Citalopram- end of week 2/beginning of week 3 and anxiety is out of control!

Treatment and medication
1

Hi guys,

Me again! long story short i was on 20mg for 3 month and was doing great had a blip at week 12, doctor increased me to 30mg to see if that helped, was on for 2 months and felt no benefit whatsoever, after another chat with my doctor at the review, doctor suggested going back down to 20mg as i was doing well on that and 30mg might be too high a dose. First two weeks since reducing was fine, i could feel anxiety creeping in but not too extreme but yesterday i felt anxious for hours and hours until unfortunately at night i had a severe panic attack, intrusive thoughts was at it’s highest and couldn’t calm down, ended up taking a diazepam to calm me down which did luckily just take the edge off, now today i am feeling the same again, very very anxious, i know it causes increased anxiety but this is awful. Has anybody been through the same around this point??

2

Week 3 has been hell for me too… I do t know what it is about it, but the side effects seem to hit hard during this stage for most people. So you aren’t on your own. I think regardless to what dosage you’re on, everyone experiences this around this 2/3 week stage. I’ve literally not slept properly for 5 nights running now, the sweating at night is back, high anxiety and nausea lack of appetite. But I’ve taken this medication before and if I remember it was the same, eventually I felt better. Just have to persevere and be patient. I remember feeling much better around week 9, the good days eventually start outweighing the bad. You will likely feel abit wobbly now anyway for a day or two after your panic attack, so just acknowledge, accept and gently carry on and distract yourself. It will work and you will feel better.