Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 140744

Shown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by allnatural on February 12, 2003, at 17:03:30

I have been on lexapro now for a little over two weeks and have no energy. I've read the prior postings and would like to know if there is a compliment to lexapro to reduce the energy zap.

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by Bill L on February 13, 2003, at 9:24:31

In reply to LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by allnatural on February 12, 2003, at 17:03:30

I take 20 mg and do notice lower energy. (Although not as low as it had been on either Prozac or Celexa.) It's ironic for me. I feel a little more tired, but I also am able to get a lot more work done because I'm not depressed.

What helps me is to get a little more sleep; and also Cherry Coke. Also, I usually get tired when I am sitting at my desk for a while. If I walk around, I get my energy back.

You have only been on it for 2 weeks. Some of the tiredness will go away over the next month or so.

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by mlj 123 on February 14, 2003, at 19:12:25

In reply to LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by allnatural on February 12, 2003, at 17:03:30

> I have been on lexapro now for a little over two weeks and have no energy. I've read the prior postings and would like to know if there is a compliment to lexapro to reduce the energy zap.


I feel like your energy will come back when you modivate yourself after you feel better. That when Lexepro quit making me so tired all the time. once I felt humane again I gained energy to do all the things I had missed out on. Good Luck

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by Dysfunk on February 15, 2003, at 14:21:43

In reply to Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by mlj 123 on February 14, 2003, at 19:12:25

I wonder if the energy zapping is cause it isn't working for you and you are feeling the depression. I have not felt the entire zapping of energy, but I do feel lazier than usual. When I do force myself to go to the gym, I find I do have the energy inside for my usual long and intensive workouts. It is a matter of mind over body and forcing yourself past the exhausion. If it doesn't work, maybe it isn't the proper medicine for you?

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by MaryZee on February 15, 2003, at 23:42:14

In reply to Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by Dysfunk on February 15, 2003, at 14:21:43

There was no way I could force myself out of the effects of the Lexapro. Never felt so tired and unable to function as I did when I was on Lex.
Obviously was not the med for me!! No way I could tough it out for a month or two! Sometimes we just have to listen to our bodies and realize that a medication is not for us! Someone else might have a great reaction to it and that is great! It just was definitely not for me!!

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT? » MaryZee

Posted by missinglynxx on February 16, 2003, at 9:08:49

In reply to Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by MaryZee on February 15, 2003, at 23:42:14

Well sorry to hear it. IT really doesnt prove anything to gut out exhaustion for weeks. Medications are supposed to help balance the body,not create MASSIVE side effects.

Thats one way to tell if your medication will succeed in helping you face this ROUGH world

If your side effects are minimal, ITs a sure bet that Medication (X) could be the right choice


I would cut my losses and Change from LEXAPRO to something Milder,,,, or you could take a MUCH smaller dose. GOOD luck

 

Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?

Posted by bozeman on February 16, 2003, at 16:58:07

In reply to Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by MaryZee on February 15, 2003, at 23:42:14

> There was no way I could force myself out of the effects of the Lexapro. Never felt so tired and unable to function as I did when I was on Lex.
> Obviously was not the med for me!! No way I could tough it out for a month or two! Sometimes we just have to listen to our bodies and realize that a medication is not for us! Someone else might have a great reaction to it and that is great! It just was definitely not for me!!
>>

I couldn't get past the exhaustion, either, *until* I realized that I needed a paradigm shift. I was thinking that being exhausted after four or five hours sleep was somehow wrong. I had gotten by on four or five hours my whole life, couldn't stay asleep longer than that for anything. Until I started Lexapro.

The first few days I was really noticeably tired, but then it lifted and I felt better. Several weeks later, I realized I was still very tired, but didn't notice how tired I was until I sat down. I rearranged my schedule to allow seven to eight uninterrupted hours for attempted sleep, and within three or four days I felt fine. I was acting like my chronic lifelong insomnia was a normal thing, I guess, and wondering why I was tired.

I can now sleep seven to nine hours uninterrupted, and when I awake feel like I can conquer the world. Even in my "good" periods before, I never felt that good in the mornings, just the "another day, oh boy, guess I'd better get cracking."

So, in my case, the Lexapro didn't zap my energy, it just showed me where my energy was already being zapped and how to fix it, if that makes any sense.

Hope this helps.

bozeman

 

LEX: AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR not working?

Posted by Dysfunk on February 17, 2003, at 13:09:48

In reply to Re: LEXAPRO AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR WHAT?, posted by bozeman on February 16, 2003, at 16:58:07

Interesting Bozeman. I think people who are athletes or work out regularly can find the energy and utilize it. For the average person, it is more difficult.

The bottom line is that we all want to feel better. How long do we have to feel bad with side effects before we call it quits? How do we know if this is what the medicine is doing to us or this is how we are unmedicated? It is all so frustrating!

 

Re: LEX: AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR not working? » Dysfunk

Posted by bozeman on February 18, 2003, at 0:00:39

In reply to LEX: AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR not working?, posted by Dysfunk on February 17, 2003, at 13:09:48

> Interesting Bozeman. I think people who are athletes or work out regularly can find the energy and utilize it. For the average person, it is more difficult.
>

Unfortunately I haven't made it back to being able to work out regularly . . . have been very ill plus depressed for several years, and "giving up" several hours of my day (to sleep) still has me feeling time pressured . . . though I must surely use time better than I did, it still feels like not enough. I agree it can be *very* difficult at times. And don't get me wrong, "feeling" better doesn't always equal "doing" better, in the physical sense of doing. Logistics, indecision, procrastination, and non-motivation can still be huge obstacles for me. At least now I have enough energy to *move*, when I can get past the (psychological) obstacles. Which I couldn't for a long time.

>
> The bottom line is that we all want to feel better. How long do we have to feel bad with side effects before we call it quits? How do we know if this is what the medicine is doing to us or this is how we are unmedicated? It is all so frustrating!
>

Dysfunk, I really do appreciate your frustration at not being able to find something to help you feel like yourself. I have run the gamut of doctors and therapists, and at one time had given up on ever seeing a medical practitioner again, since at that time it seemed no one wanted to believe my medical problems were real -- they just wanted to label me "crazy". I just wanted to feel *human* again, as I'm sure, do you. Sadly, though, it is often not the first or third or even fifth medication, or the tenth doctor, who ends up helping us. It took me over fifteen years to find real, useful help. Supportive therapists I could find, but someone to understand and treat the biological side took much longer.

For what it's worth, my own road was actually made easier by my relative ignorance on some topics. I knew very little about SSRI's until a not-very-sympathetic doctor tried to prescribe me Paxil for a sleeping problem (that later turned out to caused by an airway blockage.) I looked it up in the PDR because I had never heard of it. The list of negative side effects was as long as my arm!! When I questioned him about it, he got angry, and we had rather loud words about his trying to treat a symptom and not the patient. Needless to say, I switched doctors. Fast-forward about five years. I'm with a much better doctor, who has done a tremendous job treating my medical problems, but she says to me one day, "You know, I think you're still not as good as you could be. Stuff still stresses you out that, based on your personality, really shouldn't, and then it hits you physically and threatens to undo the progress we've done. There's this new medication, it's an antidepressant of the SSRI type, has a very low side effect profile, if you want to try it we can. I think it might make you feel stronger, more like your old self." The "old self" she spoke of was prior to the accident that caused the chain reaction of medical problems.

I trust her judgement so I said, "Sure." I filled the prescription and took it home. But I waited a week to take it so I could do some reading. From what I could find, it takes six to eight weeks for an SSRI's effect to be fully felt, and sure enough, Lexapro has the most favorable side effect profile. Actually they kind of just skimmed over the side effects entirely, with a minor mention of sexual side effects, in the material I found. But since I had never taken an SSRI and didn't have any context for the side effects, I expected six to eight weeks to feel any positive effect, and never really contemplated negative ones. I guess this is one of those rare, weird situations where ignorance really is bliss. Because, in my ignorance, I didn't recognize the side effects as what they were. They started on the first day I took Lexapro but I didn't have a clue they were related. I naively treated each side effect as an unrelated occurrence, not as part of an (overwhelming) picture. (That's why it took me so long to figure out about needing more sleep while on Lexapro. I had no idea it was actually related to the medicine.)

I had hideous diarhhea for the first week, but attributed it to my "touchy" bowels (kind of like irritable bowel syndrome, but not quite the same - sometimes they get in a fit and don't know when to stop.) I took one large dose of psyllium and that stopped it within 12 hours. It didn't return. I dealt with the loss of appetite, the exhaustion, and the "lexapro insomnia", etc. the same way -- ignorantly and innocently, one symptom at a time, one day at a time, until I slowly disarmed each negative side effect that I encountered. I hadn't discovered PB yet, so I didn't have any idea that these symptoms were medication related -- I thought they were just "yet another" weird manifestation of my post-accident physiology, another "medical anomaly" for my me to solve. I guess I'm just used to fighting my weird medical history. My doctor laughs and tells me I'm the strangest patient she's ever had -- and means it as a compliment, because I stretch her knowledge on every visit with my weird problems. That does *not* mean that others will be able to, or should have to, do this side-effect compensation on their own.

I'm not saying that ignorance is a good thing, or that my approach would work for you. I'm reinforcing your statement that it's soooo frustrating that the medications work so differently for people, and that there's no sure-fire way to tell what's the right treatment for anyone. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer for your particular situation. I wish I did, because I'd love to be able to help you. All I can offer is, it seems that many of us do find some relief eventually (but I know that doesn't help when you're waiting for it.)

One thing I had to watch (for me, anyway) was to not be intimidated by other people's experiences. I had enough to worry about on my own. What I'm trying to say is, while PB is a wonderful source for support and some information, it can at times, for me, almost be counter-productive, too, in that reading all the posts of people having trouble with their meds would make me more anxious, if I hadn't already dealt with my negative effects. And since the people that tend to start threads (not always, but very often) are looking for support or assistance with a problem, the threads often seem slanted toward the negative, when just as many positive experiences likely exist -- just aren't being posted as new threads, if that makes any sense. So I have to guard against not getting anxious over other people's bad experiences with Lexapro, even having the "bugs" ironed out for my own treatment and the medication working well for me.

Best of luck to you, Dysfunk. You are absolutely right in that Lexapro may not be the med for you. But it does take a while. It was two to three months before I really felt anywhere close to *right*, again. I hope you find what will benefit you most.

bozeman


 

Re: LEX: AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR not working? » bozeman

Posted by Dysfunk on February 18, 2003, at 16:20:05

In reply to Re: LEX: AN ENERGY ZAPPER OR not working? » Dysfunk, posted by bozeman on February 18, 2003, at 0:00:39

Boseman:

Thank you for taking the time to give me such a thorough response! Here is some background info as to why I am so frustrated. I was doing great on Prozac, then it stopped working. I tried a bunch of "new" meds in the 90's, feeling like a guinea pig for the latest drugs on the market. Nothing really made me feel as great as I did on Prozac the first time around. I then went back to Prozac and have been holding steady for 8 years or so feeling ok. I always knew I could feel better than I am feeling.

This summer, I decided to find a better treatment for my depression. I spent about 6 months on Effexor, only to find out it wasn't right for me. I am now on Lexapro for the past month and so far nothing. I switched doctors during the time I was holding steady on Prozac. My new doc is a head honcho at a respected mental health facility. I trust he knows his chemistry. I also see a therapist for cognitive therapy.

So many factors can contribute to mood swings or physical ailments such as: outside factors, work stresses, hormonal fluctuations or say the way I sleep could cause me neck pain. I joined psycho babble in search of answers and found it very helpful. I was about to see a chiropractor when I found out my back and neck pain were Effexor withdrawals. I was tested for peri-menopause because of my sweating. I think my doctor did not want me to worry about the side effects, so he didn’t reveal them to me. Psycho babble reinforced what I was thinking-that my physical ailments are drug related. The board helped me tell my doctor the meds were wrong for me. I used other's experiences to judge how long to give a medicine before I give up on it. I take what people say with a grain of salt as it would apply to me since every brain reacts differently and every depression has diff. Causes.

You say it took you 2-3 months to feel better on Lexapro. AHHHHH! I don't know if I can give it that long. Knowing that it took you a while to adjust puts things into perspective for me when I hear others saying "I feel great after a week".

I happen to have an ongoing underlying depression that has always been and will always be there. I need these drugs for the rest of my life. My frustration lies in the fact that now it is a known factor that these drugs "poop out" after a while. Back in the 90's, my doctor said "that is not possible!". It seems the best course of treatment for me is to keep trying the newbies on the market and change drugs when they poop out. Knowing I will be on them longterm, it frustrates me to have to go through this process of finding the right match every few years. I have been through this time and time again. I just want my mood to hold steady, for people to be able to count on me as being the same person day to day, and to find inner calm.

Thanks for listening!!
-Dysfunk


This is the end of the thread.


Show another thread

URL of post in thread:


Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ


[dr. bob] Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD, bob@dr-bob.org

Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.