# Lexapro reaction



## citizenerased1987 (Oct 17, 2009)

Ok, so a few weeks ago my pdoc prescribed 10mg lexapro and said i would have no side effects because it was a low dose. 3 hours after taken the first tablet I had what felt like a heart attack, my legs and hands were shaking violently and my heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest. For the following week I was completely manic, constantly moving, could not sleep and my mind was racing. After a week the severe panic attacks returned (felt like heart attack) so bad that I literally could not not sleep with constant tremors and sensation running up and down my body. All the while my heart felt reallt sore, anyway after a furthur week I stopped takning lexapro and all the problems went away. I was just wondering has anyone experienced this before or do you think it might have been serotonin syndrome or was it just a normal reaction to a ssri. I am asking because there seems to be a few people on this forum who know a lot about pharmacology and med related stuff,
cheers for any responces guys


----------



## citizenerased1987 (Oct 17, 2009)

No,
Just me then, ok


----------



## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

citizenerased1987 said:


> No,
> Just me then, ok


lol sorry man...i coulda answered this one earlier, but i was playing Halo! 2 for 5 hours straight....Lol. i feel like crap... to much halo is not good

yeah i got many of those symptoms also on lexapro, when i was just starting. Its really weird, but it is a common reaction to SSRIs. they make you nauseous, dioriented, dizzy, and all this other stuff.... lots of the those weird side effects will go away after about 2 or 3 weeks. but then, some people get new side effects, such as apathy, Sexual dysfunction, and other stuff..... i don't think it was serotonin syndrome. one time, i took only half a 10mg lexapro pill, thinking it wouldnt do anything. then about 2 hours later, i got all the stuff you are mentioning...i felt totally awful. it went away overnight.....but the next day i had a mix between emotional flatness/this weird kind of happy (not manic) but light headed feeling, as if i was happier but i couldn't really tell.... i didn't have any reason to get Serotonin syndrome....

some people get no side effects, but some people like me, get TONs of side effects on SSRIs. SSRIs like lexapro and paxil made me so crazy, messed up, and unable to think, that i did tons of crazy embarassing stuff just to feel emotion/ feel normal....i got an energy drink can, and i carried it around my whole school, asking people to lick the can. more than 50 people licked/kissed the can...i counted....but i didnt tell them that other people had licked it, until after they already had licked it themselves....and i did a ton of other stupid stuff like that. .... SSRIs suck. but they can help a whole lot....but they still are absolutely terrible (in my opinion). they saved my life....but ..:no :sus :wtf


----------



## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

dont feel bad though cuz nobody answered your question sooner though.....its not because no one cares....its just because there are 100s of these kinds of posts, about SSRIs doing really weird stuff. It is predictable...many people will feel like crap and will be really disoriented after starting SSRIs...and most people aren't at all prepared for such effects. It is completely normal to feel like you are posessed by a demon/ something else when you start an SSRI. Not everyone feels this way,...but i assure you, you are not the only one.


----------



## ecotec83 (Sep 7, 2009)

Fairly normal reaction, wellbutrin did the same to me when i first took it. I had such side effects like hallucinations, restless legs, anxiety attacks, twitching body, not sleeping for days and even being paranoid about everything including my parents. I was so on edge it wasn't funny. You might be very sensitive to meds, it might be worth a shot to cut the pills in half of quaters and work up slowly to 10mg. I had to do that at first on lexapro as well and it really helped.


----------



## citizenerased1987 (Oct 17, 2009)

Ok, thanks for replying, its kinda put my mind at ease.(I thought it was just me who had this reaction).
I had since stopped taking the lexapro but the panic attacks are continuing.
I think i might start again but with a quater pill for a few days just too ease me in (maybe i am just sensitive to the meds).
Its annoying because my doc actually told me there would definitely be no side effects at this dose (what a *******, lol).


----------



## ecotec83 (Sep 7, 2009)

Doctors love to say that, but honestly they should know better. Even someone without medical training know that everyone reacts differently to medications. I was always really bad for it. Some people take 40+mg of lexapro and i'm only taking the starting dose of 10mg and i dont think i need to go any higher. It took me about 3 weeks to work up to 10mg, did 1/4 for a week, then 1/2 for a week and finally worked up to a full pill in the third week.


----------



## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

ecotec83 said:


> Doctors love to say that, but honestly they should know better. Even someone without medical training know that everyone reacts differently to medications. I was always really bad for it. Some people take 40+mg of lexapro and i'm only taking the starting dose of 10mg and i dont think i need to go any higher. It took me about 3 weeks to work up to 10mg, did 1/4 for a week, then 1/2 for a week and finally worked up to a full pill in the third week.


i did the same thing with Parnate,, im super sensitive to meds also...like many people on Parnate go up to 30-60 mg in a matter of days, without any problems, but i get really intense side effects from just 10mg. The smallest dose seems to work best for me, while minimizing side effects


----------



## ecotec83 (Sep 7, 2009)

Vini Vidi Vici said:


> i did the same thing with Parnate,, im super sensitive to meds also...like many people on Parnate go up to 30-60 mg in a matter of days, without any problems, but i get really intense side effects from just 10mg. The smallest dose seems to work best for me, while minimizing side effects


You should have seen me on remeron. Middle of making supper, popped a 10mg pill, 10 minutes later i could hardly stand/move and melted into the couch for a few hours. One pill was all i took of that. Almost wonder if my doctor gave me a sedative, lol :sus


----------



## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

ecotec83 said:


> You should have seen me on remeron. Middle of making supper, popped a 10mg pill, 10 minutes later i could hardly stand/move and melted into the couch for a few hours. One pill was all i took of that. Almost wonder if my doctor gave me a sedative, lol :sus


A 30mg pill of Remeron makes me stumble around like I'm drunk, way worse than even high dose benzos for me (eg 8mg klonopin, 5mg Xanax, etc). The stuff can be crazy...

That'd be tolerable for me, but the next-day grogginess and the constant eating make the med totally unacceptable for me.

Odd because I've taken max-dose SSRIs without any sort of working up and no real side effects at all except some jaw clenching, benzos barely affect me, and even a max-dose tricyclic (seemingly notorious for side effects) didn't bother me. Even street drugs seem to take me a lot more than others to get to the same level, but Remeron for some reason kicks my *** (and the atypical anti-psychotics I've tried do too.) Now that I think about it, I seem to be pretty sensitive to antihistaminergic effects.


----------



## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

meyaj said:


> A 30mg pill of Remeron makes me stumble around like I'm drunk, way worse than even high dose benzos for me (eg 8mg klonopin, 5mg Xanax, etc). The stuff can be crazy...
> 
> That'd be tolerable for me, but the next-day grogginess and the constant eating make the med totally unacceptable for me.


I agree, 30 mg of remeron is enough to knock me cold, when I was on 60 mg I was like a living zombie. One odd thing I've actually noticed since going down to 15 mg is that the incredibly vivd dreams have vanished.

I agree the next day grogginess sucks incredibly badly, unfortunately it's the only sleeping pill that my docs willing to prescribe . I personally refer to it as a 'sleeping pill' because it has no antidepressant effect on me, infact it actually CAUSES me an increase in depression, lethargy, and loss of motivation/interest in daily activities, which last time I checked could be a definition of depression.


----------



## ecotec83 (Sep 7, 2009)

meyaj said:


> but Remeron for some reason kicks my *** (and the atypical anti-psychotics I've tried do too.) Now that I think about it, I seem to be pretty sensitive to antihistaminergic effects.


I have problems with the atyipical anti-depressants like remeron and wellbutrin, side effects galore. Most ssri's just give me the normal sexual side effects in 2 days or do nothing what so ever. Thankfully lexapro strikes a nice balance between working and the sexual side effects that made me stop some other meds.


----------



## citizenerased1987 (Oct 17, 2009)

well, all I can say is that lexapro = pure evil:afr (in a small tablet form):clap:clap


----------



## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

citizenerased1987 said:


> well, all I can say is that lexapro = pure evil:afr (in a small tablet form):clap:clap


its amazing...these pretty, cute little tablets. what they can do. some can cause intense agony, while others can cause euphoria, Unlimited Empathy, and an extreme desire to Make lists


----------



## citizenerased1987 (Oct 17, 2009)

I completely underestimated the power of these things.
I regret ever going near it, depession was paradise compared to how I am feeling now:afr
I will be reluctant to ever try any form of anti depressant ever again.


----------



## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

citizenerased1987 said:


> I completely underestimated the power of these things.
> I regret ever going near it, depession was paradise compared to how I am feeling now:afr
> I will be reluctant to ever try any form of anti depressant ever again.


dude i completely understand ....like completely. I was really depressed, thought, oh ill take half a pill of lexapro. so awful, i never knew how i forgot how bad it was the last time i took it. Its like i keep forgetting what SSRIs feel like. lol.

dude u gotta try something else. SSRIs prevent the Reuptake of Serotonin, thats why they feel so terrible. You gotta go with an antidepressant that doesnt do that. ....some you could go for, that aren't SSRIs/SNRIs........Wellbutrin, mirtazapine, mianserin, tianpetine, agomelatine, Adderral, Ritalin, MAOIs ..pretty much anything that isnt an SSRI/SNRI is gonna be different and might work without making you feel horrible. SSRI+Wellbutrin, or SSRI + Adderral/Concerta/Dexedrine works alot better for me. Its the only way to make SSRIs tolerable.


----------



## Positive (Jun 29, 2009)

Why is everyone hating this?

Give it some time. Doctors say these are 'newer' and 'cleaner'. But like most drugs, and w/ these anxiety conditions, a lot is trial an error.

I went from Beta Blockers to Benzo and now this. Hopefully this works. I haven't tried it yet. But at any moment if I get very bad reactions, I will switch out.

Keep strong.


----------



## ecotec83 (Sep 7, 2009)

I completely understand how you feel. I had such a bad experience with Wellbutrin when it was first prescribed that i hesitated for a month before i eve tried the lexapro i was given. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right medication and there will be some bad experiences along the way but when you find one that helps it's worth it.


----------



## sergio (Nov 21, 2009)

I'm taking 20mg daily and had same clenching of the teeth to begin with, about 8 wks ago, now just delayed orgasm.


----------



## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

The definitely is NOT a typical reaction to Lexapro. In fact, after a decade of reading anxiety forums I've never before heard of anything like that happening. And, yes, I have tried Lexapro (didn't work for me).


----------



## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

Manic episodes from an SSRI often suggests some sort of bipolar disorder. Most likely bipolar 2 if you haven't had any SERIOUS episodes in the past.


----------



## OSB (Jul 26, 2009)

I had a similar reaction to Lexapro, but perhaps not quite as intense as yours. It increased my anxiety 10x in the first month or so & my whole body seemed to 'buzz' and my mind didnt stop racing, also had numerous panic attacks. I kept taking it for 2 months despite this, and things calmed down somewhat but were still worse than normal. Things got better once I tapered off it.


----------

