Concerned about escitalopram dose increase

[JonBrave]

Briefly, I am in about week 8 of constant anxiety. Put on 20mg Mirtazapine, then now 3 weeks of 10mg escitalopram. Lots of diazepam. I fight the anxiety more or less all day ever day. Nothing helps much, except the diaz for a short while. I would say I'm about as anxious now as I was at the start.

GP wants me to increase escitalopram from 10mg to 20mg, before I (finally) see psych mid next week, as psych had recommended that move in a letter to GP. I am concerned that it might heighten my anxiety, which is already horrible, not sure I could bear more, but it's pretty unbearable as it is....

Any comments?

Since I only have 10mg packet right now, I guess I might halve the difference and try taking 15mgs?

[.Poppy.]

It's so different for everyone that it's hard to really say.

I can tell you that I had MUCH worse side effects when I first started (at 5 mg daily) and when I went up from 5 to 10 mg. Heightened anxiety, anxiety about things I'm not normally anxious about, the shakes, nausea, constipation, and probably a bunch of other things I'm not remembering right now.

Going from 10 mg to 20 mg I really didn't notice anything at all and all my other side effects had gone away. Really the most major side effect I've had is a feeling of thirst that is worse at different times of the day. I feel like there was one more thing but I can't remember it right now so it must not be so major

I do take Clonazepam as well that is hopefully helping my anxiety some. I have noticed an improvement overall but there are still the rough days. But it's relatively early in my journey I suppose.

You can try taking 15 mg but definitely ask your doctor first. It may just serve you the best to take the plunge and go for the 20mg.

[.Poppy.]

I've just remembered the second side effect (as I'm about to go to bed!): vivid dreams. Not nightmares, just very vivid, memorable dreams. It's like watching a movie in my head nightly....which is actually very entertaining and I'm not upset by it at all.

[karenp]

Lexapro never worked for me but I cannot tolerate SSRI's at all and managed to get to max dose on this one. It still had it's side effects but I managed to tolerate them so don't be scared of increasing. I was and then found there was nothing to worry about and if you have your Diazepam. I'm just sorry it never helped me as getting on it was a lot easier than anything else I have been given that gave me panic attacks.

[ana]

15 mg of Escitalopram appears to be working quite well for me in that it's significantly reduced the duration of my panic attacks. It has also lowered my anxiety levels. Having said that, I'm still finding it difficult to find the motivation to do more things and to battle anxiety, but that's not medication-related.

[Debs21uk]

Hi, I've just started escitalopram, only just coming up to the 2 week mark. I have depression and anxiety which was treated very well with citalopram for 12yrs on and off. I recently had to switch due to lack of efficacy, I tried venlafaxine but I was fainting and my hair was falling out. So after that I had to cross taper over to the escitalopram and I have still felt anxious but my dr today did say some of that anxiety could be from the start up effects.

Within 6 months I've had a dr changed my citalopram 6 times in 8 weeks, I've done two cross tapers and now my new dr wants me to stay on 10mg for 8 weeks before any changes are made. It's not easy but these meds can ramp up anxiety to begin with plus any increase will increase it again. Everyone is very different on these meds though but one thing I learned is don't change things too quickly or too soon.

Best of luck.