I have been on Citalopram for 11 weeks today, started at 10 for 2 weeks, 5 for 20 & 30 for 3 weeks, during this time ive had times my crippling anxiety has gone & intrusive thoughts, even the morning anxiety went & my appetite resumed to normal, but about since about a week ago, although not as bad as before, im getting distracted by how i feel constantly, hack to needing reassurance from google & basically, feel like im slipping back, this terrifies me & i dont seem to be able to have my normal rationale when anxious & scared i wont get better, after so long: i really thought i was recovered a couple of weeks ago & was even signed off from CBT. please offer guidance somebody. im scared xxxx
technically you are only on 3 weeks. you have to start from the beginning when you change dose. so 11 weeks overall but once you change dose it restarts because you have to get used to the increase. so 3 weeks really isn't enough time for them to start working for you unfortunately but..... the good news is that what you are going through is completely normal and happens to loads of people when increasing the dose x the fact you have had some improvement is a really good sign x stick with it and it will pass x
thanks for that, having one of those days, i need reassurance x
I know exactly how you feel x I'm 5 weeks into sertraline after swapping from citalopram and feel horrific so know that feeling of needing some reassurance too x blips are really normal too x when you feel like you are going backwards just remember it's a blip and stay the course because it will pass doctors are too quick to increase the dose when it happens it will settle and the setbacks will become less and less and happen less often then one day......they wont come back x citalopram works if given enough time x
how long did it take for you? or didnt it work & that is why you changed meds?
citalopram worked amazing for me for 5 years and then pooped out and over a few months I could feel myself getting worse until it got too much so they introduced mirtazipine too to see if that would help. it made me 10x worse so stopped the mirt and increased my citalopram to 40mg. 40mg was too high for my body so after 12 weeks and no improvement we switched to sertraline. x
good luck, i know many women on it, im going through perimenopause & am on a facebook group & the majority of women that take it have success, i tried it before citalopram, but had to come off at 5 weeks, as it made my symptoms much worse, we are all so different x
how long did you settle on citalopram, first time you took it. ?
first time I took citalopram it worked pretty quickly x kicked in at about 6 weeks. the second time it way longer about 12 before I started to feel improvements x so it can take a very long time but it will work so dont panick if you can, easier said than done though I know x thank you its good to know it can work for some people so that's good x
hi chrissy
please try not to panic, its true everytime you change dose you basically start again, the medication is very slow worker & can take many months to settle but also remember what works for one person doesnt mean it will work for another the same......were all different. take care & try to relax.....remember your not alone in this.
Thanks Rob, been better today apart from a couple of strange anxiety spikes, accompanied by that horrible whoosh feeling in the stomach
it sounds like what I get is it like an adrenaline surge or rush? x they are horrible but completely harmless if it is x just the meds reaching its peak in your blood x that feeling will come and go less and less and then eventually will disappear x
its the worst feeling, and even worse if accompanied by a random scary thought, i get awful intrusive thoughts along with high anxiety. the worst symptom. x
is that true, its like starting again. strange because after the initial dose change, i felt better. starting to get worried now, as been not so good for about a week or more now. xxx
omg I know exactly how you feel! it comes with a horrible thought and it is just pure dread isn't it. it makes me burst into tears automatically because of how horrible it feels x it's really not very nice at all x
my brain has been very unkind today, ive had a bad day, as soon as the anxiety is bad, the thoughts rear their head & even though i know it is anxiety, its the one symptom that can still scare me, have you read - overcoming intrusive thoughts, by martin seif, its a good read for understanding, but when anxious, our brains go into anxious thinking & rationale thought leaves, at least mine does. ive had this on off, since teenage years,, after childbirth & now in perimenopause, seems hormonal shifts set it off, have been fine for weeks, but anxious day & bham they are back x
ive been told by a cbt therapist, its an ocd thing & takes longer for ssris to work, think it took about 3-4 months last time on 20, then 40, so will see what the next few weeks bring x
one thing it proves though, is how much better ive been without realising it x
Hey I have been feeling the same been on citalopram 40mgs for 3 weeks last week was on holiday and felt great and proper happy soon as I came home an had all normal duties I felt crap my anxiety went threw the roof again and my depression was bad aswell slightly loosing hope I know it takes time but how can i get happy for a whole week then feel shit again is this normal do u think need some reassurance!!