Lexapro dizziness

This weekend I’m switching from 5mg Lexapro to 25 mg Zoloft because lexapro is not working for me. I’ve seen all the stuff on side effects such as dizziness and nausea, but the bottle I received for my Zoloft has a picture of a martini glass with an X over it.
I’ve drank on lexapro and have been totally fine. If I overdo it, the hangover is hell. But if I moderate, i’m fine.
I’m going to a wedding in a week and will be one week on Zoloft, am I able to drink?
My doctor doesn’t even wanna talk about alcohol she’s like “drinking is bad for people in general, don’t drink” but I like to have a cocktail when I’m out socially. I just want to make sure I’ll be safe in doing so, I don’t want to black out during the champagne toast. All advice is welcome. Thanks in advance

Hi! i’ve been on lexapro for just over 6 months, and i’ve been on 20mg for about 4.
i ran out of my prescription three days ago and i am feeling- for the lack of a better word- funky. I have POTS so i’m no stranger to dizziness and vertigo but this is an entirely new flavor, and people close to me have asked several times if i’m drunk (i don’t drink for health concerns). I am having some trouble speaking, and it feels sometimes when people talk like i’m underwater trying to figure out what they’re saying, even though i can HEAR them fine. I will be getting my refill tomorrow but to be completely honest it’s scaring me a bit. Could this be caused by the three missed doses? Or should i be more concerned? Please advise.

to have some background Zoloft and Lexapro was working for me but the doc changed me to this since i said the lexapro numb me.. I regretted this so much now. 2 weeks on this medication 75mgh and I really should have done my research before hand. I wouldnt recommend this to anyone ever, not because of how it doesnt work but the side effect are brutal, to even ween off. I have heard about these side effects but it's not until this drug it starts making me feel like im losing my mind mentally and physically. I broke down to my therapist and doctor today because of how helpless I am feeling right now
During the drug, here are the symptoms that I experienced :

• wake up 2-3 times a night - never able to have 1 good sleep. I am a heavy sleeper
• physically ill, unable to bring myself to do any exercise
• anxiety is getting worse with doom scrolling

Realizing it is not working, I took half of 75mg and went on it for 3 days and went off, now I feel like I am being torture by these side effects :

• brain zaps - it like getting several trucks hitting your head constantly, worse i ever feel in my life
• Vertigo, dizziness - unable to even stand up, watch movie, or look at my phone.
• Constant sweating at night and during the day
• Nauseous- no appetite
• Extremely irritable and mad
• Unable to do anything, just laying down, taking several naps a day and having nightmares.

It amazed me how many people here stay on this drug this long ( for years ) and finally decide to let it go. I am mad at my doctor to even prescribe me this right now. I am in so much pain, and never feel like this before in my life. I am losing my mind over this freaking brain zap and unable to do anything about it. It is a terrible feelings and I dont wish this upon anyone.

So now that it has been a week since I have stopped mirtazapine I wanted to share my experience because I know it can help people feel more at ease knowing that these are normal things to go through when coming off of it. To preface this, I have been on mirtazapine 15mg for around 4 months but was on the medication in general for a total of 6 months. I decided to get off because it was not helping my anxiety or depression so I am switching to lexapro. I am a 20 year old cis woman (not sure if age and gender have an impact on what side effects you are more prone to. I was put on a two week taper, one week I went down to 7.5mg. I had persistent brain zaps/migraines as well as trouble falling and staying asleep. Tylenol helped with the pain. I also felt an increase in my anxiety and in my POTS symptoms. Then the next week I went down to 3.75mg, this did nothing to me and I did not have any problems aside from still having trouble falling and staying asleep. Then the next week I came completely off, this is how each day went. MY EXPERIENCE MAY NOT BE YOUR EXPERIENCE!!! Something that kinda made me mad was when I was first starting to taper people on here made everything so doom and gloom which is fine if that was your experience but don’t make it seem and scare people into thinking that will be their experience. I also struggled with insomnia before mirt and had GI issues and I have POTS, so that probably made it a little bit worse for me.
Day 1: Did not have any problems, the mirtazapine was probably still very much in my system at this point, I did toss and turn at night but not for too long.
Day 2: Around the time I would be taking my mirt I started to feel very very very nauseous, surprised I did not vomit but thankfully it died down so I could sleep. My eczema started to flare up and so I was itchy and had bumps all over the back of my wrist (I have already had these bumps before but I think the withdrawal made it flare up. I've heard a lot of other people get hives/itch while coming off mirt)
Day 3: Brain zaps all day, high anxiety, felt like I was not real. All day I had poor appetite and while trying to eat I felt like gagging but managed to force feed myself lol. Night was a lot better.
Day 4: Very nauseous throughout the day until around dinner. Brain zaps were there but not as often so I did not need to take any pain pills. Anxiety was high. Diarrhea all day.
Day 5: That early morning around like 3am my family member threw up and had chest pain so we thought it was a heart attack. I'm afraid of throw up and obviously I was concerned for that person (they are ok! Just bad acid reflux reaction to a food he ate). I'm mentioning this bc I did not get to sleep until 6am and slept till 1:30pm and I hardly drank water day 4 so I can't really tell if the way I am feeling is from the stress and having my POTS triggered or if it is partially the withdrawal. I was nauseous since waking up, almost throwing up and diarrhea. Also felt dizzy and having a fast heart rate (these I believe are from POTS not the withdrawal the nausea is where I am not sure)
Day 6: Low appetite, slight nausea when I woke up and during the day. Not throw up worthy but enough to make eating a challenge and feel like I want to gag at some points. I did get more of that sick feeling after dinner but not sure if it was what I at or not. Spurts of vertigo, again not sure if this is from POTS or the withdrawal but while researching I found that vertigo is a common withdrawal side effect. Some stomach cramping like almost like my period but i'm weeks away from that so maybe just poop cramps? Had some diarrhea bm.
Day 7: Felt pretty bad this day but I think it is because I had a doctors appointment and I have crippling anxiety lol. I felt nauseous this day but it was like a very lowkey feeling but was enough to curb my appetite.
Day 8 (The day I am posting this): I feel nauseous but it is like yesterday. I also am starting Lexapro tomorrow and I am pretty anxious about that so I am thinking some of the stomach grossness is from the anxiety rather than the withdrawal. I have had some random head pain here and there as well as weird muscle cramps. When I was trying to fall asleep last night I kept jerking awake which I am assuming is a part of my anxiety induced insomnia from not taking any sleep aid anymore as I was taking mirt also for the sleep aid.
Edit: I think the muscle cramps and leg twitching/jerking at night is a magnesium deficiency? I’m deficient in a lot of things lol

So I’m starting 5mg again tomorrow (I did attempt to cross taper with my other med but it made me too sick with the withdrawal plus the Lexapro side effects). When I did take it that one day it made me soooo sick all day. So ik I need to eat with it but that didn’t help last time, so do I eat, wait a little then take the pill? Last time I didn’t wait at all after eating and I just took it. I can’t take zofran unfortunately it makes me dizzy and have heart palpitations. I have mint candies and sprite on hand I just didn’t know if there was anything else I could do. I’ll be taking it no later than 10am bc ssris have a history of giving me insomnia.

Dizziness started in mid November 2021, went to Canberra on the 10th of December and I had my first near faint experience followed by high heart beat and palpitation.
Dizziness and lightheaded was followed till the 28th of December when I nearly fainted again and had really high heart rate: went to hospital. They did blood work and ecg couldn’t find a probable cause. Went to hospital again 3 days later and no findings were evident. Upon my 3rd visit to hospital X-ray was done off my chest and nothing was found. I was bedridden for 6 weeks, everyday was a battle for life, I felt like I was in septic shock everyday. I had to get iv fluids about 10 times because of dehydration, I sweated constantly with no appetite for water or food.
Symptoms
Lightheaded Dizziness Heart gets tired quickly Sometimes my arms and hands become a little numb. My head feels tension. heat in my abdomen, back and my ears get hot. Feels like a pulsating feeling through my body during a bad episode Sometimes left shoulder feels warm My eyes sometimes drop tears randomly Unable to concentrate at times Shortness of breath during episode There’s always a tense feeling in my chest and around my heart area. Sometimes hits my lower abdomen and I feel nausea makes my stomach make noises. I have difficulty sleeping my head spins more when I close my eyes. I wake up between 1-3am with a weird feeling as if I’m scared or something. Vision sometimes becomes blurry. Fatigue and tiredness. Little sudden Noises scare me. Whenever I have a episode that peaks, my hands and feet get sweaty and I feel heat. My hands and feet sometimes get cold. The feeling in my mid left chest area I can’t explain but it’s as if my muscles are vibrating. When I stand up it’s seems my head and chest symptoms get worse for about a minute and then settle down. Same thing happens when I lay down. It gets worse for a minute till it goes back to how it was. Sometimes I can feel it hitting my front part of my head and my sinus feels tense as well. As well as my ears feel the pressure. Lying down seems to reduce some tension in my head. I feel bad 80% of the day really bad 15% of the day and alright 5% of the day.
Let’s go back to my childhood, my earliest memory is probably when I was around 10. If I would focus on my breathing it felt like I couldn’t breath anymore. I also had these unexplained spinning and dizziness at a young age during sleep time. Doctors couldn’t find anything. I was always a scared kid thinking about the worse case scenario that might kill me but in reality it was overthinking. In highschool a few times I nearly fainted out of the blue. Sometimes during sports I’ll hit a point where out of no where my heart would start racing and my breathing would become laboured. Sometimes over excitement caused this as well.
Now medications
Lexapro 40mg for 6 months, no benefits. Made me really bad during the first 2 weeks and kinda of settled after that, dumbed the depressive symptoms but that’s about it. Felt much better after coming off, it definitely made my condition worse. Derealisation, fatigue, tiredness, forgetfulness. All of it.
Zoloft 50mg for 18 days and 100mg for 3 days, had a panic attack on day 3 I thought it was Zoloft but found it to be thc later on. Discontinued Zoloft then. No benefits during the 18 days on 50mg and made my condition way worse.
Paxil 20mg for 2 months, probably one of the strongest reactions to any ssri, daily panic attacks losing my mind, as if there’s a laughter in my head but it’s my internal monologue creating it but still I was losing it. Pushed on for 2 months and it just made me worse as the days went on.
Agomelatine 20mg no benefits, daily panic attacks, took it for about 36 days.
Pristiq, I’m on day 54 and I’ve stopped taking it, my last dose was on Wednesday not sure how to stop. It’s making me worse, mood is swinging, brain fog and all other symptoms are reappearing on this medication.
Clonidine didn’t do much except relax my body alittle
Lyrica, knocked me out at 25mg and made me tired. No benefits.
Valium 5mg, very small relief, short benefits 3-5 hours, more of a muscle relaxant, addictive in nature.
Clonezapam 1mg, small amount of relief, short relief 3-5 hours.
Xanax 2mg, haven’t tried
Ativan 1mg only have tried 0.5mg and it didn’t do much.
Seroquel 25mg, good for sleep, couldn’t sleep for more then 4 hours for the last 5 years or so, now I get a solid 8 hours, it’s not a 100% good quality sleep but it gets the job done, I don’t feel tired through the day as before I got sick.
Epilim haven’t tried chickenend out
Lamictal discontinued on day 3 after developing rash
Lithium 500mg, 37 days. Left like losing my mind not sure if adverse reaction to the lithium or it was some kind of discontinuation I was getting from the lexapro.
Prozac 4 days to bridge off lexapro
Thc/cbd oil, made me go full panic mode for 4 hours each time I tried it. Very similar to what I was feeling with the Paxil minus the laughter side effect.
Symptoms
Dizziness Burning tongue Headache Nausea Metallic taste in mouth Hot flushes Muscle pain and tension Fatigue Numbness in hands Pins and needles Brain fog Startled easily Blood pressure problems Heart feeling heavy Fast heart beat Feel like I’m dying Losing my mind Losing control Very negative thoughts Intrusive thoughts Hyper reactive Blurry vision Cold palms and feet Sweaty palms and feet Hot flushes Feeling sick / flu like Weak limbs Digestion problems Numbness Nightmares
Currently my biggest challenges are
I think I’m developing schizophrenia all the time, and I’m going to lose my mind.
I’m hyper vigilant and see things in the corners of my eye.
My physical symptoms cycle throughout the weeks and I’m never symptomsless. Physical or cognitive I always feel something.
My mind always feels like as if something is off,
As my overall condition gets worse my brain fogs becomes really bad and my hands and feet become so cold to the touch,
I become very forgetful
I can never stop thinking about my condition, my mind is occupied by it 24/7
When I go into crowded areas my physical symptoms become much worse, such as brain fog heart rate and jelly legs.
My internal monologue never shuts up and it’s always active.
Racing thoughts
When I’m on medications l as ssri’s I get irrational fears such as being allergic to nuts or something crazy. But seems to go away after a month when discontinuing the medication,
Lightheaded, feel like my neck muscles are so tense that my brain isn’t getting enough blood.
I’m hyper focused on all bodily functions physical or Cognitive, if I suspect something that is schizophrenic or damaging I get a mini panic attack. But panic attack do occur for no reason as well most of the times.
I’m in this state constantly let’s say chronically,
When my condition worsens and it’s at full flip, no amount of logic can override my thought process, I just believe I’m dying because the physical sensations are just toooo strong that I want to jump out of my skin. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s a weird feeling. Agitated state, dizzy, wobbly, can’t focus etc.
Something else is weird sometime when I’m having a super bad panic attack, such as my heart racing at 180bpm, my cognitive focus will be on my heart and my condition will disappear? I’ll actually feel normalised, mentally and physically. Something happed with the thc, my nausea and cognitive and physical symptoms had been relived but then panic set in. It’s like it suppressed the anxiety symptoms but aggravated the panic if that is possible. Sometimes if I truely focus on something, a lot of it all goes away for a few milliseconds. Kind of same feeling after a massive panic attack, when the panic subsides before it’s next hit I’ll feel my condition/anxiety problems actually settle to better then base levels before priming back up.
Mental illness problems are prevalent in my family,
I’ve done all the physical body checkups before the anxiety diagnosis. Everything check out well physically.

My gf is taking Lexapro again after stopping for 2-3 months. Previously she had started it at 10mg around what sounds like 16 months ago and continued on it for about 13 months. If I remember correctly she was upped to 20 mg after 4 months.
She said when she started it she had practically no side effects, no nausea, dizziness, nothing. She is now taking it again after a 2 month cold turkey stop at 10 mg to start with. She is feeling the full effect of all the fun side effects one would normally expect to feel (nausea, dizziness, etc).
I am curious, why would someone feel different side effects from same starting dosage again?
I did some research and the only thing I could think of is maybe her initial seratonin levels are higher than before? A year ago she was in a much lower state of mind (suicidal thoughts, larger depressive episodes), now she is starting the meds again at a time where she isn’t that low (Just starting to experience depressive symptoms again in the last month) and I read that an over abundance of seratonin can cause these symptoms.
Just looking to hear people’s thoughts on this as I have never had experience taking SSRI’s or having people in my life that have taken them either. Thanks!

I upped my lexapro dosage from 10mg to 15mg about a week ago and I’ve had headaches, dizziness, a sore neck (possibly unrelated) and I just feel like shit. My anxiety is through the roof and Valium isn’t doing anything. I can’t get into my GP until the end of June but I want to reduce the dosage back down. Fighting to not take myself to the hospital because I’ve convinced myself my symptoms are 5 different life threatening illnesses.

hi i am a 20 year old female and i have been experiencing dizzy spells recently. my oxygen levels have always remained stable along with my blood pressure so i find it a bit odd. i take lexapro and cortef daily and have addisons disease and panic disorder. i don’t know if this is related to my addisons disease and my endocrinologist won’t see me since she is always so booked. i got blood work done 6 months ago and everything looked normal. none of these episodes have lead to fainting but i am worried that one day they may. please let me know if you have any ideas!

Please try to read the post, I’m sorry it’s long but it is worth it if you have taken SSRIs/are currently taking them
So let me start this off by saying I haven’t gotten the SIBO test yet I will be getting it on Tuesday & will update this post. That being said I am 99% sure I have it due to the fact that I developed weird gut issues and a full blown histamine intolerance (I’m talking the works- severe insomnia like I’ll be awake for 48 hourd, crazy rapid heart rate, this terrible feeling of pain & sinking feeling in my stomache, bloating & burping & hot flashes all when I eat high histamine foods & it’s very hard for me to avoid them) and I this all started as a result of quitting my SSRI Paxil.
I started taking Lexapro back in like 2018 (I’ve had multiple attempts of trying to get off them) and the one thing I noticed the first time I weaned off is that my stomache had this uncomfortable sensation during the withdrawal & I developed a low grade chronic hunger, some bloating, fatigue etc. that stayed with me from that point on. i hadn’t dealt with these things before so I would go to my doctor for help (I was 18 & naive) only to be gaslit into thinking that this was just my baseline anxiety coming back (when it was far worse than the baseline I had before starting the meds) and she would convince me to go back on. This process has repeated over the last 6 yrs or so. However, this most recent time after coming off Paxil (this time I’m off for good- it’s been 3 months & I’d rather die than go back on that poison) specifically my gut issues got 1000 x worse then they’ve ever been & I developed this insane histamine intolerance. At first I just assumed it was a horrific AD withdrawal however i ended up pinning down the symptoms to histamine intolerance after doing an elimination diet I am 99% sure it’s SIBO. That’s when I learned that I can basically induce the “panic attacks” I believed where just part of the withdrawal process, by simply eating some very aged food like salami or Parmesan an hour later on the dot my heart begins to race & bloat up & start feeling hot & dizzy. Now not everyone with SIBO develops a Histamine Intolerance but most people with the overgrowth end up with some variation of it, it may be extremely mild like a runny nose or itchy eyes. This is a sign of the extreme damage & dysbiosis that has taken place in the small intestine, as you are no longer producing enough DAO enzyme.
In fact this experience has made me completely rethink the concept of protracted withdrawals from antidepressants that so many people are dealing with sadly months after quitting. I think a lot of it has to deal with the damage they have done to your gut in most cases dysbiosis and SIBO and that’s its manifesting as all the fun things people would associate with SSRI withdrawal like insomnia, anxiety, low libido, etc.
Now I’m very concerned because I’m thinking I’ve probably had it for like 6 yrs without realizing it. My digestive system has never been the same after taking these meds. For some reason Paxil specifically seemed to be the worst. My assumption is this is due to them severly slowing down motility or something.
I’m just so happy that I finally realized this is what’s going on cause I’ve been thinking I was going insane this entire time. If I hadn’t figured this out I would’ve kept listening to the docs who keep saying “It’s rebound anxiety-clearly you need psych meds” and the cycle would’ve just kept repeating.
Sorry for the rant here but bottom line: has anyone had similar results?? Developing SIBO from SSRIs?? If the SSRIs are the root cause in both my own & many other cases does that mean the antibiotics will have a high likelihood of fixing it since the original problem is now removed if the person has weaned off the SSRI??
And an even more disturbing question: how many people here are going through countless SIBO treatments without results but happen to be taking SSRIs??
Please if anyone has experience with this situation I’m dying for help over here along with the many poor people in this sub who have suffered the same fate <3 the whole purpose of this post is to seek help from people who have recovered from SSRI-induced SIBO and how you did that!!
I will continually update the post with my SIBO results as well as my antibiotic journey & keep in mind i am officially 3 months sober from that SSRI so the “root problem” has been removed so let’s see how this goes

Hi there,
I have anxiety, and depression from the start of this year, and I was prescribed Lexapro 10 mg late last year.
I didn't take it until somewhere around Feb/march of this year, because I started to develop depression-like symptoms.
But since I started taking it, WHY do I have this 24/7 extremely uncomfortable, panic attack-like feeling in my head now? it's not a head-ache or a migraine, just an extremely uncomfortable sensation. It's not a feeling that I could easily describe. You would have to swap bodies with me in order to truly experience it. It's not voices or hallucinations, not seeing splotches in my vision, no nausea/vomiting/dizziness, fainting/lightheadedness, confusion, loss of appetite/memory, etc. It's just a feeling, not headache pain, but just extremely uncomfortable. The best way I could describe it, is like an angry snake is trapped inside my brain, and struggling to get out.
And yes, I still have the depression, sometimes I still do wanna de-exist due to this feeling. I would appreciate if someone could advise me on whether what I'm feeling - this panic-attack like feeling in my head - is that literally just what it is - a non-subsiding panic attack? Was the depression worsened by this drug? Did it damage a part of my brain, which did nothing to help the depression, but instead created another issue - which is this uncomfortable non subsiding panic attack sensation?
If it helps, I've also been porn cold turkey for 3 weeks now. Maybe it's due to the sudden drop in dopamine rushes?
I've taken Lexapro every morning for about 3 months now, but relatively inconsistently, because I keep experiencing this awful sensation in my head, and every time its time to take it, I wonder if it's a good idea to continue.
I've had 2 distinctly horrible episodes of this feeling so far - the 1st time, don't remember if it was before or after starting Lexapro. The 2nd time happened definitely after I started taking it - I was driving, felt like I could lose control anytime and crash. Since those episodes, it's been on and off, but never fully subsiding. The snake is still very much alive and angry. I fcking hate it.
Thank you for reading, any ideas/advice are greatly appreciated.

Well day 9 off lexapro … feeling better. First few days felt nothing being off it then like 3,4,5 day had lots of tingling in my legs and feet. That’s slowly fading but I still feel some tingling and my shoulder blade does a twitch too. Think I felt a bit dizzy/off this week but today was a lot better.
Hopefully back to normal soon was on lexapro 5 mg for 8 weeks then 2.5 for 8 weeks. Tapered the last week taking it every other day and then just stopped.
How long after lexapro did it take you to feel normal ?

Good afternoon ya’ll,
I was prescribed 10mg of Lexapro for generalized anxiety. I have been taking it for sixteen days and while I have felt some changes, they definitely do not outweigh the side effects. I got over the nausea and dizziness but I don’t have a sex drive, when I do, it doesn’t work, I have trouble falling asleep, I can’t stay asleep, profuse sweating, and no appetite(none of this present prior to medication). I have stopped drinking, no nicotine or drug use, and I changed my diet to be healthier and more even through the day in order to give the medication a fair chance. I do have a follow up appointment in three weeks, so I am not seeking “medical advice”. What I was curious of is have any of ya’ll had these side effects and gotten over them after a certain time, or if I’m barking up the wrong tree and should entertain a different medication. Again, just looking for personal experiences. Thanks!

To start, I have an appointment next week with a psychiatrist and to get me on the schedule for regular therapy. A few weeks ago, I was put on Lexapro 5mg. I was dealing with reignited panic and anxiety from having a reaction to medication in the emergency room a month before.They had given me Compazine IV push and it made me hallucinate and panic.
I took the Lexapro for about a week. 4 days in, I started feeling absolutely horrible. It felt like a panic attack that didn't end for 3 days. I had full body shakes, dilated pupils, sweating and shivering. I felt dizzy and confused almost. My muscles became super twitchy and I had such awful headaches. I dealt with it for 3 days before I talked to the prescriber who said to immediately stop taking it. It took another week to fel even half back to normal.
Now they want me to take Zoloft but after 2 weird medication reactions, I'm terrified. I googled my symptoms of course and serotonin syndrome came up but they all said it's from higher doses for longer times. Is it even safe for me to try another ssri? The original prescriber said I might just be extra sensitive to them. I'm scared of my anxiety and panic attacks getting worse.
Hoping for some advice on what to do moving forward. And maybe a push in the right medication direction. I'm diagnosed with generalize anxiety and panic disorder.

I’m 21F and 5’0” and 105 lbs, and I’m really wondering what’s going on with me. I have a plethora of mental and physical symptoms. My parents never had health insurance (we still don’t) so I never really went to the doctor growing up. I know this isn’t great news, but I have an interview today and am getting insurance ASAP if all goes well.
I’m including mental illnesses in the diagnosis because I’ve heard that sometimes they manifest physically, so I’m just covering my bases.
“Symptoms”:

• constant diarrhea. has been happening for over a year now, and is daily. but i’m not bloated or gassy, i just get some pain and sudden urges to go. no weight gain/loss either.
• blood sugar problems. (we assume.) if i don’t eat every few hours, I start to shut down. I get weak, my head is extra foggy, I start sweating and shivering, and I get super nauseous. This can be anywhere from 2-5 hours after a meal. It usually happens in the day, but it happened in the middle of the night this week and I collapsed on my bedroom floor with my poor husband pressing cold objects to my skin to cool me because i was burning up.
• extreme temperature sensitivity. It goes both ways. If it’s above 75°, my vision blurs and sometimes goes black. I don’t sweat, I just start getting weak and dizzy and disoriented (and angry.) If it’s below 70° inside or below 50° outside, my toes and half of my foot goes completely numb and turns white. (Raynauds). I also just shiver the entire time, even indoors.
• constant fatigue and brain fog.
• no appetite or libido at all. i actually get nauseous at the idea of food, no matter how much i love it.
• air hunger. i’m always yawning and feel out of breath. my friends for years have noticed how fast my breaths are, and my heart.
• coat hanger pain. this one is VERY SPECIFIC, and probably my earliest symptom besides raynauds. sitting or standing, most days i have such severe pain between my shoulders and neck on the left side that i just walk around holding it, massaging it, trying to ease it.

Diagnoses (and suspected/mentioned ones by other people i’ve talked with and researched with, which i’ll label):

• Raynauds
• POTS (suspected)
• IBS-D (suspected)
• Hyperthyroidism (mentioned)
• Hypoglycemia (mentioned)
• Anxiety
• Bipolar Disorder
• Autism (suspected)
• ADHD (suspected)
• OCD (mentioned)

I had blood work done for EVERYTHING in January and all of my levels were somewhere in the middle of the normal range.
I talked to a doctor online 4 times before I left my job and she prescribed me Lexapro and Wellbutrin to try and ease my anxiety (because it may be the cause of my diarrhea). The medications did not work for me at all, they had absolutely no affect on anything.

For context, I've been on Lexapro (10 mg) since 2013, and was diagnosed with depression & GAD at that time. The first year or so I felt like it was helping me, but after 3 years I upped the dose to 20mg which didn't really help with symptoms, so I went back down to 10mg and tried to quit Lexapro twice without success due to horrible withdrawals (brain zaps, feeling dizzy and unable to concentrate).
I was also a daily Marijuana smoker from 2018 to 2023, but quit completely this year in January. I started tapering the Lexapro from that point, taking 10mg and 5mg every other day, then taking 5mg every day (current) and I'm going to follow that with 5mg every other day for at least 2 weeks if not a month. This is the first time I've had no brain zaps trying to quit Lexapro, which was very encouraging!
This week I started an OCD assessment with my therapist and then got a script for Anafranil from my psychiatrist, taking 25mg for a week then 50mg from then on. I'm still weaning off the Lexapro, and was warned by a pharmacist to avoid taking both at the same time because doing so could induce serotonin syndrome.
TLDR: For now I want to ask if anyone has experience switching from these specific drugs, and any experience with swapping from an SSRI to Anafranil in general. Also if anyone has experience taking both/tapering, for now I think I'm going to completely taper Lexapro then start Anafranil without taking them around the same time just to be safe. Thanks for reading, and for any advice!
EDIT: I am also on 250mg of lamotrigine and like that so I'm definitely staying on it, forgot to mention it. also taking 80mg of propranolol but I might drop that bc I don't find it helps much of anything (started taking it for hand tremors/not mental health related)

Hi everyone,
I used to frequently lurk on this reddit looking for some ways to deal with my case of anxiety induced OAB. I thought I’d chime and share a success story that had with my battle with overactive bladder. I just want to start with some background I’m 29m with not major medical or health complications, I’m healthy and physically active (at the time that my symptoms really cracked off I was probably the fittest I had been in my life).
My symptoms all started in August of 2022 and they came on suddenly. To set the scene it was a beautiful sunny Saturday and I had some plans to go surfing with some mates latter in the afternoon. There was some pretty good swell due at one of my favourite beaches in town and I was super exited (maybe a little nervous because it was going to be kind of larger surf that I was used to. In the morning I had breakie and a cup of coffee. I was really excited about this new coffee that I had got from the store. Immediately after the coffee I was a little anxious but nothing out of the ordinary, I thought it was nervous jitters for the surf session. Anyways my mated pick me up and we head to the beach (it was about an hour drive away). On the car trip I remember having to pee but again nothing out of the ordinary. We go surfing for about 2-3 hours, and I didn’t have to go once the entire time I was out. I get out of the water and change, and that when it all started. I went to use the bathroom and immediately afterwards had to go again (I thought it was weird and tried to go again but there was nothing…okay…). pack up the car and start driving, and the urge was strong again, stoped to go again still not much again. So I suffered for the rest of the car ride home feeling like I was going to go in my pants the whole time. It was at this point my anxiety shot through the roof and I felt like a panic attack was coming on (I had one earlier in the year so I kind of recognized the symptoms of it). I get home and try everything I can to get myself to calm down and nothing worked. The plan was to go home and then meet my friend for homemade pizza at their house (20 minute drive away). I get ready and use the bathroom and get halfway to my friends house only to have to stop and go again. I struggle through the dinner have to excuse myself once or twice to go again still there was not too much. By the end of the day I had burned 3500 calories of stress. I figured it was anxiety at the time and I hoped that it would get better in the morning.
But that urge became something I constantly had to deal with, and when I say constant I mean like I’d go and immediately feel like I needed to go again (maybe 5 minutes of relief between visits). This would lead to me having to go to the bathroom maybe 20 times a day or so. I missed out on movies, shows, drinking with my mates, had to start planning my life around bathroom access, and coffee. (At the time I would have done anything to be able to have a pint or a cup of coffee with my mated and not have to worry about my symptoms getting worse). All this worry was starting consume a large part of my day to day thinking. I mean it’s not like it a symptom that you can just ignore. Fomos and the general anxiety around whether was was going to get better This really stressed me out and made the problem much worse as time went on.
I figured I’d wait and see before going to the doctor see what was going on. After about a week with nothing getting better I decided to go see a doctor. They did some test which all came back negative, I had an ultrasound and everything was clear. At the ultrasound appointment with less than 100ml of liquid in my bladder the feeling was so intense the lady even showed me that there was nothing there on her screen (again this clued me into thinking maybe this was a physiological issue rather than physical one). They said there was nothing that they could find that was medically wrong with me but they would refer me to a urologist to give me the all clear. At this point in my mind there were not major medical issues with me, so there were two potential causes (1) anxiety and (2) a nagging injury. Re (2) I had a nagging groin injury that I sustained at the beginning of the year. I was going to pt for it and thought I could have been surfing from a hypertonic pelvic floor and that was causing the oab symptoms. I couldn’t get an appointment for several months so there was a long period of just waiting while still battling with this constant urge to use the bathroom.
After that appointment I figured I’m dealing with the injury with pt already so maybe I should try to focus on the anxiety aspect. So I tired everything that I could do to reduce my symptoms, drink less coffee, meditate (headspace), saw a therapist, stepped back my work as much as I could to get some time to relax, kept physically active (surfing running climbing multiple times a week), spent time with friends and still nothing made me feel better.
I think this was a period where I was the most stressed that I had ever been. Lets just say 2022 was a year I would not want to repeat anytime soon. To list all that I had going on (tw: cancer, suicide(friend), family member death ) :

1. I was living abroad in nz and was far from family, and my partner. My dad earlier in the year had been diagnosed with cancer and was going through treatments.
2. My really good friend attempted suicide twice (The first time I was the closest person to him and he confided in me with his intentions and everything. Probably the most stressful we ek of my life)
3. My friends mental health emergency lead to me having to move flats on short notice because I didn’t feel safe where I lived because I was threatened by my friend after calling the cops on him to do a wellness check. I went from living in boarding situation with 12 really good friends to living in a studio which was super isolating.
4. I felt afraid around the town because of these treats and made it harder to relax. Plus running which was my biggest outlet for stress and the thing that I did with my friend became to hard for me to do. It kept giving my ptsd flashbacks of the event.
5. my grandfather passed away shortly after my father was diagnosed with cancer.

(tw:end)

1. I was in the process of writing my thesis at the time and had my defence deadline approaching nearer and nearer.
2. I was planning on moving back to my home country at the end of the year which meant that I was going to loose my whole support system and have to start fresh again. I had to worry about selling most of the stuff I own (car, furniture, clothes, surfboards etc.)
3. I was also planning a carrier change from one research to a completely different field of study. I’m an academic and I wanted try something new. You either get to pick where you live or the research you do.
4. worried about jobs I was going to get when I moved back and how I was going to support myself. This is related to 8)

I feel like any one of these events would be a lot to deal with on its own. This was all coming off the tail end of covid as well, thing were starting to get back to normal but there were still periodic lock downs. I feel like it had been a year of very high constant stress and everything together overloaded me. It hasn’t been uncommon for anxiety to manifest as physical symptoms for me before. I remember earlier in the year before the oab really kicked off that I couldn’t eat food without it making me feel sick. it turns out that anxiety cracks up stomach acid and that can make you feel nauseous. The doctor was able to help me out with.
Well to continue the story I went and saw urologist and he said that everything was clear and there was nothing to worry about. Just have to wait for things to calm down, he did give me some oxybutynin that didn’t really help. Then shorty after that I had to sell everything I owned and I flew back home. I remember that flight being kind of hard, I was sad to leave the country and anxious for the new life I was about to begin. It really enhanced the symptoms that I was experiencing.
I moved back to the USA at the end of 2023 and that is when I began trying to tackle this problem in earnest. The urologist recommended that I tried bladder retraining while it was helpful to see progress it still didn’t help with the symptoms that much. I tired cbd for my anxiety and had some success. It seemed to help manage my symptoms. I moved from summer in the southern hemisphere, to the middle of the winter in the northern hemisphere and the lack of sun didn’t help my mental health.
At this point I could go maybe 30 minutes between trips to the bathroom. I didn’t have coffee, or alcohol (didn’t even dream of it). Car trips were miserable, would spend most of them stressed I wouldn’t find a bathroom. Still had the constant urge to use the bathroom. Things were not fun. Luckily I had a decent amount of money in savings so I took some time to relax while I was waiting to defend my thesis. (I think I took about 6-7 months to myself)
Okay I’m sure you all know all that symptoms and how miserable they can be. Here’s what worked for me:
First thing I’d say is go see a doctor. Reddit is great but a doctor will be able to tell if there is anything physically wrong with you. Then trust what they say. When are you a dealing with a health related thing that is related to anxiety the most important thing is to make sure that you have a clean bill of health.
Once you know nothing is wrong physically here are some ways of dealing with oab caused my anxiety:

1. Talk: Talk to your love ones about what you are dealing with. Tell them you are struggling with this medical issue and you may need to pull over and use the bathroom or disappear for a couple minutes. They will understand if they love you. I waited a long time to open up to my partner about this, and I felt a lot better after I told her what I was struggling with.
2. Face this head on: Don’t retreat still do things go outside got to shows bars the store. You will be able to find a bathroom you don’t need to worry. Remember that stuff that you love to do don’t let oab rule your life. Its going to be scary but its good to face these anxieties head on. If you start canceling events because you are afraid of bathroom access will lead to further isolation, and eventually agoraphobia (not a good place to end up)
3. Bladder retraining: This gives you a way to track progress and play chicken with your bladder in a controlled manner. You are trying to teach your brain the difference between really and fake signals. This will help you gain trust in yourself again. Remember this is gradual process.
4. Professional help. Shortly after getting back to the states I started getting professional help to deal with all the stress I had in my life. I needed somewhere where I could process everything I was going through. I got the quickest appointment I could and took the first one I could get. By involving doctors and therapist and even your loved ones you are not tackling this problem alone anymore you have a team of people helping you. Plus they can give you ideas on how to manage your stress and anxiety.
5. Headspace: In a similar vein headspace and mindfulness will help with learning how to acknowledge how we are feeling and move on. We are always going to need to use the bathroom there is no way around it and we sometimes will have the feeling that we need to go when we don’t need to. In the same way there is no getting rid of anxiety, what mindfulness does is help change our relationship with these feelings. You could try the session on chronic pain because what we are experiencing is a persistent unwanted sensation from out body like a form of pain. There is also more general ones about anxiety. I think we can borrow some of the ideas that people dealing with chronic pain use to to deal with the urges that we experience ( I don’t know how much there is to this though).
6. (a) side tangent: I saw this guy in nz who said that when people are dealing with heartache sometimes taking a painkiller (like Tylenol or ibuprofen) can help deal with the pain. Even though the pain is psychosomatic the feeling is still real, and the painkiller can actually help with managing the heartbreak. (see)
7. Medication: Trying anti anxiety meds was the biggest thing for me. What I really needed after all the stress was some mental space. For me lexapro gave me this space. I know that finding the right medication to be on can be hard and its a long process to find the one that is right for you. I’m currently on the lowest dose (5mg) and I have been taking it for about 1.5 years with little side effects (only if I miss a dose I feel a little dizzy in the evening). I know anti-anxiety meds get a bad wrap these days and I feel like there is a lot of misinformation about them. People worry that it is going numb them that they are going to feel like themselves, or that people are going to judge them for taking it, but in my case that hasn’t been my experience. If you are at a high level of stress it can help bring you back down to baseline, it can give you the space to acknowledge the things that make you feel anxious and move on. I highly recommend trying this out. I should also say here that it does take 1.5-2 months for the meds to really start working, and during that time your anxiety can increase (but its worth it!!!)
8. CBD: if you don’t want to try an anti anxiety med try CBD, it really helps with stress and I found that it was pretty good at helping with some OAB symptoms at first but you build up a tolerance to it when you are taking it daily, and it can become expensive. What I found that worked for me was around 10-15mg 3 times a day (breakfast lunch and dinner). This helped me be less stressed in the car our when I was out walking places and there was no bathroom nearby.

When this all started I didn’t ever think I was going to be able to enjoy a cup of coffee again or go to a bar and have a pint and drive home with out a worry. After working at this for the last 2 years I’ve been able to get to a place where I can have a coffee and then go for a long car ride and have no symptoms. I’m able to go to a triva night and enjoy a beer without having to get up every 10 minutes to use the bathroom. I’m able to sit through meeting without having to leave 3-4. I’ve been able to give a 1 hr long talk to a large group of people (something I wouldn’t have been able to do because oab at the beginning of all this) with no issues. In my experience there is no instant cure for this, don’t say this to be negative but more so to say that its going to take hard work, and there is hope. I was able to overcome this thing and so can you! I hope this helps and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Hi everyone, I’m (22F) currently on 20 mg of Lexapro, and I ran out of pills about 5 days ago. I’m waiting on my local pharmacy to coordinate with my PCM in another state, but in the meantime, I’m dealing with some pretty wicked withdrawal symptoms. I am insanely dizzy and tired, pretty nauseous, headache-y, and experiencing some muscle stiffness in my face and hands.
This especially sucks because I have a massive amount of project deadlines for my classes. I’m attending art school as an animation major and have so much to do within the next couple days including operating as a producer on a short film, and I can hardly function.
Until I manage to get a hold of my refill, does anybody have any advice for ways to mitigate these symptoms? I’ve never taken an SSRI or antidepressant of any kind before Lexapro and only started taking it this past December, so I’m a novice at all this. I’ve been drinking water and eating regularly, and it only seems to be minimally helping.
Thank you :’)

I am at a loss and feeling hopeless. Last winter I sunk into a depression and started Lexapro. I am diagnosed with PMDD, GAD and depression. The transition went well but the side effects (fatigue, emotional numbing, no sex drive, anorgasma) became the reason I stopped after two months because I wanted to feel joy and pursue hobbies again. It worked wonders for anxiety and rumination, however.
Though I tapered I had horrible withdrawals and dizziness for weeks that led me to try Gabapentin. That went fine for a few weeks until something snapped in my brain and I became angry and irritable and unreasonably sensitive and later suicidal. Next was Viibryd which became similar after a week with wild mood swings, panic attacks and irritability. It is to the point I cannot tolerate myself and feel it is only going to get worse. So again I am tapering.
My psychiatrist has suggested I cross taper to Pristiq but I am afraid to start it after my rough few months. I’m half considering trying nothing at all but fear the withdrawals. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I did do the Genomind test and Viibryd and Pristiq were listed as having no gene interactions but Lexapro was one I should not take. Should some people just not take antidepressants at all? I am feeling like I may be one of them.

Long story short, I was on Lexapro for ~5 years. I felt like it wasn’t working as well anymore so I got off, tried other meds, had awful experiences, and then went unmedicated.
Proceeded to have some of the worst days of my life off medication.
So now, I’m back on. I used to take 20mg but now I’m tapering back on at 5mg. I’m on day 4 and I know it takes time but I feel awful. I was hoping I wouldn’t have side effects since I was on it before, but the nausea, dizziness, and headaches are killing me. I keep having to call off work or leave early.
Anyone else get off and then get back on? What was your experience?

Been on 5 mg for 4 weeks now but this week noticed that my pre lexapro self is returning, shaky and anxious and dizzy. Is it time to increase it to 10?

DISCLAIMER: YOU SHOULD NOT STOP LEXAPRO COLD TURKEY. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR FIRST.
I started 10 mg of Lexapro back in June of 2023. I was working a really high stress job and it was causing me all sorts of problems with anxiety. I was "managing it" and by that I mean not doing anything about it and letting it destroy me mentally and physically lol. So my doc prescribed me Lexapro and I started it.
Lexapro REALLY REALLY helped. I stayed at 10mg the entire time I was on it. It made all my anxieties feel a lot smaller, and easier to manage. I can describe it as "taking the edge off" of my life. I didn't experience any weird side effects going onto it and I was fine on it for a long time.
So between about October of 2023 and now, I have experienced DRAMATIC and FAST weight gain. When I started Lex I was fluctuating around 140-150 pounds, and suddenly today I am 190 pounds. I have dark stretch marks on my arms near my armpits, on my belly, and really dark stretch marks on my thighs going all the way down PAST my knees that seem to have shown up over night and I’m starting to get them on my breasts and butt now too.
There weren't any other external factors that I believe caused my weight gain (except for the fact that I was obviously a little less active in the winter but nothing that caused me to gain 40 pounds that quickly).
I started to get extremely depressed about my body and the stretch marks. After talking to my doctor and doing my own research plus a blood test it seemed that my weight gain was likely related to the medication.
I decided on my own that I would quit cold turkey since I no longer worked at the stressful job, and wanted to see if I could get off it and see how it affected my weight and also if I still even needed it since a lot of the anxiety was removed from my life. (YES, THIS IS STUPID, DO NOT DO THIS) but I wanted to share my experience. I decided to log daily about what I noticed after quitting cold turkey on May 1st.
Day 1: - felt completely normal
Day 2: - Had weird euphoric feelings? Mania maybe? - Weird nightmares - No physical symptoms
Day 3: - felt slightly nauseous - weird dreams
Day 4: - I thought I was having vertigo but now I think it was brain zaps - about a 3/10 on the "nausea" scale that would come and go - weird dreams
Day 5: - felt pretty normal this day except for weird dreams
Day 6: - lasting dull headache (could be unrelated) - 3/10 nausea on and off - dizziness - brain zaps - appetite changes (I felt hungry but the thought of food made me nauseous) - felt kind of like I had the flu - night sweats - weirdly enough I've been sleeping BETTER I've noticed since coming off it despite the nightmares
Day 7: - No negative emotional changes noticed thus far, I kind of actually feel a bit better? Like I can feel my emotions more? - headache - nausea - night sweats - nightmares
Day 8: - Slept really good again minus being super sweaty and having nightmares (the quality of my sleep felt really restful when I woke up) - This was the first day I noticed a bit of creeping depression for seemingly no reason - brain zaps - dizziness - nausea - headache
Day 9: - nausea - dizziness - brain zaps - irritability (but my period will also be starting in about a week or so which could be a factor here)
Day 10: - Another restful sleep - brain zaps - dizziness
Day 11: - felt really depressed today, first time in a long time and can't really place why. - nausea - fatigue - dizziness - brain zaps
Day 12 to now have all been pretty much the same with: - fatigue - night sweats - dizziness - slight nausea - the brain zaps are REALLY starting to get to me.
Personal Takeaways: - Talk to your doctor and TAPER OFF. I'm sure the nausea/dizziness and brain zaps would be a lot better if I would have done so. - As someone recovering from an eating disorder as well, gaining a little weight should not be the sole reason you go off your medication if it is helping you. Really think about what is important!! If I was still working that stressful job I would NOT have done this because I truly needed it at the time. I am working a much less stressful job now so I figured I could see if I even still needed it or not. - There has been no change in my weight yet, it's only been 2 weeks. I am not expecting the weight to just fall off or anything. If I happen to lose a notable amount of weight I will come back with an update.