Crazy Lexapro Side Effects

Yes, start-up on Lexapro is generally no fun at all. The laundry list of start-up side effects often prompt people from continuing with what would eventually have resulted in a positive experience. None of the side effects you identified are unusual, and when I started Lexapro, most of my side effects were gone within a month or so.

Good luck, mlf231!

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it. I figured I just need to keep going with it and let my body adjust.

I can get sweaty at times during sleep and tend not to go back to sleep after getting awake.
I take 10 mg everyday.

But it helps with my anxiety as my trouble is insomnia as well.

I take generic Ambien to help me sleep.

I guess all meds have side effects.

But I continue taking it as I can't seem to find a substitute or something that works for me.

Have you contacted your doctor? This really ought to be your first step with a new drug before adjusting dosages. I am sympathetic to the intestinal issues (Crohn's Colitis) and understand how much emotional energy goes into a new med.

But yo-yoing isn't going to be effective. This is the way I see it.

A new med is new to the brain and the body--and it disrupts the normal order of business. It takes sometime to adapt,depending on the strength and the severity of symptoms. There is also another side of it--the medical efficacy of the drug. How much is necessary to positively impact the patient and treat the condition, according to a baseline determined by tests. It seems weird to us non-doctors, but sometimes more is better than less, medically speaking. But to get to the point of efficacy,you have to build the dosage up slowly. Sometimes, negative side effects lessen or go away with an increased dose.

But sometimes they don't. Rheumie put me on cymbalta. Had bad side effects at the loading dosage. Doctor doubled the amount to the efficacious dosage after a month. Negative side effects never went away, and what's more, the positive side effects (the result the drug is supposed to induce) never really happened. So, we weened down slowly and tried another drug.

I didn't want to give up on a medication that might be really effective for me without giving it the full time to become efficacious. But, although it's my body, I rely on my doctor to be the expert. My job is following her/his instructions and reporting on the effect. Yes, that is way over-simplified but it is true essentially.

My point is that your doctor knows your case, the literature, AND your history. There was a reason she/he wanted to get you to a particular dosage. Let them know what's going on, particularly if the side effects are bad or intolerable. Making changes by yourself can be a very bad habit to get into, and it is how many people get into trouble.

Update: Doctor switched me over from 10mg of Lexparo to 20mg of Fluoxetine. I was on Lexapro for about three weeks, and have been on Fluoxetine for about a week now. I've noticed that my night sweats and vivid dreams have lessened dramatically, but I am still having a lot of diarrhea on a daily basis, upwards of 6-10 times a day. I'm not too sure if it's my IBS, the Fluoxetine, or a bit of both. Either way, hoping it goes away soon because it's really annoying and making my days much more difficult than they need to be.