Lexapro - take it or not?

Hi This week I started taking Lexapro,  first week just 1 mg.  I an attempt to stop my morning anxiety. Should I continue or stop? Anyone took this too while on benzos or during tapering?  Did it work for you and was it hard getting off again? Any response is welcome. Thanks.

1mg is an extremely low dose. The maximum here in Australia is 45mg. I would be very careful about taking anti-depressants. I learnt only recently that although these drugs are not addictive, they can cause dependency. In my case I have been going through withdrawal which psychiatrists like to call "discontinuation" which can be awful. I have been aching throughout my body now for over four months. 

Hi, Thanks for your response.  I just watched This is life about benzos an hour ago. I decided to stop taking Lexapro. Period. I need all my energy to make it through my Diazepam taper.  I came of 10 mg  Amitriptyline last winter. It was very hard to do. So thanks for helping me make up my mind about Lexapro. All the best to you!

Trochsetter,

                Just to be clear no one is trying to convince you to cold turkey your antidepressant. Most of us here support slow successful tapers. I admit I know nothing about your specific antidepressant and I am not judging you or telling you what to do. You know your own pain threshold and what you can handle better than any of us do. It’s just that one concern that many of us had about the Lisa Ling episode is just this. That people would CT their meds or be forced to CT their meds. Anyway, one piece of firm advice I will give is to please make sure your CNS has completely settled down from your AD withdrawal before you start tapering your benzo. I must tell you that the Ashton manual recommends that you do the opposite of what you are doing. Taper the benzo before the AD. Your body, your mind, your choice. I am just providing the info.

 

Just keep in mind, regardless of how you decide to tackle this we will support you during these hard times.

Thanks Jack, as you can tell from my sig I tapered off Amitriptyline from December till February.  Nothing I can do about that anymore.  It felt best to get of the Amitriptyline. I had bad reactions while being on it. I've just taken the smallest dose possible of Lexapro for 4 days now. So I could stop that without a problem,  couldn't I? That wouldn't be CT, would it? I see what you're trying to say. The anxiety is mainly early in the morning ; from 5 till 7.30 am. Of course it's always there in the background. But not so severe that I would want to have to taper yet another medication off after the Diazepam. I think I' m going to just put up with the anxiety as it is,  hoping it will get better in the months to come. My psychiatrist says,  she doesn't want to put me on additional medication, it was at my request. Tapering off makes people nervous and vulnerable. That's why everyone is on BB, asking questions and  looking for reassurance.

Oh, sorry I didn’t realize that you were only on it for four days. Can you stop it with no issues after only 4 days? I can’t really honestly answer that. What I can say with confidence is that if I was in your shoes and had only been on it for four days I would stop taking it right now and not look back which is what you have already stated you were doing. So yeah, I would do the same in your shoese. If I had symptoms well then so be it. So that is what I would do. Of course I can’t tell you if I would be right.  I’m fairly confident you will be mostly fine but would be surprised if you did not at least have some minor issues with discontinuation. I am wishing you the best of luck.

Trochsetter,

                Just to be clear no one is trying to convince you to cold turkey your antidepressant. Most of us here support slow successful tapers. I admit I know nothing about your specific antidepressant and I am not judging you or telling you what to do. You know your own pain threshold and what you can handle better than any of us do. It’s just that one concern that many of us had about the Lisa Ling episode is just this. That people would CT their meds or be forced to CT their meds. Anyway, one piece of firm advice I will give is to please make sure your CNS has completely settled down from your AD withdrawal before you start tapering your benzo. I must tell you that the Ashton manual recommends that you do the opposite of what you are doing. Taper the benzo before the AD. Your body, your mind, your choice. I am just providing the info.

 

Just keep in mind, regardless of how you decide to tackle this we will support you during these hard times.

 

If you look at my signature I have been on a lot of antidepressants through the years.  With all of them I was able to taper in about two weeks slowly... most of them by cutting in quarters.  The only med that I had some issues with regarding side effects was Prozac but I had taken it longer and even with Prozac my side effects only lasted for three days.  The rest of the meds... very little if no side effects.  I don't believe that it is good to CT anything... even coffee so I don't.  Everything is done slowly and gradually in my life.   

Rafael, I only took it for 4 days at 1mg. So I stopped when it got bad.