Citalopram: how long before it takes effect?

[Qualified_Survivor]

I've justed started taking 20mg about 6 days ago. For the first couple of days I felt like a dog - constant headache with blinding flashes of sudden and intense pain and feeling as if I was trying to fight a cocoon of cotton wool.
Now 6 days later, although the headache is still with me though not so intense and I have lost my appetite, I do feel overall remarkably calm and positive.

Is this normal so quickly or am I deluding myself?

Certainly from reading other peoples experiences, many seem to have a fight on their hands. I'm also concerned at the length of time some people seem to be using this drug.

[Andy1718]

It took 2 weeks for the side effects to subside which were very bad. Took another 12 weeks to work fully.

[Debs21uk]

A lot of people usually start on 10mg to ease them into the side effects, they do pass and are completely normal although feel terrible at first. People respond differently to different medications but the info leaflets usually state 4-8 weeks for improvement but I have also read that sometimes people can see an improvement within two weeks.

I have been using cit long term but that's due to recurrent depression and anxiety. It's something I have had to accept to improve my quality of life but does not mean everyone has to be on them long term, every situation is different. If I had pneumonia I wouldn't refuse medication to make me better so I feel the same when it comes to the complexity of the brain.

I would recommend mindfulness and therapy to help you work through any issues. Sadly I was not offered this years ago so have had poor coping skills through my recent depressive/anxious episode but I've just started to work on this now. It's hard work but worth it as I've realised things about myself that was causing part of the problem.

Keep in touch if you have any questions.

[Mojo61]

I've been on citalopram for 5 months and I'm still not there yet. It can take months or it can take a few weeks, no two people are the same.

[Qualified_Survivor]

Thanks for the replies.
I've suffered from depression, social anxiety and panic attacks for most of my adult life but this is the first time I've taken medication. Right now it seems like some kind of wonder drug. I'm calm relaxed and positive. Long may it continue. Although I have no intention of staying on it for too long.

Previously I've managed my problems on my own. Usually by making enormous life changing decisions. I worked in an office sales environment and hated it with an intensity and dreaded Monday mornings and so became a gardener, eventually reaching the dizzy heights of head gardener on a large private country estate. It was perfect for me - I didnt have to spend my time with other people, there was no pressure and I was outside all day long doing what I enjoyed. I used to feel guilty about being paid as I enjoyed it so much. Years later I became a wild life ranger on a remote island for mostly the same reasons. Now my partner and I are self employed and run two businesses together. We work silly hours under usually intense pressure. I did have CBT to help me with public speaking. Now the idea of standing up in public terrified me but the CBT helped enormously and now it's not a problem.

Without realising it I was letting the pressure get to me, becoming irritable, angry and withdrawn as the old demons sneaked back into my life. Hopefully this medication has stopped them in their tracks and we can keep fighting our way forward as a team. And it is a fight - life is not easy but there are wonderful gifts too.

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't suffered from depression and anxieties but it's exactly those "defects" which have made me the person I am today. Without them I wouldnt be me.

[sidiam]

Hi QS,
Just read your post to Andy on another thread.
If it was so great being a gardener and later a wildlife ranger..... why on earth (no pun intended) have you now got two businesses...with "silly hours and intense pressure" and have had to start citalopram...
not criticising just wondering...
take care
Sxx

[Qualified_Survivor]

gardening is a very physical occupation and eventually wears you out. In my case a wrecked back. An opportunity presented itself to work as a ranger on an island and I grabbed it with both hands. Funding for the ranger post came to an end forcing me to return to the mainland. So there I was in my early 50's unemployed and living in a tent on a beach. Time to reinvent myself. No one want to employ a 50 something bloke with a dodgy back so the only option was to start my own business which I did back in 2010. A few years later met my partner who had just been made redundant with zero worthwhile career options so a second business came into being. Adapt and survive.