Speaking just from my experience (I'm not trained in psychopharmacology), the advice I've always had from psychiatrists is to take drugs that operate in similar ways separately, not together. Both Doxepin (a tricyclic) and lexapro (an SSRI) increase levels of serotonin and are both prescribed for depression as well as anxiety. As I understand it, the reason you don't combine drugs like these two, both of which increase serotonin levels, is to avoid an excess amount of this neurotransmitter building up in your blood. Serotonin syndrome is the name of a group of harmful effects that can result. It doesn't sound like you reached that level, but perhaps the combination was a bit too much for your system - especially if the acute anxiety subsided after stopping lexapro.

Each person reacts differently to these drugs, and your doctor knows your condition better than anyone else. So I'm sure there were good reasons in your case to try the two together. It's hard to tell from what you say just how effective the doxepin is. Is it depression or anxiety that is the primary problem? Feeling calmer is good, but does that mean calmer than you were before taking the meds or just calmer since the acute anxiety that came on with the drugs? If you're still depressed, perhaps you haven't yet found the right medication. I went through about a dozen antidepressants before finding the one that worked.

John