Week 5. Things have gone downhill

[jharden]

Hi all,

I've been on 20mg of citalopram for exactly one month now. The first three weeks were very positive and I felt like things were improving. During the middle of week 4, my anxiety started to get much higher. I'm onto week 5 now and my anxiety is still very high. I've had the dreaded brain fog for the last 10 days and I'm feeling very average indeed.

Does this mean that citalopram might not be working for me? Did anyone else feel like this during week 5? I wouldn't feel concerned if this was the first few weeks, but it seems late enough that I should be improving not getting worse. Should I go back and see my doctor or wait it out? I guess after a positive first 3 weeks I was expecting to continue improving. But unfortunately that hasn't been the case :(

[DELIBY99]

Hello,


This is normal. You will have dips while the meds are adjusting in your body. I would say i was past 8 weeks before i noticed consistent improvement and it just got better from there. I know 5 weeks may seem like forever when you feel so rotten but really it's not long to be taking CIT. Don't loose heart. Upand downs are part of the process in the early stages

[weplant]

I am so glad you posted this question, as I was getting ready to post a similar one. I am finally on 5mg of cit..I started at 1mg because I am so sensititive to meds..I have been on the 5mg for 1 week..4 works total on cit. I had 2 days this week were I felt a little improvement, and I thought OMG it is starting to work. Now, the last 2 days have been horrible...I am so dizzy I can barely stand, the dizziness makes me feel confused, like I don't even want to talk to anybody..I don't know if that makes sense to you..So of course the anxiety is thru the roof. The lorazapam is not even helping. So, I was hoping for encouragment to tell me to hang in there is that this is normal..I am so sorry you are feeling bad again, but at least we are not alone. debbie

[dafni]

Its my 2nd month on cit and the only thing i feel is nausea, numb, wanna sleep all day and if possible not seing anyone. I wanna fall asleep and wake as my old self...but i. Dont know how...

[jharden]

Good luck Debbie, I know you can do this! You've been so brave this whole time in the face of adversity.

Dafni, are you going through any other treatment? Therapy of lifestyle changes?

[Marty_67]

Hi guys, these symptoms seem to be the norm during the early stages of taking Cit.

Took me about 8-10 weeks to feel ok after a very positive start and then what felt like feeling as bad if not worse than when I started.

The brain fog, pins and needles in my head, anxiety/panic attacks, nausea, awful sleeping and feeling tired/fatigued all seem to fade with time. I still get the odd bout of nausea at week 18 but overall I feel much better and much less anxious.

I seem to cope better when I am on my own strangely enough. We were out yesterday and my demons although not in full effect were starting to make an appearance. The difference these days is that I have the inner strength to straighten myself out. I still get slight hand trembling too even when I am not feeling that stressed.

This is not an easy thing to cope with, NMP really helped me get thru a lot of my early struggles an I continue to take each day as it comes. I try not to plan, organise or control too much and I have even tried to re-introduce some spontinaeity into my life!

Keep going guys and stay in touch