Lexapro Experience

I too took lexapro. I have cats that I love dearly along with my hubby. About 4 years or a little more, the same damn thing happened. I just decided suddenly I didn’t love him or the cats anymore which was completely out of character for me. I called a friend one day and said I am a new and completely different person. It was sudden and drastic. My hubby was so devastated he attempted suicide…and other horrible things happened. One day, I just stopped taking the drug and very soon the old me returned. I called my friend and told her the old me was back. My hubby works out of town so that had given me time to realize what my life would have been without him. Thank god we did not divorce, I once again love,everybody but I am so ashamed about things that I did, I am disgusted by my actions. I didn’t know the reason why but I do now. My wish the rest of you luck…I know how devastating this can be for people. This rx needs to be taken off the market no doubt. I hope this helps.

Hi I was put on ssri lexapro only took 20 pills in two months but felt like I was looking at myself though in a happy long term relationship I had a strange triste with coworker much older than myself / they clearly wanted me but I didn’t seem to care either way -my spouse caught my texts with coworker and confronted me–I since came off lexapro dr says no relationship my spouse and I disagree –I kissed them — what else might have happened since I was talking inappropriately for months ?! Will never get on ssri again

Lexapro ruined my life I did not have any idea it had this side effect. i left my husband of 20 years and NOw I am lost

Hi ,I took lexapro for six weeks, It made me into another person. I had an affair, I know it was caused by lexapro. One year later, I  want answers,-is it worth pursuing legally? We are still together, but my wife still needs convincing. Could anyone reply to this please for her to read and let her know I’m not making excuses please,many thanks,

I was switched fro 10mg Lexapro to 37.5 Effexor to help with migraines after I developed kidney stones from topamax. I trusted my Neurologist and didnt think twice about the med he gave me. Yesterday I hit my low and actually went psycho. I am truly ready to commit myself because of how moods change. My husband and I are trying to work things out and I have an appointment with my primary dr today to discuss getting off this med.

The one post about women leaving their husband for someone the opposite was totaly true. I did and ended up hurting another person in the process and its killing me too inside.

a couple of weeks after taking effexor (which I abruptly stopped on account of its adverse effects on my diabetes and ability to feel my blood sugar dropping) and then lexapro, i woke up one day, no longer in love, after many years. I am still young, very confused, and its terrible. and I havent even cried yet, which doesnt make sense, I just keep sleeping, hoping ill wake up in love again or something. If there was a medical explanation it would make a lot more sense, at least, i dont know. I thought serotonin was supposed to be like love, and therefore should it not make us feel more love?

I can’t believe I have just found all of these posts! I cannot explain how relieved I am that it wasn’t just me, and that I’m not a horrible person, the escitalopram just made me that way.

I only started taking 10mg around the beginning of October, by the end of the month I had broken up with my boyfriend of 2 and a half years, who I had liked ever since I was 13 years old (I’m nearly 21 now). I don’t recall what made me do this, and I feel so stupid for letting it happen.

After that one of his friends, who I was also close with came round mine one night cause he was feeling down. I took him out to a party and that’s when I made the biggest mistake of my life. He stayed around mine and from there we had this ‘secretive’ sort of relationship thing going on for a few weeks, for some reason it felt completely normal at the time. I do feel lucky though, after reading some of the posts on here – as the situation could of gotten much worse. I realised how much I missed and loved my ex, what I had done repulsed me, and still does every day.

A week later it was halloween and my ex boyfriend needed a place to stay, I said it was fine, but I felt sick with guilt just thinking about seeing him again. In the end me and my ex went out together, and had a really nice time, he was being so sweet and lovely, he thought it was his fault we had broken up, it still makes me so guilty:(

Because we had had such a nice night together he stayed round the next night, we didn’t do anything, not even kissing, just enjoying each others company again. This was when I realised what I had done, I felt sick to my stomach, I was still in love with my ex and didn’t want to lose him.

I got woken up at 2am, he had looked through my messages and seen one with the friend and knew what had happened. I told him everything, the guilt was unbearable, I wanted to die, the thought of life without him wasn’t worth it. The worst thing is who it was that I slept with, the fact he was supposed to be my ex’s friend.

I am back with my boyfriend at the moment, but understandably he no longer trusts me. He says it’s because he loves me, and cares but worries about me because my emotions are so erratic. Some moments I am happy, the next I want to die. I wish my boyfriend would believe that the escitalopram did that and not me. I love him to death.

I am no longer on the pills, had to wean myself off as the Doctor was trying to up my dosage despite myself saying I wanted out.

Sorry about how long that was, I just didn’t know anyone else out there had suffered like this also, and nobody else understands.

I lost my soulmate because of this piece of shit drug. I was on cipralex for 1 1/2 years. My poor baby went through so much shut because of me, I used to yell at her and not give a shit about the repercussions. I’ve been of of it for 4 weeks and I can feel again. But I lost her. And now my world is empty. I am nothing without her.

I have been with my boyfriend for 3 years and I have always loved him very much,felt warm,caring about him,I wanted to marry him..But unfortunatelly in december’07 I started feeling very nervous,I shaked I had many negative thoughts(I was afraid that something bad could happened to my BF or to my family).The same situation like in case of Marlies;it was somewhat of an extreme of the depression I’d been feeling for a couple years before hand.Two days later I thought: Do I still love my BF??I was scared??I didn’t know what it was!!I lost interest in everything,I was really depressed.My boyfriend always has been with me,being very supportive and he said he would always be there for me.

One month later I started taking Lexapro(10 mg)and then I stopped caring of my boyfriend,my family…I was happy but just with myself ,I prefered to be alone.

Three months later I was off Lexapro.I didn’t want to feel that emotional emptiness anymore!!Immediately I started feeling warm towards my boyfriend and loving him!!Unfortunatelly I got sick again and I stopped caring:((I just wanted to dissapear!!I didn’t know why it was like that!!I didn’t understood.I started taking Motival and again I had that emotional feeling,I wanted to marry my boyfriend,I said to everybody.I was so in love!!Till today there are times when I feel love,there are times that I feel so sad because I feel like I would not love my boyfriend anymore;(( I just would love to feel like I used to.Without that chaos!!

I don’t know what to do.Deep inside of me I feel that I love my boyfriend but there’s something that sometimes makes me feel like I don’t care…

Hi, I’ve posted on here before and shared my experience with escitalopram. I am only 21, but this disgusting drug made me ruin my 3 year relationship with my boyfriend. I broke up with him and slept with his friend more than once. I stopped taking escitalopram when I could see again, I realised what I had done, and ever since have felt ashamed and disgusted of myself every day.

My boyfriend did take me back, and my love for him is stronger than ever, but now it’s all getting dug up again…Two days ago I finally went and did what I should of done a long time ago and got tested for STI’s (we did not use any protection…I WAS NOT myself, before I had always used condoms), but I have to wait 10-14 working days for the results! I have now gotten in to a massive panic (I suffer from bad anxiety), and don’t know how to wait that long. I am now convincing myself that I have HIV and have given it to my boyfriend. This probably sounds really stupid to everyone, and all my friends are just laughing I would even suggest such a thing. But what if I really am that unlucky, I know I just have to wait for the results, and now my worry is making my boyfriend worried and angry at me, because i’m convincing him I have something.

I am petrified, I love him so much, I don’t want this horrible memory to haunt him his entire life, and I know I couldn’t live with it. I’m just hoping I am paranoid, I haven’t suffered any symptoms…but I still worry.

Sorry for the rant, and Bluesmurf, I didn’t even know what depersonalization meant when I read it, and wasn’t aware when I was experiencing it.

I took Lexapro for two years for depression after my second child was born. Initially I felt “lighter” and began to enjoy life again. But soon aferwards I started noticing a personality change in myself. It started with my work (I am a CEO) where I took uncharacteristic risks, not caring about the consequences. Normally a relatively calm and quiet person, I started going out late at night drinking, sometimes three or four nights in a row. this was a very frustrating time for my husband as I am sure he was wondering where his wife of nearly 10 years had gone. I would swing from having no feelings at all (going to extremely sad movies where I would normally be in tears but feeling absolutely nothing) to extreme aggression (arguing with anyone who didn’t agree with me). This post struck home to me because i remember having a conversation with my husband about this very same topic. In the last few months of taking Lexapro I decided that i no longer loved my husband and asked for a divorce. he was shattered. I felt nothing. Even when I realized that our son had heard me say this, I still felt nothing. I don’t know what made me realize that this bizarre change in character, temperament, behavior etc came about due to Lexapro, but I just had a nagging feeling about it. It was a very difficult drug to wean off but I managed to do it with my husband’s support. Now, two years later I am completely “normal” again and have reverted back to my original personality. When I look back at those two years now I can’t believe how patient my family was and how scary it must have been for them. I was never told that these side effects would be so devastating. Unfortunately when you are in the situation it is much like being in a storm cloud – you don’t realize that you are in the storm until you stop taking it and can “step out” of the situation and see it in hindsight. I sincerely hope that the makers of Lexapro can begin to be nmore upfront about these side effects. I wonder if I am alone in this?

I am 28 and was on Lexapro for about 5 years for anxiety. At first I thought it was wonderful. It wasn’t until years later that I had radically changed. I am so happy to have found this site because I thought I had lost my mind. I cheated on my husband and 1. didn’t even seem to have a reason why and 2. felt somewhat numb afterwards. I also had that same feeling about my significant other i.e. that we were turning into roomates and just a general numbness…maybe that’s why, in retrospect, I resorted to engaging some risk-taking behaviors? Sorry–this is sort of a stream of consciousness. Anyway, I decided to stop the pills about 6 months ago and now the weight of how I acted is overwhelming me–nearly having panic attacks when I think of the inifidelity. You have to understand that before the medication I was with my significant other for 5 years and NEVER even kissed another person even while in college. I was so against any form of infidelity! Fast forward and I am a lying monster with little feeling. The guilt is crushing me, not to mention feelings of ‘how the hell could you do that?!’ I can only say that the me before I started lexapro was radically different from the me now. And although I am regaining emotions etc. I still don’t feel 100% like the old me. Maybe that’s because I feel I have ruined everything with my behaviors the last few years. I had been racking my brain trying to understand how I could have changed so much during the past few years and I began thinking I was just a pretty terrible person. It’s a horrible feeling. I wish I had NEVER gone on that drug and I cannot believe my doctor let me just stay on it for so long.

Thank you all so much for posting your experiences with your significant others on SSRI’s….it has helped me so much.

Holy crap. If I understand correctly, you are saying that you have memories of time that passed during your taper and withdrawal, but no emotion attachments to that time? That is exactly how I feel about the past 6 months of my withdrawal! I think I mentioned this in my most recent thread, too.

Before withdrawal I had the same circle of friends that I do now, but some things have changed. I’ve sort of made new friends too, and my friends have grown emotionally and changed their interests greatly through experience, the passage of time, and maturation etc. Also my relationship with them has become far more distant than it ever was because of withdrawal, but for some reason, now that I’m coming back to reality and my emotions as I’m recovering, I still feel and talk to my friends as if we still hold the same bond we did before I began withdrawal. Also, any friends I made during withdrawal I have no emotional attachment too. They are more like acquaintances. Also, I had a sort of romantic relationship with this girl before withdrawal, then during withdrawal it was shattered, along with our friendship. But now, for some reason, I feel like I had a crush on her just yesterday! Even though the last time I felt feelings for her was half a year ago.

I was on lexopro for years and got off of it. I tapered off somewhat. However Im expericing what feels like brain damage. My brain doesn’t function like it use to.