CITALOPRAM - please help 😢

[Aejh91]

I have been on citalopram for 11 days for severe anxiety. I have had a few good days but now i feel back to square one. I am constantly terrified and too scared to be on my own and leave the house. I feel like i am going crazy and the medication will do something awful to me. I feel like giving up but i have nothing to give up from.
Somebody please tell me this gets better as I feel so horrific but wont give up if better days are on the horizon! I get terrified of serotonin syndrome too and I just need reassurance.
Thankyou.

[panic_down_under]

I have been on citalopram for 11 days for severe anxiety. I have had a few good days but now i feel back to square one. I am constantly terrified and too scared to be on my own and leave the house. I feel like i am going crazy and the medication will do something awful to me. I feel like giving up but i have nothing to give up from.

Antidepressants will often make anxiety worse at the beginning. I suggest you explain the above to your GP and ask for a small dose of diazepam (Valium) to help you get through this initial rough patch.

BTW-what was the starting dose?

Somebody please tell me this gets better as I feel so horrific but wont give up if better days are on the horizon!

There is a very good chance citalopram will work for you, but it's going to take a while, unfortunately, as antidepressants typically take 3-12 weeks to begin working. They work by stimulating the growth of new brain cells (neurogenesis) to replace cells killed, or prevented from growing by high brain stress hormone levels. The therapeutic response is produced by these new cells and the stronger interconnections forged, not the meds directly, and they take time to bud, grow and mature.

I get terrified of serotonin syndrome too

You cannot develop serotonin syndrome (SS) from taking just SSRIs alone at normal therapeutic doses. Even in massive thousands of milligram overdoses SS symptoms develop in only about 12-15% of cases involving just a SSRI. Where did you read about the syndrome?

[Aejh91]

Thankyou so much for your factual reply
I have been put on 10mg to start off with, its just so disheartening that I had a few good days and now im back to as bad as i was. I am determined to get better, i just feel as if i am going crazy, and i have two children to look after 😢
I read up on serotonin syndrome on google, i have bad hypochondria which i think i tried to ignore and it has judt caught up with me and developed into full blown severe general anxiety!

[Andy1718]

Just hang in there. It will get better. Keep telling yourself that. It took 12 weeks for my cit tablets to work.

[Aejh91]

Thankyou! I wont give up, I cant. The alternative is too scary. I have literally felt like I was going mad, the tablets make you feel so odd 😢 I hope it gets easier from now on and I can escape this hell trapped in my own mind!

[panic_down_under]

I read up on serotonin syndrome on google,

Dr Google is a well known quack whose "diagnoses" should be taken with large dollops of salt. This is particularly so with serotonin syndrome which seems to have become the flavour of the month in medical male bovine excreta lately.

[Aejh91]

Im starting to become a bit more aware that this isnt 'me' and it is my anxiety controlling my head, so I am having more and more rational moments than I was. Its just so severe it is like nothing i have experienced before. I definitely think where the citalopram has heightened my anxiety its making me have weird intrusive thoughts like I am going crazy, however this only happens during a particularly bad anxiety episode?! Although the general nervousness is constant.
I always thought I could do this without medication, bt it got to a point where it was ruining my life and I couldnt do day to day things, so I knew I had to do this not only for myself but everybody else. And i feel like a bit of a failure and keep thinking in my head that I am ill and it isnt right.
Right now it dosent feel like I will ever be me again!

[panic_down_under]

And i feel like a bit of a failure and keep thinking in my head that I am ill and it isnt right.

Would you feel a failure if you had type 1 diabetes and needed insulin shots every day, or had epilepsy requiring daily anti seizure medication? Anxiety disorders and depression are as much physical illnesses as diabetes and epilepsy. Antidepressants don't directly alleviate anxiety/depression. They repair the brain damage which causes them.

Right now it dosent feel like I will ever be me again!

A lot of people feel this when they are where you are right now. Most of them are proved wrong a few weeks later. There are no guarantees and citalopram may end up not be the right med for you, but there is a very good chance that one will be.

[Ethansmom]

I took suffer from extreme anxiety, which leads to horrifying panic attacks. I have a 6 year old boy and a husband that I need to be there for. My little boy needs me. I'm trying to trust the process since I have been through this once before. Now suffering a relapse after going off Prozac.

I have been on citalopram for 2 months now (but really only on a therapeutic dose for 7 1/2 weeks. I am on 40MG, which is the highest dose and I too feel increased anxiety (especially when upping the dose). My doctor prescribed Klonopin to help me with the increased anxiety. It really dose help take the edge off. I take 1 in the morning and one in the late afternoon. If it gets really bad, i'll take a Xanax.

Have you explained to your doctor about the increased anxiety. He or she should give you a benzo while you transition.

[Aejh91]

Thankyou for putting it into perspective for me panic down under i guess you are totally right and i should not be ashamed! I had therapy today and they said i have panic disorder, ocd and health anxiety. I will definitely take your advice and it has helped me feel more positive! I am on day 12 today and feeling a little more calmer and rational!

---------- Post added at 16:33 ---------- Previous post was at 16:30 ----------

Ethansmom the doctor gave me a few days worth of diazepam but I havent been taking it, as it made me feel quite agitated when it wore off? At the moment one minute I am calm and rational, the next I feel like i am on some sort of 'uppy drug' and the next I am low. The doctor told me it is the serotonin levels adjusting and its normal - it is just so hard to try and be patient with something so debilitating especially having a few good days and then back to square one!