Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.

Anyone else taking Lexapro?

Hi all,

I've started taking Lexapro for winter depression.  I had a couple of weeks of side effects -- it did weird things to my appetite, I felt a little wuzzy, & had some headaches.  But that cleared up after about 2 weeks.

Now I'm feeling pretty good.  Partly that's because I just came back from a really nice vacation, & had time to let go of all my everyday & work stress.  But it also seems to be physiological.  That draggy "I hate everything" feeling is gone, and I feel like I have my natural buoyancy back. 

It's quite a relief.  It's definitely helping with procrastination, since I feel like being present and engaging in things rather than constantly having to fight a drive to disengage and go curl up and hibernate!  Just wondered if anyone else is taking it.  Since my depression is seasonal, I'll want to go off it in the spring, and I've heard some scary things about withdrawal.  Anyone have experience to share?

--Falcon

Falcon, Regarding

Falcon, Regarding withdrawal, please be cautious. Don't withdraw the medicine all of a sudden. Try to slowly decrease the amount of medicine. For example if you are taking 2 tab a day, then move to 1 tab for 2 week, then 1/2 tab for 2 weeks, then 1/2 every alternate day for 2 weeks and so on. In that way, your body will become habitual of living without the medicine.

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Edited by pro to remove an irrelevant link at the end of the message.

lexapro plus abilify

Lexapro alone did not work for my depression, nor did other antidepressants, but my doctor added Abilify, which has worked well for me. So if any of you do not get help from antidepressants alone, you may want to ask about Abilify - it is an add-on to your existing antidepressant if needed to counter depression.

rec

abilify

My daughter takes abilify and wellbutrin and it's made a big difference for her.  ONly trouble is abilify is expensive and there is no generic.

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." - Elbert Hubbard

Agnus having good results with non-Rx alternatives

As a recovering addict, I am real leery of prescription solutions - I seem to always get the weird side effects and a few new ones they haven't included in the warnings yet!  So I have a chiropractic naturopath. He's 63, has < 30% lung capacity from a childhood chemical accident - and he surfs almost every day. He tests the alternative stuff on himself and shares what works with his patients. Man, am I blessed.

Anyway when I started tanking emotionally and mentally this past Spring I was ready to try the Rx route, when he attended a conference on alternative neurology solutions. He had me complete a simple survey of my symptoms, ran me through whatever he learned, and found out I was off the charts stress-wise, and my adrenals were fried.

What made a huge difference? Gabatone, and Adrena-Plus power supplements, and quitting some allergic foods. I can think straight (most of the time) and cope surprisingly well with the stresses in my life today.  Don't try these on your own without the advise of a naturopath, though: you'll be wasting pretty good money if your specific neurological shortcoming is different than mine was. 

I've been on more of the ADHD-stimulant med treatment regime...

But I think it is making my procrastination (at least my anxiety generally) far FAR worse. Perhaps I should look into some of these other options.

Warning though (as I'm sure you all know) that everyone's chemistry is different, so what works for me might not work for you and vice versa.  I actually had a very scary side effect from Wellbutrin -- massive blood pressure spikes -- but that's my weird chemistry.  I know lots of people who love it. 

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Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. 

~William James

lexapro withdrawal

My daughter's friend takes lexapro at times and she seems to be able to go on and off whenever needed.  She's never mentioned having problems with withdrawal but I know she tapers off when she goes off them.  I'll ask next time I see her. 

Better living through chemistry!  Make love not war! (I'm an old hippie)

Journey

lexapro - and other anti-craziness drugs

I've heard good things about lexapro, also wellbutrin.  My daughter and my brother take wellbutrin.  I take zoloft myself, which is more of an anti-anxiety drug.  I don't like being on a drug long-term, but it surely has helped me to be less distractible and better able to focus.  Not to mention less high-strung, anxious and irritable.   It took several weeks before it really started working, and I did experience some side effects at first but now I have none.  I've also given up several "compulsive" behaviors, including smoking, so that has to be a plus on the health side. 

"Some days suck less than others, and that's what keeps me going" D. A. Deeb

Hello everyone! I'm so glad

Hello everyone! I'm so glad I decided to read the blog and not bookmark it for another day... Journey just said that a depression is a very good reason to procrastinate. That's oh so true. Taking anti-depressants as a procrastinator can be very dangerous. I am a person who needed residential drug treatment because of a small depression my shrink thought needed medical treatment. Knowing that one day I should stop taking the pills I started feeling even more depressed. The pills gave me energy, I was happy, I was alive again so I procrastinated my healing.

It worked for me but I think

It worked for me but I think I want to be able to learn to deal with my condition in a non-med fashion. 

I've been taking 30mg of Lex and now I'm down to 10mg. The somnolence side effect doesn't help a procrastinator. I just get the urge to go curl up on my couch or bed and sleep off a few hours. 
I look forward to being able to be awake all day again.
Regardless, we all have different stages and five or six months ago, Lex helped me overcome a tough period. I think I'm ready to ditch the meds now, but if you feel good on them, stick to it until you get to know yourself better and develop the courage to take on your condition without meds. 
I'll always have Lex as a backup though I hope I won't have to resort to them again. In 2009, GlaxoSmithKlein is set to market the first Triple Re-uptake inhibitors which look very promising and have shown much fewer side effects. 
The 21st century has seen MAJOR advances in understanding depression, anxiety and OCD. Science has been incrementally speeding up in this field and I'm very optimistic that within a decade, something resembling a "cure" will be reached. 

SAD & lexapro

Hi Pedro,

Wow, 30 mg. sounds like a lot -- that's 3 times what I'm taking, but then the dosage is probably different for anxiety/OCD vs. depression.  I haven't had the sleepiness problem, but I can imagine it would be a nuisance to deal with.

My depression is seasonal, so I figure I'll taper off of it when spring comes, and probably go on it again late next fall.  My thinking is that a physiological problem calls for a physiological solution. I've had great results with other approaches for other issues (therapy, hypnosis, etc.,) but only chemistry is likely to get my brain producing seratonin when the sun is low.

Falcon

Light therapy?

Hey Falcon, I've heard some promising reviews on light therapy.

On the other hand, perhaps you should embolden yourself and consider moving to a more sunny climate?
I live in Toronto, ON (Canada) where the winter does get gloomy but not as bad as when I was in London, England for one month and had to get out of there because it turned night around 4pm!! 

Re light therapy

Hi Pedro,

Thanks for the thoughts!  I do use light therapy (usually for 30 minutes in the morning) and it helps a lot.  I love visiting London, but I don't think I could live there -- I know what you mean about the early darkness (and the greyness even during the day.)

Oddly, I find that too MUCH sun in the summer makes me sick & jittery, so I'm probably best off where I am, in a temperate climate where I can use light therapy in the winter & sunglasses in the summer to stay more or less evened out all year.

Falcon

Lexapro and anti-depressants

I'm glad it's helping you, Falcon. Depression is a major reason for procrastination.

I tried Lexapro for a while some years ago when I was having problems in my life and feeling very depressed. It didn't help the depression, and it gave me waves of nausea. These drugs don't work for everyone. I'm glad it's working for you.

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Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.