it is about nine pm, which is meds time for me.
i have an alarm on my cellphone that goes off three times, every five minutes, at 7pm, and then three more times at 8:55pm.
this helps me to remember to take them, every single day — because for SSRIs, missing a dose is bad news.
i keep my meds in a little pink pillbox — one container for each day of the week.
this helps me, the next day to be able to look and verify that i did, in fact, take the meds i was supposed to.
if i miss a dose — say i was in a movie when the alarms would have gone off, and so my cell was on silent, and didn’t think to take them when i got back to the car, or there was no water, or something — i can still take it the next morning. (though this is not preferred — the strattera especially has unfun side-effects (suicidal thoughts, stomach cramps, various aches and pains, hot flashes) if i don’t take it at pretty much the same time every day.)
in any case, sunday is the day i refill my pillbox for the upcoming week, and i just did this.
and it came to my attention that tomorrow is the day i am no longer on lexapro, but will be starting zoloft.
my insurance company, apparently, knows better than my doctor which med is good for my particular needs. oddly, their decision seems to be based solely on price. 🙁
i hope the zoloft is as helpful as the lexapro for me.
the zoloft website seems to indicate that they treat basically identical symptoms, and have very similar side-effects:
Some people taking Zoloft might have some side effects. The most common Zoloft side effects are dry mouth, insomnia, sexual side effects, diarrhea, nausea, and sleepiness. Not everyone gets side effects.
i love that the symptoms include both insomnia and sleepiness. one would think that those would somehow not go together, but i can attest that not being able to sleep at night does, indeed, make one sleepy. 🙂
note that “sexual side effects” is quite vague. let’s leave it that way, shall we?
anyway, here’s a pic of my pillbox:
the bigger blue capsules are strattera.
the little white pill in “sunday” is lexapro.
the little blue pill in “monday” is zoloft.
one thing that zoloft has going for it, that lexapro does not, is that effing cute little bouncy pill-shaped blob:
so, maybe the med works great?
😀
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Your doctor should be able to fill out a prior authorization to justify the use of lexapro. I’m a psychiatrist. Most of my patients are on medicaid–I start them on samples of whatever I want then fill out the paperwork for the authorization. Usually takes 48 hours.
All SSRIs treat the same symptoms in the same way. The main difference tends to be side effects. The sexual side effect of SSRIs is usually difficulty achieving orgasm. 😉 That side effect can be off-set with Wellbutrin, if necessary!