Please Help Me Out! - 10 Weeks Citalopram Depression :( :( :( :(

Treatment and medication
1

TLDR: Too Long; Didn’t Read - Start
Hi,

So, I started Citalopram for depression in Dec 2020, and now finishing 10 weeks on 20mg. My journey has been:

  • First 2 weeks felt 70% times better, 30% times worse
  • Next 8 weeks, 70% times low, 30% well (so I feel not much has changed).

One plus thing though - My pornography usage (read details at bottom if interested) which was chronic, has gone to almost zero even though I have good libido. But based on this experience of still being low 70-75% of the time past 8 weeks, I am not sure what’s going on. I know my external situation is tough now due to:

  • Covid Restrictions and Curfews and me fully working from my apartment/home.
  • I am Living alone as an Expat working in foreign country so that’s causing loneliness and no social contact for me.

I request the readers to please help answer 2 things:

  1. Is this normal ? Is 10 weeks still too early to judge my success and will it usually take more time for the medicine to work ? Or the medicine should have shown everything by now ?

  2. Is it time I actually start 30mg , which my GP asked me to consider ? Or should I wait few more weeks to see if 20mg improves my situation?

TLDR: Too Long; Didn’t Read - Finish

For those who want DETAILS:
I have been suffering from depression for past few years, and was only diagnosed in mid 2019. To me, one of the worst problems that my depression has always manifested with is addiction to Pornography (talking like calling sick and spending 8 hours day), and low self-esteem and this cycle. Tried everything like CBT, addiction therapy, etc - nothing helped.

Only since 2019, a therapist diagnosed me with depression and his exercises (focussing on building self-esteem to fight depression) helped me from Sep 2019 to March 2020 quite a bit. But once COVID started, things got much worse due to working fully from home and living alone in an apartment as an expat in a foreign country, and my depression got so bad, I wouldn’t get out of bed for weeks. So, I started Citalopram as mentioned in main post above.

2

Hi, there’s time yet for the 20mg to work. if you increase to 30mg this early on you risk getting side effects, including increased anxiety either from the tablets themselves or from worrying about how you are feeling . Ultimately it’s up to you what you choose to do but you will find plenty of evidence of experiences of taking citalopram on here which suggest that the medication can take a lot longer than the 4-6 weeks suggested on the info leaflet. And you are right that lack of socialisation with others is making things hard right now.
Laura

3

hey,
these tablets can take up to 6 months to be in full effect, i started 20mg in October 2020 and the side effect eased off about week 12 and i feel alot better since about week 15, It is or can be a tough journey but things do get better,its all a matter of waiting it out, it will feel like forever but you will start to see things improving.
I hope this helps a bit with putting your mind a rest. Keep strong and keep Positive.

Jade.

4

hey,
these tablets can take up to 6 months to be in full effect, i started 20mg in October 2020 and the side effect eased off about week 12 and i feel alot better since about week 15, It is or can be a tough journey but things do get better,its all a matter of waiting it out, it will feel like forever but you will start to see things improving.
I hope this helps a bit with putting your mind a rest. Keep strong and keep Positive.

Jade.