Too Strong for Me

[Guest guest]

My deal is GAD/PTSD with depression. I initially took 10mg of Lex at

night and couldn't sleep a wink, plus lots of anxiety. Dropped to 5

and took it in the morning. Still had a ton of anxiety. Dropped to

..25 (tricky to break those pills into quarters!) in the morning with

..5 of Klonopin up to 3 times a day. Felt great for awhile, then

realized I was still depressed and with my doc determined the only

thing working for me was the Klonopin.

Discussed with my longest term doc in NYC who was surprised by my

reaction to Lex since I'd done very well with Effexor, though I still

had anxiety issues even at 350mg of Effexor XR a day. Anywho,

switched to Cymbalta a few months ago and it seems to be working

pretty well. I'm frankly losing faith in SSRIs. I have tried so many

and have been pretty underwhelmed. They help but I've never felt

" cured " of my depression.

I must say, the Klonopin has been incredibly helpful. I've never taken

it before and it's the first anti anxiety drug I've tried that doesn't

make me high, which is important to me. BuSpar, Remeron didn't make

me high either, but they had no effect on my anxiety levles. The other

drugs in the benzo family all made me high and that was a problem.

Last, I have to say yoga and cardio may be key to managing my

PTSD/GAD. I'd much rather take a magic pill, but I'm discovering

that SSRI's just aren't magic for me, though Klonopin, a benzo, is

pretty close.

I wish you all the best. Keep fighting for your life.

[Guest guest]

Hi Brook

 

I can sympathise completely with your posting - my problem is a vicious circle

of anxiety and depression which is very hard to break out of

 

yes the benzo drugs are very effective short term  ( I find diazapam good )

but they are not usually prescribed for long term use

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine

 

I agree about yoga - I also found pilates good -  and exercise - diet

 

http://www.healthnews.com/natural-health/amino-acids/tryptophan-essential-amino-\

acid-548.html

 

relaxation tapes - meditation etc

 

however I wasn't really able to use them to start dealing with my anxiety until

I started on lexapro which really helped with the worst of my physical anxiety

symptoms

 

the point I wanted to make was that initially I had terrible side effects with

the lexapro -

it made my anxiety a lot worse  - peaking after about 2 weeks - messed up my

sleep even more than it already was - plus dry mouth and a few others BUT  they

all seemed to get better after a few weeks - although my sleep took a bit

longer - and I dont really get any side effects at all now -  I see some people

on here have been on it for 2 to 5 years

 

its often best to start on 5mg for a few weeks then increase to 10mg rather then

the other way round -  lower doses may  give you side effects but without any

improvement in your condition - I dont think 2.5 mg would be of any benefit to

most people or even 5mg - it took about 3 months on 10mg for my depression to

go completely

 

after 6 months on 10mg I dropped to 5mg and still felt pretty good - I then cut

them out and unfortunately went downhill very quickly

 

I am back on 10mg now and feel a lot better  - will probably try 6 months on

10 then 6 months on 5  - 6 months on 2.5 etc

 

lex has a reputation for being the best of the ssri's and it certainly seems to

work for me  - I resisted taking it for 3 months which I now regret

 

Mike

 

 

 

From: Brook Donovan <brookdonovan@...>

Subject: Too Strong for Me

Lexapro

Date: Friday, 12 September, 2008, 4:35 PM

My deal is GAD/PTSD with depression. I initially took 10mg of Lex at

night and couldn't sleep a wink, plus lots of anxiety. Dropped to 5

and took it in the morning. Still had a ton of anxiety. Dropped to

..25 (tricky to break those pills into quarters!) in the morning with

..5 of Klonopin up to 3 times a day. Felt great for awhile, then

realized I was still depressed and with my doc determined the only

thing working for me was the Klonopin.

Discussed with my longest term doc in NYC who was surprised by my

reaction to Lex since I'd done very well with Effexor, though I still

had anxiety issues even at 350mg of Effexor XR a day. Anywho,

switched to Cymbalta a few months ago and it seems to be working

pretty well. I'm frankly losing faith in SSRIs. I have tried so many

and have been pretty underwhelmed. They help but I've never felt

" cured " of my depression.

I must say, the Klonopin has been incredibly helpful. I've never taken

it before and it's the first anti anxiety drug I've tried that doesn't

make me high, which is important to me. BuSpar, Remeron didn't make

me high either, but they had no effect on my anxiety levles. The other

drugs in the benzo family all made me high and that was a problem.

Last, I have to say yoga and cardio may be key to managing my

PTSD/GAD. I'd much rather take a magic pill, but I'm discovering

that SSRI's just aren't magic for me, though Klonopin, a benzo, is

pretty close.

I wish you all the best. Keep fighting for your life.

[Guest guest]

My current issue isn't depression. It's simply the old anixety rearing it's

head. It started when I quit smoking in May. It got pretty intense for a bit but

finally seems to be easing off. I do take herbals and supplements and that has

certainly helped some. I'm giving my body 6 months. I don't know what 'normal'

should be anymore since I smoked for most of my life. And the last few years of

smoking I was a very heavy smoker....upwards of 5 packs a day on a really bad

day. I quit smoking May 15 and my body went ape-shit. It was almost enough to

make ya wanna start smoking again! LOL! But I got through it. Thank goodness my

other half is the kind of person he is or there's no telling if we'd have made

it through all this together. It was one of the most intense things I've been

through, mentally, emotionally and physically in my life. But I can say the

benefits far outweigh the weird parts. I feel 10 years younger at least and I

have a ton more energy. No more breathing problems.

However, my anxiety should have been relieved by quitting, when looking at it

logically because that was part of what was causing my anxiety, fear of dying

from cancer or other smoking related health problems. So in my case it truly

seems to be a chemical balance problem and partly an OCD thing...thoughts I

can't get rid of. Smoking or rather the chemicals one ingests while smoking mask

all kinds of things, blood sugar issues, thyroid issues...anything to do with

hormones and there are more than just male and female hormones. I used to be

able to go all day without eating...can't do *that* anymore. No chemicals to

mess with the blood sugar. I have to eat every 4 hours at least. At first that

felt abnormal like I was sick or something and I finally realised it's normal.

The other way was abnormal. So apparently it's caused a major shift in the brain

chemicals again. Or it could be the Chantix that triggered it. At any rate

quitting smoking was well worth whatever anxiety I'm currently dealing with.

I'm currrently taking St. 's Wort and it's worked wonderfully well for most

of my issues. I take B-vitamins and others too... Recently I keep hearing about

Sam-E so I think I'll give that a try. Gotta look and find out if mixing Sam-E

with St. 's Wort is ok or not. The anixety seems to be the last holdover I

need to get past. So if by the 6 month mark it's not gone I'll see about going

on something again short term at least.

I was fine til I quit smoking and have been off of Effexor for well over a year.

More like a year and half I think...

Barbara

Too Strong for Me

Lexapro

Date: Friday, 12 September, 2008, 4:35 PM

My deal is GAD/PTSD with depression. I initially took 10mg of Lex at

night and couldn't sleep a wink, plus lots of anxiety. Dropped to 5

and took it in the morning. Still had a ton of anxiety. Dropped to

.25 (tricky to break those pills into quarters!) in the morning with

.5 of Klonopin up to 3 times a day. Felt great for awhile, then

realized I was still depressed and with my doc determined the only

thing working for me was the Klonopin.

Discussed with my longest term doc in NYC who was surprised by my

reaction to Lex since I'd done very well with Effexor, though I still

had anxiety issues even at 350mg of Effexor XR a day. Anywho,

switched to Cymbalta a few months ago and it seems to be working

pretty well. I'm frankly losing faith in SSRIs. I have tried so many

and have been pretty underwhelmed. They help but I've never felt

" cured " of my depression.

I must say, the Klonopin has been incredibly helpful. I've never taken

it before and it's the first anti anxiety drug I've tried that doesn't

make me high, which is important to me. BuSpar, Remeron didn't make

me high either, but they had no effect on my anxiety levles. The other

drugs in the benzo family all made me high and that was a problem.

Last, I have to say yoga and cardio may be key to managing my

PTSD/GAD. I'd much rather take a magic pill, but I'm discovering

that SSRI's just aren't magic for me, though Klonopin, a benzo, is

pretty close.

I wish you all the best. Keep fighting for your life.