[jonny87]

Hey,

I was on 5mg for 3 weeks and started losing my libido and started getting anxiety and depression, and also being drowsy during the day. I thought these mayb be side effects, but my doctor upped it to 10mg as she said that she things these symptoms were because the dose wasnt high enough and so I was getting depression and anxiety back again which was in turn causing my libido to go and also for my sleep to get worse making me drowsy during the day.

Is it possible that is 5mg was not enough for me, that 10mg will work great? If I was getting depressed at 5mg I find it hard to belive that 10mg will make a dramatic difference..maybe cos I still feel a bit down and pesemistic lol

Thanks
Jonny

[Deepster]

Jonny87-

Great to see you here! First, lex is a SSRI, and like many ADs, taking it can cause libido problems. For some they pass. For some they don't. Other SEs such as sleep, drowsiness, and others will generally speaking just go away with time. For me, SSRIs just flatlined me with sexual SEs.

Something about your post makes me thing you are seeing a family doc, not a psychiatrist for treatment. Am I wrong? I ask this only because generally speaking any psychiatrist would know of the sexual SEs with regards to SSRI treatment, yet your post implies that your prescriber is either not fully qualified to treat MH issues, or you have a psych doc who has seen others that have passed the sexusal SEs with success.

If 5mg flattened your libido, I'll almost guarantee that it'll get no better on 10mg. You know you are perfectly within your rights to actually ASK your doc about this.

If you are seeing a family doc, then I suggest you seek a referral from her immediately to a psychiatrist.

Hope all works out well for you, and I know it will!

Deepster

[drewmandan]

jonny87, on Dec 10 2009, 07:48 PM, said:

Hey,

I was on 5mg for 3 weeks and started losing my libido and started getting anxiety and depression, and also being drowsy during the day. I thought these mayb be side effects, but my doctor upped it to 10mg as she said that she things these symptoms were because the dose wasnt high enough and so I was getting depression and anxiety back again which was in turn causing my libido to go and also for my sleep to get worse making me drowsy during the day.

Is it possible that is 5mg was not enough for me, that 10mg will work great? If I was getting depressed at 5mg I find it hard to belive that 10mg will make a dramatic difference..maybe cos I still feel a bit down and pesemistic lol

Thanks
Jonny

Well I respectfully disagree with your doctor's assessment. Of course, I'm not a doctor and the following is based on my personal experience and may not apply to you.

It took a solid 3-4 weeks for all the side effects to go away for me after starting Cipralex (that's Canadian for "Lexapro"), and another week or two for things to level out every time I upped dose. I don't think your side effects had anything to do with the dosage itself; rather, you just haven't waited long enough.

As for the dosage, unless you weigh 80 pounds, 5 mg is not enough. Typical dosage is between 10 and 20 for this drug, and for some people 40 is required. And don't think that just because 5 to 10 isn't a big jump, that means there's no difference. These drugs can behave non-linearly sometimes. Those 5 mg could make the difference.

As to what Deepster said, just a different take:

Everyone is different, but for me I was lucky enough to get my libido back after about 3 weeks. So it is possible. My advice: use it or lose it. A little ************* never hurt anyone :)

This post has been edited by drewmandan: 10 December 2009 - 09:39 PM

[Deepster]

Well state, drewmandan!

Deepster

[jonny87]

THanks for the replies guys,

Drewmandan, Its quite comforting that you say that a 5mg increase could help. 5mg seems like nothing but I guess it is a 100% increase. Maybe its just cos their small numbers lol. If the dosage was 50mg to 100mg increase then that somehow sounds more dramatic.

I am indeed seeing a family doc, but for once it is a doc who I have total respect for. She has sorted some other problems out such as rhinitis and a weird rash I get with alcohol and knew exactly what they were straight away, where as other docs I have had just didnt know. So I am more confident than ever with this one. But I see your point as she does not specialise in mental health. I think she does know about the sexual side effects as she has mentioned them before.

It does seem possible that her explaination is right (that the sexual and drowsy symptoms are from the depression/anxiety coming back instead of being side effects), but I guess the only way to know for sure it to wait it out. She said that lexapro is quite a stimulating SSRI and that drowsiness is quite an uncommon side effect, which is probably which she came to this explanation.

I guess I should wait a couple of weeks like she said to see how the increase goes and if my symptoms/side effects still remain then Ill go back.

Out of curiosity, Iv been on sertraline and now lexapro...what would the doc likely put me on next if the lexapro still doesnt work? an SNRI like effexor?

Any comments about anything Iv written would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help
Jonny

This post has been edited by jonny87: 11 December 2009 - 08:06 AM

[amanda1]

this is the first day on 10mg of lex...and 5 weeks since I started...with 2.5..and then worked my way up...

the anxiety has lessened...

but I have no energy of motivation at all....

I hope this is not a permanent state on Lex....not much of a trade off if you feel less anxious but have no energy to do anything...

any hope out there?

oh I am a female, 110 lb...so 10 mg should be enough...

[teddi]

started with five mg ..just went too ten also...just waitn for results..anxiety...its the worst ie..chest pain ..shortness of breath worring about silly things,,the sun will soon smile down..

[raox]

i started off on 10mg lexapro for around 4 weeks. did nothing at all except caused side effects. i bumped it to 20mg, and within a week i felt a big difference. its about 4 weeks later now on 20mg and im feeling better than i ever imagined possible. i was ready to end it all around 4 weeks ago (very suicidal). i was in a VERY bad state. now im feeling good, not 100%, the pure o is still there sometimes but the MDD and GAD has decreased ALOT. im going out again, seeing friends, working, laughing...i never thought it was possible again. so stay strong, maybe a bump is all you need. BTW 10mg is the minimum therapeutic dose, so im not suprised that 5mg did not work. also, the only side effect i have now is it takes longer to ejaculate, but i still have a sex drive (slightly decreased) and the only real bad thing is i i cant ejaculate for around 4-6 hours after taking the lexapro, but its not a problem since i take it in the morning and most sexual acitivity happens in the evening. wish you all the best! let us know how you go on the 10mg.

PS, dont get discouraged if the side effects come back again...when i bumped to 20mg the side effects came back for around 2 weeks (D*** insomnia!), but all of em passed, bar the sexual SE. cheers!

PPS..dont worry about your size in relation to lexapro..even if you need 20mg its worth it...im only 125 pounds and im on 20mg. i dont think brain chemicals are really linked to your body size lol. also im sure the lethargy will pass...i had it but its getting better and better now. i run everyday, and workout around 3 times a week =]