Posted by lil' jimi on May 30, 2003, at 16:32:16
In reply to Re: Advice please... » lil' jimi, posted by Napaba on May 30, 2003, at 11:09:08
> Hi jim
>
......
> So tell me about Lexapro. I still haven't started the switch. If the side effects are as severe as those brought on by Effexor then I'm going back to the doctor. I'm not going through Effexor withdraw for nothing.
>hi Napaba!
thanks for your response to my post!
well, your's is another nail in effexor’s coffin for me .... effexor’s withdrawals are notorious; then there’s sexual side effects; et cetera .... thanks again for your input. .... (my next targeted SSRI alternative is wellbutrin.)i am blessed that our discussion of effexor is entirely speculative and that i have Zero need for a replacement SSRI ... right now anyway
this is because lexapro ”has been very good for me”! (ho, ho!) .... in fact, i have been so fortunate in my response to lex that i would not think i was even indicative of the more typical lexapro experience, but this is what it’s been like for me:
good.
march 6 i took 10mg of lex and i had some SIDE EFFECTS, which spooked me enough that i went to 5mg march 7 through april 9, when i went back up to 10 mg where i have been since ....
those SIDE EFFECTS included panic attacks, which i had never had before, grogginess, flu-like symptoms, depersonalization (“kinda trippy”), some anorgasmia, some weird hyper-awareness of my appetite (?), episodic sweats, some at night ..... all of which went away completely in 2 weeks except for the sweats, and they diminished to almost zero by about 4 weeks, although i get them very rarely now and when i do i sweat only a little .... and now that i think about it, i haven’t had any lex’ sweats in more than a week ..... so maybe that one’s gone too.
these came back, in somewhat lessened form, when i increased my dose to 10mg, for maybe a week, 2 weeks at most.... then All Better.
at about 4 or 5 weeks i began to feel therapeutic benefits from lexapro:
less irritability; less worry; less depression; less rage; more tolerance; more contentment ...(i have mild depression .... my wife asked me to tell my gp she suspected i was depressed .... my gp handed me 3 weeks of lex samples .... my problem symptom is lack of motivation/ initiative.)
lexapro has completely solved any mood disorder i had (i am way cheerful now) and improved my experience of myself (i find i am much more alert to signals from my body: food tastes better; colors are brighter ((?) or something); music has more appeal; digestion keeps me informed (?) .... good things.
however i continue to be anti-motivational .... i have an attitude disorder still, but it’s much better and much more easily tolerated. ........ so that’s where i am now.
as for lexapro: possibly lots of initial adaptation SEs, some can be severe (but not for me, really), which may last as much as 4 to 6 weeks (but much less for me) and for this it’s recommended to slowly build up from low doses to a higher dose ..... some folks who have had great lex success (see Okpolosi/Mariposa’s posts) had bad SEs for Nine Weeks ... then success.
but for the folks that lexapro works for, all SEs go away completely ..... eventually
then there are the folks who spend 10 or 12 weeks trying to adapt to lex, but suffer nausea and diarrhea every day and more .... they have to quit, because lex is not for them.(march 7th i found this board and i then read All of the posts in this lexapro thread from june of 2002 up to now ..... most valuable resource (praise to dr. bob!) ... i would not have stayed with my med were it not for finding psycho-babble!)
summary:
1) lex has adaptation SEs
2) they go away ... usually
3) no poop out has been reported
4) if it works ..... it works
5) no way to know for sure without trying it, which means dealing with 1)
6) we read that the same initial SEs are likely when quitting lex, but can be lessened by progressively decreasing the doseagei hope this helps you.... mariposa, blkvettes and i could be your poster chidren for lex ....
the thing which gets my gp going for effexor is that it effects two neurotransmitters, instead of just the serotonin levels .... we have heard that this other neurotransmitter helps motivation, see ..... but we don’t want ot go there.
thanks again for writing back ..... post again as soon as you're in the mood.
TAKE CARE!!!!!! (<grin!> to blkvettes!)
~ jim
poster:lil' jimi
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030530/msgs/230282.html