[NoOtherOne]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and was very happy to discover these forums. Seems like a lot of great info in here!

Anyway, I have question I hope some of you can help me with. What dose of Lexapro do all of you take (or have you taken in the past)? I started at 10 mg about two years ago. About a year later, my doctor increased my dosage to 20 mg. And then yesterday, my psychiatrist told me he wants me to try 30 mg because I was complaining about increased anxiety recently, for no apparent reason.

From what I've read, it seems that most people don't go above 20 mg, so I'm worried, even though I tolerate Lexapro well. I had very bad experiences with Effexor and Wellbutrin, both prescribed by a family doctor, not a psychiatrist. I haven't had any negative side effects to the Lexapro, and remain 5'8", 130 lbs, after two years on the medication. The lack of interest in sex is the worst part, but my boyfriend is very understanding, and is just happy that I'm not crying all the time like I used to be!

In terms of other background info, I'm an otherwise-healthy 27-year-old girl/woman (haha). I've been diagnosed with GAD and depression (but the depression is secondary to the anxiety). Oh, and PMDD, which may play a role in all of this. I have had one panic attack in my life, and that was a couple months ago, and my doctor thinks it was caused by a weird reaction to Ambien CR, which had been making my heart race and increasing my blood pressure for days). I am generally the type of functional person that no one guesses suffers the way I do.

In addition to the now-30 mg of Lexapro, I'm on 100 mg of Trazodone for sleep, and take 1 mg of Lorazepam "as needed" for anxiety (usually daily).

I never wanted to be on all of these meds, but I just want to feel better, and Lexapro did make me feel better, so I kind of feel OK about the higher dose, but it kind of worries me.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks so much.

[NoOtherOne]

Anyone? I really want to know if this dosage is too high.

[Director]

I've been on Lexapro for several years now and my doctor put me on it when I had gone to LA pain meds. I started with 10 mg and then went to 20 mg. To be honest, I have not heard of anyone being on 30 mg. That doesn't mean it isn't done every day. There are always people on higher doses of meds than we are.

If I were you, I would go ahead and give it a try for a trial period of time and see how you do. How it makes you feel. You can always go back to 20 if it doesn't seem like it's needed or doesn't feel right for you.

Good luck with it. I'm glad you're doing better on the antianxiety meds.

[Katling]

I've beeen on 40mg for about 8 months now maybe longer and I'm trying to cut down. I tried cold turkey but that was bad

[sweetpotatojack]

My doctor seems conservative and said he has a decent percentage of patients on 30 mg. I have only been taking this for about 6 weeks but have gone from 10 to 20 mg in that time.

[maria7591]

I'm new to this forum but wanted to reply to you. I've taken lexapro in the past and am currently on it again. But my diagnosis has been very similar to yours: anxiety, depression, PMDD (I'm currently in peri-menapause which doesn't help). Currently the lexapro is causing edema in my feet and legs which doesn't seem like a good thing to me. However, my moods (anxiety/depression) are amazingly good. It's tough sometimes to figure what the best thing to do is (feel really lousy mentally or lousy physically).
My doctor wanted me to increase my dosage, however, with the swelling it just doesn't seem like a good idea. I did add a few herbal products and it did the trick. Tyrosine helped with sexual side-effects and eliminated the anxiety that was still hanging on and a high dosage of cataplex B raised the GABA to raise my confidence level and help me be more assertive. If only I could get rid of this damn edema, I would feel great. Just wanted you to know that there are alternatives to bumping up meds. I'm thinking about cuting the dose down to 5 mg and possibly bumping up the tyrosine. You're lucky you haven't gained weight, after only 2 1/2 months, I've already gone up 6 lbs.

[llamakiss]

Hi - I'm just wondering how the 30mg dose went for you. I recently got switched from 10mg to 20mg (after 4 weeks or so). My doctor told me that she has a lot of patients on 30 and 40mg...

[studentrjp]

im on a cocktail of meds all much higher than yours, please dont even give it another thought, nothing can happen

[KittKat]

Hi I know your post is old but I'm new to Lexapro and started it early july and went from 10 to 15 to 20 in two months. I just recently without my dr knowing started taking 25 because i had left over 5 mg and she just refilled my 20's. It will be a week tomorrow and not sure how much it has helped. I usually make it thru the weed ok but its the weekends when I end up breaking down with "episodes" of non stop crying and end up drinking and calling my ex which is what pushed my anxiety and depression into full gear again.

If I were you I would discuss this with your dr...as I will next week...and suggest only going up 5mg at a time for at least 2 weeks and see how you feel. I think that was the lease amount of time that i had inbetween raised doasges.

Anyway I hope this helps!!!

[matthewbenincasa]

plz no one go over the dose of 60 i did and dont go over 50 i feel like im spacing out like shaky well i do this a lot for people that take same meds i do to see if they want to kno how high is high well i tested ritalin adderall and lexapro do not go over this limit 50mg or higher stay on 40mg 20mg 10mg 30mg, this is the worst I felt in my whole life people might be able to go higher then me on lexapro people are different if ur on 10 increase it if ur doctor tells u to increase it little by little if he says to well i shouldnt of done this i was on 10mg but increased it to 60 or 50 i cant remember but i feel strange and now my shoulder keeps twitchin and feel wide awake eyes wide open like i just drank an energy drink n i feel and i feel a slight weakness and my heartbeat is going fast i think i need to vomit to get it out of my system and by the way if anyone takes a dose of 50 or 60 or 40 if they are on 10 either u vomit or keep drinking liquids do not stop then or keep drinking or wen ur done drink liquids vomit cause itll stick to ur stomach lik thatr time i drank poison, if i were u i would drink a a lot of milk and not stop thats how i got help when my dad caled the doctor he said keep drinking milk and not stop i cant even think thats wut i remember drink liquids then vomit then drink milk constantly without stopping

[Robert_325]

Originally Posted by matthewbenincasa

plz no one go over the dose of 60 i did and dont go over 50 i feel like im spacing out like shaky well i do this a lot for people that take same meds i do to see if they want to kno how high is high well i tested ritalin adderall and lexapro do not go over this limit 50mg or higher stay on 40mg 20mg 10mg 30mg, this is the worst I felt in my whole life people might be able to go higher then me on lexapro people are different if ur on 10 increase it if ur doctor tells u to increase it little by little if he says to well i shouldnt of done this i was on 10mg but increased it to 60 or 50 i cant remember but i feel strange and now my shoulder keeps twitchin and feel wide awake eyes wide open like i just drank an energy drink n i feel and i feel a slight weakness and my heartbeat is going fast i think i need to vomit to get it out of my system and by the way if anyone takes a dose of 50 or 60 or 40 if they are on 10 either u vomit or keep drinking liquids do not stop then or keep drinking or wen ur done drink liquids vomit cause itll stick to ur stomach lik thatr time i drank poison, if i were u i would drink a a lot of milk and not stop thats how i got help when my dad caled the doctor he said keep drinking milk and not stop i cant even think thats wut i remember drink liquids then vomit then drink milk constantly without stopping

Are you freakin kidding me? You see how much of a drug you can tolerate so you can tell other people how high is too high???

What in the world would make you want to do something like that? Do they pay you tons of money or what? Why would you do that?

I think this sounds ridiculous or like total BS. You drank poison and you're now making your shoulder twitch??? You should take this act on the road. Give me a break, get a life.

[FizzyL]

HI,, I am new to this discussion board..... I have been on 10mg of Lexpro for 10 months now and I still feely shakey and anxious. Especially when I wake up in the moring. I increased my mg to 20. It has been a week but so far no change.... How long does it take to feel the effects of increasing the dosage?... Is it possilbe that the Lexapro wont work even if i increase it. Thanks everyone.

[GADman]

Just looking up Lexapro 30 online because I went off 20 this past summer but my GAD, depression, and other ******** came back and I'm back on the 20 but still have some anxiety and obsessive thinking that's holding me back from getting a job and going back to college. I think that's because I'm afraid of triggering it all back to what it was and I hate feeling like that. But I'm trying to overcome it and my therapist said I should look into going to 30 and I was a little concerned that that was too high but glad to hear I'm not the first or the last that's done it.

Anyways I wanted to get on to tell FizzyL that Lexapro is actually the fastest acting of the antidepressants and it usually kicks in three weeks after taking it. Most take a month. I know its rough but eventually it does start to feel better. Hang in there.

[Medsane]

I take 20mg Lexapro every day, for about three years now. I recently mentioned to my physiatrist that I wasn't feeling as good as I had been when I started taking it. He told me that Lexapro maxes out at 20mg. I had already heard that, too, so it just confirmed that 20mgs is the max.

If it were me, I would question my doctor again. I am curious as to why he would reccomend a higher dosage when it seems to be common knowledge that the effectiveness doesn't change at a higher dosage.

[Medsane]

Originally Posted by FizzyL

HI,, I am new to this discussion board..... I have been on 10mg of Lexpro for 10 months now and I still feely shakey and anxious. Especially when I wake up in the moring. I increased my mg to 20. It has been a week but so far no change.... How long does it take to feel the effects of increasing the dosage?... Is it possilbe that the Lexapro wont work even if i increase it. Thanks everyone.

I think if you are still feeling anxiety on 20mg Lexapro, you should see a physiatrist. Maybe you do, but if you don't they are definatley the best at diagnosing your level of anxiety and will probably prescribe something to take with your Lexapro. Whatever you do, Don't stop taking lexapro suddenly. I have done this and the anxiety is awful!