- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
I’ve been on Lexapro for 16.5 years. What I can tell you is it did help a TON, but I still hit rough patches for a long time. I was increased from 10 to 20 daily after a year and that did help the anxiety more and the rough patches were further apart. However, I will tell you what helped me the most YEARS later was adding more tools to my “toolbox”. I made sure I added self care in even if it was 15 minutes a day I did it. I added a great multi vitamin. It was important to move my body daily either in a gym or just getting outdoors for a hike/walk/run/bike ride. I took up some hobbies to. I found a great Bible study group. But the biggest help has come from adding ERP to be honest. It wasn’t easy but it’s been totally worth it! I actually had a major ocd relapse in June and that’s when I finally started ERP. Prior to that I had been dealing with this junk on my own for over 20 years. I had also weaned almost all the way off my Lexapro and I believe that contributed but I’m back on since at 10mg and doing great 💕. I share ALL this because I want you to know medicine helps BUT it’s just a very small part. Medicine alone isn’t going to ever just cure it or make it all stop. Does it help? Absolutely! I just would want you to be 100% certain that you’re truly putting in the ERP work and other self help before adding more meds. I say that because if you’re not doing those things adding more medicine alone will likely just be more of a temporary fix. IF you’re also not doing ERP it’s possible that you are practicing avoidance/distraction types of things which seem to help for awhile but then every so often BOOM the OCD hits 🙄Everyone is different and this is strictly my own experience and opinion. Some natural things that help are the things I mentioned plus magnesium glycinate (bedtime), vitamin d3, eating good foods, sunshine/fresh air, a whole food multi vitamin, vitamin c. I use New Chapter Perfect Calm Multivitamin and it’s AWESOME 🤩. Anyway, I know this is a lot but bottom line is you need to do what’s BEST for you and if it’s adding this other med then that’s okay too. If you want to know more about Seratonin syndrome you can definitely talk to the pharmacist or even call your Psych and tell him your concerns. Sorry I couldn’t say I have had the two meds together but I do hope what I have shared may help a little.
- Date posted
- 3y
This is wonderful advice. I needed to hear this myself.
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous So glad it helped you 💗
- Date posted
- 3y
Yes this is very helpful. Thank you for your words. I’m going to look into the multivitamin as well.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w
So I have been diagnosed with GAD and OCD and my psychiatrist prescribed me with zoloft 🤔 but I dont know im really hesitant to start medication because im scared of the side effects and ik afraid of relying on a medication for a long time. Does anyone else take zoloft? What is it like? Any side effects?
- Date posted
- 18w
I am having an appointment with my psychiatrist this afternoon and I am obsessing about what to do with my medication. I think it’s also very ocd like obsessing. I am currently on 30mg mirtazapine. Ive been on this for years (because of insomnia, anxiety and depression) (15mg) and after we tried to switch to another (amitryptiline) because of nerve pain, I went down the road of insomnia and later on ocd again. So I am back on mirtazapine, and weaning off of the amitryptiline. This is/was a very traumatic experience. Because the switch caused a mental breakdown. Now my psychiatrist has mentioned to up the mirtazapine to 45mg. And my obsessive self has done a lot of research and a lot is saying that the higher the dose, the more you can experience anxiety. And for ocd it’s obviously not the first choice. I am obsessing all morning about it. I am too scared to go up. But I am also too scared to try another and to wean myself of off mirtazapine. I feel stuck at this point. Taking two meds is also not something I want. I could really use some words of encouragement right now I think. 🥹
- Date posted
- 14w
So, I’ve had my OCD mostly “under control” for the past 10 years (I’m 44, battled this all my life). I’ve been on a high dosage of Luvox, but unfortunately it’s lost its effectiveness about 6 months ago. For the past five months I’ve also been doing therapy sessions on this site and have had a fairly good outcome. My main obsessions have mainly regarded around balance and symmetry. Anyhow, I’m in the process of switching to Prozac. It’s only been 6 days, so I obviously feel nothing yet. I made the foolish mistake of googling “What can antidepressants cause?” Unfortunately I found a very recent article of a study showing antidepressant users have a higher chance of getting ALS. There’s also older articles that say the opposite. But this one article FREAKED ME OUT. And I can only focus on the worst outcome. So, now I’m stuck in a repetitive thought pattern of getting ALS from the one medication that is supposed to help me. It’s absolutely terrifying and I haven’t experienced a health anxiety fear like this in years. I want to research more and more online, but I know this won’t help. It will only make things worse. Anyone with health anxiety have any advice on how to conquer this? I’m standing strong and not getting off my medication or doing any research.
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