Worried about taking Lexapro not sure if should continue?

[bobbyvenegas]

Hello all,
I know this is not the best place to be asking advice but I'm a little lost. So I saw a new primary care doctor back in July of this year and during my annual checkup told him I'm not extremely depressed or anything but I have been having a nagging "down" feeling and anxious feeling. I feel that I've kind of had this feeling for a long time but I could always deal with it since it isn't severe or debilitating. I think being an introvert but also sometimes feeling lonely when not going out has to do with it. Anyways he quickly jumped right to prescribing lexapro 5mg to start (admittingly I did say it was brought up in the past but that I was always too scared to try it because of having to deal with withdrawal when it came time to stop).

I've been through opiate withdrawal many years ago and relapsed a few times years ago and I cannot imagine going through withdrawal again for anything now, it terrifies me.

So I started the lexapro at 5mg as prescribed, didn't feel anything so I saw him last Wednesday and he bumped me up to 10mg. He said to take that for a month and if still not feeling much then we will do 20mg. I told him I'm very concerned about what happens when it comes time to stop and he just dismissed it like it's not worth worrying about and we will just taper at that point. I've started to notice side effects just recently that I thought were unrelated, very nauseous mostly in the morning for an hour or two in bed, and the worst part is really high anxiety today (which started around 3 am, then went away and actually thought I was feeling better than usual, then anxiety again).

Sorry, I know I'm rambling, but I'm just at a crossroad and don't know what to do. If I call to speak to the doctor, the nurse is pretty blunt and seems won't give to the phone to him but instead wants me to come in (i.e. when the 5mg dose wasn't working she said I need to come in for an appointment instead of being able to discuss via phone with him).

I have some normal stressful situations in my life right now and I'm just not sure if maybe I'm overthinking and I'm not really supposed to be taking an antidepressant and should try other ways of coping first. I'm not really worried about the side effects but extremely worried about the withdrawal when that time comes and I don't want it to be too late. Right now I've only been on it for about 3 months and know it should be fairly easy to quit now. The thought of withdrawal terrifies me.

Would love to see some outside opinions or anyone elses experience. Thank you so much.

Also, I was thinking that maybe I should be calling a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist (not sure which one) but don't even know where to start. Is that covered by insurance, and is one type preferred over the other for this sort of thing?

[hannahreedah]

Don't worry, I am 13 and was on Lexapro for about a year on 20. I didn't have any side effects, but after about a year- it was just less effective. I went from 20 to 15 (a ten and a five, or a ten and half of a ten). Then to 10 and 5. I had the same worries as you, and I have bad anxiety. I suggest switching to Prozac, like I did, and taper off of the medicine. I tapered off. No side effects. No nausea, no fainting, no stomach pain, or suicidal thoughts. Just taper. Good luck and I really hope this helps :)