Positive Lexapro experience 10mg
Hi, I wanted to share my Lexapro experience on here as reading others helped me in the beginning. I was prepared for the worst but grateful to report it’s been a positive experience.
I’m on Lexapro for anxiety/ruminating thoughts. I don’t suffer from depression. I started on 5mg and increased to 10mg after a week. I’m a month in.
Side effects for the first week - nausea after taking the pill. Sweating (couple night sweats), hot feeling but all workable and not over whelming. A couple of sleepless nights. Some loose bowl movements for 2 weeks.
No side effects going from 5-10mg. No weight gain, actually I’ve been eating less than before.
Mentally I felt the positive affects coming in from week 2. There would be moments of just happiness - looking at the light on a tree & realizing i wasn’t having negative thoughts. And it’s only improved from there. I would describe the sensation as - the negative thoughts enter the room of the mind … but they just stay in the corner. Whereas before they would tackle me to the ground. Because of this, it allows me to see them clearly and just carry on.
My spiraling is similar - the thought will enter but it doesn’t have the same “sticky” feeling to it , and it’ll pass quickly.
I still have anxiety and anxious moments but they pass quicker. I’ll be triggered and actually have the ability to recognize it, breathe and then watch it pass.
Unexpected side effects - I feel also feel more focused, quite hyped up at times like could clean the house everyday, and also harder to cry? Things that would make me burst in tears don’t anymore. But I don’t feel numb. Just a feeling of “it’ll all workout”.
For anxiety I practice the approach you can find in the disordered podcast by Josh Fletcher. Which is to willfully tolerate it - and eventually the threat response realizes it’s not a threat and rewires the brain. I also highly encourage meditation and mindfulness practice. Lexapro has allowed me to apply these “radical acceptance” practices whereas before I was so overcome I couldn’t even catch a break. I felt like I was drowning in fear based ruminating thinking.
I’m excited if this is just a month - to how it will improve even more!!
If you’re considering going on Lexapro I would say most definitely start the journey. You don’t have take it forever but you also don’t have to suffer in the meantime.