New here - mistake with Lexapro dose

Hi everyone, I have just joined up here and I have to say, you all seem like a really nice and supportive bunch of people. I've got anxiety, PTSD and OCD and some depression. All of those except OCD diagnosed years ago and OCD just diagnosed earlier this year. I see a doctor, counselor and just started seeing a psychiatrist, but in a bad coincidence, I won't be able to talk to any of them until next week.

I've been on Lexapro 5mg once a day in the mornings for 2 weeks. I was meant to increase to 10mg in 2 weeks. Last night I was preparing all my pills for the morning... contraceptive pill, pain management, vitamins and Lexapro. I've been cutting a 10mg pill in half, because 10mg is the lowest dose available in my country. Unfortunately it's about the same size, shape and color as my vitamin D/calcium pill, which I realised I forgot to take that day. So you can guess how this story ends. I feel really stupid, but I took a 10mg Lexapro, on top of the 5mg I had that morning, and... yeah, it wasn't a good night. Insomnia, nausea, and really high anxiety. This is after two weeks where I felt my anxiety was slightly better because of the Lexapro... I know, 5mg for two weeks is a very low dose and short duration to start to feel any effect, but I had been feeling a little better in the 2nd week.

Anyway, I'm basically OK. It was too late to call my psych or my doctor, but I went to a pharmacy and was advised to skip my 5mg dose this morning and start taking 10mg tomorrow morning. This is what I'm going to do. But today I feel so tired and out of it. Just bad. And anxiety is ramped right up again. And I know I'm in for another bad night. I just feel really anxious for making that mistake.

I guess I'm asking for some encouragement to keep going with the Lexapro. Like I said, even though it's so soon and such a small dose, I could feel it starting to help a little. I had a really tough experience with Effexor a few years ago, so I'm pretty scared.

I'm also wondering if anyone wants to share any experiences of what it's like when you increase Lexapro? I don't really have anyone in my life who's taken meds for mental health stuff who I can ask. Ironically I do have a bit of education in the field of psychology, but it mostly just means I understand this stuff in a theoretical way, I haven't experienced it myself before.

Also does anyone else have any tips for what to do if you take an extra dose by mistake?

Well, this got really long... thanks in advance for any replies.

Hi

First of all welcome to the forum I am pleased you have found us as you will find good support here from others who can relate to what you are going through.

Sorry to hear you have been dealing with anxiety it is a tough thing to deal with but it sounds like you have taken all the right steps.

Lexapro is IMO the best of the SSRI's and works well on anxiety but it is a very activating antidepressant so its best to take it first thing in the morning to avoid insomnia if taken later. The target dose for Lexapro when dealing with anxiety is 10mg and the max dose is 20mg so you don't need to worry by taking an extra dose as you have not gone over the max dose. Your pharmacist has given you good advice and I would follow what they say.

When you increase a dose it can make things a bit worse to begin with but things soon settle back down again so stick with it. It's important to remember that antidepressants will only help ease your symptoms so it's important to use self help and talking therapies alongside medication.

Stay with us and keep us posted we are here to support you.

Hibee

Aw your welcome HW

It certainly does help to know that you are not alone 😊

Keep us posted x

Thanks Scaredy Cat and Gilly!

My update is that I took my first 10mg dose this morning at ~5.30am. I've been taking the 5mg at exactly 7am every morning, but I was awake at 5.30 this morning anyway, and so I took it then. The half-life of Lexapro is 27-32 hours, so I figured taking it a bit early would be better. It was about 31 hours after my last dose, so even though that's on the outside, I thought it would be worth it, rather than waiting until 7am. Tomorrow I'll take my dose at 6.30am and the next day and from then on at 7am, to get back into the same pattern.

The last two nights were really bad. Racing thoughts and anxiety through the roof on the first night, I think even worse than my normal anxiety at it's worst. Then last night very groggy, but still finding it hard to sleep, and hyper alertness, which I also normally get, but this felt worse. And terrible head aches, argh.

On the other hand, I did get through it and after taking my pill today I do feel a little better. I got up so early and spent a few hours brainstorming about what to do and decided I'll stick with Lexapro on the 10mg. But I'm going to make some changes so I never double dose by mistake again. I'm going to mark on my phone calendar and a physical calendar after I take my pill, and get a weekly pill box. I'll also prepare all my daily pills in the morning, when I'm feeling alert. It might be better to start taking my other pills and vitamins in the morning too, so I'm not even really dealing with any pills at night.

Thanks again for all your support, people! I really appreciate it.

And Scaredy Cat, I like that Corrie Ten Boom quote a lot, so true... but so hard to remember in the moment

I've taken Lexapro for a few years now and usually take two 5mg doses per day, for a total of 10mg.

Sometimes I take a total of 5mg (forget one of the doses) and occasionally take 15mg (forget and take an extra).

From what my pdoc has said, Lexapro works by slowing building up in your body over time; in short if you take an extra dose or miss one, aside from some temporary issues, it doesn't adversely impact your system. The key is to generally keep the same daily dose going on average, say 10mg. Some meds leave the body quickly, but I don't think Lexapro is one and, like I said, it takes a while to build up too, so daily variations should be ok, as long as you are generally consistent.

I remember jumping up from 2.5mg to 10mg shortly after taking it and that was a big increase (4x dose), but surprisingly after a few days I could handle it and felt better because it was a therapeutic dose.

Also, as I've been on it longer, I hardly notice it when I take an extra one or miss a dose, unless I haven't taken it for several days, which occasionally happens.

Hang in there!

No problem, glad you found the information helpful.

I split the dose as 10mg all at once can be a bit activating for me, especially as I drink some coffee in the morning. I found that if I take 5mg in the morning and then another 5mg right after lunch I'm good. I try to avoid taking it at night, although lately my body doesn't seem to mind it, even when I take some (5mg) a few hours before bed.

And I don't get have my doc give me the 5mg pills, I get the 10mg ones and cut them in half with some scissors...I don't think insurance will pay for 60 5mg pills for one month's time.