hi all, I've been suffering severe anxiety since november after a Dr wrongly put me on sertraline after asking for a sleeping pill (had no anxiety or depression prior to this) the sertraline GAVE me severe anxiety and I was taken off it after 3 days and onto mirtazepine for 4 weeks which also didnt work. I have now been on citalopram since 18th december, 3 weeks 10mg, 4 weeks 20mg and so far 7 weeks 30mg, each time have had 4 weeks of no anxiety only for it to return 4 weeks after dose increase... I've not been at work since december and I'm desperate for my life back anyway, I read a book called "at last a life" by paul david and in the book he says NOTHING will get rid of anxiety and give you your life back, not pills, nothing except "accepting and allowing" anxiety... which I'm bittersweet about... I get it isnt just antidepressants alone but yourself aswell, but I suffer depersonalisation / like a walking shell when it's really bad (pretty much always) and end up in tears for days on end and I have a partner and a little girl who needs her mummy back ššš my question is, do antidepressants ACTUALLY get rid of anxiety and people recover on them or is it just aload of rubbish??
Hi,
Years back I went through a rough time and doctor put me on pediatric doses of serzone, (which was later pulled of the market) and Ativan. I went from a little anxiety to severe tachycardia, I was so weak I could barely walk and was at the hospital every other day. I was on serzone for ,maybe a month before it did me in. Both those drugs ruined my health. My advice is do everything that doesnt require drugs first, behavioral therapy. meditation, good nutrition etc. before you ever do meds.
Hi,
Years back I went through a rough time and doctor put me on pediatric doses of serzone, (which was later pulled of the market) and Ativan. I went from a little anxiety to severe tachycardia, I was so weak I could barely walk and was at the hospital every other day. I was on serzone for ,maybe a month before it did me in. Both those drugs ruined my health. My advice is do everything that doesnt require drugs first, behavioral therapy. meditation, good nutrition etc. before you ever do meds.
Hi,
Years back I went through a rough time and doctor put me on pediatric doses of serzone, (which was later pulled of the market) and Ativan. I went from a little anxiety to severe tachycardia, I was so weak I could barely walk and was at the hospital every other day. I was on serzone for ,maybe a month before it did me in. Both those drugs ruined my health. My advice is do everything that doesnt require drugs first, behavioral therapy. meditation, good nutrition etc. before you ever do meds.
thanks but its abit late for that now, I didnt have anxiety or depression at all until a stupid doctor decided to give me sertraline for trouble SLEEPINGā¦ I specifically asked for a mild sleeping pillā¦ she has messed my life up as I didnt know anything about antidepressants beforehand so I trusted her she said they would help me sleep
I have a different opinion. personally antidepressants saved my life. I struggled for years before I went onto citalopram it got so bad that I felt like you do now and they got me out of that and I wish I went on them years sooner.
I donāt know where you read that the pills donāt work but they do for millions of people. you will still have breakthrough anxiety from time to time but nothing compared to what it is now. you will just be like. uggghhh Iām having an anxious day today and that will be it. it will just be a niggle at most when you find the right med.
there is a lot of people on here who have recovered only because of the meds.
and have managed to come off and still have there life back.
sometimes accepting and allowing does work depending on how severe the anxiety is. if itās so bad like now that its ruining your life then accepting it is a good start until you get yourself well enough to be able to do that with the meds too.
you probably feel extra crap because of all the changes youāve had with all these meds. I know venalavaxine is meant to be stronger and works well on both depression and anxiety for people who havenāt had sucess on a few theyāve tried.
I would ask to speak to a different gp in future as the one that put you on sertraline is an idiot!
have you noticed any improvements at all since going up to 30mg? even small improvements. are your evenings any better than the mornings and days because that how it normally starts.
in my experience mirtazipine is a horrible drug. so itās good you got off that when you did as it doesnt work well on itās own unless added in to help another AD.
normally recovery comes in waves so there will be little moments where you start to feel slightly better then it disappears . has that happened yet? thatās normally a good sign that it will start working soon.
hey potatoghost,
I just dont wanna keep chasing more pills for improvement if itās not gunna happen and end up being worse you know?
on each dose Iāve had 4 great normal weeks, then I crash massively at the 4-5 week mark, everytime Iāve increased the dose Iāve got better for 4 or 5 weeks, this crash wasnt as bad as the last but i was still crying for days and feeling extremely disconnected etc and coukdnt do anything, the last couple of days have been ok, monday was a good day but my anxiety this morning was really bad but seems to have settled abit now I just dont know what to say to my Dr tomorrow, have been on 30mg for 7 weeks now xx
it sounds like to me that even though today was ā ā ā ā x its settled a little bit. also having a better day monday is great! thatās a sign that the meds are starting to work.
blips and setbacks are normal.
you will have days where you think yes! they might be working and days where you think oh no they arent!
waves of feeling like crap and windows of feeling better! 7 weeks is so so early even of your gp says itās not. honestly. some people donāt see any improvement before 7 weeks. I know I never do. and like you my crash always comes around the 6 week mark.
remember God donāt know much at all about these meds hence why you were put on sertraline when one of the main side effects is insomnia at first! what a dummy! I think your gp was meant to give you mirtazipine because thatās used at low doses as a sleeping pill aswell as an antidepressant.
personally I would keep going for a few more weeks and if you start to see more improvements then it means itās starting to work.
but the choice is yours and you know your mind better than anyone else.
if your gp says they should be working quicker just bear in mind thatās not the case for most. 12 weeks and then reassess but whatever you chose to do we are all here to help of we can x
doctors not god lol x
yeah shes due to call me tomorrow but I just dont know what to say to her, my afternoon/evening has actually been really good, I just need to be stable and not full of anxiety and the tears that come with it so i can go back to work, just want my life back and not sure what to do meds wise
itās been like this up and down since november so basically 6 months
stick with them! donāt change otherwise youāll be back to square one. morning anxiety is always the last thing to go. the fact your evenings are really good means the med is starting to work now.
the reason mornings are so tough is because you have more cortisol in your blood to wake you up which is a stress hormone and it lowers at night so you can sleep. if your evenings are getting better it means your body is starting to calm down and itās not releasing it all day. soon your afternoons will get better and then so will your mornings.
your med is starting to work now so thatās great! it will keep getting better. you will have blips and set backs until the med settles for a little while. donāt change yet is my advise. you will start improving more now the evenings are better.
these meds donāt work fast and itās small improvements until you get back to normal.
I would wait until 12 weeks then reassess personally. x sounds like they are starting to work which is great news!
do you mean you have always had good evenings the past 6 months or is the evenings being better a recent thing?
Hey Emily
Sorry to hear you are going through a hard time. I was put on Citalopram last year when I went through basically a nervous break down from anxiety (am 23). To be honest the tablets definitely took the āedgeā off of things but they did not ācureā me. I do believe they helped me get through it but like you explained after a while they seemed to stop being effective. In the end I weaned myself off of them after 3 months being on them. The first two weeks cold turkey was very hard. I was having three to four panic attacks daily and the anxiety was worse than before. But I had prepared myself for it and battled on knowing it was just a withdrawal side effect & that it would not last forever.
I have been off meds for 3 months now and I am much, much better. My anxiety has not disappeared but it has massively reduced. In all honesty for me I do believe you have to just accept anxiety as a part of who you are. From experience it is something that comes & goes in my life. When I feel anxious or panicky now I accept that it is just how I feel in the moment & that it will pass. I do not get angry or upset that I feel anxious again I just accept it as a temporary feeling that will pass. In some people the flight or fight response is a little too eager (us anxious people being one!) but it would have saved us back in caveman times. Anxiety will never kill you, it is a survival mechanism designed to save us. I too went through depressive feelings of wanting āthe old meā back but that just made me fee worse, in the end acceptance was what got me through & my anxiety was horrendous & basically left me bed bound for weeks on end! When you feel anxious try to do something nice for yourself, even if it is having a hot soak in a bath. That is just my advice from someone who was wheeled in an ambulance twice from severe anxiety hahah (it was bad!). I hope that helps you & hope you feel better soon! x
my evenings have always been pretty ok compared to during the day xx
the thing is, if this carries on Iāll have to quit my job as I get depersonalisation and when Iām bad I feel detached from my 2 year old daughter and partner and cant feel or show them any love, and I cant deal with that
let us know what your gp says when she rings. hopefully you come away with a plan moving forward x
spoke to my GP today and she basically said I just have to cope with it and get therapy (called therapy and theyāre not doing appts atm not even phone call onesā¦ feeling crap today, she said no medication is going to help the depersonalisation I get