Is it me or the meds?

I have depression, bulimia, and probably also PTSD...

I was recently prescribed Lexapro. I've been taking it for 2 weeks. It has already decreased my depression a bit, which is fantastic. But...

I've been twitching! And shaking a little sometimes too. Since that time.

Is that a side effect of the med? Has anyone else had that experience?
At the same time, I have also reduced some of the worst of my bulimia (because I was told I would end up in hospital otherwise) so I feel physically stronger and think that maybe that extra strength in my muscles could be responding to my ptsd? I have been pretty triggered lately...

Obviously I have to talk this over with my therapist but I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this?

Lipstick

Sweetheart, I took Lexapro for four years and it was a wonder for me. Two weeks is a short time to be on it, however, and this 'wavering' ("twicitching"?) that you're referring to should be expected. You might notice your mood dipping again, in fact, but stay on the drug and keep taking it everyday as directed to you. Lexapro is a slow-acting drug, and needs to be taken long term. People give-up on it long before it can really help them because they're too impatient. So, try to see yourself as being on this drug for the 'long haul'.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean with regard to your muscles. If you think it's related to your PTSD, then perhaps the anxiety induced by the PTSD 'flashbacks' is causing your body to produce more adrenaline, which in turn gives you more energy. However, Lexapro should be working against this slightly because it typically makes people slightly more sluggish.

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware that my mood might dip again on the Lexapro, thanks for the heads up. I will try to persist with it. It is good to hear that it worked well for you, that is reassuring to me because it increases my hope that it will be good for me too. I didn't realise it could also make people more sluggish, I figure I won't be more sluggish than I am with really bad depression, so I'm not overly worried.

I think your explanation of what might be going on with my muscles kind of makes sense to me, it could be that.

Hopefully I just start feeling better soon. It has been pretty gruelling for my ptsd to flair up lately.

the twitching is likely a side effect of the medication.... did it happen before you were on it ?

Butterfly Faerie wrote:the twitching is likely a side effect of the medication.... did it happen before you were on it ?

Not that I'm aware of... But I haven't had a very good awareness of what is happening to my body when I am having a ptsd reaction. I have only really recently started to become aware of some of the symptoms I experience when I am having a ptsd reaction because I sort of "blank out" the experience of the reaction and can't recall it properly afterwards, I feel incredibly drained but can't remember what just happened. So I'm not too sure if I've been twitching or not. I know people often give me strange looks after I've had a reaction...

salted lipstick wrote:Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware that my mood might dip again on the Lexapro, thanks for the heads up.

Just to clarify what I meant: It's not that the lexapro causes the dip in mood; it's that the person taking lexapro expects too much of the drug and then feels worse because they aren't getting immediate results on it. I think that's a better explanation of what I meant. Butterfly could be right about the muscle thing and lexapro too. Drugs just behave differently in different people...

Chucky wrote:Just to clarify what I meant: It's not that the lexapro causes the dip in mood; it's that the person taking lexapro expects too much of the drug and then feels worse because they aren't getting immediate results on it.

Fair enough. I'm a pretty patient person and I haven't got any high expectations of the meds... Thanks for clarifying.