I've been prescribed Lexapro in the place of Paxil for anxiety and depression. But I've stopped taking it after a few months because I've noticed that when I'm on it I clench my teeth till my jaw hurts. I can't seemt o relax my jaw unless I concentrate on it. I stopped it and then a few months later I"ve started it up again on my doctors advice. My teethjaw is tightening again . I'm wondering if this is just my mind playing tricks on me or if there are other people who've had similar side effects.

Do you take a stimulant as well? I take adderall, and when I first started I would have tense shoulders. Now I take prozac for my depression and anxiety and I don't feel tense anymore.

Sorry, I also meant to ask if the paxil did this to you to.

I have taken Lexipro since about the time it came out and have had few to no side effects. The only one I know of is if I miss a day, I get dizzy. I think I might have had nausia at one time. Not sure.

Do you take a stimulant as well? I take adderall, and when I first started I would have tense shoulders. Now I take prozac for my depression and anxiety and I don't feel tense anymore.
I was on Concerta at the same times. but due to some cercumstances i havn't beena ble to take the concerta in a while. So I started taking the Lexapro again, and the clenched teeth are here again. I;ve mentioned it before with my doctor but she prescribed ativan to take at night. whish is great for my restless mind but I can't ake it during the day if I want to get anything done.

I have been taking lexapro for two weeks now and I've noticed the same problem. It's not constant but I'm catching myself clenching my teeth more and more. A Google search shows this is common, and some say it fades. I hope so.

I was prescribed Lexapro and i hated it!!! I also read after I had stopped taking it that a boy had killed himself after taking it!

I’ve taken at least 7 or 8 different types of Anti-depressants, most before I was finally diagnosed with ADHD! After being diagnosed I eventually ended up taking a variety of ADD stimulants and 40mgs of Prozac which I have taken on and off for the past 8 years. Recently, I had to stop taking Prozac because it wasn't working for me anymore.



10 days ago my Doctor put me on 10mgs Lexapro.



Day 1 & 2: - I had diarrhea, but since I work the graveyard shift and switch my hours back and forth often (My GF works the dayshift and I also go to school in the evenings) I couldn't really contribute the diarrhea to the Lexapro. I took some Imodium, which stopped the diarrhea problem. I know that's probably not what anyone cares to hear, but I work in Healthcare and don't feel uncomfortable talking about such things, and besides you at least know that I'm not full of *&#~! LOL ;)



Day 3: - I felt like a million bucks, the Lexapro seemingly pulled me right out of the depression I was in. I felt a little bit nauseated, but not bad enough that I noticed it much.



Day 4: - Started feeling much more nauseated, was sweating a lot, noticed that I was clinching my teeth all the time, and my stomach and bowels started growling loudly non-stop. I also started having these weird ticks! Sort of like what one occasionally will have happen when they start falling asleep and a leg will suddenly jerk. However, I wasn't trying to sleep at the time so I don’t know what caused the jerk ticks. <- yeah, I know how it sounds! hehe :)



Day 5: - Felt really bad! (Nausea, sweating, clinched teeth, bowels that growled embarrassingly loud, and the ticks turned into trembling) Called my Doctor to ask how long I should expect these side effects to last. Was told that the side effects would probably last only a few days. Decided that I would "hang in there" and try to continue taking the Lexapro until the side effects diminished.



Day 6, 7, & 8: - Progressively got more & more ill! (Still was nauseated, sweating, clinching my teeth, but the trembling/ticks finally subsided.) Felt so ill that I was sleeping constantly except for getting up regularly to eat something or go to the restroom.



Day 9: - Decided that I couldn't afford to continue feeling this horrible!! (I need to be well enough to make it into work!) Decided that it would be better to feel depressed rather than feel so physically ill! Therefore, on day 9 I didn't take the Lexapro.



Day 10 (today): - <sings> Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, I went upstairs to have a smoke, somebody spoke and I went into a dream …aaahhhhhhhh… Sorry, I had a momentary Beatles fixation there! :) Anyway, I woke up today feeling at least 50-75% better! I actually accomplished to get some stuff done today that I wasn't able to do while on Lexapro the past 6 days! Not even clinching my teeth or sweating, but still feel a little nauseated! Decided that the Lexapro was too difficult for me to ride out the side effects.



I've never had side effects like these from any of the previous 7 or 8 Anti-depressants I have taken in the past! (With the exception being Wellbutrin, which also made me, clinch my teeth. Unfortunately Wellbutrin also made me feel abnormally irritable & angry as well, which eventually forced me to stop taking it all together.)(Oh, I almost forgot! Luvox caused me to have an acute anxiety attack after taking only 1 pill, so I obviously stopped taking it as well!)



However, I must point out that I also have never taken a Anti-depressant before other than the Lexapro, that pulled me out of a mild depression by the third day either! Therefore I don't know what to think of Lexapro just yet!



Both Wellbutrin and Lexapro had the most noticeable effect on me! Some of the effects were even more positive than any of the other Anti-depressants I have taken. Unfortunately the side effects from these two particular Anti-depressants were also the most intolerable for me! Which makes me wonder why these two particular SSRI's would both have the most immediate, very noticeable, but positive effects at first, eventually be so physically or emotionally intolerable that I was unable to keep taking them!!



Has anyone else noticed that the Anti-depressants that appear at first to help the most with your ADD symptoms (i.e. OCD, Depression, & Anxiety etc.) also seem to be the most intolerable?



It's as if my ADD brain only knows how to be an ADD brain and is hard-wired to be an ADD brain only! And the closer a medication gets in it's attempt at "Chemically Correcting" the wiring, or “Chemically Correcting” a chemical imbalance in my ADD brain, the more my brain seems to literally "Fight" this change by making me feel either emotionally or psychologically unstable, or by creating such an unpleasant physical response to the medication that it seems to be physically unbearable! Yikes! I think my brain is addicted to ADD and is stopping me from getting well!!! LOL :)



Does this make sense to anyone else?? Or has the creative side of my ADD brain worked it's way so far into a cognitively distorted corner that my attempts at understanding and deciphering the secret code to the ADD puzzle in my brain that I’m starting to get schizophrenic! LOL :D



I’m only kidding ya all about the schizophrenia thang! I hope that doesn’t offend any ADD schizophrenics or ADD schizo affective people on our forum. I was only trying to convey that all this thinking about my thinking as left me feeling even more scattered and unfocused than I normally am, or are, or whatever it is that I am! If that make any sense at all! LOL :D



Peace,

*~ §EEK ~*



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Mess up My Mind…
Mess up My Mind…
Your Messin’ Up Mine!
The Charlatans UK