Has anybody ever taken Lexapro and had a personality change?

We hate it too.













I kid I kid.

I take 20 mg of Lexapro daily. Has helped quite a bit with depression/anxiety, but not what you're talking about. Maybe you just feel better, more upbeat, outgoing, etc.

I haven't had one from drugs, but I have become much more confident and outgoing after having one of those buddy cop movie moments with a friend.

You know, outgoing minority teaches the weird white guy music, women and other stuff that makes weird white guy somewhat socially acceptable.

Couldn't even speak in front of my class when I was in high school, now I'm a teacher with classes full of people older than me.

No. I had terrible anxiety that needed to be put to ease. It worked like a champ immediately. The only side effect that I knew of was it makes your sex drive go to shite.

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IOW, pay attention to this and tell your doctor what people are telling you. If you are not happy with the answer see someone in the field for help. The problem with hypomania in particular is that you might like it too much to do anything about it but keep in mind that if that is what's going on then one hellacious crash awaits you at the end of the cycle.

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I'm starting to conclude that it is not mania, that it's my actual personality that has come back. The personality I had when I was younger. I just forgot it existed. I never knew I could be this person again. I'm so confident now and like talking to strangers. I used to always wonder what someone was thinking about me before I even said hello. All those thoughts are blocked out now. The anxiety levels have dropped. I no longer think there's something wrong with me. I no longer feel like I need to see a shrink. I lived with mental suffering for years. I was able to hide it from people. I had tried Zoloft in the past, but it didn't work the same way that Lexapro has worked for me.

First thing to accept re a drug like this is that NO physician on earth can throw you the right dosage the first time every time. And your doctor should have discussed this with you. There is no way to tell (no lab test, no imaging, etc.) how much serotonin and/or norepinephrine and/or other neurotransmitters are being bounced back and forth effectively within your brain cells. The dosage of an antidepressant is a shot in the dark. It's almost always going to be too high or too low to begin with. You are charged with sampling it for a month or more, returning to your physician, and giving him feedback. He/she will adjust the dose accordingly. And you may have to return to him/her several times before it's right.

Having said this I will postulate that either 1) you're finally who you're supposed to be. Congratulations! or 2) you're on too high a dose. The trick is to end the depression, not to become superman. Being superman for too long will inevitably end badly. And it won't take too long to get there. It won't last. There will be a crash.

I have tried 4 or 5 antidepressants, including Lexapro. They all gave me ADD out the whazoo. I finally had to accept that I don't have any neurotransmitter deficits. My brain chemistry is just fine. Increasing the seroronin makes me bounce around mentally like 3 hyperactive cheerleaders sharing one skull. My depression was self-imposed. I was allowing myself to go down dark paths of thought out of habit or something. Once I realized this I was able to treat my depression with counseling.

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Here is another example where discoveries are coming so fast that it's difficult to keep up with developments, in this case medical technology.

I participated in a trial last year wherein my DNA was analyzed to determine which medicines would have the best effects, which dosages should be administered for optimum effects and which medicines should be avoided. The guesswork will mostly disappear when this procedure becomes common.

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That's awesome. A friend's wife is a physician working in the basement at MD Anderson cancer hospital in Houston. She works with rats and their DNA toward cancer cures. Tailoring cancer treatments based on a patient's DNA. (The chick is blonde, blue eyed, and about 20 pounds away from being verifiably H O T, btw. In addition to being so brilliant it's frickin scary).

I'm sure that a lot of one's neurotransmitter reuptake is defined by his DNA. I have to point out, however, that some people become chemically depressed because of environmental factors. Drug abuse comes to mind. But your point is very much appreciated and well taken.

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i now just take xanax as needed which works out much better.

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A DNA analysis would no doubt have shown that Lexapro is one of those medications you should avoid while Xanax will perform much better in your body. There may be other drugs that will outperform even Xanax.

Ask your doctor if a "Drug Metabolizing Enzyme Genotyping" test is available to you. To this point doctors have had to use a trial-and-error approach in finding the best drug for each patient as well as the optimum dosage. Now the guesswork will be gone.

I take it. It pretty much saved me from having a breakdown. It calms me. Other than that I haven't had any side effects.

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Many moons ago I had this realization that at some time in the future there would be a humongous computer program that would simulate the entire human body on the molecular level.

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That would be a wonderful approach for testing drugs, but the reality is much more "hands on." No such program has been developed, to my knowledge.

The particular DNA study in which I participated deals primarily with the body's ability to metabolize medications. If the liver and its processes make all of a dose available to the brain, for example, then that drug is likely to be far more effective than would be one which is mostly ignored by the liver and is excreted by the body. It would also, of course, be made available to the brain much more quickly.

This study doesn't just apply to psychoactive drugs, but any that might be ingested by the body. People respond individually to the effects of drugs and this analysis points up those drugs that are likely to be most effective for the person being tested.