Citalopram 20 mg for 28 days, please help.

Treatment and medication
1

Hi

I have been on citalopram for 4 weeks for severe anxiety/depression.

My GP started me on 10 mg for 1 week, then upped my dose to 20 mg. After just 4 days on 20 mg, she upped me to 30 mg hoping that I would get relief sooner with a higher dose. After 7 days on 30 mg, my nausea and anxiety went through the roof, and she decided to lower the dose to 20 mg, until I would stabilize.

It is now my 10th day back on 20 mg (total of 28 days on Citalopram), and I still do not feel any benefit from citalopram, and I am worse off than before I started. It is to the point where I am afraid to be left alone in the house.

10 years ago I recovered very fast on 40 mg, and of course I am afraid that it will not work this time. Also I am worried that I will not be able to get up to 40 mg, which worked 10 years ago.

Have I changed dosage to many times, and might that be the reason that I am feeing so bad, and are 4 weeks still early days?

Please help.

 

2

This is my 2nd time on these meds, the this time it took longer for them to kick in - about 6 months this time.  If the meds worked for you before they will work again.  You need to be patient unfortunately - these meds work real slow.

Yes 4 weeks is way too early.  Think in months, not weeks.  And yes think you've changed your meds too quick too often.

You should let one dose settle into your body for a long time before deciding if you need to increase.  A higher dose doesn't mean these meds will work quicker.  You're experiencing side effects at the moment and you'll get these on whatever dose you take.  Each increase will also produce side effects again.  They will ease in time.

You need lots of determination and patience.  You will get there.

There is no quick fix.  You must let the meds do their magic, and this can take months and months.  Along the way you'll be up and down too, but will eventually level out.

 

3

Hi Katekogs

Thanks for your reply.

Wow, 6 months...I will be dead by then, as I am barely eating. 5 more months of this hightened anxiety, not eating, shivering all the time, and crying for no reason is just too unbearable.

Thanks for bring real to me though.

4

It's not that severe all the way through.  It eases over time.  It might not be 6 months ... it could be sooner.  Everyone is different.

I suffered with this for 16 years and only when I started on these meds did I recover.  For me, waiting and pushing through those awful side effects was a small price to pay.  I couldn't continue as I was.  I thought what was the alternative.  Spending more years being ill or putting up with it for a short time longer.

My son went through the same 18 months ago, much to my horror.  He was the same as you - couldn't eat, shivered and often hid under his duvet.  He was off work for nearly 4 months.  Wi the medication and help from the family, he got through it.  During the time he couldn't eat, I just made him a very small meal.  He also had soup and bread, sometimes a boiled egg and bread.  It was small, but it was something.  9 months later he recovered and is now back to the happy young man he used to be.

Yes the anxiety will be heightened for the time being - but it WILL lessen.  It won't feel this bad all the way through.  I've been there - I've cried bucketfuls of tears, not eaten, skipped work occasionally as couldn't face yet another day........ absolutely hated it.

Your body is just overreacting to stress.  You feel you'll never return to normal and everything looks bleak.  Your body just needs time to heal with the help of these meds.  It took time to become unwell, and so it'll take time to reverse it.  A broken leg takes time, and so will this.

You'll get lots of support on this site.  There's many who are still struggling and many who have recovered.

Small steps.  Be determined.  Accept whatever is thrown at you along the way.  And lastly - patience.  Much patience xxx

I really feel for you.  It's such a horrible experience - but you can do this.  Take one day at a time.  Post here every day if needed.  Everyone will help you through this.

K xxxxxx

 

5

Dear katecogs

You are so right!

For the last 4 years, I have been fighting to get better without medicine, as I credited most of my recovery in 2005 to CBT. Now I am much more convinced that both CBT and Citalopram made a huge difference.

I was not until 2015 (age 30), that I realized that my suffering indeed was a result of depression/anxiety, as most of my symptoms seemed physical. In retrospect I was riddled with anxiety, loss of emotions, and psychosomatic aches and pains.

So. like you, I have no alternative, there is no going back for me. A life with numbed emotions, fatigue, anxiety and muscle tension to the extreme is no life at all. I want to get back to how I felt following citalopram + CBT in 2005, where all my symptoms lifted over a period of around 3 months.

Fortunately I have a very supporting family, a great GP, and funds to pay for CBT, but as you know, starting Citalopram can be pure hell. 

Before making my first post, I have read through many post here, and it is indeed a great help to know that I will not feel like this for the rest of my life, even though it feels like it.

I want to ask if numbed emotions, like a big cloud is more often is a sign of depression than anxiety?

I am sorry for my english, I am from Scandinavia.

Again thank you very much for your great support!

 

6

Hi Noolie

Ah Scandinavia, a lovely part of the world!  I have fond memories of visiting Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

 I think a lot of people try and fight it off to start with.  I did the same too.  Eventually I had to get help.  Yes, when you're right in the middle of it all you can never see a way out and think that's it for life.  But, when you've recovered and out of it you can look back and see it for what it is ..... nothing more than over stressed nerves and a body.

Often when we've been stressed, had some trauma or anything, it can deplete our serotonin making us feel tired, emotional, flat, anxious, racing thoughts ........ and so it continues, with the anxiety feeding more and more anxiety.  It's a wretched cycle.  Citalopram helps break that cycle as it hangs onto your serotonin (your happy hormones), before they're reabsorbed into the brain, making you feel better, happier, calming the anxiety.  Over time as it builds up you'll begin to start feeling well again.  Your body needs to get used to the medicine which does make you feel worse to start with, and also along the way there'll be little blips when you feel like you're going backwards.  Again it's just the medicine and your body adjusting.

Numbed emotions are a part of depression.  Anxiety makes you feel depressed, and in turn the depression can numb your emotions.

I thought I'd be like this forever too as could see no way out and anti depressants and therapy did little to help for me.  Taking Citalopram changed my life.

It will happen again for you too.  It's a long road .... but you're not on your own.

K xxx❤️🙂

7

Hi Noolie, The balance does take some time and chnaging the dosage will definately affect things hang in there ad you'll be ok soon keep positive