Posted by bozeman on January 9, 2003, at 23:27:43
In reply to Lexapro comments, posted by wally on January 9, 2003, at 2:22:56
I took the opposite route from yours -- therapeutic treatment for nearly twenty years, where I resolved a lot of issues but could not shake the melancholy, "oversensitivity" and "worries too much" phenomena. This is my first real time on antidepressants (I'm very stubborn, insisted I could fix my problems without drugs, took tricyclics very briefly during a particular crisis fifteen years ago because I wasn't sleeping a wink, after about three weeks when I started getting rest I went off them again). My doctor said Lexapro would help me through this particularly stressful time in my life and help with my obsessional tendencies, which are always exacerbated by stress.
She started me on just 5 mg for eight days (said it would make me too sleepy to jump in at 10 mg, recommended I take it at bedtime for that reason) and she was right, for several days I wanted to go to sleep - but could resist with no problem, just stayed busy and kept moving. Went to 10 mg after a week, and after a few days at that dose
*bam*
it was like someone rewired my brain. For the first time probably in my life I don't wake up with a pounding headache every day, and my migraines are gone. My dreams are now "normal" by other people's standards - my emotions aren't monotone any more -- I'm not jittery or wired but when something is funny, I laugh and it's not forced; when something's sad I can feel it without getting washed away by it. Didn't think I was depressed (that darn stubbornness) but I guess I was. I have more energy now, am calmer (sounds like a contradiction but believe me it's not) can handle stress better, and can finally take healthy risks (stand up to a co-worker when he's wrong without burning the bridge, when just a few weeks previously I would have let it go and been mad for a month.)I still get bouts of melancholy (for me it's a mood where everything seems hopeless, what's the point, I hate my life, why am I still HERE! etc.) but they are not as deeply pronounced as they were, and much easier to launch myself out of -- and if I don't feel like launching, if I just wait, it will pass on its own, and I'll laugh at myself for having fallen back into it.
I always believed that I had to fix my problems myself -- but this experience has made me a believer that neurochemistry really does have a life of its own, sometimes in spite of our best efforts.
I know that everyone's brain is unique and no two people will respond the same way to medication, circumstances, or to therapy. What works for some is poison to others. What I can say is, if you can adjust your medication schedule (evening instead of morning maybe?) or cut the dose temporarily until you adapt to it (with your doctor's knowledge, of course) that the side effects do seem to lessen. I don't notice them now, I just notice that I like my life again (most of the time :-) in spite of the crappy messes I've gotten myself into, and that I now feel like I can handle it and dig myself out (instead of what I wanted to do, which was dig myself into a hole and never come out.)
Good luck--
> I have been taking antidepressants for 29 years and have tried many families and brands as at some point either I acclimate to the one I'm on or better ones come along. In August I tried Celexa and suffered terrible diahrea that persisted. I switched to Lexpro after about three weeks. Because I have been taking antidepressants for so long I know that I consistently am in the small percentage that are sensitive to the "uncommon side effects". Since I have been taking Lexapro I have started suffering from migraines and severe insomnia. I also often feel muddled and unfocased.I have never had these problems before. Additionally, I also have to supplement the Lexapro with Provigal in order to have any range of "normal" emotions. I haven't read about anyone else feeling a relief from the depression but still suffering from meloncholy on Lexapro. I'll talk to my doctor about some of the sleep medications. I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks
poster:bozeman
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030106/msgs/135157.html