[Closed] Any of you tried escitalopram?

Yes. Having had trouble with several antidepressants I tried escitalopram last year, but very small doses using a liquid formulation. It seemed to cause me chest tightness that was affecting how hard I could breathe when mountain biking, so I stopped it. The Dr didn't know if it was a direct side effect or maybe a result of anxiety- never got to the bottom of it.

What did you end up with, if anything?

I'm on general citalopram and found that it wiped me out for a week or so (felt like I'd had a couple of beers plus tiredness) , then calmed down and went back to feeling normal... Well as normal as I get!!

I was on Citalopram a while back - same thing in that it wiped me out... felt rubbish in the mornings - eased up a bit in the day and then got super wiped-out come early evening.

Try and stick with it - a couple of weeks and it will ease up and you'll feel yourself operate more normally.

Weirdest thing for me was that it dulled both ends of my emotional spectrum - it made me feel much better and less down but it also became more difficult for me to get super-happy about stuff. Overall though the net effect was better for me.

ooh - the description of dulling the ends of the emotional spectrum sound interesting. When I started on the oestrogen, I’d say the biggest effect was the huge increase in “bandwidth” of emotions; being far more able to be both extremely happy and sad.

I’d find that *really* difficult to have taken away from me now. I get the purpose of antidepressants but that sounds like quite a major thing to accept.

Rachel

It can takes months to settle completely with SSRIs, I found the 'ants in the brain' thing (aka brain zaps) only went away after months. I quite miss them now, used to think of it as a sign they 'were working'.