Starting with Lexapro (escitalopram) - Need Support

After much resistance on my part, I finally agreed to start taking medication to cope with the anxiety disorder that has taken over my life lately.

I'm taking the generic form of Lexapro, escitalopram. The doctor wanted me to start at 10mg, but agreed to 5mg due to my concerns with starting the meds. She warned me I might get headaches or nausea, but that the side effects of Lexapro are mild. The escitalopram immediately made me feel weird and jittery within hours of first of taking it. After a horrible panic attack on day 3, I now take Ativan 0.5mg twice a day to deal with the increased anxiety.

Now I'm on day 7 of 5mg escitalopram and daily Ativan and I'm so miserable. I have unbearable agitation and anxiety and sadness from late morning to the afternoon every day. This is so much worse than before the medication. The doctor says shouldn't happen, but happens rarely, and that I should try it for another week before stopping. Has anyone else has awful agitation/anxiety/mood swings upon starting escitalopram and will it ever go away? I really want to give this a chance, but I am just so miserable.

Post Edited (lumpycomforter) : 7/13/2015 11:03:24 AM (GMT-6)

Thank you for the support! Hearing your thoughts gives me hope.

I had taken Prozac for adjustment disorder almost a decade ago (when I was 18-19) and don't remember any significant side effects of beginning treatment so I've been feeling discouraged by my experience with Lexapro since I was so hopeful about the medication. Of course, I was dealing with a depressive mood and not anxiety at the time. And I wouldn't go back to Prozac due to how flat and unmotivated it made me feel (took myself off after 6 months). Anxiety disorder is so debilitating. I can't wait to get my life back.

Hello!

I am on day 40 of 5mg of Lexapro (generic kind like you!).  I can tell you the first couple weeks I felt jittery and increased anxiety.  I was going to quit, but I kept reading good reviews.  I'm still not where I would like to be, but the headaches (which lasted about 25-30 days) are now gone and the jitteriness is gone.  I still have slight anxiety every day, so I'm going back to my doctor on Friday to see about an increase to 10mg.  I have found that my intrusive thoughts (which is what I was struggling with in the beginning) are easier to brush off and I no longer have to take Xanax in order to calm myself.  The medication, along with mindfulness and breathing, are helping it.  I did get bad insomnia when I started, so I switched to taking the medication in the mornings and taking melatonin at night (instead of Xanax) to help me sleep.  Much better!  Try and stick it out.  I know what you're going through and I promise it will get better.  It might take a couple weeks to really start feeling the effects, like others have said, but its worth it. 

You are almost there, hang in there. Lexapro is suppose to be among the best SSRI's. The first week is the toughest and things will start to get better and better from there.
I am on 20mg. I have heard the worst the start up is, the better the medication will work for you in the future. My start up was not that bad and I still have some anxiety even on 20mg, but getting support from here, therapy and socialization with friends and family helps.
Do you see a therapist?

Yes!! I would say the first 2-3 weeks I would feel much better in the evenings and like you, would wake up in the morning feeling more anxious. It does get better though. I started to wake up feeling good and less anxious as the days passed. Not to say I still don't have my bad mornings, but they are few and far between so I know it's doing doing something right! I hope after the doctor says its ok to increase my dosage, it will get me where I would like to be. Hang in there! You're doing good :)

The first three weeks I was on lexapro were hell for me. I was having daily panic attacks. Then weeks four and five I felt my regular anxiety from before I started. about halfway through the fifth week I started to feel some relief. Takes a while but stick it out! Better to wait it out and get results then going back to hopeless!

Hi Artharvey10

I see this is your first post well done on reaching out to others and welcome to the forum you will find good support here.

Feel free to start your own thread anytime.

I am pleased to here the escitalopram is working well for you now I hope you continue to see improvements.

Hibee

Hello granitegirl and Welcome to the anxiety forum, I'm happy you found us but sorry that you are experiencing anxiety.

It is true that you might get some side effects from increasing your dose, but then again there is a chance you won't. You'll never know unless you take that leap and take a chance and increase it. 5mg is a very low dose and you're probably missing out on feeling better by not increasing. Side effects suck, but usually they only last a couple of weeks, and then start to get better. If you could stick with it thru the side effects, you will come out the other side.

I wish there was a magic pill to cure us all too, but sadly there isn't and what works for one might not work for the next. It is all about trial and error when it comes to finding the right medicine that works for us.

What coping skills do you use to treat your anxiety? Are you in therapy or have you been in therapy? I can better help you if I know the answers to these questions.

In the meantime, Please consider starting a thread of your own, by clicking on the Post New Topic button on the upper left of the forum. Since you posted in an existing thread alot of people will miss your post and not be able to welcome you, by making your own post more people will see it and be able to help and encourage you.

I look forward to getting to know you better, know that we are like one big happy family here and we care and understand, many friendships are formed here so stick around and I'm sure you'll make friends too.

Also check out the top thread on the forum, titled Anxiety/Panic Resources for a lot of helpful links on coping skills and other information on anxiety.

This is my anxiety speaking I'm sure, but now on day 10 of 5mg (still having anxiety/jittery/mood swing side effects, but slowly getting better maybe?) I'm starting to have doubts about the medication itself.

I was on a low dose of Prozac for depression about a decade ago, and I went off of it after about 6 months because I hated how emotionally numb I felt. I had little interest in my friends, my boyfriend, food, all the things I used to enjoy. I couldn't really laugh or feel giddy or feel joy. I've heard elsewhere that people who have this experience of "emotional numbing" with one SSRI will have this experience with all SSRIs. I want help with anxiety, but I don't want to go back into that emotionless haze. Does anyone have any words of support from personal experience?

Lumpycomforter,

I'm still having side effects of 5mg on Lexapro and I'm day 43. They are MUCH MUCH milder than they were in the beginning and much more tolerable. I think for me, I just need to increase my dose to get the full effect, but I still get jittery, still have anxiety, but I am so much better then I was 43 days ago. Hang in there! Our bodies work in different ways. And even with some of the side effects, I'm still glad I'm on it.

Day 11 of 5mg Lexapro. I'm still jittery in the afternoon, but I'm also tapering off the lorazepam (Ativan) I was taking to deal with these side effects because I'm worried about benzo withdrawal (never gone through it -- sounds horrible).

Still uncertain about the medication, but today around noon when I was feeling weird and jittery and started my usual inadvisable googling of worst case scenarios, I started getting the feeling I get right before a panic attack but then was able to talk myself out of it before it escalated! Which is HUGE. I'm been totally out of control of my panic attacks for almost this whole year! I'm assuming this is the medication? I hope so. I still feel like myself at this point of course early in the treatment, but the ability to control my obsessive negative thoughts would be wonderful.

I kind of hope 5mg will be therapeutic for me because I really don't want to deal with the crazy side effects of upping the dosage again. And as I mentioned, I fear the emotional numbing effect of SSRIs.

Thank you again everyone SO MUCH for all your support. You all really helped me through my initial adjustment period.

I'm now on day 17 of 5mg generic Lexparo and things are much better than they were when I first posted. Most of the initial side effects have faded away, and now when I start to have negative thoughts or feelings of panic I am able to rationalize them away or replace them with more positive thoughts. Therapy and Lexapro definitely should be used in conjunction for full effect.

I recently started getting extremely sleepy/groggy in the afternoon. I take Lexapro in the morning, and my NP warned me that once the insomnia side effect goes away, I might want to switch to taking it at night so I might try that if the grogginess sticks around.

So happy you are doing better and I'm glad the side effects have wore off, the worse part is behind you and only better things lay ahead.

keep us updated on your progress and keep using those coping skills.