Does Lexapro cause you to feel like an emotional zombie?

Things can get worse before they get better. I’ve told you before, antidepressants are nothing but bad.

You should never quit a psychotropic med without coordinating it with your doctor. It could be very dangerous.

Lexapro and similar antidepressants lower your libido. It is one of the most common side effects. You should never stop cold-turkey. Your doctor can tell you how to wear yourself off and perhaps try one like Wellbutrin, which is purported to leave your libido alone.

I had this problem with Paxel. It removes all mid-level emotions.
I disagree with @Samurai , these medicines are very useful, but require monitoring.

@gailcalled Wellbutrin is just as bad, you feel really depressed when you get off it.

BUPROPION (the chemical name for Wellbutrin) Withdrawal Symptoms May Include:
aggression, anxiety, balance issues , blurred vision , brain zaps, concentration impairment, constipation, crying spells, depersonalization, diarrhea, dizziness. electric shock sensations, fatigue, flatulence, flu-like symptoms, hallucinations, hostility, highly emotional, indigestion, irritability, impaired speech, insomnia, jumpy nerves, lack of coordination, lethargy, migraine headaches / increased headaches, nausea, nervousness, over-reacting to situations, paranoia, repetitive thoughts or songs, sensory & sleep disturbances, severe internal restlessness (akathasia), stomach cramps, tremors, tinnitus (ear ringing or buzzing), tingling sensations, troubling thoughts, visual hallucinations / illusions, vivid dreams, speech, visual changes, worsened depression.

@filmfann I beg to differ, you can read all day long about how antidepressants are horrible for you in many ways.

Watch Garden State, it has to do with all this stuff.

Reading about it is one thing. Anti-depressants saved my life 15 years ago, so I gotta defend them.

@Samurai: I took Wellbutrin for six weeks and it did nothing for me. When I stopped, I noticed no changes of any kind. Do you have medical or psychological training?

SSRI’s have made millions of people’s lives better, including mine. I take a low dose of Zoloft and seem to have most of my marbles still.

(You haven’t done a profile so we know nothing about you, including your age, areas of expertise and interests. How about doing one?)

The house I use to live in had an AA half way house for drunks, by the rule, people with antidepressant meds weren’t even allowed to live in the house with the other steppers. I’ve seen plenty of people on them, and I know what they can do.

Before I got sick, I had never had experience with drugs that can affect the mind. So I had no idea how it would work. I guess I expected them to change my mood, but what I did not expect was that they would change the things I think.

It’s amazing the power these drugs have. They don’t just change how you feel, but they change what you think. What I think it’s important to understand —for both you and your boyfriend—is that what you think is no longer you. Your thoughts are not what they would be if you weren’t sick.

I hope that understanding this will let you both give you a break. Maybe he can be patient—maybe years patient, until you can be yourself again. I hope that you can be patient with yourself, too. Please don’t get angry or upset with yourself because you don’t feel the way you used to. Please don’t mistake your feelings for falling out of love.

When you’re depressed, you just can’t know what the real you is like. It is important not to make any major decisions while depressed. Don’t let yourself decide to break up with him now. Feeling that you don’t love him or aren’t capable of loving him is part of the disease.

Yes, you do end up questioning yourself. In fact, you may not even recognize yourself. It is really confusing when that happens. It is hard not to know who you are any more. It brings up a lot of uncomfortable philosophical questions, but mostly it just makes you question yourself, and your uncertainty about who you really are just makes your relationships worse.

Best not to make any significant decisions until you start to feel like yourself again.

Well.. Lexapro has helped a lot with the depression, the feelings of sadness and that part, but actually the emotional numbness is not something I can just ignore.. There’s a study about this issue, it states that while all SSRI increase serotonin in the brain, they also decrease dopamine, which is the chemical of love and all those emotions..

@Lorenita I’ve always thought of being depressed an interesting feeling so never really wanted to get rid of it myself. My parents even thought I was suicidal because I didn’t want to do anything. If you decide to quit, you should taper your amount slowly and go to Disney Land for a month whether you want to or not.

@gailcalled – It’s true that it can be dangerous (perhaps the greatest effect is mental, but can lead to dangerous behaviors such as suicide) to suddenly discontinue at least several antidepressants and it’s usually recommended to wean off them. At the very least, negative side effects can be minimized. I’m no doctor, but I know that from having researched antidepressants in order to compare them. :)

I have an appointment with a psychiatrist at the end of the month because I can’t stand feeling like this anymore and my therapist, having worked with me for a year, is gently encouraging me in the antidepressant direction. I was put on Wellbutrin a few times, myself, never did anything for me. Effexor worked really well for a while, so I assume my particular brain chemistry is lacking in serotonin, not norepinephrine or dopamine. Which is unfortunate, because the SSRIs have sexual side effects and that is a major bummer.

There’s some really interesting info , just google SSRI, love and sex

Different anti-depressants work with different receptors in your brain. One that affects the T1’s won’t work for those who need help with N’s. (T and N being stand-ins) Best bet is to tell your psychiatrist that the med isn’t working for you.

There is no shortage of SSRI’s or MAOI’s out there. Chances are good one will work for you.

Also, consider the dosage issue as well. There can be a big difference between 50mg and 75mg. Sometimes a small change can make all the difference.

Celexa, Lexapro’s predecessor, made me feel worse.

Wellbutrin, on the other hand, makes me feel better.

Everything written before and after what @Judi said is irrelevant: do not go off the meds without consulting your physician first. I do not mean to dis anyone, just concerned about the kid.

In general, SSRIs need to be stepped off gradually just as you went onto them. Here is a chart of what each requires in terms of getting the drug’s metabolites out of your system.

One possibility is decreasing your dosage so you get symtom relief without losing all drive.

Another is changing SSRIs.

Individual response to a drug is not the same for different people. (A good reason to not rely on anecdotal information about an individual experience with the product.