Lexapro.. Advice please!

Hi everyone, I'm a 21 year old female. For as long as I can remember, I've had a huge fear of throwing up. When I was in elementary school, I saw a therapist for a couple months because I had a constant fear every day that I was going to be sick. The anxiety went away and my life was pretty normal.

I still had some panic attacks here and there, they would usually occur when my stomach hurt because I would get really scared that I was gonna be sick. The panic attacks would last 2 hours at the most and then I would be fine.

For the past couple years, I've been having trouble with my stomach. I was having 4-6 bowel movements a day. Never diarrhea, just normal bowel movements but sometimes a soft and looser stool. It seemed like I would usually have a bowel movement 1-2 hours after having dairy. If I didn't have a bowel movement, I would get abdominal pain and cramping. This happened almost every day and it was completely normal for me and it didn't bother me. I was eating pretty much everything, but I was staying away from milk because that seemed to bother me the most. I had a pretty good feeling I was lactose intolerant since it runs in my family too.

about a month and a half ago I was dealing with the stress of studying for finals and I was going through a rough patch with my boyfriend. I was just stressed out and it took a toll on me. I then started going to the bathroom only once a day which was not normal for me. I was out at the store with my sister one day and my stomach started feeling weird and I needed to get to a bathroom ASAP. I had a very loose bowel movement and still felt a little weird after I left the bathroom. This caused me to have a major panic attack while I was out. I asked my sister if we could go home because I just wanted to be in the comfort of my own home while I was going through this panic attack. I got home and went to the bathroom once more and couldn't shake my anxiety for the rest of the day.

Since that day I haven't been the same. I haven't been able to get rid of this anxiety or constant fear that my stomach is going to feel like that again. Because of this, I've lost my appetite and have basically been afraid to eat anything because I don't know what's going to bother my stomach. Ever since all this anxiety started, I've been having terrible gas pains every night and every morning. I'm still only going to the bathroom once a day.

I visited my doctor a couple days after the anxiety started and he put me on .5 xanax which I've been taking either .25-.5 almost every day just to get through the day. My gas pains got worse so I went back to visit him and told him that my stomachs been bothering me. He was pretty much trying to tell me it was all in my head and had me stay away from lactose and gluten for a week. I had blood work done for gluten and everything came back negative so I've been eating that again. I still haven't had any lactose but I'm still having gas and occasional nausea every day which isn't helping my anxiety.

I decided to go to a different doctor because I wasn't getting anywhere with my other one. I visited this new doctor yesterday and she's been really helpful. She did some bloodwork yesterday to test for several food allergies and some other stuff. She scheduled me for an abdominal ultrasound next week and I have an appointment with a GI in 3 weeks.

Sorry for such a long post! Long story short, she wasn't very happy that my other doctor just handed me a prescription for xanax like it was nothing and she prescribed me 10 mg of Lexapro. To say the least, I'm nervous as hell to start this medication. I don't want to believe that I need medication to get better, I want to do this on my own.. I just don't know how.

I've read stories online that it takes 3-4 weeks for people to start feeling better after starting Lexapro. Reading their stories I've also realized that my anxiety is nowhere near as intense as some of the stories I've read. I don't know if I should go on this medication. Honestly, I don't know if I need something like this. Maybe I'm just in denial but I don't want to feel worse before I feel better. I just wish I could get through this on my own.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

rSrg.

I hope that you get the answers that you need really soon. Did your doctor bring up the possibility of this being stress induced IBS?

Your Rx may allow your stress levels to come down enough for your symptoms to subside...and you could find that you may be able to discontinue it, once you learn and put coping/therapy skills into practice to manage your anxiety.;)

Try not to think of it as a permanent thing...but if you doctor is recommending it, I would give it consideration.

Best of luck in whatever you decide...and know that we support you always!

S.C.

Here I am holding the Lexapro pill and scared to death to take it. I just want to get better on my own, I don't want to believe that I need a pill to get me back to my happy life. Need advice please :(

I've read that a lot of people start out on 5mg and I'm supposed to be taking 10mg. I'm only 90 pounds and I've never taken AD's before so I'm really scared.

Ps: and yes, the GI problems can definetly be all caused by stess! I've learned that the hard way. Evidently they say our "gut" is directly linked to our brain and is considered our second brain. Our gut has more serotonin receptors than our brainin our head does! So treating one will help the other.

Just try and remember that these SE will pass. And try and do something to distract you from thinking about them. But if it gets too much then the .25 xanax will help. I think it helps to listen to motivational " you can overcome" type you-tubes too, by using guided imagery. Again, I started at 5mg so that's an option too. But hopefully you'll only have a day or so of this, so keep positive!!

I'm highly considering stopping the Lexapro :( even if these side effects go away within a week, I can't imagine suffering for that long. I'm afraid to take it in the morning because then I have to deal with the SE throughout the day when I have things to do like go to work.


I'm considering maybe just stopping all the meds and seeing a psychologist?? Idk what to do :(

Thanks SC. I just wish I knew what the right option was :( but I certainly know that I don't want to experience what I went through last night again.

My parents have been getting really frustrated with me because of this whole situation and I know they're going to be even more frustrated when I tell them I don't want to keep taking the medicine. My dad thinks it will be good for me because I have anxiety and depression right now but I have depression BECAUSE I have anxiety :(
This whole situation is just terrible.

Cinlov14 said...
I'm pretty sure everyone here can relate. Anxiety has a way of getting into all forms of our lives. But, it doesn't have to. Consider talking to a professional just to get some skills to move through it if you feel that will help. There are so many ways to treat it, talking to a professional, holistic ways, nutrition, excersise , and then medication can be an option too. Just to get to the end result of bring happy it's worth it for you to try all options. You'll find the right fit! Just note: sometimes when I'm
working during the day, I don't feel the SE as much as I do when I'm home "thinking about it". So SC's suggestion of taking lexapro in the a.m might really help. For me, today I feel sooooo much better already and it's only the 7th day. I take 5mg and I'll stay with it for a few weeks to see if I have to go up. But like you, I did have one bad night, but I got through it. If I can, anyone can! I hope you find the right solution for you! Cyn

Thanks Cyn, I just want more than anything to naturally get through this. I've always been such a happy, positive, fun, goofy person and it's like anxiety took all of that from me within one day. I still sit here a month and a half later and can't believe I'm in the state of mind that I'm in. I would've never thought I would go through something like this. I've always had anxiety but like I've said before, it never lasted more than 2 hours. I just don't know what happened and I think that's what's bothering me the most, is that I can't find an explanation as to why I'm going through this.

I pray every night that I can just get through this already. When I took the meds last night, within 20 minutes I felt extremely dizzy and loopy and then fell asleep on the couch. I like shot up out of my sleep and realized that I had fallen asleep and went to my bed. I had been so tired all day and then suddenly it's like I was wide awake. I was having cold sweats, rapid heartbeat, muscle spasms/twitches. It was so scary and not an experience that I ever want to have again. I felt so completely out of it and not myself at all. I got out of bed feeling so tired and nauseous this morning. I had actually felt better before even taking this medicine.

I sort of feel trapped right now, just don't know what to do :(

Thanks Cyn.

I've been thinking a lot today and I think my anxiety might be stemmed from depression. Is that possible?

The day before my anxiety started I was with my boyfriend. We had been trying to plan a trip to Florida and stay at his grandparents condo because they come up north in the summer. I had been getting really excited about it, going online and looking up plane tickets, looking at zoos and aquariums to go to. I had been dealing with a long and stressful semester because I was pushing myself to make deans list. I just wanted to have the best summer. Plus I had been trying to find an internship for the summer and had no luck which kinda brought me down because I graduate next May and it seemed like this summer was my last hope.

Also, since I'm graduating next May, this was my last summer break so I really just wanted to have a good time. My boyfriend seemed to keep stalling about Florida though. Every time I would mention it, he would kind of shrug it off. I called him one day while he was at work because I found really cheap plane tickets and didn't want to lose the good price. He seemed extremely uninterested on the phone and said that he needed to talk to his grandparents first because they rent the condo out to a couple when they're not there and need to see what dates are available. I just said okay and days would go by and he would keep saying "I talked to them, just waiting for them to talk to the couple" and I waited and waited. My parents knew everything that was going on and were sketched out, they knew something was going on. But my boyfriend kept telling me he was just waiting to hear from his grandparents blah blah blah.

This one morning (actually, the morning before my anxiety started) I was taking him to IHOP for breakfast. I was kinda in a bad mood to start with because I knew I was gonna confront him that day. So about 5 minutes into the car ride I turned to him and asked if he was hiding something from me about Florida. He said no and got really pissed off. He told me to stop breaking his balls about Florida and that his grandparents are old and he can't keep bothering them. I was a little taken back about how mad he got.. We finally get into the IHOP parking lot and he turns to me and goes "I have something to tell you... We can't go to Florida." I was so upset. His reasoning was that we can't stay there alone unless we're 25+??? Which also doesn't make sense but I was so crushed. He told me that he found out a little over a week ago but he didn't want to tell me because he didn't want to hurt me. So he was basically stringing me along for a week telling me that he was waiting to hear from his grandparents when he already knew the truth. I started crying my eyes out. He's never lied to me before so I was really hurt by that and because my hopes of going to Florida this summer were basically crushed because there's no way I can afford to pay for a hotel.

I remember coming home that day and sitting on my floor and just crying. Could this be why I'm dealing with all this anxiety?

Thank you for that post Cyn. When all this started, I felt so helpless and alone. It's good to be able to talk to people and have them listen. That's usually what makes me feel better, is having someone listen to my problems. So thank you, for listening.

A couple weeks after me finding out I couldn't go to Florida, my boyfriend told me he was going to New Jersey and staying with his family for Memorial Day weekend. The whole trip he was being very sketchy and distant. Looooong story short, I found out he was in Vegas instead with a friend. Even when I knew he was lying, he was still trying to lie to me saying that he was in New York with his cousin until he finally couldn't lie anymore and told me he was in Vegas. His excuse, again, was that he didn't want to hurt me. He didn't want me to think that we weren't going to Florida because he was going to Vegas. And of course, that was the first thing that came to my head when I found out the truth. That was the last straw and we've been broken up since, still talking and seeing each other here and there. His excuse keeps being that he didn't want to hurt me but he was hurting me more by lying to me!

It just sucks because he was my first boyfriend and I was his first girlfriend. I had talked to boys before but they always hurt me before it even got to the dating stage. He was different, such a sweet and caring person. I had put him up on such a high pedestal and thought so highly of him and I think that's why I'm so hurt because I never expected any of this from him.

I just got off the phone with an EAP counselor and she referred me to a therapist so I'm gonna give them a call and hope that they call back and I can finally be on my way to getting my life back.

I just don't want to start all over again with someone new. We were together for 2.5 years. It sucks that I had to break up with him because he lied, not because feelings were lost or because we don't care about each other anymore. Because we still do. Well I know that I still do, kinda hard to tell how he's feeling.

I actually love that phrase "this too shall pass" and another one of my favorites is "be strong now because it will get better, it might be stormy now but it can't rain forever" :)

I was just sitting outside enjoying the nice weather, something I would normally do because I love summer and the warm weather. The therapist called back while I was outside! Didn't think she'd call back so soon but she left a message and said she'll call again later, so hopefully she does. I really hope therapy will help me get through this without medication. Is that possible?

Thank you for sharing your experience Cyn :)

I hope this is a step toward me recovering and enjoying life again. I can't wait to be my happy self like I used to be because I sure do miss it. I want to enjoy my summer break while I still can. I can't wait to have my appetite back too, I've lost way too much weight for such a little person.

I pray to God this therapy works for me!

Praying for you too! I'm confident once you take a direction to get a little help you'll be on your way!! Think positive and do some reading while you wait for your first appt. It helps. But only read the "good /positive" stories! :) There's millions out there! And I'm sure you'll be yourself again soon and be one of them!! Keep in touch! Xo