How Long?

[Chillihead]

Evening all

Hope everyone is doing ok, just a quick question for some people more experienced than myself, i started taking citalopram 5.5 weeks ago for anxiety intrusive thoughts. The first week i started at 10mg and ive been on 20mg ever since. My anxiety is still high and ive been getting quite depressed. I have some days where im better than others but nothing i would class as happy. How long should i carry on like this before upping or changing my medication. Any advice is very much appreciated!

[Sophie123]

Hi Chillihead, I have been on Cit for 4 weeks now. I started on 10mg and went up to 20mg 2 weeks ago. I still keep waking up in the night really anxious and I am really tired in the daytime. Sometimes I feel really paranoid that someone has put something in my drink because I feel so weird!!!! I am going to stick with them a couple more weeks as it is common for them to take 4-6 weeks to start working and sometimes longer.

I did take these before about 6 or 7 years ago and they did really help me but took a long time to work. I had forgotten how bad the side effects were when I first started taking them.

Hope this helps.

[Jmac]

some people take longer than others to achieve consistent relief. i've been on cipralex (close relative of cit) since August and have only felt consistent relief since Christmas. I've had lots of good days and weeks but during the first few months it was certainly up and down. I understand this can be quite common.

[mr.mister]

I've been on cit about 5 weeks now, plenty of ups and downs. At first the ups didn't last very long but in the last week or so my mood stays higher for longer. When I'm feeling really low I lay down that seems to really help, also writing can really help especially if you have a lot of regrets and guilt (like I do, dealing with 10+ years of unresolved family issues) I write how I feel during the day, and I have a little check list of things in my life I need to sort and tick the boxes in the morning, afternoon and before bed to see how my mood is changing.

[pooh]

Hi! I've been on citalopram heading up to about 12 weeks now. I can still be up and down a bit and experience brief periods of anxiety throughout the day. I was at my doc's last week and he was quite insistent that I am still in the very early stages of the medication kicking in. (tell me about it took me two attempts and a panic attack to make it there LOL) On the whole I am much , MUCH better than what I was. Unfortunately, it does take time and quite often throughout that time we are so focused on what we are feeling that it makes the journey worse. If you can grab a hold of something to distract you that would be great. I started citalopram and started sewing work that one out if you can LOL I know it doesn't feel like it but 5 1/2 weeks is still a really short time to be on the drug therapy. You'll get there :)

Pooh x