New Member - 5th Day...

[Theriex]

HI All, i'm a new member here. I've battled with Anxiety/Panic Disorder/Panic Attacks since I was about 15-16. I recently injured my back/shoulder which caused me to obsess over what could be wrong with it. It put me under a lot of stress and anxiety and decided I needed to go back on citalopram. I had been on it before and it worked wonders. I started a 20mg dose 5 days ago which I take in the morning (well afternoon I guess, once I get up around noon, not sleeping well) The first three to four days I didn't feel too bad, then all of a sudden when I woke up this morning I felt extremely anxious, agitated and scared. I've felt this way all day now mostly. I am very restless and am having trouble staying still or sleeping and when I do sleep I wake up with a body buzz feeling. I recall having these symptoms before, but when I missed my medication for like 3 days (it was lost in my luggage). I'm obsessing over the symptoms and fearing that I have seratonin syndrome, but I'm only on 20mg and I'm not taking any other drugs, so I keep trying to tell myself that it's just the side effects. I still feel so panicky, anxious, restless, agitated, scared, worried and my stomach/abdomin/bowels are not happy. I also have difficulty urinating, starting and keeping a steady stream. I don't recall any side effects the first time I took this medication, altho that was a long time ago and my memory isn't the greatest. I've perused the forums looking for similar accounts, but I just have to ask. Is this typical when starting citalopram? Is it possible to get seratonin syndrome from just 20mg? (if you say yes i'll most likely start freaking out lol) Where is the hump, as in when should the side effects start to diminish? 2 weeks of this would be horrendous, I would think within the next couple days they should calm down, I feel like I hit the worst point of the symptoms I hope.

Tomorrow I'm home alone for almost 8 hours and it is going to be very tough. I don't like being alone, its like a safety blanket. If someone is here I know that they can call for help if anything were to happen to me, whereas if I am by myself, who can help me?

Thanks for any info you can provide, hope you are all doing well.

[reallyfedup]

:welcome: I have had a lot of side effects and for the first 8 weeks felt more anxious and panicky on citalopram. I think your symptoms are the combination of cital and anxiety only... I don't know
much about serotonin syndrome but I think you have to be overdosing to get this. You can safely take 60 mg cital so your dose is low. I panicked about being alone too. Have you got the tel nos of people you can phone if you need to talk? Try planning a few things/jobs to occupy your thoughts?come onto this site? Hope you feel better soon but stay strong - the sensations will pass xxx:flowers:

[Theriex]

:welcome: I have had a lot of side effects and for the first 8 weeks felt more anxious and panicky on citalopram. I think your symptoms are the combination of cital and anxiety only... I don't know
much about serotonin syndrome but I think you have to be overdosing to get this. You can safely take 60 mg cital so your dose is low. I panicked about being alone too. Have you got the tel nos of people you can phone if you need to talk? Try planning a few things/jobs to occupy your thoughts?come onto this site? Hope you feel better soon but stay strong - the sensations will pass xxx:flowers:

I took a couple Xanax last night and they helped, I was able to sleep and I feel not so bad this morning and I'm hoping I stay that way. Last time I took citalopram, i'm pretty sure it didn't take 8 weeks for my side effects to go away, I was feeling much better by that time. I think the side effects went away within 2 weeks, just not sure how long in that time frame.

I agree that you most likely have to be overdosing to get seratonin syndrome and taking only 20mg of citalopram is not going to cause this. I just wanted some reassurance.

I don't have anyone I can call and talk to when I'm having severe anxiety/panic, unfortunately nobody I know understands. Luckily I have my wife and she was here last night and stayed home from work today to keep me company.

Like you said I do try to occupy my mind and distract myself when I get really anxious, I am coming on here and reading posts as that distracts me. Unfortunately yesterday I felt like a rubber band thats been twisted so tight it was gonng snap, horrible feeling, although I do recall another time I was worse than that on a different drug, where I actually got tremors where my whole body was shaking, that was just horrible.

Anyways, I've been debating whether or not to drop to 10mg or stay with 20mg... but I made it through yesterday and I feel better today than I did yesterday so I'm going to continue with the 20mg.

Thanks for the reply...