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Lexapro for Anxiety

Long term SSRI harm

All ssris have some other effects, in generaly not many drugs are as selective as they tell you they are.

Example: Most SSRIs also interact with norepinephrine in the brain, specifically after long use, the norepinephrine receptors will start to "downregulate" which means pull back into the cell wall, where they no longer are available for neurotransmitters to bind to. Methamphetamine does the same thing to the same receptors. Im not saying SSRIs are like meth, not at all.

But have no misconception, long SSRI use does have negative effects, even while still taking it.

As an aside, i have a script for lexapro, it seems less invasive and harsh than paxil or the others, but it doesnt seem to cause nausea for me like the others did.

I was given an ativan script alongside it as well. Its common to script them together, with the intent that you wont need the benzo eventually.

However you wont be given a benzo for just anxiety, it has to be fairly quick onset and powerfull before you are a candidate for benzos. And even then, they still want to use SSRIs even for actual panic attacks, to prevent them.

Interesting that the SSRI probably causes more problems than the benzo would, at least as far as toxicity and side effects.
 
Lexapro/Cipralex sucks for Anxiety and Depression IMO. Bunch of bullshit, and a waste of money. Stupid quack doctors just getting a cut from the pharmaceutical companies as usual. Paxil was a lot more effective for Anxiety/Panic than Cipralex ever was for me, but Paxil had harsher initial side effects, other than that, I'd have to say both of the SSRI's blew ass and are just as addictive as benzo's if not worse.
 
ttocs said:
Lexapro/Cipralex sucks for Anxiety and Depression IMO. Bunch of bullshit, and a waste of money. Stupid quack doctors just getting a cut from the pharmaceutical companies as usual. Paxil was a lot more effective for Anxiety/Panic than Cipralex ever was for me, but Paxil had harsher initial side effects, other than that, I'd have to say both of the SSRI's blew ass and are just as addictive as benzo's if not worse.
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I don't get it... what makes them addictive if they don't work? I mean I can understand physical withdrawl sypmtoms and such, but if the are addictive you must have been getting something positive out of them?
 
RyanP said:
I don't get it... what makes them addictive if they don't work? I mean I can understand physical withdrawl sypmtoms and such, but if the are addictive you must have been getting something positive out of them?
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When I say addiction, I mean I never got anything out of them. But when trying to quit you get electric shocks throughout your body, increased heart rate (anxiety) etc, ie physical withdrawal symptoms which makes SSRI's addictive. When a doctor tells you that SSRI's are non-addictive, that is utter bullshit.
 
SSRI mode of action

SSRIs are fairly selective in their action, which is not to say they're that targeted, by selective they mean in comparrison to a tricyclic or tetracyclic or any of the other old antidepressants.

For as much as they hand out SSRIS like candy, they are very very powerfull at altering serotonin levels. In some cases the extra serotonin has been actully enjoyed by a number of people, it wouldnt be a rush obviously its more like plugging the drain and waiting for it to fill the sink up.

Either way some people are more responsive addiction wise to things that are stable over long periods of time. Whereas a heroin user may be seeking the initial rush, someone who enjoys the effect of increased serotonin is expecting a constant, around the clock push from it, which can be an even greater problem than "rush addiction" in general, true for a lot of drugs.

The problem most of the people have with withdrawal from SSRIs, is because of how many different systems they affect at once. They are NOT just active with serotonin, despite that being their exclusive primary activity. For example:

Most SSRI drugs also cause a fair amount of indirect norepinephrine agonist activity, and from that, you eventually get whats called Receptor Downregulation at the NE sites. The brain pulls them back into the cell wall to prevent overstimulation. Most SSRI package inserts warn of NE receptor downregulation over long use.

Second to that, its been shown that excess serotonin activity in the brain causes a release of B-endorphins in the Nucleus Accumbens (small area in the center of the brain) . In fact, there are clinical studies and i believe approved uses for SSRIs as pain killers for this reason. It stands to reason (based on tons of evidence) that SSRIs eventually cause endorphin depletion, much like opiate abuse/use. From Neuroscience Vol 110 n.1 Pages 389-393 2002 "We also demonstrated in vivo that local application of 5-HT or the antidepressant Fuoxetine (a 5-HT reuptake inhibitor) into the NucleusAccumbens or the ArN caused local release of B-endorphin (Zangen et al., 1999a)."

Most drugs with CNS euphoriant abilty eventually cause dopamine release in the pleasure centers of the brain. However in this case there is a more complicated action, SSRIs cause serotonin to be taken up into dopamine vesicles through the dopamine reuptake transporter, where the dopamine cells do what is called "Cosignaling", or firing in another way at the same time. This effect is thought to be critical for SSRIs usefullness as an anti-anxiety agent, and also thought to be responsible for suicide/depressive problems in children treated with SSRIs who later on become seriously depressed as adults.

From all that activity, you can see why yanking it away suddenly would leave the entire brain in a state of "neurotransmitter inactivity" for lack of a better term.
 
question?

I've been taking 10 mg's of lexapro for depression for probably a month now and it doesnt seem to be helping. So im going to have to talk to the docter and see what else we could do. What I really want to know though is if lexapro could give me some sort of high. It hasnt happend but i was wandering if anyone knew.
 
Jerrus said:
I've been taking 10 mg's of lexapro for depression for probably a month now and it doesnt seem to be helping. So im going to have to talk to the docter and see what else we could do. What I really want to know though is if lexapro could give me some sort of high. It hasnt happend but i was wandering if anyone knew.
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If your chasing a high I wouldn't bother with lexapro. If you have already been taking it for a month and haven't noticed any difference then that speaks for itself, doesnt it?
 
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