our brains feel so off.

To also get back on track I know there are some things I have to do, eat very healthy, no junk food, go to bed at a reasonable time and read, that always helps and I nod off doing that, try to do some form of exercise even if it's going for a short walk to begin with. Kept telling myself, okay...yesterday I may not have done much but it was more than the day before so keep going.

The waiting game is hard, you're right.

Everything will be okay, some days might feel worse than others but one foot in front of the other...

Have a nice Memorial Day weekend!! hope you get some good weather, always helps.

Look after yourself and keep letting us know how you are doing? Peace....

After starting Lexapro I explained to my doctor that I felt "numb", which he said can be completely normal for a while, I guess when we suffer from anxiety and depression we are so used to feeling things that is is weird when we feel very little.