Hi all,
Last night I took my first dose of 10mg lexapro. I woke up at 4am clenching my teeth soooo badly. Then I felt very out of it, nauseous and in a cold sweat. I slowly got out of bed but could barely focus on where I was going. I went to the bathroom, called out for help- thank god my husband came-and I literally blacked out for the amount of time it took for my husband to walk me down our hallway. I was shaking- it was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I have 4 young kids and I asked the dr for something to calm me down, make me less anxious with the kids. That scared the heck out of me!!!
Lexapro side effect nightmare- can anyone relate?
Question posted by Lana35589 on 28 March 2018
Last updated on 31 March 2018
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
Answers
WildcatVet
28 March 2018
Hi, Lana! Not too frighten you further ~ because you won't have ALL these side effects by any means and those that you do should resolve within just a few days to a week or two ~ but you might want to read this link as well as the package insert that came with your script to acquaint yourself with this medication, it's indications and usages, side effects, as well as patient reviews of it's efficacy:
https://www.drugs.com/lexapro.html
The fact is that these medications DO work very well for the majority of users, but it can take several weeks to feel the full beneficial effects. You will read that side effects resolve rather quickly and are rarely cause for discontinuing the medication.
If you have further questions or concerns consult your doctor for professional advice and please feel free to post here at any time.
Try to be patient and hang in there ~ it will get better for you every day!
WildcatVet
28 March 2018
PS, benzodiazepines are now prescribed only for short term use for severe anxiety/panic attacks because recent studies are showing that not only are they extremely habituating, but can actually cause further depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, memory loss, etc.
PharmaGenius
28 March 2018
Alot of what you said is true. However, According to all recent studies regarding (SSRIs and SNRIs) most people suffer from severe side effects and worsened symptoms and end up discontinuing the medication. The ones that do decide to keep going experience very insignificant reduce in symptoms. (All studies measure benefits after 28 days, which is when the drug would be in the appropriate amounts in the body to produce the predicted benificial response. Xanax isn’t approved by the FDA for more than 4 months of treatment, however fda approval has nothing to do with prescribing practices. Doctors still prescribe xanax as needed for alot longer period of time for the treatment of anxiety. The dependency isn’t so bad if you work with your doctor to reduce the dose slowly on a period of 1-2 months. Same as with SSRIs.
WildcatVet
28 March 2018
Documentation from scholarly journals, NAMI, NIH, etc., please?
PharmaGenius
29 March 2018
www.clinicaltrials.gov and a long time in pharmacy education and patient care.
WildcatVet
29 March 2018
" Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government." Peer reviewed and approved? I prefer documented information.
PharmaGenius
28 March 2018
Hello, Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with this medication. Any Serotonin reuptake inhibitor is known to cause side effects during the first 3-4 weeks. All lf what you described does happen to some people. If it is bearable, just wait out the couple of weeks and see if it goes away. If its not, talk to your doctor about trying a different medication. I am never really a fan of SSRIs due to the huge range of unexpected side effects ( alot of people suffer from loss of libido, increased depression) . Also what your doctor doesn’t tell you is that antidepressants RARELY WORK. In clinical trials ALL antidepressants cause an improvement in symptoms of no more than 10% of people. Also in clinical trials most of the people that see improvement in symptoms are the ones who are severly depressed or anxious (meaning they can’t get out of bed and function on most days) but not the one with mild depression or anxiety . Its a very troublesome medication. Trust me, if you take xanax instead it would be alot safer and more predictable. I did a very long research on this class of medication back when I was in school and I still keep up with the clinical trias for it up till today.
Lana35589
28 March 2018
Thank you so much for your input PharmaGenius. I really appreciate your feedback. My mild anxiety is not worth going through all that scary stuff... I’m going to have to try something else! Thank you.
Natapca
31 March 2018
Hi Lana. Did continue using the lexapro. Did you continue to have the bad reactions from the lexapro. If not. How long after the last dose of lexapro did the bad reactions stop. I took lexapro days ago and am still not feeling normal at all. My anxiety is still up way more than usual and feel weird electrical feeling in my body. I hope this goes always soon. Unfortunately for my I took it for 3 days before deciding to stop.
Related topics
lexapro, hyperhidrosis, nightmares, binge eating disorder, side effect, dosage, cold sweat, tooth
Further information
- Lexapro uses and safety info
- Lexapro prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Lexapro (detailed)
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