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Friend is having concerns about taking antidepressants
Raekreu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So a friend of mine has been having anxiety/panic attacks for the past 3-4 years and recently they've started becoming more intense and frequent. He went to his doctor and received a 1 month trial supply of Lexapro. His concern is that the side effects of the medication will be very bad, especially if he ever decides to stop taking it.
Is there anyone on H/A that has had experience with taking this drug for anxiety? What were the pros/cons of taking it?
Is there anyone on H/A that has had experience with taking this drug for anxiety? What were the pros/cons of taking it?
Raekreu on
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That would be super, he's really divided on whether he should take it or not.
I think the main thing that has him worried is that if he goes off the medication, he may end up with the be-all, end-all of panic attacks. He's read a lot of commentary about the drug and many people seem to relapse pretty quickly when they stop taking it.
Definitely Lexapro, 10 mg. He brought the box into work and asked what I thought about it. I was the one that told him he needed to talk to a doctor about his panic attacks and Lexapro was the example I gave for what he should ask about. He also got a prescription for Xanax, the doctor said it was a 'take as needed' measure in case a panic attack hit him really hard.
What was your experience? Are his concerns unfounded or legitimate?
I can't stress enough how much of a positive change I've seen for going on this medication. Just remember that it takes up to a couple of weeks for positive effects to be noticed.
Hmm, that's worth considering.
I've been talking to him off and on for the past couple of hours and he's thinking that he's going to go ahead and try the course that he's been given and if it doesn't work or has the wrong effect/side effects, he'll schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist. The reason that he didn't go and see one right off the bat is because his insurance won't cover the cost of seeing one.
Nah, SSRI's can be used as anti-anxiety meds. When it comes to psychiatric medication, there is very rarely a medication specifically for one condition due to what a labyrinthine abomination our nervous systems are.
Buddy is going to follow Ceres' recommendation and follow the course as per the doctor's instructions and then take the next step based on the results.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/pa-the-series/118/
Did it help with my state of mind? Tremendously. I felt pretty alive and bright most of the day but when I would wake up in the morning and look at myself I felt worse than before
The problem was that the thing that could only alleviate the emotional effects (zoloft) of the problem didn't actually attack a very particular source (weight). If his anxiety is really assaulting his quality of life he should give it a try. I stopped taking the medication cold and I went through no negative phase as a result, just went back to the way it was.
I was recently transferred to Citalopram (60mg) for anti-anxiety/depression, propranol for panic attacks (10-30mg) and Doxepin (10mg) to help me sleep.
I've been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression with possible OCD, so yeah. Just shoot me a PM if you want.
Edit: Oh and the reason I switched wasn't because of anything bad with Lexapro. It's just expensive without a good insurance plan, I was paying over $100 a month for it and could get a similar effect with Citalopram just at a higher dose.
My friend is happily on a medication right now that made me super sick.
I learned how to recognize signs that I was getting anxious and what set me off, as well as cycles that triggered my depression. When I transitioned off medication, I had some minor withdrawl symptoms (brain buzz, which was weird but not that unpleasant) and so on, but I now have plenty of tools to cope.
If I needed medication for the rest of my life, that would have been fine too, I really saw that I was not a happy person at the time I went seeking help. However I consider myself lucky that for me, I didn't need it forever.
Coping mechanisms are an important part of treatment in my mind, and people should seek them so that if they do ever transition to no-mediation life again, they have the tools they need. I guess my point is - your friend seems to be more concerned about withdrawl from antidepressants than anything else (or maybe the side effects during). Withdrawl should be done with support of a doctor and patients should be prepared properly. As for side effects, could be nothing, and there's always other drugs that might have better results. No point living your life in anxiety just because of "what if".
As for withdrawal symptoms, they're usually not bad at the doses prescribed for anxiety. One of the most common ones is known as "the zaps", which I get if I forget to take my meds for a couple nights. It's a weird but not painful sensation that really does feel like your neurotransmitters are zapping around in your head. I'd just say that if SSRIs don't work for your friend and he's going off them on purpose that he might want to make sure he doesn't need to drive for a few days. I wouldn't want to drive with the zaps.
Has your friend been given any referrals to a psych person to evaluate whether he'd benefit from therapy? Drugs are awesome for taking the edge off anxiety symptoms, but solid therapy (I'm a big fan of cognitive-behavioural therapy, it's no-nonsense and no-bullshit) gives you the tools to identify and change the thought processes that lead to anxiety and panic attacks (though with panic attacks it depends on the indidivual I think, some people just get them out of nowhere, and I don't know how helpful therapy is for that).
Side effects are an issue with any sort of anti-anxiety/depression medication, and often you have to try a few before you find the right one for you. I know I went through a few with nasty side effects before I tried Celexa where I have no side effects.
Lexapro is a fairly common and gentle SSRI, but there's really little to do aside from try it out and contact your doctor if you have any side-effects.
In general, many SSRIs are used to treat anxiety as well as depression. Some SSRIs have also proven effective with fibromyalgia, even though their intended use is to treat depression. Brain chemistry can surprise you.
I was on Lexapro for a bit, and found it really helpful. They worked me up to 10mg in steps, first cutting 5mg pills in half, then taking 5 mg pills, then taking 10 mg pills. They did that so my body could acclimate to each level, and it seemed to help with side effects. I never felt nausea, which I was told could be a problem, and it didn't make me sleepy during the day. It did dampen my sex drive a little bit, but didn't impair my ability to finish, just how long it took to do so.
When my insurance changed, Lexapro got more expensive for me, and my doctor put me on a similar drug that has a generic, citalopram. It worked, but not quite as well.
In the same way that stepping up to 10mg helped lessen side effects, if your friend ever decides to discontinue, it'd be best to do a gradual process- first to 5mg pills.
Or he could just cut his 10mg pills in half with a pill cutter. When I moved from 2.5mg to 5mg, my doc started prescribing me 10mg pills and told me to cut them in half. It meant my 30-day RX for 10mg pills actually lasted 60 days, which helped, because my copay for 30 days of 5mg pills was the same as my copay for 30 days of 10mg pills. So instead of paying the copay every month, I was paying it every other month.
Once he moved down to 2.5mg, he'd have to start getting 5mg pills and cut in half. Cutting the 10mgs into quarters results in too much chipping off and getting lost.
Thankfully, my anxiety and depression were circumstantial, and when certain changes in my life were made, I no longer needed to be on SSRIs. Until I went on them, I was not really a functional person at all, and by the time I went off them, I was genuinely happy.
I really hope your friend finds some relief.
Pros -
Less anxiety/stress
More even keel
Lows are higher
Your mind can't take over and spin out of control in anxious situations
Cons -
Highs lower
Emotions were dulled
I ended up stopping, but it helped establish what "Normal" actually felt like, which was huge for me. I definitely recommend at least giving them a shot, as worse comes to worse you can stop them. I also feel that I am much stronger mentally and emotionally having taken them and experienced more "normal" responses to social and personal anxiety.
This was definitely the biggest and most real thing it's done for me, and though I don't still take anything, the perspective it granted has been a huge help.