I'm on day 22 of 20mg of Lexapro and I pretty much had an awful first week, not so great second week, and then started to feel okay every other day on the third week.
For context I've had 2 previous stints on Lexapro, and I don't remember ever feeling like this or waiting so long to feel 'better'.
I had a great day yesterday, some of the more irritating side effects were gone for the first time in 3-4 weeks (awful muscle cramps and dihorrea) and I really thought I'd reached that magical point of the medicine being built up enough to bring stability. However today has been awful - partly because of an awful nights sleep I woke up sore and cramped, likely just due to a poor sleep, but of course I panicked that the muscle aches were back and it's been a downward spiral all day since.
The reason for the Lexapro is GAD and this time, also health anxiety. In the past month I've had several doctor visits and a clean bill of health from extensive bloodwork and a scan (to rule out fibroids, as the only bloods to come back low were my iron and B12 levels) - so 'logically' I should be super reassured that all is okay, but I've gone from being functional again last week, almost cheerful some days this week to a complete 360 change today where I cannot even eat, sit still or stop my racing thoughts.
I would be the first to tell someone else on here that it can absolutely take 4/8+ weeks to get a good build up of meds into your system, however I've never had such a mood swing in any of my previous experiences with this medication - so far as I can remember, once I got those 'good days' where it worked I never regressed as badly as I seem to have today. Sure, I would have good and bad days overall, but on a normal scale - like everyone does. Today though it feels like I've been set back 3 weeks and everything is fucking hopeless.
Has anyone had this happen to them? I really REALLY need to hear that there's still a chance this medication will work for me again. Because if not my GP will only recommend moving to another medication, and after trying Sertraline (4 weeks ago for 8 days) I can 100% say it is NOT suited to me and I would not try it again. I've also heard her mention Bupropriol (not sure I'm spelling that right) but again, because of my experience with Sertraline I said no way I was trying anything else 'new' at this time.
I also have Anxicalm to use 'as needed' up to 2x per day, and yesterday I actually didn't need it at all - today I had to take one at 8am and catnap on the couch while it kicked in enough to just calm my shaky breathing.
If anyone has had a similar good run, then seem to go backwards I'd really love to hear how it went for you. Should I expect another few days of this shitshow? Or is there a chance more good days will come back sooner?
Added info: I've been more active this week, racking up 3-5km walks each day, my fitness feels better, I've been managing to sleep more, I've doubled down on an iron rich diet, and added vitamins and supplements as needed, I also track cardio fitness on my watch and I can see my VO2 max stats improving, so it seems like I'm addressing the iron deficiency at least, and at minimum that should all be helping??!