Citalopram - Anyone from the 90%?

[Nirurin]

I have been prescribed citalopram for my mild feelings of constant worry (as well as a possible panic attack, not sure though), but I have put off taking it because of all the horror stories I have read about the side effects. I need to be able to function and work, and nausea/insomnia/ and *increased* anxiety are not the things I need from my anti-anxiety meds lol.

I have read through dozens of peoples reports on their dealings with citalopram, including the wonderful survival guide written on this site, but as of yet I have not found a *single* report of someone taking citalopram without noticable side effects...

Now I know that the problem with internet reports, is that people generally only bother writing something if something has gone *wrong*. If they are taking it and have no problems at all, generally they will not bother to write up on forums about it...

However seeing as the doctor and the meds leaflet says that 90% of people should suffer little or no side effects... it seems odd to me that none of these people has spoken about their good stories!

So yeh, I was hoping to hear from a few of the success stories, in case I end up needing to take this frightening medication :(

[Lilac58]

Hi,

I've been taking citalopram for around 6 months now, started on 20mg (10mg just for the first week) and now take 40mg.

I had a little nausea the first week and that reoccured at each increase, and some muscle tension especially in the jaw. Really nothing at all to bother me. I've been fine on it, I wasn't anticipating any side effects, maybe that helped.

Hope that's your experience if you decide to take it.

Lilac

[Richard1960]

Hi
I have been on citalopram for six months now just upped from 10mg to 20 mg it did make me feel tired in the first few weeks then seemed okay,not noticed any other syptoms.

Mind you i am on quite high doses of Diazapam at the moment so its difficult to tell what effect the higher dose of Citalopram will have.

But ages ago i was on seroxat and the Citalopram works for me much better as regards effects.Richard.:)

[TJSMITH]

I think this can be difficult to answer as alot also being treated for anxiety which causes alot of these symptoms anyway therefore it may bot even be SE from the meds.
Good luck

[nomorepanic]

Try this:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=106494

[Nirurin]

I think this can be difficult to answer as alot also being treated for anxiety which causes alot of these symptoms anyway therefore it may bot even be SE from the meds.
Good luck

Yeh this is a big problem for me lol, as my anxiety is pretty much from mysophobia (scared of germs and getting sick) so im always hyper aware of tiny symptoms... so taking a pill with side effects wont be good for me!

My doctor has suggested that if/when I start taking them, I could be prescribed some proper sleeping pills so that I can at least get through the nights. Might even mean I take the Cit in the evening too.

Unfortunatly I can imagine most of the "side effects" I will get are going to be self inflicted from over-thinking and anxiety lol. If only there was a way to just switch my brain down a gear for a few weeks!

---------- Post added at 18:04 ---------- Previous post was at 18:01 ----------


Try this:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=106494

And somehow I totally missed this thread :) Ill check it out now, tar!

[Vanilla Sky]

I only had nausea the first week and headaches, after that i had zero side effects and i was on them for 16months even going up from 10 to 40 never got anything

[southey]

Try not to think of this as a frightening medication. The side affects list can seem a bit daunting but as my new CBT therapist today instructed me, i'm now banned from reading the side effects bit of any of the drug info sheets (a bit late now as I have already memorized most of them)!!

My success story is that Citalopram has worked very well for panic and anxiety.:shades: I'm 6 weeks in on 20 mg and started feeling better about week 3.

Side affects for me were mild. I did suffer increased anxiety for a couple of weeks which was unpleasant and it did prevent me working. I was eventually prescribed some low dose Diazepam and Propranolol to counter the anxiety and nervous jitters around the time the Citalopram started kicking in. Could have done with them 2 weeks earlier but hey ho!

If your in the position of needing the Citalopram as a crutch to help you through anxious periods that don't resolve themselves then putting up with a short period of possible sides will be well worth it and who knows you may be lucky and get very little sides but even so it's worth being prepared for a little discomfort if it helps you long term?

Steve.

[lauz_lea]

I've been taking 10mg cit for 3 weeks now and was expecting every side effect going as I have encountered quite bad side effects with other SSRIs in the past. In comparison, I've had next to no side effects at all. For the first couple of days I was a little dizzy and tired within an hour of taking it so I started taking it in the evening with my dinner and those side effects stopped straight away.

I still get mild tiredness at around 9am but I am also taking 80mg slow release propanalol so either med could be causing that.

I've had no increase in anxiety or depression at this stage and I plan to stay at 10mg for a few more weeks as I am noticing improvements at this dose.

Two friends of mine also take cit and neither encountered any significant or unwelcome side effects and both are doing really well on it. I have held off posting my experiences so far because its still early days but usually side effects hit me straight away, so I am happy with cit so far.