please please help me

[Dizzydoll]

Hi All im new here i really need some advice ive been suffering from servere anxiety for over a month now until the point i feel im loosing my mind and cannot function. Ive been taking 10mg of citalopram for 4 weeks now and although im abit better i still really feel on the edge of loosing it still or going to have a mental break down. my symptoms change daily from strange head sensations, sweating, racing heart, tingles, cant breathe and blurred vision and dizzyness but the one that scares me the most is the strange head sensation i have all day everyday, its very hard to explain its not a pain its just a very very odd sensation that may even feel like its my brain like its flexing or bobbing about but what ever it is it can be unbareable and i cant think straight or cope which is worrying as i have 2 children 6months old and 5 :( does anyone else have this? coz sometime si feel im the only one and my doctor dont really know what im going on about.
also in the 4 week of taking citalopram ive only have 1 or 2 days where ive felt completely normal how long for this to kick in? im absaloutly terrified of taking meds and switching them and side effects i may get from them.

please if anyone can relate to me or reasure me with this please reply...many thanx

[miniminx]

hello there....well your post is so like mine...click my name , then statistics, then all posts by tis-me2006...i was so scared just like you are now.
i pmd people, i emailed people i begged and prayed ..i thought i was going mad.i imagined i was going to wake up on some hospital ward not knowing who i was etc...of course it hasnt happend...cos that is anxiety........horrible isnt it.......please check my posts and the replies.......youll see the anxiety makes us feel this way.......im not well just yet and thought that feeling any better was impossible.....im on citalopram too...it works just hang in there xxx

[eight days a week]

Did you feel like this before (the head sensations, sweats, dizziness etc), or only since you started the cit?

[Dizzydoll]

Did you feel like this before (the head sensations, sweats, dizziness etc), or only since you started the cit?

Hi whenever i have anxiety i get the strange head sensation infact my symptoms can change on a daily basis, i suffered really bad with anxiety 5 yrs ago and was put on fluoxetine so my doctor tried me on it again this time and it made me a 100 times worse for some reason and set of the head sensations and wakening up through night heart pounding like crazy. so she then put me on citalopram 10mg the first week or so my mood was better i could cope but i had alot of blurred vision and dizzyness which ive read can be quite common when taking the medication for the first couple of weeks, slowly i started slipping back so she increased my dosage to 20mg and for some reason this amplified the strange head sensations and was making me feel worse i kept having strange head rushes and what felt like my brain and ear drums were vibrating so i then dropped my meds bk to 10mg and things have got abit better again but still feel uneasy and edge and have good days and bad i just feel so up and down i really want my life back. i know 10mg is a very low dose and 20mg is classed as the normal starting dose but im only 5ft3 and weigh93lbs roughly so i duno if that dose was just to much for me? and i dont get why fluoxetine was a cure for me last time and this time made me worse?

[eight days a week]

So sorry to hear about all that my friend...

It sounds like perhaps SSRIs don't work well for you recently, and actually make things worse, even though the fluoxetine helped a load last time.

I can't take SSRIs like fluoxetine and citalopram myself because of the side effects. They still offer me them, I have to really insist that they don't help and I am scared to take them. There are other alternatives like amitriptyline (an old anti-depressant that isn't used so much now, but which helped me for ten days once when I was very low) or buspirone (for anxiety but with some anti-depressant properties) or pregabalin (for anxiety). These don't have the same kinds of side effects as SSRIs, but obviously I am not a doctor. The last two I have found GPs don't know much about, so I needed a psychiatrist (I was referred by my GP) to tell me about them.

I would say keep in close contact with your GP and research alternatives when you can. You might have to take suggestions to your GP too. Hassle him or her - you deserve the best help possible!!

If what you're taking now isn't helping by the six or seven week stage and is still making you feel worse I'd say definitely knock it on the head, and demand more help from your GP and/or psychiatrist. But that's just my (non-medicallly trained) opinion.

The very best of luck to you, please tell us how you get on, and hopefully other people will be along with their own advice for you :hugs: