Conni
13-09-16, 22:26
Hello all,
A couple years back I suffered from severe debilitating agoraphobia, derealization and depression due to a highly abusive job in a call centre (nasty hell holes!) ... I went on 10mg of citalopram and within a week I felt SO much better! At the end of week 4 I travelled solo to New Zealand and lived there for a couple of years whilst on citalopram and felt absolutely BRILLIANT! I felt so good I came off them with no withdrawals at all and was anxiety free for around a year.... However- this year I did an access course and as usual due to being under extremely stressful circumstances the anxiety crept back into my life and depression set in fairly rapidly, this time I didn't take citalopram and instead tried CBT and st Johns wort - both worked fantastically! HOWEVER...
A few days ago out of nowhere I had my first episode of severe derealization and that freaked me out so badly that I had a panic attack and for days afterwards I was in a complete melt down state! Overwhelming intrusive thoughts and nonstop crying and just generally feeling weird whilst being around people... I am also on holiday currently so it doesn't help me as I feel trapped..
Anyway so I need some advice- I am flying home tomorrow (not particularly excited about this) and have been reducing my St. John's wort for a few days and will stop taking it tonight.. I have citalopram (10mg) at home - should I start taking it again? The problem is that I am due to start a university course in about 12 days from when I will start taking citalopram again (I start on the 26th and will start citalopram on the 14th)... I am noway near as bad as I was the first time, but right now my only concern is if I go to uni like this I could end up getting worse? Should I just suck it up and do it even though I'm not feeling too bad anymore? Is there a chance I could end up making myself worse from taking the citalopram and then not being able to go to uni? - ARGHH I don't know... GAD at its finest...
Also I am aware that my anxiety returns when I am under pressure to perform.. Which means that at uni it will return and I am well aware of that, therefore I am kind of thinking it may be beneficial for me to start now before it gets a chance to sink its teeth in? Last time it worked wonders for me, but I was also much worse! Side effects last time were minimal- maybe 3 days of headaches and nausea and that's it! Will they be worse this time?
A couple years back I suffered from severe debilitating agoraphobia, derealization and depression due to a highly abusive job in a call centre (nasty hell holes!) ... I went on 10mg of citalopram and within a week I felt SO much better! At the end of week 4 I travelled solo to New Zealand and lived there for a couple of years whilst on citalopram and felt absolutely BRILLIANT! I felt so good I came off them with no withdrawals at all and was anxiety free for around a year.... However- this year I did an access course and as usual due to being under extremely stressful circumstances the anxiety crept back into my life and depression set in fairly rapidly, this time I didn't take citalopram and instead tried CBT and st Johns wort - both worked fantastically! HOWEVER...
A few days ago out of nowhere I had my first episode of severe derealization and that freaked me out so badly that I had a panic attack and for days afterwards I was in a complete melt down state! Overwhelming intrusive thoughts and nonstop crying and just generally feeling weird whilst being around people... I am also on holiday currently so it doesn't help me as I feel trapped..
Anyway so I need some advice- I am flying home tomorrow (not particularly excited about this) and have been reducing my St. John's wort for a few days and will stop taking it tonight.. I have citalopram (10mg) at home - should I start taking it again? The problem is that I am due to start a university course in about 12 days from when I will start taking citalopram again (I start on the 26th and will start citalopram on the 14th)... I am noway near as bad as I was the first time, but right now my only concern is if I go to uni like this I could end up getting worse? Should I just suck it up and do it even though I'm not feeling too bad anymore? Is there a chance I could end up making myself worse from taking the citalopram and then not being able to go to uni? - ARGHH I don't know... GAD at its finest...
Also I am aware that my anxiety returns when I am under pressure to perform.. Which means that at uni it will return and I am well aware of that, therefore I am kind of thinking it may be beneficial for me to start now before it gets a chance to sink its teeth in? Last time it worked wonders for me, but I was also much worse! Side effects last time were minimal- maybe 3 days of headaches and nausea and that's it! Will they be worse this time?