My Citalopram experiences - day 5

[danj]

Over the years I've been on Prozac, Seroxat and escitalopram, all seemed to work for me at the time. I had been off meds for about 9 months now but having reached an unbearable stage again with my panic & anxiety I decided to go back on.

On Friday I went to the docs and he prescribed me citalopram (I think he was confused becuse I told him escitalopram had worked well for me). I have started on 10mg.

Anyway, so far I am getting lots of side effects. I have not suffered side effects from the other meds I had been on, not sure why this is different...

Side effects so far include:

1. Very dry (and salty taste) in mouth
2. occasaionally feeling like it's hard to breath
3. seeing blobs of colour in the corner of my eyes (have seen a recent thread about this).
4. feeling spaced out
5. feeling a little paranoid, I was walking down the street trying to work out if people were looking at me
6. vivid dreams (when I take the pills near to bed time)
7. occasional hot/cold flushes
8. some shakes (but this could just be the anxiety)

Am hoping (as someone once suggested) that having a lot of side effects means that there is more chance the pills will work for me. Anyway, am hoping that they won't last much longer.

Any words of advice or encouragement would be good.

Thanks,

Dan

[suzy-sue]

I still experience vivid dreams and thats after being on this fornearly 6months,the rest will dissapear after the first month maybe sooner but the waking in the middle of the night occasionaly still happens ,But i sleep better than i have for a very long time.I take mine in the morning.Ive been feeling more tired and spacey because my dose has been upped from 30-40mg .The side effects were nothing like at the beggining.Stick it out ,the effects on these are horrid for some ,but not all.ESCITALOPRAM is a lot more expensive and a purer form of citalopram ,it doesnt have as many side effects and works quicker!but it boils down to the same old thing "Money!" ALL THE BEST SUE

[NoPoet]

Hi Danj, read my thread here: http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=45973

I posted my progress with citalopram every day and as you will see from the later posts, the side effects do abate after a while, but they can be very tough to deal with at first. Just keep believing that you are going to come out of the other side of the tunnel because it will happen. Staying positive is essential.

[snowdrop]

Hi Danj

All completely normal, but they will pass and you will (hopefully) be like a new person soon!

Let us know how you get on

x

[danj]

Thanks guys.

P.Poet, I really enjoyed reading your thread, some good advice in there.

Like you and many others, I wake up with 'the fear' most mornings, I think Danny is right that if you can wake up with an alarm clock, you can pre-empt the fear. Problem is that like P.Poet, I'm not sleeping well so I try and sleep in as much as possible to make up for it. BTW, I was waking up with the fear long before I started on Citalopram so for me it's not a side-effect.

Dan

[NoPoet]

Danj, I have had a good night's sleep every night since Saturday and although I cannot pretend that I am back to my old self yet, I have come a LONG way in the last week. You're not far behind me so keep going, the end of the tunnel is coming, you just can't see it yet :)

[Asha1979]

Hey Dan they will definately pass, just try ride them out for now. I just get vivid dreams now thats all after 3 months. The side effects left after a week or so. Your system just needs to get used to them.

[danj]

I took my 6th pill about 3 hours ago. Definitely less side effects today compared with yesterday (so far). I also feel a little better today but I don't put it down to the meds, I think there is only so long you can feel unbearable panic, the body seems to re balance itself after a while.

[danj]

well, took my 7th 10mg pill about 4 hours ago. no direct side-effects. Overall, I am having some night sweats and still dry mouth but otherwise they seemed to have calmed somewhat. Tomorrow I am supposed to up my dose to 20mg. Am a little worried and thinking about going up only to 15 for a few days. What do people think?

[NoPoet]

Hi, yeah if you're worried take it slow, go up to 15mg for a day or two then go to 20. I'm glad you aren't having too many side effects.

I was already suffering from bad anxiety when I started and you sound a lot calmer than I was back then, so I think you should be fine. :)

[Budgie]

Hi dan, you're doing really well! Its great to read about how you're doing :hugs::D


I've been taking cit. for about 2 months now and I still keep getting weird dreams. I don't sleep too well, but I don't think this is medication related, although last night I got into a very bizarre dream!! The weirdest one so far I had was that my budgie was the size of a large dog and although super-cute, when he pecked me, OMG I knoew about it! :roflmao:

[danj]

Thanks Budgie.

I took day 8 dosage today, I decided to go for 15mg (as opposed to going from 10 -> 20). So far no bad effects, I will try it for a couple more days before going up to 20mg.

Mornings are bad for me, I tend to be a lot more agitated and get the 'fear'. Last night I was possibly feeling a little better but I still don't think the drugs have kicked in yet which is to be expected. I'm hoping that by day 14 I will start feeling some positive effects but I understand that even that could be too soon.

[Lion King]

Hi danj,

I started on citalopram 10mg for the first 10 days, instead of 7 like the doctor recommended as the side effetcs were that bad during my first week that it made me apprehensive about increasing the strength of the dose. During that period I had one day where I was free from stress and anxiety and felt normal again, i took this one day as a positive to continue the meds and increase the meds to 20mg. With the higher dose the side effects (mainly nervousness and shakiness) still continued and I am now 10 days into taking this, I have had 2 days during this period where I have felt stress and anxiety free and now the shakes and nerves have started to subside slightly, so hopefully they will continue to subside even further as the higher dose runs into its third week. The only hope is that with positiveness and confidence in the meds they will do their work.

All I can say is take the positives out of the good feelings and do not dwell on the bad times as these can drag you back, keep focused and believe in yourself.

Lion king