hi all - well here am i again. after feeling better for a few weeks while on holiday with family im now in the middle of another major blip that was set off by my period. woke up in the middle of the night, felt like i couldnt swallow and had a panic attack. have been really bad again the last few days - down, fearful, anxious, tearful and really tired. i feel like i should be way better than this after 3 months. should i increase or switch to something else?
i’m 6 months into a mere 5mg increase and still up & down. i don’t want to increase as I don’t want further side effects. I still have a few stresses in my life so not sure if that’s the cause of mine, it’s truly awful isn’t it. you need to stay where you are for a few months and let your body settle on the current dose. Katecogs gives brilliant advice on here and often recommends sticking at one dose for a long period. you say you went on holiday, that’s amasing as I couldn’t manage that at the moment…
feel for you tamsin, im currently late for my period (cit messes with them) and feel like im losing my mind x
No, it’s too soon to start switching, try and hang on in there. I was still having blips 6 months in but by that time they were not as intense.
At least you’ve had some good spells so you know its working- it’s very tough but do stick with it!
thanks shorthair - yes i went up 5 a month ago but still very up and down so my psych wants me to get to 30. 25 was a real pain with cutting the pills so have gone to 30
thanks toria - yes its always so bad around my period and i think i might be perimenopausal too so my periods are a bit all over the show
thanks gerrymoo. i have gone up to 30 as my psych wants me to but i do feel very conflicted as i was on 20 last time and everyone on here says not to increase
I had a bad spell of anxiety due to life stuff and dr. increased me from 30 to 40, which turned out to not be good for me. I became more distressed and it was harder to sleep. Celexa, any dose, affects my sleep. I take Trazedone to help with sleep - and the two together have worked for me. It took me a really long time to figure out the best dose to take. Now I’m back down to 30, occasionally to 20 on Celexa. 25-50mg on the Trazedone.
Talk to your doctor about the dosing. Are you getting enough sleep? If not, is it the depression/anxiety affecting it or something else? Non-drug alternatives that helped me are good sleep hygiene, guided meditations, and certain video games (puzzle and hidden figure, not Mortal combat).
Hope you feel better.
thanks greyseal - how did find going from 20-30?
To be honest, I don’t remember because it was over 10 years ago that I went from 20-30. I just remember trying Prozac ( made me high, like on speed), then Paxil (hard to sleep), then Celexa. I titrated up until I didn’t have the depression. Still some effect on my sleep, which is why they gave me Trazedone. I did not have any other side effects on Celexa until I tried 40, a couple of years ago. I had more anxiety, but that might have been because it interfered with my sleep. I tried a slow wean off completely but then I got depressed, so went back on it to 30. I still might try to wean down to 20 as I’m older and have a slower metabolism than I used to.
If you try going up to 30, just think of it as an experiment. I’ve done well for years on that dose. Just keep in touch with your health care team if it seems to give you side effects. Maybe keep a diary to record your daily feelings and effects. If you start to feel worse, you can always go back to 20 - just be sure to tell your doctor if you change anything. Sometimes weaning down has to be done slowly.
Be extra gentle with yourself as you go through this. Best wishes.
thank you - do you have anxiety and depression or just anxiety?
Hi Tamsin, im only on day 10 and already noticing up and down days, i guess this is as the medication tries to balance out but 3 months sounds like a long time to be up and down, really hope i settle quicker. Do you now have more good days than bad though? x
hi graham this is my second time on the medication. i had improvement within 2 weeks last time.
sorry i meant to say anxiety and depression or just depression
it is an absolute pain cutting them in half and I often worry that i don’t get the dosage quite quite right…which might not help. i don’t tend to use my Dr much as I find people’s experiences more beneficial (on here) - Dr’s are way to quick to increase or change meds when it often needs more time. i’m due my period which often completely knocks me off kilter!
thats exactly what im thinking tamsin my periods are really strange and i get lots of symptoms x
hey tamsin you aren’t alone x
I’m in the middle of a massive blip too x just keep going I reckon x I always start to feel worse at the 4 weeks mark too x I’m nearly 7 weeks in and the depression is hitting do hard x you need to keep going as it will get better x you know the meds work for you because they did in the past x hold onto that thought on the bad days x easier said than done I know x let me know how you get on x hope today hasn’t been too bad for you?
thanks P nice to hear from you. its so hard isnt it when youve been feeling a bit better and then crash big time. i had stopped the llorazepam but now back to using it again. its just one symptom after the other - first it was the shortness of breath thing, then muscle twitching,now swallowing. my throat muscles just keep getting really tense. If I didnt have these physical symptoms then i wouldnt feel nearly so bad but just cant seem to get rid of them. 3rd day of 30 today. how are you doing? is the blip easing at all?
Most of my life I have had low level depression, treated with therapy and later pills. I also have anxiety, which has been diagnosed more recently. Maybe I always had anxiety but I just had a more stable life and it was easier to manage when I was younger. I used to have a very physical lifestyle and this probably helped to burn off the nervous energy.
Hello everyone… i got off of citalopram in January 2019 and it seemed like i never got better or recovered from it. In july of 2019 my doctor had my vitamin D level checked and found that i had a severe deficiency was causing a myriad of different ailments. A few of the biggest symptoms that i had was depression, anxiety, and EXTREME fatigue. Now i know you may be thinking well that is just the case with me and not you. Unfortunately, after an extreme amount of research and studying all about vitamin D in school… i learned that almost 70% of the population have low levels of vitamin D due to us in the US living further from the equator… meaning we do not recieve NEARLY as much sun as we should. And of course our busy lifestyles prevent us from getting enought sun exposure even if we were closer to the equator. Many people do not know this because your vitamin D level is not checked with your regular blood panel work. I advise you, and many others on here, to get your vitamin D levels checked. Ask your doctor for a vitamin D 25-hydroxy test. Being low in vitamin D can cause more complications than you can even begin to imagine. I could not believe this was what was going on with me as I was almost positive it had all to do with the medication I had stopped.