u/b_w_21

I was on 10mg of Lexapro for about 14 years and it did pretty well on it. I recently developed much more severe anxiety due to a health scare plus some other general stresses. I spiraled and went into basically a constant fight or flight state. I went to the doc and they increased my Lex dosage to 20mg. For some reason I felt great for the first week and then week two went right back to the severe anxiety. Back to the doc and he decides to take me off of Lexapro and immediately starts me on 100mg of Pristiq. Same thing, felt great for almost a week then the anxiety comes back super hard. I then see a mental health doc via telehealth and he tells me 100mg is too aggressive of a dosage especially starting out so he drops me to 50mg…. Once again I feel great for like 5 or 6 days then the horrible anxiety comes back. I do not understand what is going on but I’m wondering if Pristiq is the right medication for me because I know it can be stimulating and really my main problem is health anxiety, not really depression. I feel like the adrenaline rush is making my anxiety much worse. I just want to be chilled out. I have a follow up appointment with the mental health doc soon but I’m starting to wish I had just stayed on the 20mg of Lexapro because I was only at that dosage for about two weeks before stopping and starting Pristiq. Maybe more time on the 20mg of
Lexapro would have really helped. I wake up very early every morning in an instant anxiety attack and going back to sleep is impossible.

Male 42yo I’ve been on 10mg Lexapro for almost 15 years and my anxiety suddenly got really bad so my doctor increased my dose to 20mg for a short amount of time but didn’t see a change (in hind sight I probably didn’t give it long enough) but he decided to put me on 100mg of Pristiq instead. I did a direct swap instead of any tapering. I was surprised he put me on this because I felt like my body/mind was stuck in fight or flight all the time. For the first week on Pristiq I felt great, tons of energy and both mood and anxiety improved. After one week everything crashed and the anxiety is back in full force and I’m extremly fatigued all day but feel sort of wired at the same time . I’m only getting a few hours of sleep every night and it’s a very light sleep. i wake up very morning very early and going back to sleep is impossible. I have been on the Pristiq exactly two weeks now. Somebody please tell me in just in the phase of withdrawing from Lexapro at the same time I’m getting used to Pristiq and that things will even out!! I went back to the doc today and he wrote me a prescription for 10mg of Abilify to add on. I’m a little nervous about taking it though from what I’ve read online. I’ve had anxiety all my life but nothing to this degree. I used to get anxious over things then I would get over it and all is well. This has been a non-stop thing for about 6 weeks now and it’s driving me crazy.