Lexapro preserved my personality shockingly well. A friend who took it said the same thing. We felt like ourselves the whole time, just without so much anxiety. If you drink caffeine or consume sugar, the "altering" thing is already out the window. And it doesn't have to be your whole life. I'm off it after a few years.

The only downside to lexapro was that my anxiety and depression were partly if not primarily the result of a bunch of poor mental models and resulting poor life choices. I believed a bunch of mean shit about myself, and so looked after myself with a commensurate neglect. On the meds, I kept living poorly; I just wasn't so acutely distraught about it.

It did work to alleviate my anxiety, and in the process train me to catch panic attacks early and think myself out of a spiral. I'm glad I took it when I did, because it helped and I didn't have the courage or wherewithal to go to therapy that early in my life. But I'm also glad I'm off it.

Unless your anxiety is seriously debilitating, I would suggest you spend 6 months in CBT / talk therapy, before going on medication. Or go on em but also do therapy simultaneously.

Either something in your mind is generating this anxiety, and it's worth it to get under the hood and treat the underlying issue. Or it's truly random, and it's a good idea to train your mind to be resilient to such things.

We initially tried Metoprolol for, but we found that while it stopped the palpitations, the panic attacks still happened just as often. For me, Lexapro really was a win/win drug. My personality hasn't changed much aside from the fact that my overall emotions are a bit more muted. If my normal emotional range is a 0-10, on Lexapro it's closer to a 3-7. There are some sexually related side effects that you may want to look up as well. I have personally experienced some, but I don't consider them serious by any means.

And my attacks, like yours, just started happening out of the blue one day. No real prior warnings.