Be careful of your Dr.

I have been posting on here, I was switching from paxil to lexapro b/c my dr. thought it would be best, I came in once complaining about being extra tired, and the second time I told him the paxil hasn't been working like it usually does every now and the I get a little dizzy or panic spell, nothing I couldn't handle, it just usually doesn't happen, He the said well lets try the NEW and BETTER DRUG out LEXAPRO, I always do what the dr. says and figured it was for the best. The past 4 weeks have been the worst of my life, I've been sick to my stomach, had the worst anxiety attacks you can think of and finally had to go to the emergency room today b/c I was throwing up so bad the past couple of days I was dehydrated and just needed to see a diff. dr. I was sick of mine, I've seen my dr. 3 times in the past month and he pretty much said stick it out, it's not that bad, you'll come around or I can test you w/ this other medicine, Effexor, and maybe you will be better, maybe not, You can imagine how that made me feel, Anyway so I went to the emergency room, talked to the dr. for 20 min. and he had everything figured out
The lexapro was just not agreeing w/ my body, so stop it, here's the good part,
You probably shouldn't of got off the paxil after what you described to me, 4yrs. is a long time for a med. to do you good and just give out on you. Many things should've been done first, I was on an average dose so he said it could've been increased or lowered and see how I did, but the most important thing to look at is what is going on in your life, after thinking I might have been a little stressed at work and a simple cure, like a couple days off could've worked, I had no idea it could be so bad getting on a new med. I've been on the same one for so long, all he said was 2 to 4 weeks to start working good w/ AA/AD drug. I've almost lost my job over this and all I'm trying to say is research what you're getting into before you make a change or get a second opinion. you really could save yourself a lot of pain. I'm going back to paxil and never back to that dr., I bet he gets a perk from these pharmaceutical companies for how many new Rx come from him when a new drug comes out.

Bayou

Good Morning and I am sorry you are feeling so frustrated re your meds.

May I add a note here, IMHO, I would like to say that ER physicians are just that.  They are trained in emergency medicine and certified in trauma care. All of them are MDs but they are not Psychiatrists. They are not the experts in the field of prescribing psych drugs. Neither is your family medicine physcian. 

I have personally gone through the same as you and I was on Lexapro but everyone is different and I did not react to the drug as you did. When I first saw my Psychiatrist, she made me a list of the drugs she would like me to try and with each one she wrote the side-effects as well as we talked about the lag time for them to kick in.

I made the decision which ones I would consider and which I would not. It took us to the 4th med until we found one that worked.  My old med had pooped out too and we did try increasing the dose and doing blood draws for levels to make sure it was in the right range.  I am not knocking your ER physician as I love most ER Docs but keep an open mind on all the Docs you see.  They are humans and some are better than others.

They cannot cure us with a magic pill, they can only help us to the best of their knowledge.

Again, I am sorry you have been feeling so sick and I pray that things improve for you soon.  I do care and support you. :)

Gentle Hugs

I was having all the bad effects said above on lexapro, I do believe I will be o.k. back on the paxil, It's going to take a couple of weeks before I can see a therapist, It was just a little stress at work, Its a hot summer too, I'll be fine as soon as the paxil has time to work. Thanks everyone, I'm hoping my body takes back to the paxil quick. I have a lot on my plate, I have to be back working in Sept. and I have a semester of school to finish coming up too, This whole deal couldn't of came at a worse time, but I have to keep positive, I finally got the courage to tell everyone in my family and friends about my condition and I'm finally going to see a therapist, I always just keep everything to myself before, I was too embarrassed.

i still get anxiety attacks on lexapro is that normal, paxil works better to get rid of them?

Thanks I appreciate it, I took my first paxil dose today and I feel better already, I know its not the med. it's just me knowing I'll be back normal again, My family and friends have been real supportive, I was stupid to not include them before. I'm going to try to get out of the house more, I believe it helps and I have to go back to work mon.
so I believe I need to work up to getting out more again, the past two days I've went to the supermarket and other places, I think keeping busy gives me less time to come up w/ things in my head to make me sick.