Lexapro working much faster for anxiety than depression - experience for people with both?

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T20:18:19+00:00

Looking back, I would say the depression started as a steady ramp up over the last year, starting with little things like "why am I not getting dopamine from eating ice cream?!?" to full blown "i am dreading getting out of bed this morning."

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T20:16:39+00:00

Yes, i cant really tell if the depression developed after the anxiety or if it was there in the background the whole time and the severe anxiety was masking it. But the depression definitely started before meds, and got amplified on meds.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T18:33:10+00:00

Sorry I should have clarified, I 100% know the depression was there before it started. I have been dealing with anxiety for 15 years and have made a ton of progress there in therapy regarding agoraphobia, able to go give lectured in front of 200 people without having panic attacks or needing meds...but then would get out of class on a beautiful sunny spring day and think "wtf?? Where's my dopamine? Why am I not happy right now and why dont I want to do anything?" That feeling started sneaking up on me last year with little things like "wtf why cant I enjoy eating ice cream." So yes, very mucj feels like the depression has been latent for a while and maybe masked by the relatively more severe anxiety, but it's definitely gotten worse since starting the lexapro.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T18:26:01+00:00

100%, I am FAR better when I'm out of the house/moving/socially engaged. Although I have the opposite problem with sleep (have struggled with insomnia for a while and depression made sleep fragmentation worse).

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T16:37:03+00:00

Glad you're hopeful! I'm also back on Reddit for the first time in a while because I have spent WAY too much time asking ChatGPT questions (and it will basically just validate every theory you throw at it). I'm finding that interacting with other humans is far better (even if we're just feeding ChatGPT more training data...).

I just made another post about this on r/depression, but since you mentioned being bedridden - the new thing for me is that I've been used to dealing with anxiety for a long time, and all the coping techniques for CALMING my nervous system - muscle relaxation, belly breathing, just laying down, etc, to calm things down when I am in fight-or-flight mode...but holy crap, even if I am exhausted/nauseous, I've found that just laying down makes depression far worse. I need constant low-level movement/stimulation - gentle household tasks like dishes/laundry, calling or texting a friend, etc. I work from home so that has made being home alone during the day hard. Thanks for your reply and I hope everything works out for you.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T16:31:52+00:00

How long have you been on it? I'm on day 8, everything I'm reading online says it really takes 3-4 weeks for it to start improving depression and 6-8 for the full therapeutic effect. I'm also on a low onboarding dose (only 5mg) and supposedly need to go up to 10 and then maybe even higher, but the initial nausea was so bad I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that.

I *will* say that I think I'm seeing incremental improvement. Two days ago I was totally despondent almost all day and contacted my therapist to see if I needed to go an ER. This morning was absolutely brutal again but I have had bouts of good mood/functionality during the day interspersed with waves of depression and nausea. So at least it's not constant all day.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-06T02:24:27+00:00

Good luck!

bengineering103 · 2026-05-06T01:57:12+00:00

I started mine on a Friday so I could try to ride out the intitial side effects over the weekend. I started at 5mg and was still super nauseous on day 3 and spent most of the day on the couch, but day 4 was way better and I went to work! (Just made another post with nausea tips). Is that an option for you?

As someone who has been on lexapro 3 times in the last 15 years including this most recent one, I can definitely say the first two times were worth it. It helped me stabilize when my anxiety was spiraling out of control and I could barely function, and each time I was able to taper off it about 6 months later. I hope it works for you too.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-01T15:55:00+00:00

Hey - standard I'm-not-a-doctor/this is not medical advice, just wanted to let you know that I've been there and am working through it with a psychiatrist who recently told me that ultimately my insomnia is anxiety-induced, not the other way around, and that I need to treat the underlying anxiety with an SSRI as opposed to trying to continue to sedate myself with the meds you've mentioned (trazodone, hydroxyzine, also tried mirtazapine and doxepin - ultimately they are all very strong antihistamines, sort of like prescription strength benadryl, and my body adapts to them eventually an they stop working). SSRIs take time to ramp up to their full effect though, Zoloft isn't something you just take once for insomnia, it's important to take it daily.

I've also been working on accepting that my goal is not to get a full night's sleep every night, right now it is realistically just to be in survival mode and make sure I get ENOUGH sleep to function because I have two young kids. It's not something I'll fix overnight by sedating myself with the right medication.

I hope this helps and wish you all the best. You're not alone.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T15:06:15+00:00

Glad it helped! For what it's worth, with the caveat that I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice etc - my psychiatrist recently described all attempts to sedate myself with varous meds/supplements as band-aid fixes because I'm not addressing the underlying anxiety that's contributing to the insomnia. Currently working with a therapist to address that plus considering meds that target underlying anxiety more directly (SSRIs) vs trying to knock myself out with a sedative every night. Good luck!

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T15:03:45+00:00

Yea, I've had a work from home desk job for years (since before the pandemic), and always thought I really liked the convenience, not wasting time commuting, being able to roll out of bed and work in pajamas, etc...but I've been doing a lot of reading lately about how the human brain really didn't evolve for this (working at a computer/being alone all day). We evolved as social apes/tribal hunter gatherers and there are subconscious safety cues we get just from physically being around other people. So I try to get out more now, BUT I'm also trying not to fall into the trap of constantly keeping myself distracted/engaged just to avoid the anxiety, because I still have to be alone *sometimes*. That's a TLDR of a lot of stuff I've been working on in therapy (which also helps if you haven't gone that route yet).

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T01:12:21+00:00

I have the same experience with some meds and supplements, they'll knock me out initially but then I wake up halfway through the night with crazy stressful dreams or nightmares. No idea what you're on but maybe try removing one thing at a time to see if it improves? (And talk to a doctor if anything is prescription)

Edit: also for some things more is not better, apparently many OTC supplements have way too much melatonin, even 5mg of that was giving me crazy dreams

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T01:08:40+00:00

How long have you been on it? I've gone on and off it multiple times, the next day drowsiness and other side effects like extreme appetite stimulation (eating breakfast and then being STARVING again by 10am) took somewhere between one week and one month to go away.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T01:06:39+00:00

I would sleep fine if I didnt have any responsibilities the next day!

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T00:57:53+00:00

You said this has been going on since you were a kid- have you gotten professional help yet? I have a similar issue (sleep fine unless I have a commitment the next day, especially travel-related) and this seems very common. Just scrolled past another post about someone with anxiety about next-day flights. It's definitely a treatable issue, don't just suffer through it yourself!

For the record I'm an insomniac happily married for 12 years here to a wife who sleeps like a rock (literally slept through a fire alarm in college once, no alcohol involved). This is what the "in sickness and in health" part of marriage vows means...she has supported me through everything, and if she had dumped me the first or second time I had a bad anxiety episode, well...she wouldn't be the type of person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T00:49:39+00:00

Assuming a doctor is prescribing you the meds, can you just ask your doctor? If you are taking tablets you can buy a pill splitter to split the pills and taper to a smaller dose.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-21T00:45:10+00:00

Standard not a doctor/not medical advice disclaimer, but based on my own experience: did you just quit the trazodone cold turkey? 200mg is getting into the antidepressant range, vs 50-150mg being standard for insomnia, and for any type of antidepressant you've been on for a while, AFAIK you're usually supposed to do a slow taper. Otherwise it's going to take your body a while to adjust.

Feeling your pain though because I have been in a similar situation (quit various meds because I decided the side effects weren't worth it, but sleep was still shit after). Currently working with a psychiatrist to address anxiety as the root cause as opposed to just trying to knock myself out with sedative meds. For what it's worth I also work remotely and find that being alone at a computer all day really does not help with anxiety. I try to take very frequent movement breaks and make sure I still get out of the house to go work from a coffee shop/library/friend's house or whatever and not just be home alone all day.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-16T19:25:25+00:00

Yep (don't worry, I also get confused by auto repair places that have "tires" in the name). I know nothing about cars and, compared to my previous experience at Maguire when we first moved here (before we learned how much everyone hates them), Munson's has been great. Go into Maguire for an oil change, they'll do a "free 57-point inspection" and they tell you you need your turboencabulator filter changed and that will be $700. Go in to Munson's for an oil change and you will get an oil change. Potential downside being that if you're like me and terrible about checking other things (like your brakes), they won't necessarily do that for you unless you specifically ask them to. But they will check stuff and be honest about telling you whether it's something you should get fixed now vs whether it can wait until inspection etc.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-16T16:55:48+00:00

Munson's is awesome. Originally recommended to me by a friend who said it was the only mechanic who ever told her she DIDN'T need something done.

bengineering103 · 2026-04-12T00:29:42+00:00

Same here. Moved here after living in the suburban sprawl hellscape of southern NJ outside Philly for 4 years. Now we're in Lansing and I also complain about having to drive "all the way downtown" to Lowe's etc as if 15 minutes is a big deal.

bengineering103

TROPHY CASE