Lexapro for anxiety... My daily experience with it.

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I'm on my 3rd day of lexapro, 5mg for anxiety. I've not had issues with this for ages but it's back now and got pretty bad recently so I got help from my dr. He prescribed Lexapro & Lorazapam. I took the lorazapam the 1st 2 nights and slept GREAT, woke feeling great too, had no anxiety through the day AT ALL. Mine seems to be worse in mornings. I also have a thyroid issue which is what my dr thinks may be behind my having anxiety now and I'll be working with another doctor to deal with that in the coming weeks.

day 1, no side effects except for a couple urges to puke... were over quick though and i didn't puke.

day 2, I noticed I was not thinking about negative things... possibly placebo effect since so early on. 3 hours after taking it, i got a little sleepy/drowsy that lasted for about 4 -1/2 hours then completely went away and I felt normal, pretty good.

day 3, took it at 2 PM. 3 hours and 26 minutes later, I started to feel tired, muscles felt a little weird, kind of a mild burning/fatigued feeling. I layed down and it got a little more intense. I got up and did things around the house and though I was tired the weird muscle feelings went away. As long as I stayed up doing things it was vague aside from feeling sleepy and mildly dizzy off and on. I also had the urge the puke again a few times but this doesn't seem to be a problem cause it lasted only a few seconRAB each time. Overall the feelings today were worse than yesterday but all passed after about 3 - 1/2 hours, including the sleepiness. As for anxiety, I did have some this morning but it was short lived. I did not take the lorazapam at bed as I had been doing the first 2 days. It's 11:23PM right now and I don't feel bad, don't feel great... No big aha moment as of yet. I think I'll skip the lorazapam again tonight and see what happens in the morning. If I wake with anxiety again, I'll take it the next night and see if I wake feeling ok.
 
day 4. I did wake this morning with some mild anxiety & took .25mg lorazapam and went back to sleep for a bit then woke not having it.
I'm going to take lexapro a little later tonight so the whole sleepy spell hits AFTER I'm asleep. We'll see what happens.... Hope it goes better than yesterday.
 
Very cool. SounRAB like you may have found the right timing for your medication. Keep a diary of the situation. With some trending, you may be able to find the right mix and timing of the medication.
 
Do you have constant problem sleeping or staying asleep at night? I had the exact same problem and started using Restoril. Its in the same family at Ativan and Klonopin (benzodiazepine), except it has a longer lasting effect 8 to 10 hours.
 
I've had off and on issues with being able to fall asleep for a long time now.

Tonight is the first time I've taken lexapro at night though so we'll see if it keeps me up or not. I plan to sleep at midnight. I took the lexapro at 11PM and the weird feelings and sleepiness so far has not kicked in till about 3 hours after taking it so that will be around 2AM. I hope I sleep through it and it's good and over by the time I wake.
 
one thing i forgot to mention..... i did sweat a bit last night and today. i read that can be a temp side effect of lexapro. so far it's not been a constant thing. just off and on.

On the up side of things... Today, I noticed that as the day went on, I was more patient with everyone and everything, handled things more calmly, with ease emotionally. Didn't seem to be bothered or nervy over stress and have enjoyed my interactions with family more. Caught myself smiling a bit more.

I have a toddler that's going through the temper tantrum faze. Before today, it would make me feel a bit stressed and I'd get a little bit of chest pain, you know when you're sitting there and say, something loud falls or someone screams in your face, how you get a bit of shock, or feel jumpy for a second or two when you're an anxious person and we get a bit fixated on the physical symptoms then they escalate into anxiety... Tonight, it didn't happen at all. I was as cool as a cucuraber. So far I still have a normal range of emotions... Just more "normal" ranther than all over the place and anxious.

Speaking of anxious.... Aside from a few minutes this morning when I woke, I have not felt anxious one bit today.

I'll be taking lexapro tonight at 10:30PM instead of 11:00PM to see if maybe that'll help as far as giving a little bit more time for side effects to wear off before I wake.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and to see how I feel............:)
 
Day 6. What a morning... I woke expecting to have anxiety as I have for the last nearly 3 weeks straight and there was none at all. It never came. I woke around 8AM, layed there for 1/2 hour just knowing it was coming.... but it didn't.... Not even a slightly rapid heart beat... nada. I have not taken lorazapam for I think, what, 2 days now? Can't remeraber but I think 2 days so it has nothing to do with the benzo for sure. I got up, made food, ate, fed my son and then my aunt came over to keep an eye on my son for me for a few hours so I can get some things I need to do done.

There's been a few things trying to test my nerves this morning and I've been patient, got through it, no biggie. Like the internet was down... I've been on the phone with the company, plugging and unplugging things for the last hour. This usually annoys and stresses me out. Today, I'd give it a 1 on a scale of 1 - 10 and that was only near the end of a long hour. Big progress for me.

I didn't wake sweaty as I did the night before. Have felt no side effects so far today. It's 10:07AM.

It's too early to tell how the rest of my day will go. I'll write more later tonight before bed.... So far, so good.
 
Day 5. Last night I took lexapro 5mg around 11PM. I couldn't fall asleep till about 2AM. I didn't notice any feelings of the side effects. I slept pretty good but woke around 8:30AM and had anxiety for just a few minutes this time and it went away so that was great. It's 1:23PM and so far I'm feeling normal, no moodiness, no anxiety, no high or low energy, just normal and level all around so maybe this med is going to help after all. Still a little early to tell but we'll see.............

One thing's for sure... Taking it at night a couple hours before bed, for me, was way better than taking it in the day because I didn't feel any side effects as I had doing it in the day.
 
The end of day 6.

Around noon I got a little tired, yawning a lot... probably from only getting 5 hours of sleep last night. I slept a couple hours around 5pm and had a terrible nightmare.

It was so vivid, I thought I was awake in the dream, my mouth was very dry, I lost my voice but was trying to scream for my husband but only a whisper would come out, was twisted up in the sheets, couldn't get up, the lights wouldn't turn on, my cell phone died as I was dialing my husband who I could hear with my son in the other room and then I acutally did wake up and was fine in the exact spot I just dreamed all the above. What a WEIRD dream. It took me a minute after I woke to figure out it was just a dream because it was so real to me. Scared me enough to almost say -forget this lexapro crap!! But after I got up, I was over it although I was a little uneasy taking my lexapro tonight at 11pm due to possible bad vivid dreams like that.

Other than the very vivid nightmare, I was a litle tired today, no sweating as before. I had a GREAT morning but after noon was just nothing to brag about. No anxiety at all today, no obsessing/worry/etc... My mind and thoughts have been level and ok today as well as no anxious body sensations.

Guess I'm another day closer to finding out if this is the one for me or not.

We'll see..........
 
That sounRAB like a "night terror" Remeraber to keep documenting this and go over it with your doctor.

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