Day 1 - 10 mgs

Trying to avoid any possible side effects by sleeping, I decided to take the 10 mg of Lexapro the night I was prescribed the medication rather than wait for the next morning. The instructions say "...anytime, with or without food...", so around midnight I took the pill and went to bed. I had no difficulty falling asleep, however, the drug was not yet in my system.

I woke up around 3:55 am with awful nausea, similar to hunger pains but 100 times worse. 20 minutes later, it became unbearable so I ate half of a banana and tried to fall back to sleep. 5:15 am rolled around and I was still unable to fall asleep and the same nausea was bothering me. Again, I went into the kitchen, this time eating half of a bagel. I climbed back into bed and remembered last looking at the clock at 5 :55 am before I finally fell asleep.

My alarm went off at 8 am, and I decided to sleep in until 9 30 am. I was able to reset my alarm and easily fall back to sleep. When I did wake up, I was in a daze but I believe this was caused by my lack of sleep the previous night.

I called my Psychiatrist and she recommended the following:

• divide the pill into two, taking 5 mgs in the morning and five in the evening
• since my prescription of xanax is so small (.25 mg), take a xanax whenever I feel anxious taking the pill
  
• always take the pill with food