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• What is Lexapro like as an antidepressant?
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Hi,
I have been feeling depressed and anxious for several years, but could not work up the courage to ask anyone for help.
So I have tried to deal with it as best I can, but recently this culminated in trying to kill myself - and not in a cry for help way, it was a serious effort - and have since been diagnosed as being both in the 95th percentile (most severe) of depression, stress and anxiety and also of having Soft Bipolar disorder.
I have been prescribed Lexapro by my doctor as an antidepressant to combat it but reading through people's experiences I can't apply many to my situation, fears and doubts.
I have started trying to get my life in order, but having recently had a month away from study and having moved into a new house I am not entirely comfortable in, I now need to return to studying and to get myself on track.
How will Lexapro, or any antidepressant, affect me with this?
How will it make me feel?
Will I feel or appear to be sedated or lethargic to my friends when I am taking it?
Will it affect my ability to think clearly?
What are my chances of experiencing extreme negative side effects?
What are the positive side effects?
I know there are a lot of questions and I may seem a bit spineless but I do need to get as much information as I can from as many possible sources. Thanks a lot for any help you can give me with this.
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• Antidepressants, Lexapro side effects if you decrease it or stop it?
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I've been on Lexapro for about 6 mo.s for depression. I don't notice a huge difference, I think it may have helped some. I still have the same anxiety.
I started gaining weight, 10lbs so far, and don't want to keep taking it if I could do without it, as I take so much other medication. I hope to get off of much of it; try more natural things, and most are very expensive.
I've heard of people taking it for a period.
I hope I can find information here about how it feels to get off of it, or even if I reduce it to 5mg. I take 10mg now.
What type of side effects, how severe, for how long. How long will I be a menace? Kidding.
I have been pretty sensitive to getting on and off meds in the past, meaning I get side effects. I can tolerate it and 'get through it' if it's not too horrible.
I forgot to take the Lexapro for a day or two in the beginning. when I was traveling. Boy did I have crying spells, which I've never had, and felt bad. I didn't make the connection until later.
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• Are You Aware That Drug Companies Pay Doctors To Prescribe And Promote Their Drugs?
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"Document Details Plan To Promote Costly Drugs"
New York Times
Sept. 1, 2009
"... In February, federal prosecutors in Boston announced a civil lawsuit against Forest claiming that the company illegally marketed both Lexapro and a closely related antidepressant, Celexa, for use in children and paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe the medicines to children.
It is illegal to pay doctors to prescribe certain medicines to their patients. It is not illegal to pay doctors to educate their colleagues about a medicine. In recent years, federal prosecutors have accused many drug makers of deliberately crossing that line. ..."
..................................................
" ...It is impossible to unpack all of the reasons for these prescriptions, but some industry critics say one reason could be the money doctors make from Forest. Psychiatrists make more money from drug makers than any other medical specialty, according to analyses of payment data. And Forest gives more money and food to doctors than many of its far larger rivals. Vermont officials found that Forest’s payments to doctors in 2008 were surpassed only by those of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis and Merck — companies with annual sales that are five to 10 times larger than Forest’s.
Forest’s 2004 plan for marketing Lexapro offers detailed information about how the company planned to direct this money to doctors.
Under “Rep Promotional Programs,” the document said the company planned to spend $34.7 million to pay 2,000 psychiatrists and primary care doctors to deliver 15,000 marketing lectures to their peers in one year.
“These meetings may be large-scale dinner programs with a slide presentation, small roundtable discussions or one-on-one advocate lunches,” the document states.
Under “Lunch and Learns,” the company intended to spend $36 million providing lunch to doctors in their offices. “Providing lunch for a physician creates an extended amount of selling time for representatives,” the document states. ..."
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/business/02drug.html
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• Lexapro & weight gain?
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I have an eating disorder (bulimia), depression, and ADHD. My psychiatrist has recently changed my antidepressant from prozac to lexapro, and I'm on adderall for the ADHD. I've been reading about lexapro's side effects online and a lot of people have said that the medication caused them to gain weight. This information is really important to me because I just got out of treatment for my ED, am in recovery, and REALLY don't want to end up using eating disorder behaviors to counteract any weight gain caused by my meds. Even if the lexapro does cause weight gain, would the adderall possibly negate that because of its tendency to cause weight loss? I know that this question is better suited for me to ask my doctor, but I already know what her response would be. She would tell me that I shouldn't coose my antidepressant based on whether or not I'll gain weight, but by how well it rids me of depression. Excuse the expression, but duh; I already know that, and gaining weight will just send me right back into my eating disorder. So any information would be extremely helpful!
Peace & Good Health
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• Which antidepressants, that you have tried or still taking, good/bad experiences and recommendations?
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I've tried Cymbalta, Pristiq and Lexapro with little success. A high dose of Prozac seemed to work fairly well, thus far.
I was interested in more information on Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor. I like the idea of the XR or CR dosage if available. Thanks in advance.
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• I have a depressed girlfriend. What should I do?
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As badly as I feel putting this information on the internet i need help. I have a longterm girlfriend that im in love with and intended on marrying. This girlfriend is depressed. Severely depressed. She has multiple therapists and goes to an intense substance abuse counseling for alcohol 3 times a week. Other than depression she was once bulimic(stopped now), cuts her self about once a month, abuses alcohol, suicidal thoughts, and isolates her self from all he friends except from me. I feel as if her depression is starting to affect me as if it is contagious. Idk what to do now. the last thing i would want to do is lose her but what to do. she hurts me more than she makes me happy sometimes but im in love with her. She is beautiful, smart , a good girlfriend. Also she is on a Antidepressant called lexapro. idk I feel this medication makes her abuse alcohol more, have trouble having please from sex and weight gain. I need to find some sort of guidance on what to do. please help.
Thanks so much i need all the help i can get but from what i know her depression isn't caused by anything its an organic chemical imbalance or something
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• I don't know what to do anymore.?
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Why is my life so screwed up?
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I've never been that well off, my wife made about 1400 a month, I was medically unable to work, our rent was 800, and we barely had anything. She trusted my opinion and rarely thought for herself.
About a year ago I was put on lexapro, an antidepressant. And it worked, made me really happy, to the point of being delusional... I was browsing a site one day and saw a Mazda Miata for $10,000 that had 16k miles and overall looked good on paper. I called the dealer, "I have pretty horrible credit and was wondering if I could get some info on this car"
She was happy to oblige and ended up talking me into (not hard when I was on lexapro) driving 120 miles to buy this car. My wife didn't argue, trusting my judgment. I made it to the dealership at 8:30am to find "oops, it looks like we sold that car a week prior, someone just messed up and didn't remove it from the site... but we do have other options for you."
So I looked for a car and finally settled on a Pontiac g6, it was equally impressive on paper (and in person). I signed all the papers with my wife, and we drove it home.
About a week later I get a call "uh... we couldn't find financing so we need you to go ahead and bring that g6 back.... But don't worry... we have another car, that we've already secured financing on for you"
So the next day I drove all the way back and they had a new 2009 ford focus for me. I signed a few more papers and was about to leave and he said "alright I'll send your financing and title information with this other sales associate, and he will follow you to your home."
"Why is that I asked."
"You’ll need to write him 2 checks for your down payment of $2000." oh ok... had I not been on lexapro I would have told him where to stick that new car... but instead it all seemed to make sense and writing 2 checks was fine, despite not having a dollar in my account.
So I get home, write the checks, call my insurance, add the new car. I was happy the rest of the day. It wasn't till about 2 weeks later when my trial of lexapro ran out and I didn't have the money to go get more... that I started getting flooded with worry... this time legitimate.
I called the dealership and they said the checks bounced and that I could go ahead and pay them with my card... I said I’d call them back.
So my wife and I decided to save as much money as we could, not do any fun things, just save. We saved up 750 and I paid the first payment to the dealership. Then my credit-card, my cell-phone, and my Les Schwab accounts all went unpaid.
we were talking things over about how we could afford certain things when her mother calls to tell us that she'd be putting the house we're living with up for sale and that we have a week to get out...
Well luckily we had saved enough for a security deposit and first months rent. So over that week we got a new apartment for 1100 a month. So we were even tighter on money and had more bills.
Fast forward to a month and 2 weeks ago; the car has been repossessed and all of my debts are in collections ($23,000). My wife who has been in a downward spiral, snaps one night when my sister was over and attacks her, when I got in-between them to pry her off she began attacking me and threatening me, I called 9-1-1 and told them she was unstable and that she needed help. They came and took her to the hospital. When she came back she told me she was getting a divorce and asked if I would sign a co-petition to make things cheaper and smoother.
I agreed and now I'm living with my parents in a small miserable room. For $200 a month, the job market in my town is dead, my job pays me around 680 a month, and I get $36 a month in food-stamps. I owe about $24,500 in debts that collectors are constantly hounding me about. my car (1987 Mazda 626) is on its last leg (has caught fire internally a couple times, the computer is dead, every time you start it, it smells like fuel, and switching gears kills the engine, did I mention it's an automatic?... But I don't make enough for financing, and if I did, my credit is ruined.
I have ulcers going through my entire system, and need to have checkups, but I owe my doctor and can't afford to pay it, but can't be seen till I do.
I have barely enough to keep my prepaid cell phone on so that I can receive the frequent calls telling me not to come in to work in 2 hours at 2pm, instead come in for the graveyard (same day).
I just want a new start, a glimmer of hope, a car that gets from a to b, and to have my stomach problems fixed... but it seems I'm going to have hell for the rest of my life for 4 months of screw-ups.
Any Ideas guys? (I know this isn't a normal question)
-Geremy
P.S. Spare me the "It'll get better, have hope, etc." I'm tired of people saying that... it's basically like saying "I have no idea, but I feel bad if I don't say something, however meaningless it may be."
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• Weight gain and Antidepressants???
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I am currently on Wellbutrin and Zoloft. I have gained about 50 pounds in the last year. For about 3 months they started me off with cymbalta but I started to sleep walk. (they took me off that) then they put me on Zoloft then the weight started coming on, so they switched me to Lexapro and well it didn't work at all for me.
My question is how much weight have you gained from you antidepressant? And what are you on now? Also does it work?
I go to the doctor next week and I would like to discuss this with him so as much information would be much appreciated.
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• Is there a natural alternative to antidepressants? please help.?
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i've been dealing with depression, ocd, and anxiety for the last 10 years. it's mostly the anxiety and depression that are negatively affecting my life. i am usually negative and "down" and i tend to overreact to minor things and end up causing a lot of problems. i've been taking lexapro and have been in therapy for 2 years, but i feel like it's not quite cutting it. i was thinking of trying something from gnc or vitamin shoppe. does anyone have information on this? i know that something like st. john's wort doesn't work for me because my depression/anxiety is more on the severe end. or is it a matter of me trying a different antidepressant? thank you.
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• Question about Anti depressants?
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I have tried Lexapro, and for a very short short short period of time one prozac... During the time that I was on Lexapro, it gave me strange thoughts- violent. and they weren't my own.
I am too scared to try other Antidepressants because I feel like they are going to do the same things to me. It mentally damaged me to the point where, I couldn't drink, smoke, barely drank coffee, worried that I was going nuts (Because of these thoughts that popped up) - So I went to the ER a few times, to get checked in when I didn't know that these weren't my thoughts....
(I was on Lexapro 2 times) The first time after the strange thoughts went away I was able to focus 100% - and I actually got a few A's and B's in school, and I could absorb the information for the first time in my LIFE!!! It was amazing!!!
But then this wore off, the strange thoughts came back ... and everything went back downhill...
So are all anti depressants like this?
And
If you get the right ones, do they help you with your concentration? Or is that just what this kind of Antidepressant did?
Any help would be great.
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