Drinking with Lexapro and Xanax?

Question

I know the bottles say to not drink alcohol with them, but what can it actually cause if you do? I've been on both for 3 months and haven't had a drink til last weekend. I did perfectly fine. Can anyone explain the reasoning for this?

Answer 1

They lower the threshold at which you feel intoxicated, among other harmful side effects. While it may normally take 6 drinks to feel drunk, it could take 3 or 4 on a medication like Lexapro. Throwing Xanax into the mix is just a horrible idea. I was raped after drinking and taking Xanax (I did not consent to taking the drug and it was not mine). The details are foggy but I was on Prozac for OCD and went to a friend's house. I had only drank once before (three drinks and I was blacking out) and I weighed 107 pounds at 5'5" tall. My BAC level was about .34 at some point and I think that if I hadn't thrown up the Xanax, I may well have gone into respiratory arrest.

That was before college. Almost ten years later, I still get drunk very easily (perhaps due to genetics, perhaps due to my Wellbutrin) and am constantly aware of the fact that I simply cannot overindulge.

Answer 2

Drink and antidepressants, as other respondants have pointed out, are not a good mix. A small amount of alcohol will be fine. The effect of alcohol on the brain is strongly increased by antidepressants. This is because (ironically) the class of compounds that Lexapro belongs to are actually nervous depressants. They inhibit certain kinds of neurotransmission that are involved in depression, but also things like breathing. Alcohol is also a CNS depressant. So if you combine the two it's possible that you'll reach a state where your regulatory system essentially shuts down. It's also possible to become addicted to the effects of the combined drugs.

Adding Xanax, which is a different kind of drug but is affected by CNS depressants. It is made more toxic by their action, which again means that potentially mixing all three in sufficient consequences could result in death, brain damage, addiction etc...

In short, be very careful. Small amounts of alcohol are fine, but you'll be much more susceptable to the effects of alcohol (hence the use of things like Xanax or Valium as date-rape drugs) and therefore also more likely to drink to a possibly dangerous level - into a coma or respiritory failure.

Answer 3

The main reason is that alcohol is a depressant and can counteract the medication.