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Should I take Lexapro?
Phannypax
Phannypax the PantyhaxTexasRegistered User regular
Phannypax the PantyhaxTexasRegistered User regular
I'm sorry if this is poorly written, but if you can struggle through it, I would appreciate it.
Yesterday I visited my doctor for multiple things, one of them being to discuss my anxiety. I told him about my conditions of anxiety, and he prescribed me Lexapro. He suggested it because it is a mild anti-depressant compared to many others, and I remembered hearing and reading a lot about Lexapro here on Penny Arcade. Not to lie, I did feel better that he prescribed me medication that I was somewhat familiar on thanks to Jerry and Mike, but I knew that this should not be the only reason I begin taking it. I did some research into the side effects, and it seems that the chance of them are very small, but the point is that they are still there.
The main thing I'm asking here is whether or not the penny arcade readers think I should start taking them or not. First of all, I am going to talk to my girlfriend and my parents about it, but I still feel comfortable at least getting advice from a larger community, and I see a lot of posts about it here, so it seems there is some experience amidst.
I understand people have worse anxiety than I, and that is part of what makes me skeptical to begin taking it. However, my mind can be annoying at times. I behave very compulsively, I won't go too much into details, but basically I do things where I drum my fingers in specific patterns constantly and the big one is that I read in fractions (confusing I know, but just as an example. the word "there" contains 5 letters, the letter "h" is the only one that is typed with the right hand on a standard us keyboard, and as I am right handed, I favor it, so the fraction comes out as 1/5) I do this with every single word I read, so it is extremely passive, and I have gotten extremely quick at doing it, but it is still annoying to me that I have to do it. I also can get very short tempered when my anxiety hits hard, and I don't necessarily get mad at people easier, but I do get frustrated, and could be much nicer than I am. I am extremely organized too, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do not like for people to interfere with my methods, even though I know certain things should not bother me. My anxiety has actually caused tight chest pains behind my sternum from lack of oxygen. Now, my anxiety is not always so bad, these last few weeks I have only done my compulsive things, but around the time of finals is when it can get very bad, and when I am trying to finish up projects and study for exams, my mind is such a flurry that I can barely focus. This is why part of me really wants to start taking lexapro, so I can just level out hopefully.
What scares me though, is that I know it affects some people differently. Some people get all of the benefits without any of the side-effects, but it also seems like some people get the side-effects worse than the others. My doctor said once I begin taking it, I need to stick with it for at least 3 months.
I am a double major in industrial engineering and mathematics, with a minor in physics. I am not trying to brag by any means, but I value my education and my intelligence. I am here on multiple scholarships, and the thing that scares me the most is that if I begin taking lexapro, could it make me worse in school? I know in most cases it lessens that anxiety, and helps people to study and to stay focused in class, which greatly appeals to me. However, I have also heard that when people lose that compulsive, creative thinking, that it actually hurts them in school. That is what scares me the most, because I can not afford to hurt my education.
My girlfriend and I have been together for a year and a half now, we get along great, we rarely fight, but with my anxiety I can get a bit antsy, even though I have no reason to. She understands and does not mind so much, but I get frustrated with myself when I do that. Now, we are far beyond the point where sex is the only thing that matters in our relationship, but what scares me are the potential sexual side effects. While sex as I said is not the important thing, the point is, it is still a part of our relationship. We are both very sexually active with each other, and if I suddenly did not have as much interest in sex, or could not orgasm during sex, she would understand (that is, if the Lexapro did in fact help me and make me less anxious). But, what about 3 or 4 years down the road? We would still be in our early twenties, and I would be afraid that it would just lead to conflicts in our relationship, which is not something I want to risk.
I also work at GameStop, and am part of social clubs here on campus, so I value my ability to speak and be generally social. I am about to be promoted to a manager at GameStop, and am going to be one of our main rushers for the club, so I really need to be on my game when talking to people. Again, I am afraid that Lexapro could potentially hurt me in this, though I know there is the other side that it could help me on.
I guess the main question here, is that while I do have anxiety, and it can be a problem, I can not decide whether it is worth the risk in changing who I am. It "could" make me a better me, though, there is still that small chance it could make everything worse. It scares me to think about, and I just want some people's opinions that have already taken it, or know someone close who has. Any help/advice I would greatly appreciate, thanks for your time!
Yesterday I visited my doctor for multiple things, one of them being to discuss my anxiety. I told him about my conditions of anxiety, and he prescribed me Lexapro. He suggested it because it is a mild anti-depressant compared to many others, and I remembered hearing and reading a lot about Lexapro here on Penny Arcade. Not to lie, I did feel better that he prescribed me medication that I was somewhat familiar on thanks to Jerry and Mike, but I knew that this should not be the only reason I begin taking it. I did some research into the side effects, and it seems that the chance of them are very small, but the point is that they are still there.
The main thing I'm asking here is whether or not the penny arcade readers think I should start taking them or not. First of all, I am going to talk to my girlfriend and my parents about it, but I still feel comfortable at least getting advice from a larger community, and I see a lot of posts about it here, so it seems there is some experience amidst.
I understand people have worse anxiety than I, and that is part of what makes me skeptical to begin taking it. However, my mind can be annoying at times. I behave very compulsively, I won't go too much into details, but basically I do things where I drum my fingers in specific patterns constantly and the big one is that I read in fractions (confusing I know, but just as an example. the word "there" contains 5 letters, the letter "h" is the only one that is typed with the right hand on a standard us keyboard, and as I am right handed, I favor it, so the fraction comes out as 1/5) I do this with every single word I read, so it is extremely passive, and I have gotten extremely quick at doing it, but it is still annoying to me that I have to do it. I also can get very short tempered when my anxiety hits hard, and I don't necessarily get mad at people easier, but I do get frustrated, and could be much nicer than I am. I am extremely organized too, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do not like for people to interfere with my methods, even though I know certain things should not bother me. My anxiety has actually caused tight chest pains behind my sternum from lack of oxygen. Now, my anxiety is not always so bad, these last few weeks I have only done my compulsive things, but around the time of finals is when it can get very bad, and when I am trying to finish up projects and study for exams, my mind is such a flurry that I can barely focus. This is why part of me really wants to start taking lexapro, so I can just level out hopefully.
What scares me though, is that I know it affects some people differently. Some people get all of the benefits without any of the side-effects, but it also seems like some people get the side-effects worse than the others. My doctor said once I begin taking it, I need to stick with it for at least 3 months.
I am a double major in industrial engineering and mathematics, with a minor in physics. I am not trying to brag by any means, but I value my education and my intelligence. I am here on multiple scholarships, and the thing that scares me the most is that if I begin taking lexapro, could it make me worse in school? I know in most cases it lessens that anxiety, and helps people to study and to stay focused in class, which greatly appeals to me. However, I have also heard that when people lose that compulsive, creative thinking, that it actually hurts them in school. That is what scares me the most, because I can not afford to hurt my education.
My girlfriend and I have been together for a year and a half now, we get along great, we rarely fight, but with my anxiety I can get a bit antsy, even though I have no reason to. She understands and does not mind so much, but I get frustrated with myself when I do that. Now, we are far beyond the point where sex is the only thing that matters in our relationship, but what scares me are the potential sexual side effects. While sex as I said is not the important thing, the point is, it is still a part of our relationship. We are both very sexually active with each other, and if I suddenly did not have as much interest in sex, or could not orgasm during sex, she would understand (that is, if the Lexapro did in fact help me and make me less anxious). But, what about 3 or 4 years down the road? We would still be in our early twenties, and I would be afraid that it would just lead to conflicts in our relationship, which is not something I want to risk.
I also work at GameStop, and am part of social clubs here on campus, so I value my ability to speak and be generally social. I am about to be promoted to a manager at GameStop, and am going to be one of our main rushers for the club, so I really need to be on my game when talking to people. Again, I am afraid that Lexapro could potentially hurt me in this, though I know there is the other side that it could help me on.
I guess the main question here, is that while I do have anxiety, and it can be a problem, I can not decide whether it is worth the risk in changing who I am. It "could" make me a better me, though, there is still that small chance it could make everything worse. It scares me to think about, and I just want some people's opinions that have already taken it, or know someone close who has. Any help/advice I would greatly appreciate, thanks for your time!
Phannypax on
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In most cases, the side effects for SSRIs will reduce in severity or go away after several weeks on a stable dose, so you shouldn't have to worry about 3 or 4 years down the road even if you're still on meds. The downside is that it may take much of that first 3 months for your doctor to narrow it down to a steady dose, as you generally will start on a very low dose and work your way up every few weeks until you reach a point where there is a balance between the benefits being most visible and side effects as minimal as possible.
The other downside with SSRIs is that a specific medication won't work for everyone, and currently the only way to know if it's going to work for you is to be on it for a few months. If it doesn't work, you taper off and start on a different SSRI to see if that one works. It's kind of terrible, but for now it's the only way to find one that actually works for you. Unfortunately this frequently discourages people when the medication isn't working and they end up stopping before finding one that does work.
I know your anxiety about taking psychiatric medication all too well. It may have some side effects for you (or not), but it's really not going to change who you are and it's not a lifetime commitment. It's NOT going to make you a better you, but it may make it easier and more comfortable for you to navigate your own life. If you take it and experience any wild problems, call your prescribing doctor. If, after the time your doctor recommends, you aren't really "feeling it", you can still decide to go off.
Whatever you do, be it going on or off the stuff, always do so under supervision, because going off cold turkey can cause problems.
For me the sexual side effects have been the most notable so far. You can go without a condom for a long time and still not climax, and yes it can be frustrating. For me personally the SSRI is causing me sexual physical discomfort, which is why it's hard for me to pull things off in the bedroom, but separating the pill into two helps things a bit. I'm also trying to avoid doing things that add to the pain, like lifting heavy objects for example.
Of course my woes are exclusive to me, and it's more of personal physical issues than Lexapro's handiwork. Any SSRI is going to cause sexual side effects, but I don't think it will kill your sex drive as much as you think. I still have about the same desire as I did before, I just can't act on it as much because of my discomfort, and i'm taking 20 mg. I don't think your girlfriend will hate it (more stamina in the bedroom isn't a bad thing), it will probably just bug you more.
Maybe see if you can compliment it with another medication like Wellburtin to balance out the effects.
I've thought about doing that, in case I need to balance out side effects, I think I am leaning towards trying it, if it does have side effects, I could stop as soon as I can and wait out any possible withdraws.
Just keep in mind that it does take some time (i.e. weeks) at a stable dose for some side effects to reduce, so if you're going to start the medication don't just immediately stop at the first sign of any side effects without consulting your doctor about it.
If you aren't prepared to ride out a couple months, just don't bother.
+1 on this, not a bad thing just interesting.
I take it for my Fibromyalgia but it defiantly gave me a better outlook on things. Now if its because the pain was way down or the SSRI who knows.
Socially it was like a totally different for me. More at ease in situations that I was not comfortable with. At work a lot more even keeled which I needed. I could start working out again and I started riding 100 miles or so a week on my bike to get back into racing. My food intake went through the roof even before I started on the bike though. I sleep through the night as well, again not what I expected but it was a major life changer as well.
Definitely worth the test for me, on for about 1 year, coming off it when they changed me to a new style of pain pill was hell on earth for about 2 weeks though. I was grouchy and had major insomnia.
EDIT
FYI I took a huge dose I think it was 60mg once a day, it kicked in about 5 days full effect in 14 days, I was major nauseous for the first three days.
I don't type in fractions, but still occasionally find myself counting the amount of steps each of my feet take on each tile of a sidewalk. Doesn't bother me now, but then again, it didn't particularly bother me before. Your mileage will vary, the doctor is there to help you figure out by how much, and safely. If your doctor has recommended it to you, I wouldn't feel any reservations about at least trying it out for three months.
To answer a few questions, it doesnt really 'change' who you are, it basically gives you extra tools to deal with the anxiety. It doesn't make you happy or not anxious, but I guess allows you to be happy and not anxious. It kind of opens it up for you. I also dont think you have to worry about your creativity or smarts or anything. For me it has helped that immensly. I'm a software engineer and its made it easier to focus and handle my job and not get overwhelmed. Its also helped me in artistic pursuits with being able to have more follow through and in general ENJOY it more.
I cant speak to the sexual side effects at all since I'm asexual to begin with so I didnt really care if it 'killed' my sex drive...
I should also note that I take it more for depression purposes than anxiety, but I do deal with both and it has immensely helped both. One of the best decisions I have made.