Anxiety Problems, also a few questions on antidepressants!?

I take Lexapro too, and my reaction when I started to take it was quite the opposite: It made me sleep a lot, 30 min after I took a pill I was asleep and it made me very calm while I was really stressed and nervous before. What I want to say by that is that people react differently to the same medication and what is good for one person is not necessarily good for the next. There are many different antidepressants available and if you have really problems with side effects, talk to your doctor and he should try a different one. Another thing is that in the first weeks when you start to take a new antidepressant, there are often side effects that go away when you get used to the medicine and it starts to work (for antidepressants it can take up to 2 months until they fully work). Lexapro and many other antidepressants are also anti-anxiety drugs, Lexapro is intended for use against depression, anxiety disorders, panic disorders and OCD. Read the package leaflet, I'm not sure what it says in the US (because I'm in Ireland), but I remember I read in it that it's possible that panic and anxiety get worse when you start treatment which is a side effect that should go away after some weeks. But if these side effects are so grave for you, I really don't see why you should take Lexapro when there are so many other antidepressants available. If you feel your doctor ignores your concerns and you don't trust him, consider looking for someone else.

When I first started taking ADs, I freaked out as well. I literally made myself stay up all night which was really counterproductive! Of course I felt like crap the next day. But it was b/c of the action I took, not the medication. The best advice I can give about having a bad exp that coincides with trying a new med, is to try the med again. If you live alone, is it possible for you to stay over with a friend or loved one? That way, if anything happens, they can help talk you down from the panic.

I personally wouldn't suggest taking any other meds until you're used to this. If you're so freaked out about taking the medication, that you need another medication, maybe the best thing to do is to talk to your doctor about why you're so afraid of the medication! I don't know that taking another one would help that much.

You most likely won't see any results from the Lexapro for a few weeks but you're going to be a mess if you can't sleep til then! You might want to try taking a mild sleep med in the meantime. A good natural one is Melatonin and a good OTC one is Unisom Sleep Meds, but you may have to try different ones to see what works for you. Whatever you take, try the lowest possible does at first and if you still can't sleep, try a little more. I hope this helps and I wish you luck!

Here is all you need to know about why you should not go on antidepressants About 10 years ago, the medical school at the University of Utah began to notice a large number of cadavers coming in (for the medical students to work on) which had indented and calcified frontal lobes in their brains. Puzzled by this, they went through the life history of each cadaver that had this anomaly, and discovered that in every case, the person had been on SSRI antidepressants. The level of brain damage indicated that each of the cadavers had been psychologically sterilized. The people who drew the connection between the calcified and collapsed frontal lobes (the part of the brain which contains your soul) and antidepressants received offers of money to keep it secret, and when they chose to go public anyway, received anonymous death threats against their families and children if they ever went public. I have seen many people get destroyed by antidepressants, all the while they said all was well. Invariably they go down the toilet as they eventually move toward complete and total emotional and personality flatline. I guess that is good if you are an employer, but if it happens to a wife, mother or father it's horrific beyond belief. Google "brain zaps" and see what comes up. Also google "antidepressants corkscrew axons". Get to the other side of the issue; it is a simple fact of the matter that not all people in the medical community or government care about you or anyone else.

Starting and stopping a medicine is only going to make things worse for you. You should stay on the Lexapro and have the doctor monitor you. It sounds like you have associated it, like you said, with a panic attack. You can take anti anxiety pills too while on it. It doesn't hurt. You'll be ok. Just do not start and stop taking pills. It will mess up your mind.

I took lexpro for 2 weeks for my PPD and i was worse on it. Its different for everyone. Just talk to your doc