Hi there, I've never posted in a forum for anything before but having read through some of these threads, I feel such relief that I am not the only person suffering with the horrors of acute anxiety. My story started at the end of a great holiday where my drink was spiked. I had a horrendous trip and was absolutely terrified. The experience has set off panic attacks (which I have never suffered from before) and terrible anxiety. I ended up in A&E because I was convinced I was either going mad or dying. There were times when it was so bad that I wanted to get in the car and drive it into a tree. It's the inescapable nature of anxiety that is so frustrating, frightening and gruelling. You can't run away from your own head. I have been working with a cbt therapist however which has helped a little bit (I know it takes time) and my GP put me on 20mg of Citalopram. I took 20mg for a month and didn't see any improvement. I still felt really disengaged from everything, like I was watching a play of my life, but wasn't actually an actor in it at all. I didn't feel any emotions, I just felt like a robot going through the motions. I made myself do things, especially things that I love, like horse riding, but felt nothing. When I had my check up with the GP, she felt that the tablets should have made a bit of a difference by then, so she upped the dose to 40mg. I have been on this dose for a week now and am feeling worse than ever. My headaches are horrendous and I feel dizzy and I just want to cry all the time. Apart from feeling a bit nauseous for the first couple of days on the 20mg, I didn't really suffer any side effects. I am now wondering whether to push through the side effects of the 40mg, reduce the dose to 30mg, or change to something else completely?
Any advice would be so much appreciated.
Lynne.