Just started on Citalopram - feeling worse...

[pammi_i]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and have recently been prescribed citalopram for anxiety/depression - I have equal scores according to my doctor and this doesn't surprise me.

I have been taking it for two days and am about to take my 3rd tablet, but I'm very reluctant to because I actually feel worse now than I did before. My doctor did reel off a load of symptoms that I might expect when I'm settling in to it, but I can't remember what they all are. Is it normal to feel really panicky and paranoid when you're first on it? I have felt really ill today, worse than before. It's very scary. Can anyone help please?

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[pammi_i]

Hey, I'm really sorry - I'm new to this forum and have only just seen the sticky at the top. I think that has all the info that I need.

Sorry to have post yet another thread on a common topic! D'oh! [:I]

[sgp64]

Hi Pammi,

if you read through the forum here you'll find plenty of posts regarding the way different people react to different meds. I myself was recently put on the similar Lexapro and had a 2 day nightmare of really horrible symptoms..awful insomnia, massively anxious and jittery, no appetite etc Many people do not experience this and adjust readily to these meds but all do have side effects. It's really a choice for you and you only whether or not you want to try and stick with it and hope that it's worth it in the end. It's scary I know and a real pain in the backside that you can't just take these things and they fix you without any of these effects but c'est la vie.

Whatever you decide I hope that things get better for you soon.

Sean x

[squirrel]

antidepressants are the equivelant to putting a plaster on a bleeding cut, they dont cure anything,they must only be used short term combined with therapy.I went down that road 8 years ago and was left on them for that length of time by my docs . They mess up your head eventually. I would take my chances with the problems you have and seek alternative help than take drugs that mess up your brain !

[Sax]

Pammi, yes yes yes

These feelings are sooo normal but you must stick with them and give them a chance. Its so horrid I know I began on 20mg Citalopram and had the same, horrid symptoms worsened at the beginning, after about 4 weeks I felt I had come to a stage where they were not really doing a lot, I had them increased to 40mg which I remain on over a year later. However, the side effects do settle but they need a good period to get into your system and for you to start to feel their effect.
Pm me if you need any more help regarding this but please don't be reluctant to continue with the tablets, give them a chance and easy to say but try not to 'fight' the feelings, accept they are normal for them to adjust into your body.

All the best love Sax xx

[pammi_i]

Thanks for the advice peeps! Quite diverse at that! Squirrel, you're right, I don't want to stay on the meds too long, but GP says they are non-addictive. I understand the action of the tablets (I studied basic psychology a few years ago), and I don't like the idea either. However, I also used to take DL phenylalanine, which boosts the production of endorphines, and isn't that also a kind of messing with the brain? I don't know. Alcohol messes with the brain, lots of things do. Life does! I'm going to take my chances with the meds. I am off work at the moment, and likely to lose my job anyway and face reposession of my house, this on top of everything else (which I won't list) is just too much for me to cope with.

And to top it all, I woke up this morning to find that the toilet cister had overflowed and flooded through 3 floors of the house, knocking out the central heating boiler on the way and probably ruining my laminate floor into the bargain. Grrrrr!

[LickeyEndBlues]

Hey Pammi,

You are spot on with the recognition that there are differing view points in here...most folks area ctually saying the same thing though. Treatment is a balance of meds and threapy, meds help you access it, but can mask some of your original thoughts and fears.

Citalopram...I'm on it. 20mg/day. It took a good few weekes to settle into my system, boy did I feel worse initially but now 7 weks in I am in a betterr place mentally. I do worry that when CBT or whatever is available I will not be able to get back to where I was but using this site is acting a little like a personal diary.

Your basic foundation in psychology will help you understand some of where you are at.

A site that might be worth looking at is....

http://www.livinglifetothefull.com/elearning/index.php

Lots of self help stuff in that.

Cheers
Iain

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

[pammi_i]

Thanks Iain. I have been sent for counselling too. I had an assessment on Tuesday and was assigned for a first session on Wednesday. The lady who did the assessment was excellent in my book, very probing, very searching, but the one who I am supposed to have the course of therapy with was not - well not in any way that will help me.

I have had counselling before, and it was recognised at the time that I could do with some more. She was affiliated to my GPs surgery, but has left more's the pity. She was excellent too. The one on Wednesday just let me do a monologue for 30 minutes and then when I dried up she began to empathise by sharing her own experiences of what had happened to her. This may be good for some people, but it is not what I need. I want someone not to empathise, but to probe and ask the right questions. When the session seemed to be going nowhere, she said it was not her job to tell me what to do or to advise me (even thought she spend 10 minutes doing pretty much that) but that the answers were within me and I had to find them myself. I know that, but the point of counselling is that one sometimes needs help, and these things are sometimes below the surface, which she totally failed to even think about scratching. A complete waste of my time, but it's a local authority funded service I think (or a charity, one or the other) and I will have to wait some time to be reassigned.

I did feel a little better when I went to bed last night, but the flood today has put me in a very bad mood again! It's going to take weeks to get the place right again, and I was trying to sell it quick to avoid reposession.

Why me? Oh, never mind. Sh*t just happens I guess.

[Sax]

Pammi i was just telling u my experience with them you must do what u wish, these tablets aren't for everyone!!!!