Help please! Really need advice
I've been taking Citalopram for nearly 8 weeks all together now. First 2 weeks 10mg, then upped to 20mg. I'm just really needing some reassurance or advice.
Other than feeling worse for the first week or so when first taking them, I didn't feel any different until about 4 weeks in, i started to feel some slight improvement. Then I got my period and it all went down hill from there. For about 3 weeks I was in such a bad way!
I'd say about a week ago, I started to feel slight improvement again for a couple of days and then again...things started to go down hill. I literally couldn't of felt any worse. and that has only just passed.
Right now I feel quite emotionless??. Like a "I'm not bothered" "I can't be bothered" feeling about everything. I just feel so miserable!! I feel so out of it, so so tired and just drained. Which I think is just the depression. (Hoping it isn't the meds??) where as a couple of days ago, I was overwhelmed with how bad I felt. Was getting bad anxiety, bad depression. Felt like I was going back to square one!! Was getting worked up about everything, just felt so desperate for it too pass and for me to just feel better!
But now I just feel really strange and low. Don't feel with it at all. And I can feel the anxiety creeping in. Thinking maybe I need my dosage increasing? But then I've been told that it's too soon to see. Just really want these meds to start working! Feel awful. Would really appreciate some advice on what to do! X
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Hi Mt. This is all normal, these meds take a long time to alter your brain chemistry and whilst they are doing so it is a roller coaster of up, down, up, down etc etc. Slowly you will find that the up days outweigh the down days but unfortunately you have to stick with it until then. I can honestly say that it wasn't until about 3 months in that I started to feel any significant improvement and then it still went up and down. You have to tell yourself that eventually it will even itself out and you will feel better, but until then it is a rough stormy ride I'm afraid.
Have you read The Citalopram Guide at the top of this board? It really helped me when I first started out on the meds last year because it explains what to expect and that these feelings you are having are perfectly normal and in time will pass.
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Quote:
Right now I feel quite emotionless??. Like a "I'm not bothered" "I can't be bothered" feeling about everything.
I've only taken Prozac & wellbutrin, but this is exactly how prozac made me feel.
Yes, it stopped the panic, it stopped the "lows"... but it also stopped the highs.
I felt like nothing would ever make me feel really happy or excited again, not even if I won a million dollars in the lottery. I just didn't really care that much about anything.
I no longer felt the blackness of depression, but I also no longer felt very happy.
I ultimately got off all meds... this was not the only side effect that caused me to make that decision, but it was one of them.
I guess, in the end, you have to decide whether it is worth it.
Best wishes.
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mojo61
Hi Mt. This is all normal, these meds take a long time to alter your brain chemistry and whilst they are doing so it is a roller coaster of up, down, up, down etc etc. Slowly you will find that the up days outweigh the down days but unfortunately you have to stick with it until then. I can honestly say that it wasn't until about 3 months in that I started to feel any significant improvement and then it still went up and down. You have to tell yourself that eventually it will even itself out and you will feel better, but until then it is a rough stormy ride I'm afraid.
Have you read The Citalopram Guide at the top of this board? It really helped me when I first started out on the meds last year because it explains what to expect and that these feelings you are having are perfectly normal and in time will pass.
Hi mojo,
Thanks so much for the reply! That's good to know that there's still hope for the meds to work! As , if anything I just feel as though I'm getting worse! So should I stick with the 20mg for a couple more weeks you think??
No I haven't but I'll give it a read!
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mojo61
Hi Mt. This is all normal, these meds take a long time to alter your brain chemistry and whilst they are doing so it is a roller coaster of up, down, up, down etc etc. Slowly you will find that the up days outweigh the down days but unfortunately you have to stick with it until then. I can honestly say that it wasn't until about 3 months in that I started to feel any significant improvement and then it still went up and down. You have to tell yourself that eventually it will even itself out and you will feel better, but until then it is a rough stormy ride I'm afraid.
Have you read The Citalopram Guide at the top of this board? It really helped me when I first started out on the meds last year because it explains what to expect and that these feelings you are having are perfectly normal and in time will pass.
I'm on Zoloft and that is how I feel right now. That some days or part of the day is good and then other times I don't feel like doing anything. I don't know if I can wait 3 months, I want to get my life back, however I can't do it feeling like this. How do we get through the rough patches?
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GlassPinata
I've only taken Prozac & wellbutrin, but this is exactly how prozac made me feel.
Yes, it stopped the panic, it stopped the "lows"... but it also stopped the highs.
I felt like nothing would ever make me feel really happy or excited again, not even if I won a million dollars in the lottery. I just didn't really care that much about anything.
I no longer felt the blackness of depression, but I also no longer felt very happy.
I ultimately got off all meds... this was not the only side effect that caused me to make that decision, but it was one of them.
I guess, in the end, you have to decide whether it is worth it.
Best wishes.
Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear they didn't work out for you. I'm not sure if it is just the depression making me feel like that though?? As I can still feel the anxiety and the depression. Hopefully this will just be a phase and when the meds start to take affect then this will pass.
---------- Post added at 18:34 ---------- Previous post was at 18:02 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GlassPinata
I've only taken Prozac & wellbutrin, but this is exactly how prozac made me feel.
Yes, it stopped the panic, it stopped the "lows"... but it also stopped the highs.
I felt like nothing would ever make me feel really happy or excited again, not even if I won a million dollars in the lottery. I just didn't really care that much about anything.
I no longer felt the blackness of depression, but I also no longer felt very happy.
I ultimately got off all meds... this was not the only side effect that caused me to make that decision, but it was one of them.
I guess, in the end, you have to decide whether it is worth it.
Best wishes.
Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear they didn't work out for you. I'm not sure if it is just the depression making me feel like that though?? As I can still feel the anxiety and the depression. Hopefully this will just be a phase and when the meds start to take affect then this will pass.
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mt
Hi mojo,
Thanks so much for reply! That's good to know that there's still hope for the meds to work! As , if anything I just feel as though I'm getting worse! So should I stick with the 20mg for a couple more weeks you think??
No I haven't but I'll give it a read!
Please do because it will really help. And yes, stick with it and keep on persevering!
---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:05 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by
snowghost57
I'm on Zoloft and that is how I feel right now. That some days or part of the day is good and then other times I don't feel like doing anything. I don't know if I can wait 3 months, I want to get my life back, however I can't do it feeling like this. How do we get through the rough patches?
That's how it goes, up and down like a bloody roller coaster, but eventually it starts evening itself out and the ups outweigh the downs. It takes time and patience, Claire Weeks used to say "Let more time pass" and she was right, I've been on meds for almost a year now and I still have the odd blip but I've learned to cope with it and you will too.
Don't expect to sit back and let the meds do all the work though because you will be very disappointed - you have to work damn hard at it and make the necessary changes to the problems that put you here in the first place. It is probably the hardest thing you will ever have to do, but keep going and never, ever, give up! There IS light at the end of the tunnel but you have to be patient and stop hoping for an overnight cure xxx
Re: Help please! Really need advice
Exactly the same as me. Awful side effects for 3 weeks. Was posting on here daily, all sorts of issues and questions. Did not start working until week 12. Been on them 9 months. Much better. Hang in there!!
