Lexapro and Herbs!!!!!!!!! Help!?
I have been taking 20 mg. of Lexapro for the past 4 or 5 months for depression. in the first 2 weeks i had horrible side effects, and then it got better dramatically. but now, for the past 2 or 3 weeks, it seems that my depression has come back as bad as before or even worse. my doctor is in America and i am living in Europe now. i have heard of many herbs that help depression but i don’t know if i should just quite taking lexapro or stay on it and take the herbs, or if the herbs will effect the lexapro negatively??? please help me!!!
Do NOT take Saint John’s Wort wih an antidepressant. They are not safe to take together. Just because something is natural does not mean it is A) safe to take in high doses and B) safe to mix with anything.
You do not want to stop taking Lexapro (which is an SSRI) suddenly….withdrawal symptoms can be most unpleasant and last for weeks. If you are going to go off of it, you want to be weaned off slowly with a doctors help.
You are not going to get the same effectiveness from St Johns wort as you do from a medication. If your depression is/was mild, then it can help, but it will not do the trick when it comes to more serious depression. You may want to look into Omega 3 fish oil supplements (which can be taken with antudepressants….the only things, as far as I know, that they cant be taken with, are blood thinners.) There is also a product called Sam-E that is another natural rememdy…but I do not know enough about it to say whether is is compatible with the Lexapro or how it is taken.
It is not unusual to need a higher dose of an antidepressant after a while. Your body adjusts and over time it may get more efficient at metabolizing the drug. I don’t know if they go over 20 mg with Lexpro though.
Basically, if the depression was bad enough to get on meds in the first place, going off of them now is a recipe for relapse. It is recommended that people stay on them for at least 6 months after their symptoms are under control.
If you recently moved. the stressors of that could be contributing to the return of your symptoms. You have to remember, meds like these should be used in combination with therapy. That combination is the most effective treatment.
Above all else, you need to discuss this with a doctor. You need to find one in Europe if you are going to be there long term and are on prescription medication. He or she will be able to help you more safely and accurately than anybody on yahoo answers can.
Also, check in with your lifestyle choices. Are you getting enough regular exercise? Are you eating a healthy, balanced diet? Are you avoiding drugs and alcohol? Are you getting enough sleep? All of these things count.
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October 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
what you are describing is a common complaint with SSRI’s like lexapro. many describe the benefits wearing off, and the docs usually either up the dose or add a second med to assist it.
to begin, DO NOT stop cold turkey. work with a doc if you want to give them up. stopping cold turkey could cause you real problems even suicidal problems, because your brain has adapted to this and when you go into withdraw you will tend to get depressed worse than ever. my advice is to work with your doctor or one wherever you are. in my case they added lamictal, but i am bipolar and the mood stabilizer seems to have helped for now.
References :
October 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Most pharmaceutical drugs for depression will lose their efficacy … and that’s because they treat symptoms, not root causes. Depression is due to a biochemical imbalance. Nutrition is what heals that. Laxapro has stopped working … so get completely off it … at this point it only contributes to your biochemical imbalance.
Go to the nearest vitamin store and purchase L-tryptophane and St. John’s Wort. Take high dosages, they are safe. You need to get into nutritional therapies, also called mega-vitamin therapy, and orthomolecular medicine. This site has tons of information: http://www.orthomolecular.org/
Take on the hypoglycemic diet – whether or not you have hypoglycemia – and the odds are that you have it. This site will lead you to it: http://www.thespiritualkey.com/HealDepression.html
Also, this site has natural products for healing depression, including bi-polar: http://www.truehope.com/
Good luck.
References :
October 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Do NOT take Saint John’s Wort wih an antidepressant. They are not safe to take together. Just because something is natural does not mean it is A) safe to take in high doses and B) safe to mix with anything.
You do not want to stop taking Lexapro (which is an SSRI) suddenly….withdrawal symptoms can be most unpleasant and last for weeks. If you are going to go off of it, you want to be weaned off slowly with a doctors help.
You are not going to get the same effectiveness from St Johns wort as you do from a medication. If your depression is/was mild, then it can help, but it will not do the trick when it comes to more serious depression. You may want to look into Omega 3 fish oil supplements (which can be taken with antudepressants….the only things, as far as I know, that they cant be taken with, are blood thinners.) There is also a product called Sam-E that is another natural rememdy…but I do not know enough about it to say whether is is compatible with the Lexapro or how it is taken.
It is not unusual to need a higher dose of an antidepressant after a while. Your body adjusts and over time it may get more efficient at metabolizing the drug. I don’t know if they go over 20 mg with Lexpro though.
Basically, if the depression was bad enough to get on meds in the first place, going off of them now is a recipe for relapse. It is recommended that people stay on them for at least 6 months after their symptoms are under control.
If you recently moved. the stressors of that could be contributing to the return of your symptoms. You have to remember, meds like these should be used in combination with therapy. That combination is the most effective treatment.
Above all else, you need to discuss this with a doctor. You need to find one in Europe if you are going to be there long term and are on prescription medication. He or she will be able to help you more safely and accurately than anybody on yahoo answers can.
Also, check in with your lifestyle choices. Are you getting enough regular exercise? Are you eating a healthy, balanced diet? Are you avoiding drugs and alcohol? Are you getting enough sleep? All of these things count.
References :
October 9th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Its possible that lexapro may not be the right antidepressant for you, but if that were the case I wouldn’t have thought it would have made you feel better for that long. Are you doing anything different? Low carb diets send me into depression and so do certain other meds, esp. cold and sinus meds and sleeping aids. I use to take St. Johns Wort and 5HTP before I started with Lexapro. They worked for a little while but then it just wasn’t enough. You have to be careful about taking those with an antidepressant . It can cause something called serotonin syndrome which can be deadly. Also you might check into something called serotonin power diet. They have a website. It helps with depression and weight loss. I started it a few weeks ago and although I haven’t been as strict about it as I should I have noticed results.
References :