Posted by painter8 on June 18, 2003, at 16:35:06
A little background. I'm pretty sure I suffered from anxiety for at least 14 years before I understood what it was. Finally I had a massive episode that landed me in the ER thinking I was going to die. About two years ago I was diagnosed with MPGN type II which is a Non-transplantable kidney disease that will have me on some type of dialysis in the future. My blood pressure is deadly-high if not controlled. Other than Lexapro I am on Avapro 300mg, Plendil, Atenolol, and I take Xanax only when needed, which isn't often. Ball all that info up and throw it at a marriage and you end up with a volitale situation. One year ago my marriage ended and I sank into the worst depression I have ever known. Finally at the end of November 2002 I went to the Doctor who saw me immediately (Family Friend) and he prescribed Lexapro 10mg. I took it the evening around midnight. The next day a business lunch was planned in the city about two hours away. During lunch I started feeling dizzy and out of body. I could suddenly smell everything in the restaraunt and could see everything very vividly. I noticed a man with a bad toupee on and a very young woman that was obviously NOT his daughter. I wanted to rip the toupee off and beat him with it. I am in business with three family members and they seemed to be babbling and I couldn't concentrate. My breathing got labored so I stepped outside for some fresh air. This felt like a major panic attack. I was worried that the Lexapro was interacting with my BP meds, and it spiraled out of control from there. I started sweating and pacing. I borrowed my uncle's cell phone and called my doctor while we were in a sporting goods store after lunch. I explained what was going on. At this point my pupuls were dialated and looked HUGE in the mirror. The Dr. told me that Lexapro could have these side effects and to calm down. I was told that these symptoms would subside in a couple of days. By this time I was getting some visual distortions that were addind a purple and blue sheen to everything. Sort of an irridescence. Everything seemed to be buzzing or humming with electricity. If I didn't know better I would have sworn that someone had slipped me some LSD or maybe some MDMA, which would have been cool if it wasn't so darned unexpected. The next day these symptoms persisted, but I was able to stay at home with some good albums. By this time I felt a supercharge of energy and used it to be productive and clean the house with rest breaks to drink lots of water. The music sounded really nice and my mood was supremely elevated. I felt happy for the first time in years. For the following two days (a weekend) I was on top of the world. Christmas was coming up, the first in many years without my family, and I sailed through it in high spirits. During these initial months I did suffer from a difficulty in acheiving an erection or climax. I didn't really care, actually.
Around March of 2003 much of the initial magic of Lexapro was wearing off. I was experiencing more frequent lows and the energy was wearing off. The Dr. took me from 10mg to 20mg and some of the magic returned. My mood elevated, I felt a rise in energy and a happy buzz ensued. All sexual side effects were gone by this time.
It is now late June and the buzz is wearing off again and has been this way for a few weeks. I have tried self medicating by taking 20mg in the morning and 20mg before going to bed. The next evening I am zooming and feeling a little queesy. So I have tried chopping a pill in half to take 20mg in the morning and 10mg at night. This puts me right about where I want to be. Not queesy, but in good spirits and with lots of energy. I am going to pass this info on to my Dr. and see if I can get bumped to 30mg soon. In the meantime I am still at 20mg so I don't run out of pills by the end of the month. One pickle in the lemonade might be that I had a knee injury and was prescribed 7.5 Vicodin about three weeks ago. I stayed pretty doped up for about three days on the Vicodin and have used it about once every two days since because moving around seems to aggravate my knee and exhausts the muscles. The wicked reputation of Vicodin caused me to dump half the scrip in the toilet immediately and just have enough to "play through the pain" so to speak. I don't intend to take any more after a week or so.
Except having to up my dosage every three months or so and some bouts of the runs, I have had no other side effects such as headaches, nausea, etc. and my anxiety attacks are much more controllable and not nearly as intense as they were before taking Lexapro.
poster:painter8
thread:234855
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030614/msgs/234855.html