Is depression/low mood a start up side effect?

[Misty12]

Hi, I've been reading the forum for a couple of weeks now and I thought I should post, firstly to say how much it has helped and supported me just reading through the posts and secondly to ask if citalopram actually made your mood lower as part of the startup effects.

I was started on citalopram for anxiety and I am 2 weeks in (8 days on 20mg), but my mood feels lower than it was before it started and I am crying a lot - I am thinking this is just startup effect and to persevere but I just wanted to check just in case.

[pollynewsome]

Well I didn't have depression before the meds. I am taking it for anxiety and yet in the beginning I cried at some point of every day and my mood was so low. The anxiety still bad but the low mood lifting. I'm 20 weeks on 20mg. X

[Victory2016]

Yes this is normal your mood will go up and down until the cit fully kicks in. I had a lot of crying spells. I still get them, but not as much. I am 10 weeks @ 20mg. Its just the med. Give it time as you are in the very early days. You will start to see improvements as the weeks go on, but most people say 3/4 months to finally feel normal again. Good luck I hope these meds work out for you. We are here for you for any support you may need.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I was the same when I started it. Before it was only anxiety, never low mood. Within a couple of days on Cit my mood crashed, I was hungry but couldn't eat and could barely sleep. Add that all together and it just makes it worse and I was in tears over it all. I didn't know what was happening to me.

It's certainly a side effect.

[Misty12]

Thank you all, that's really reassuring - I will persevere through.

[Victory2016]

I was the same when I started it. Before it was only anxiety, never low mood. Within a couple of days on Cit my mood crashed, I was hungry but couldn't eat and could barely sleep. Add that all together and it just makes it worse and I was in tears over it all. I didn't know what was happening to me.

It's certainly a side effect.

Hey Terry....How long have you been on the Cit now and what dose? How are you feeling? Are you mostly anxiety/depression free? Do you also take any other meds. Did you find that you were still getting intense symptoms up into the second/third month? I saw in one of your threads you indicated you felt much better around 4 months.

You are a wealth of knowledge and a great support to a lot of us. Thanks :D

[Debs21uk]

Hi,

I have had ups and downs with my meds, too much too soon so I had to go down the dosage then start to increase it very slowly, I've been on it for years but had a blip. So I had started to feel ok at 30mg but still a bit flat and teary so two days ago (after speaking to my gp) I upped the dose to 35mg, even this small dose has lowered my mood, made me more anxious and even more teary than I was before. It does feel rubbish but it's just the body adjusting to the increase X

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hey Terry....How long have you been on the Cit now and what dose? How are you feeling? Are you mostly anxiety/depression free? Do you also take any other meds. Did you find that you were still getting intense symptoms up into the second/third month? I saw in one of your threads you indicated you felt much better around 4 months.

You are a wealth of knowledge and a great support to a lot of us. Thanks :D

Hi Victory,

I've not been on Cit for probably 4-5 years now as when I relapsed (had come off the Cit) my GP decided to try Duloxetine instead. I went on the Cit when I had the initial breakdown and stayed on it for a few years.

It took 2 months to feel any better from it and then I felt some change. Then another change after 3 months. The side effects lasted 5 weeks but the worst of it was going in week 3. The first few days were very hard and I didn't know what was going on as my GP told me very little.

I'm not anxiety free by a long way. I got a lot better on Cit, returned to work after a year off (about 4-5 months I wasn't on anything) and my old confidence came back within my work so that I was back to normal within 6 months although the first 2 weeks were the hardest and from there things were getting better. There were situations I never confronted and I knew so little back then as I just relied on my GP and there was no therapy available in under 12 months so I gave up on that as I planned on returning to work earlier.

When I came off the Cit I noticed some anxiety coming back after about 2 months and then I spiralled downwards to a full relapse at 6 months that was work than the breakdown.

Then my GP put me on Duloxetine and things got much worse for a long time. I was naïve back then and trusted my GP so kept trying but I now know this med has done more harm than good as I never had OCD before it.

Out of the two, Cit was easily the better med for me.

Thanks for your kind words, I really appreciate it. :D