Since my focus for the year is balance, I’m working really hard on getting everything in my life balanced. This includes my mind and the way it works.
My Experience With Anxiety Medication
For the last few months I’ve been taking Lexapro for anxiety.
I’ve dealt with anxiety my whole life. I’ve written about it on the blog before because it goes in an out as a problem. Sometimes it is worse than other times.
After my separation last year I found my lifestyle habits exacerbated my anxiety. It flew out of control. I made the decision to start taking anxiety medicine after talking to both my therapist and doctor.
I have to say, I’m not sure it did much for me during the period that I took it. I still had periods of anxiety and overall I didn’t see much improvement until I improved other areas of my life recently. I also had some of the more annoying side affects. I know Lexapro works wonders for some people, but it alone didn’t do much for me.
I recently made the decision that it wasn’t worth paying for any longer and decided to stop taking it. My life is headed in a great direction and the medicine felt unnecessary.
Ouchy, ouchy, ouch, the process of coming off Lexapro has been a BEAST. A terrifying, horrible beast of a process.
Even now as I write this post I’m struggling because I’m so scatterbrained and fuzzy. I’ve got physical symptoms too that are fun – dizziness, nausea, shocks, etc. It’s a very strange experience.
It’s frustrating because this is the second time I’ve tried coming off Lexapro and this time I reduced my dose over time gradually so that it wouldn’t be bad (under doctor supervision). Still having withdrawal symptoms makes me frustrated. I just can’t wait to be done with this medication.
My final resolution after taking it is that I’ll never go on similar medication again. I know a lot of people have to try multiple medicines and such, but since my anxiety is not super severe I think I’d simply rather learn to handle it without medication.
A Plan For A Balanced Mind
At this point, the I’d much prefer to treat my anxiety with therapy, exercise, and eating well.
I’m aiming for a balanced mind by doing specific things like
- therapy
- keeping a gratitude journal
- meditating/praying
- reading self-help books
- smiling and laughing
- focusing on making other people happy rather than myself
It’s not exactly full proof but it feels like a really good path and there won’t ever be withdrawal symptoms. Win!
I’ll be sharing more about all of these things in time. I’ve been doing some of them for months and they’ve already made a huge difference in my life. Now if I can just get past the silly medicine withdrawal, things would be fabulous. Fabulous!
How do you achieve a balanced mind? Have you ever come off a medicine that caused withdrawal? How did you handle it?
Oh my goodness, the shocks are the WORST! I’ve been on a crap ton of depression/anxiety meds (I believe my last count of psych meds was 17(!)), so I don’t remember if Lexapro was one that caused that for me. But I’ve definitely experienced them, and am SO glad my current meds don’t cause that when I miss a dose. I do get the nausea/dizziness when I miss a dose, though, so I know if I ever have to come off these meds, I’ve got that to look forward to.
What I really wanted to say, though, is how impressed I am with your plan. I know a lot of people who try psych meds, they don’t work for them, and then they just give up and figure they’ll just live with it, or have some vague idea of trying to fix things on their own. But you’ve actually got a plan put together! And it’s filled with wonderful things. I love the point you made that there’s no withdrawal symptoms, too! Oh I’m excited for you. I think you’ve got a great plan. I look forward to seeing how those things work for you!
I’m so glad someone understand the shocks thing! It was the weirdest part of it and I hated those so very much! I didn’t know detoxing from the meds could even do that and at first I was terrified I was dying or something. I definitely won’t be doing that again.
Thanks for the support on the plan. It’s all stuff I figured out through trial and error and therapy so I think I’ve got a handle on things. I just have to DO IT. ;) It’s a little more involved than taking a pill every day, but why should taking care of myself be my last priority boiled down to just a minute? Hehe.
I am bipolar, and have pretty bad anxiety about almost everything. I have never been able to hold a job for more than 8 months because I get so worked up over having to work with other people I have a total meltdown, usually after a few weeks, and can’t leave the house for months after that.
That said, I take Geodon for mood swings and anxiety, and I also take Wellbutrin for depression.
I still have issues- I can’t go to large events on my own and even with a good friend after 6 hours I am at risk of severe panic attacks. I can’t get thru a job interview. But even with those issues, I am so much better off because I don’t stay sh*tfaced drunk all day every day to cope (I literally have like a beer a month) and I don’t cry all the time or want to hurt myself.
I personally think I need therapy, but my doctor says I am highly functional. I think he’s wrong, but what I do know is I am much improved compared to being without the meds.
OMG Deb, I totally get that. I suppose I’m highly functioning but they anxiety has definitely affected a lot of areas of my life and caused a lot of problems. That’s probably the hardest thing for me to admit about dealing with anxiety.
I’m so proud of you for taking the medicine you need and taking care of yourself. I know it’s way better than drinking to cope (tried that!) so way to go my friend.
hey Mary, although im not an anxiety sufferer but what you have planned out for the balance life i correct. the more positive energy that you are sourcing out would then always come back to you 10 folds.
it is the mind set that you are structuring to make that happen. thanks for sharing and it looks like the points are universal and it almost applies to everyone.
Hi Mary!
First off, I’m so glad you’re back to posting on a regular basis! I kept checking your site while you “went dark” so I thought about you a lot!
I’ve also just come off Lexapro (well, the generic of it) and weaned myself off the meds on my own. I used to take one 10MG pill/day, then went down to 5MG (I would cut the pill in half and it tasted awful!) then 5MG every other day, than 5MG, maybe twice a week and now I’m done. I never even knew there would be side effects so THANK YOU for this post!
Hey Jayme,
thanks for the comment! Glad to be back. :)
Good job weaning off the Lexapro! Glad to hear you are done with it too. It affects everyone differently but I’m happy to be done with the side effects on and coming off it.
Cheers!
I can so identify with this post. Over the summer I went through the process of weaning off lexapro among other medication. It’s a process.
I think you have the right set of tools. A few things that help me cope with my anxiety is catching my thought process. In my case I had a structured thought journal where I would track the anxious thoughts, what feelings it triggered and how it’s not helpful thinking I guess it seeing it on a piece of paper made an impact of awareness. I also found a list of the things that I trust/how far I have come made a big impact as it help right sized my thought process back to reality.
Sending you lot’s of love! Remember you are not doing it alone xoxo