Does anyone here have any experience with Celexa or Lexapro?

My wife started celexa a few days ago. So far, if anything, it seems to make her more depressed. But a few days is not really enough time to see. She hasn’t spoken of any other side effects so far.

I have a long history with SSRI’s, and I started taking Lexapro a few months ago. At first the side effects were shocking, they hit me really hard. After a couple of months of being on it the majority of the side effects are gone (except that I am always tired and hungry)... but I do feel like it has taken the edge off of my depression and anxiety. I am on a low dose for the time being, but even at a low dose I feel like it has made a difference. I feel like it is easier to be myself than it was without the medication. To date I think it has been the most helpful SSRI I’ve ever taken, and that is pretty significant.
Having said that, it’s different for everyone. You have to find what works for you.

I haven’t heard the greatest things about Celexa (decreases your sex drive, and weight gain to name a few).

My doctor opted to put me on Wellbutrin. It doesn’t have those side effects. Perhaps, that would be better for you??

@Jude I really have no need for a sex drive right now and weight gain for me would be awesome. We talked about Wellbutrin. He says it’s one of the hardest on the liver, which would be really really bad for me right now.

@ANef_is_Enuf I’m worried about side effects. I don’t need any more of those, though always being hungry would actually help me out a lot right now. Thanks for sharing your experience.

@wundayatta Eek, I don’t need that. Hopefully that will turn around for your wife. I’ve heard that with this particular drug you can potentially see effects within a few days, but usually it takes at least a week.

@Jude the decreased sex drive and weight gain are common with most SSRI’s, though. Wellbutrin is a great option if it works for you and you can avoid those, but it depends on the person. I wish I could take it, because I would like to avoid those things, but it is one of those medications that makes me, personally, much worse. I’m envious of people that tolerate it and benefit from it.
Also, to date, I don’t have sexual side effects from the Lexapro. My sex drive is the same and I can still achieve orgasm, which I could not say the same for other SSRIs I tried in the past.
@Mariah you may or may not have the side effects at all. Drowsiness and headache are the most common, from what I’ve read. I had the headaches, but they went away after the first week or so.

Oh God. A further decreased sex drive for my wife is all I need. The universe is definitely messing with me.

Celexa worked for me in the sense that I was no longer in a deep rut. It also caused me to gain weight on top of the postpartum weight I was already battling. You begin to crave carbs like crazy. It slows you down so that you’re not burning it off as quickly. What wundayatta said was true for me too. I’m no longer on any medication because I realized that there is always a trade off. True, you’re not depressed, but I don’t want to be indiffernt either and that’s what happened. I went from “life is not worth living!!!” to ”...meh” in a matter of 6 weeks. I don’t want to be overweight and I don’t want to cause conflict in my marriage. I think Celexa is great if you’re going through a rough patch and you need to calm down and get your life into perspective, but it’s not a long term solution and it’s not without undesirable effects. Therapy, excercise, getting out into the community and participating in social activities is the key to lasting results, I think. :)

After 48 hours of throwing up from the Lexapro, I knew enough to stop. Prozac gave me nightmares, Wellbutrin did nothing.

I am content on a low dose of Zoloft now. I personally have no side effects, no long term changes in personality or weight gain, and no inability to exercise, socialize, volunteer or think lofty thoughts.

I was on celexa a few years ago and found that it worked well with no side effects. I can’t speak for loss of sex drive as my sex drive was already zero before I started on it, and I didn’t gain weight. I wouldn’t say it got rid of all the depression but it helped me survive the worst times.

I was on Lexapro for about two years. I’m a man, and it probably had different side effects on me than it would have on you, Mariah, so I’m not sure how useful my response is.

Firstly, it was very effective for me as an anti-anxiety medication. Instead of getting nervous and then going into full blown panic mode, I would get nervous and then be able to get over it and move on.

The most noticeable side effect at first was yawning. I yawned a lot while on Lexapro. I didn’t feel tired, per se, but my body yawned a lot.

Then the sexual side effects set in. It killed my libido and lowered my testosterone levels. It changed the viscosity of my semen.

I’ve been off of Lexapro for I think all of 2011 now, and I’ve returned to a normally functioning horny middle-aged man. My semen has returned to its normal consistency. I no longer yawn all the time.

Hope something in all that helps :) Good luck!

I took Lexapro two different times. Both times it almost erased my libido. Sex wasn’t anywhere on my radar. When my husband would initiate, I would be happy to oblige, but never thought of it on my own. And my ability to orgasm was greatly reduced. It worked for the depression but that particular side effect was annoying.

I’m a male that was on Lexapro for just over a year. It was my second (and hopefully last) anti-depressant I’ve been on and the results were good. My anxiety and depression levels went down but how much of that was due to Lexapro and how much was due to my therapy is hard to say. I’m sure it was a little of both. As for side effects, I felt some nausea the first week or so but that went away. My libido was definitely hampered though – I actually didn’t mind it that much at the time but now I’m very happy to get it back.

I was on both. I was on Celexa for 2 years with no benefit, only side effects. Lexapro, on the other hand, was awesome. Within 6 weeks, I went from wanting to kill myself to being happy and not depressed. I still had to work on the issues that made me depressed in the first place, but it allowed me to do that by not keeping me in crisis mode. The first 6 months were really hard in terms of the energy lost; I could barely get off the couch – but I’d rather have no energy and be happy than want to kill myself and be able to run errands (which isn’t really true, since depression really takes all your energy). After that, it got a lot better. I did gain quite a bit of weight on both, but again, I’d rather be overweight and happy than skinny and miserable. The entire point of being skinny is that it’s supposed to make you happy. I didn’t really experience sex drive loss, but I never do even though I’ve been on about 12 different medications that have that as a possible side effect. I just went off Lexapro after 4 years on it because I feel I am to the point of not needing it anymore.

They say that Lexapro is just a cleaned up version of Celexa, but I think that’s quite a bit like how you can say that Fiji bottled water is just a cleaned up version of the Hudson River.

Here is a discussion group for people using Celexa or Lexapro.

Update: I have insomnia and am jittering all over, it’s nearing 1am and I just got up and paced around my house because I couldn’t stand trying to lie still any longer, but…I’m not depressed.

Well, i have been on Celexa 10 mg for about 1 month and a half for anxiety disorder.. still get good and bad days..the 1st 2 weeks were hell and basically cause my doc put me on 20 mg.. i was sleepy all day and at night couldnt sleep.. so thank goodness she lower the dosage.. it makes you anxious in the beginning but starts to wear off as time passes, working out regularly helps with that, and so I have heard it lowers libido.. well, im telling you im horny as hell.. alll the damn time.. the problem is reaching orgasm.. it takes time.. patience hahaha im good so far.. psychotherapy is working great.. been a girl is hard hahaha have a nice day