Lexapro and anxiety

[starla]

Some of you may know that I've been anxious and waiting a long time for my psych appointment. Last week I was able to get in early due to the severity of my anxiety and panic, obsessive thoughts, physical symptoms, etc. The doctor put me on ten milligrams of Lexapro and gave me some clonazepam. He said the Lexapro had minimal side effects compared to other SSRIs and that for some it can kick in within a week.
A week in, I can't tell if I'm really feeling better...but it seems like I am. For the first time today I got up, felt upbeat, put makeup on and got a lot of errands done that I wouldn't have ever been able to do in one day. Side effects have been fatigue, nausea, closed-eye hallucinations at night (kinda cool, not really scary), and total loss of appetite. I've barely eaten 1000 calories in the last six days. Hopefully this lasts because I've gained about 15 pounds in the last year from stress eating.
I've read a lot of horror stories about this on the internet...no big surprise there. People say they are "barely eating" and gain 20 pounds in a couple months...that concerns me. I've had eating disorders in the past and gaining weight on this is a dealbreaker...it would just make me more anxious. However, I'm trying to stay upbeat as I know that these drugs effect everyone individually.
Does anyone have any positive experiences with Lexapro to share?

[samaritan]

I have been on lexapro a while now and havent gained any weight with it, at first it actually reduced my appetite.  Your right about the internet its full of horror stories, if you typedin any medication name you will find the same sort of things, try to ignore it and judge for yourself if its beneficial to you or not.  I felt a difference about a week into it too, after a month I felt much better and then strangely in week 5 felt a dip and felt sure I must need a higher dose, anyway I found from other people on this forum they too experienced a similar dip and it lifted again, so I stayed on 10mg and am doing fine.

I hope you continue to feel better as the days go on.