Citalopram - BAD EXPERIENCE

[amy3]

I'm a reck right now! I have suffered with Health Anxiety/panic attacks for 5 years now! I went to the docs yesterday and she prescribed me with Citalopram 20mg. I have had the worst experience of my LIFE! I took 1 last night and within 4 hours I felt spaced out, paranoid, really bad derealisation, cold tingles all over my body, my anxiety has heightened to the complete MAX! I cant sleep...I keep waking up with what feels like pins all over me and I've just now had a full blown panic attack, the worst 1 I've had in a LONG time! Even had the paramedics out to me, everything was fine! But my anxiety is sooooo bad right now! Has anyone had this reaction? I hope I feel better soon!!! :(

[Anti-socialbutterfly]

Hi Amy, what you're feeling right now is really similar to me first night on citalopram. 20mg is a pretty high dose to start off on but at least it's in your system now.
My first night was awful too, shaking, sweating, no sleep for 27hrs straight, hot and cold rushes, grumbly stomach pains. It will pass though, I promise. The good news is that since my first night of hell the side effects have subsided to just lack of appetite, difficulty in sleeping and a few feelings of panic in the day.

I changed the time I took mine to in the daytime (11am) and my nights gave been much better for it!
Try and distract yourself by reading, watching a happy film, going for a nice walk if it gets really bad.

I'm on day 6 of citalopram now and have not had another day like that first one.

I hope you're feeling better soon xxx

[NorthernGeek]

Don't worry, those are just initial side effects & should pass within the first few days.

I'm now in my 5th week on the same dosage & for the first few days I felt quite disoriented (especially the first few hours after taking the tablet) & also had occasional flashes of derealisation. At one point when I was doing the washing up, for a few seconds I suddenly felt like I was watching myself externally.

Those side effects wore off completely after the first few days & although I experienced several other lesser side effects over the next week (occasional odd tastes/sensations in my mouth, minor bouts of tinnitus), I'm not really experiencing any side efects at all now, apart from feeling more tired than usual.

The tiredness is probably my fault though, as I feel like I now need more sleep & previously I rarely slept more than five hours or so. Unfortunately, my body clock still hasn't adjusted to this yet & insists on waking me up after just five hours or so, even if I try to go to sleep much earlier.

Whilst I still don't feel that the Citalopram has started working properly for me yet, I am starting to feel a bit less overwhelmed & very much looking forward to further improvements, hopefully in time for Xmas.

Hope this helps & that you start to feel better soon.

[Sedaw1]

Hi Amy - don't worry, there are plenty of people that feel the same way that you do, it's normal. I'm on day 2 of 20mg and today I'm not as bad as yesterday. I am
Very tired but can't sleep, I have been getting a hot rush through my arms/neck/legs and feel like I could break into an anxiety attack at any moment.

I've just been telling myself that my body is adjusting to the medication and not to be scared. It's hard! Ive found the best thing to do is to try keep busy

I've also had Glandular fever (mono) for 6 weeks which is we're my anxiety has spiked from. Trying to deal with an illness on top of these side effects are horrible.

How are you coping now?