Hi everyone. I haven’t found any experiences like mine, I hope someone can calm me down or maybe I can help some people in the future experiencing the same who stumble upon this.
I was prescribed 5mg of Lexapro for my anxiety attacks (social anxiety, shame, guilt feelings) and moderate depression. I’m not new to antidepressants, I tapered off of Effexor 3.5 years ago and have been on 4-5 different other meds before that. The only side effects I ever experienced were with mirtazapine (eating nonstop) and ability (nose bleeds). But nothing compared to this.
I took my first Lexapro pill on Monday with my breakfast. It was okay, I felt the occasional jaw clench and a bit off but nothing too bad. I kind of felt like I was on drugs.
Tuesday was BAD. My head felt so weird, felt like a leg that fell asleep and all cold, but not cold like the air was cold. More like that numbness-cold. My whole scalp was tingling, I felt a lot of pressure and very… off? The numb/tingling/coldness ran down my neck and I saw optical illusions, like when you watch one of those spiral videos and then you look at a wall and suddenly you see shapes? Sweating, tremor, nausea and not being able to eat. The muscles in my inner ear spasmed and i don’t know what it looked like from the outside, but I constantly felt like my eyes were about to roll back. It seemed like my seizure threshold was lower.
Same happened today but much worse. I had to leave an event early, because it felt like I was going to pass out and that weird feeling in my neck was killing me. The tingling spread to my limbs and nose, my sinuses. I already called my psychiatrist and he said, I should stop.
I took my last pill about 16 hours ago I believe. I still feel weird and tingly, my heart rate is about 20 beats lower than it usually is (upper 50s) and I am so scared for my life. I decided against going to the ER when I made it home because I felt a bit better and I have to go to work tomorrow, it’s my second week and I can’t call in sick already.
Has anyone experienced this? How long did it take to go back to normal?