Has anyone had panic attacks whilst on citalopram?

[PoppyC]

Hi
Ok I have been praising the virtues of citalopram for days like I was an advert for it!
I was so up and so happy and have not felt so good in over a year and a half and then out of nowhere last night I had the most awful hour long panic attack with full blown symptoms. I was on the verge of going to the hospital as I was in so much pain with my chest and my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I was sick so much and eventually after the hour from hell I slowly began to improve.
I am exhausted today and again earlier I started with another panic attack this time a minor one compared to yesterdays.
I have not had a panic attack since last August when I was not taking medication.
Does anyone else have panic attacks on citalopram? This should not be happening should it after being on them for a month? Is this 'normal' ?
I am all for hanging on in there and giving the tablets a chance to work and I can put up with minor side effects, but never expected panic attacks from hell.
I still feel very anxious. my chest hurts, and just 'feeling strange' and I am still taking my tablets. I am more or less on my own - so when the attacks happen I feel really vulnerable.
Any advice would be really appreciated.

[Budgie]

Hi Poppy :hugs::shades:

I've begun to have full panic attacks again recently :unsure: I've had that edgy, agitated feeling thats like an attack bubbling under the surface for weeks. :unsure: Its exhausting. A part of me is starting to wonder, do I need more cit? Or less? Or what? Is it just me not trying hard enough? :shrug::blush:

[PoppyC]

Hi Budgie!
Your post is exactly like how I am!
I cant understand it - I rarely have panic attacks - I had a few last August when was in middle of a breakdown and I wasnt on medication then.
I feel so anxious and my chest hurts with the anxiety. I feel terrible!
I am so sorry you are feeling as you are...its awful isnt it. I really did not expect panic attacks on cit.
I dont know what to do either - whether to up the dose - but maybe that will cause the panic attacks to get worse. I dont understand how these tablets work!
What will you do? I really feel for you - its horrid isnt it?

[nomorepanic]

Have a read of this page - it may help..

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/NMPcms.php?nmppage=medication

[nomorepanic]

This bit ...

The medications may significantly ease symptoms and give you a well needed break from feeling so terrible each day but they will not cure you of all your problems or symptoms. Using medication can prove to you that the symptoms you are experiencing are indeed anxiety and not some other dreaded lurgy as many of these symptoms will lessen or disappear whilst you are on the medication.

If you go on medication but do nothing else constructive to help yourself, you may find the initial symptoms reoccurring once you stop the medication. If your issues are caused by something that may improve naturally over time like a bereavement then medication may be all you need to see you through a particularly difficult patch but medications are not a permanent solution to an established emotional problem.

[PoppyC]

Thanks Nicola...will have a read! :)

[Budgie]

Thanks for that info :yesyes:

I've always said to my gp that I am reluctant to just use medication as for me it feels like putting wallpaper over a crack in the plaster, but I agreed to try cit. back in January as I'd been feeling really low and suicidal, and the wait for a mental health assessment/talking therapy is so long :blush:

I'm really confused about what to do about my cit situation. I feel embarrassed and like a failure to be so stuck like this still even though I'm taking a medication :doh: I've got a GP appointment on Friday afternoon but I get flustered about the possibility of saying I don't feel so good, I feel like I let myself down :shrug:

[PoppyC]

Hi again Budgie
I read the notes and yes it was helpful but it was nothing I didnt already know.
You are not a failure and nor should you be embarrassed! You have not let yourself down! You should be proud of yourself. You are doing the best you can to help you get to feeling better. You are not burying your head in the sand...you are accepting help by medication and future therapy. It shows that you are being positive.
I am having CBT and also I do all the self help there is. That does help.
I am giving it 3 more weeks and if the panic attacks keep on then I will go back and see my gp. I will have been on them by then for about 7 weeks.
I feel more anxious now on them than I ever did before and having worse panic attacks than I have ever had...so whats the point?
I know anti depressants and anti anxiety tablets dont cure everything but neither should they make us feel worse either after we have been on them for many weeks.
Maybe another type of med will suit me more.
Dont feel like a failure..what works for 1 person doesnt always work for another. Just because loads of people say cit works for them doesnt mean we should feel bad because we find they dont work for us. There are other meds out there which may really help us. I have never taken medication before.
How long have you been taking them for?

[NoPoet]

Hi Poppy, wow you really are up and down on this stuff aren't you??

I still find myself experiencing anxiety and depression but in a much reduced form. I have suffered anxiety attacks for years and am very hardened to them by now. Occasionally they come back differently and I have to adapt to them all over again.

Hope that things improve for you as you continue to recover. :)

[PoppyC]

Hi Poet!
How are you today? :) Did you have a good day?
Yes, I never know how I am going to be from day to day it seems.
I had for no reason at all - I was perfectly relaxed last night - the most horrific panic attack I think I have ever had. It lasted an hour.
I was really anxious today and had another attack earlier.
I am taking my cit properly and doing everything by the book and not drinking alcohol.
There are problems in my personal life - but who hasnt got them! we all do -
I dont expect the cit to work to erase all my symptoms out but I dont expect it to give me panic attacks!
I have never had them before apart from last August and I wasnt eating back then due to how ill I was.
I will stay on for a while longer. Its really frustrating!
How are you getting on with them?

[NoPoet]

Hi Poppy

The worst panic attack I've ever had was my first night on citalopram. That's really saying something because I used to suffer terribly from anxiety as a child.

I persevered because I believe that things can get better, and they certainly have. I do have down days and off moments and I hold onto that hope. Hope gets me through the moments of doubt.

I protect myself from panic attacks with the armour of contempt. They can't break through because I know they are pathetic little moments of doubt and I am stronger than they are. I believe in myself and I believe that things are always better than they seem. I believe that because it's the truth. Experience has shown me this again and again. I have learned that it is wrong to doubt and it is wrong to lose hope.

The citalopram is working but like I've said in other threads, I have put a hell of a lot of effort into getting this far. I have fought against my anxiety and depression and I think I am winning. There is a long way to go but I'm looking for the light at the end of the tunnel because I believe it is there.

You can't drop your guard, you must be vigilant with your thoughts, you must be mentally tough, you must believe that you are going to get better. You must want with everything you have to recover.

I want to join the millions of people who have permanently beaten anxiety and depression. I hope you will join us too :)

[PoppyC]

Hi
Thanks for reply.
I do really want to get better and I got through a breakdown without medication as I refused it, however I personally think that for some people anxiety and depression can be greatly lessened but not always be got rid of altogether. I have met people who had suffered with depression and anxiety all their lives - they got treatment for it but the treatments didnt always work. I met quite a few like that when I was in hospital. I dont want to be like that obviously and do everything by the book when it comes to fighting anxiety but maybe at some point I am going to accept that is how I am and just live with it and deal with it with or without medication.
With the panic attacks I get they are so strong that rational thinking goes out the window during them. I am too busy being sick! lol I concentrate on my breathing and also distraction to a point and that helps a lot.
I will keep on with the cit for a further 3 weeks and then will try something else if things dont improve.

[alias_kev]

Just to jump into the broader topics on this thread.

I was very wary of even going to the Doctors let alone getting meds for months (one could argue years). I had seen my parents bunged on meds for years and then ignored until the NHS or GP got obsessed with getting them off whatever they were now addicted too. So I was somewhere between worried, scared and contemptuous.

Then things got really bad. So I went. As I explained to some others: when the situtation is as bad as sitting in a room whose corner in on fire, you need a short to medium term solution. You can't say "it'll go out in the end" because you'd be part of the ashes by then. I now believe the same is true with meds. They are like an extinguisher or a fire exit or sometimes even a chair thrown through a window. They help you survive and they allow you to persue other better long term solutions and resolve other questions: "why were you in the room at all?", "can it be avoided again?", "why did it catch fire?", "were there better ways to learn to deal with it?", etc, etc. Sorry that analogy got out of hand maybe, but you see what I mean I hope.

If our situation is cronic, severe, or urgent then medication may be a vital part of the solution. The key is to use it to allow us to improve in other ways - overcoming phobias, CBT, breaking habits, improving confidence. God listen to me - I know it isn't that easy just looking in the mirror - BUT that needs to be our goal. 1. Meds, 2. Self Improvement, 3. Wider Cure, 4. Reduced Meds, etc.

On a more specific note - other health and diet issues can affect the absorbtion or loss of the medication or its effects from your body. They might be at play in the rise/fall we often feel when on meds or in the variation of side effects. In women - rather more than men - monthly cycle and so forth must be in a position to interfer with most things. After all your blood volume, water retention and various blood constituents vary through out the month more than ours (lucky us) and that's not even thinking about female hormones that interact with the brain, stomach, etc.

Also most medications have a note about "paradoxical anxiety" as they now seem to call it. This is where the medication gives you more of the problem it was intended to remove. Its pretty suprising to have it occur after a month if there has been no change of dose (I think) but if it happens a lot you should discuss it with your GP if they are sane & competent. Or us if not!:hugs:

[PoppyC]

Hi Kev
Thanks for your post.
I agree entirely with you :yesyes:
I do have CBT and have addressed my issues and have the best diet there is for anxiety, and do everything there is possible to alieviate anxiety, however I now find that my anxiety is the same if not worse than before I took the citalopram.
My gp says I have free floating anxiety where there is no explanation for it.
Anyway I have decided 3 weeks more on them taking me to about 8 weeks and then if no better I am heading back to gps for something else - maybe I will increase the dosage but will speak to him first about it all. I am just worried that if I up the dosage I may get even worse than what they are making me feel.
I am not taking something that gives me the few odd good days and the rest bad days which make me worse than I ever have been.
Today I had a really good day out all day but my anxiety was there on a scale of 1-10 at 9.
Anyway at least I gave the tablets a try.
Hope you had a good day.:)

[NoPoet]

Poppy, some people just naturally get anxious without much provocation. I've been in that boat my whole life. The problem is when anxiety takes over. Anxiety feeds off itself. It creates a feedback loop which becomes more and more powerful over time. It doesn't just stay the same.

Free floating anxiety is tougher to deal with than anxiety which is caused by a specific event or series of events. With free floating anxiety you can't just deal with a specific problem and see the anxiety dissolve. But you can beat it - honestly you can.

If you're receiving counselling and medication, those are all well and good, but I'm starting to realise that anxiety fills the void where self-confidence should be. You need to try building your confidence. Confidence is like poison against anxiety, it's better than a shield, it actively attacks the symptoms of anxiety and prevents them from getting a foothold in your brain.

[PoppyC]

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
To be honest I have been through much worse than anxiety in life so it doesnt phase me out that much to always have it - there are far worse things in life to have.
For some people they cannot fight depression or anxiety totally and it is a life long problem. I have met quite a few in the past including a guy of nearly 70 who had depression on and off all his life.
I am confident and a naturally confident person except when it comes to agoraphobia. I am very realistic too.
I have decided that maybe this is how it is for me and I will cope with it. I dont expect it to go completely but as long as its not overwhelming and I dont have lots of hideous panic attacks and I dont have a breakdown again I will be quite happy.
My main goal is to get over the agoraphobia. I have been out on and off all weekend and had a great day today albeit the anxiety was 9 on a scale of 10 but I really had a good day.

[snowdrop]

Hi Poppy...and you were doing so well.

If it's any help this was the time i increased my dose, felt i had taken the edge off anxiety with 20mg but didnt feel quite there if that makes sense. havent had a panic attack since being on 30mg atall.

Am more than happy on this dose.

Keep us posted hun....me and you ARE the magic pills advert!lol

Lou xxxxxxxxxx

[PoppyC]

Hi Snowdrop :)
lol Thanks for your post. It made me smile about the advert bit.
I feel like I am abandoning the Citalpram Club now because past the few days have been awful. Went to see my gp and he said they should be working by now and then checked my blood pressure and found it very low - probably the reason for the awful headaches and feelings of nearly passing out - My blood pressure is naturally very low anway.
He is weaning me off the tablets and has prescribed Venfaxaline - So I can now whinge about them instead or maybe become the new advert for them!
I will miss praising one day the virtues of cit and then the next day calling them lol
I am glad citalopram is working for you. It does make a big difference when they are working doesnt it? :)

[bonnie1980]

hello poppy hope you are felling better today i went on citilapram 7 years ago after i had my daughter and i found them a really good help but 2 months after my 3rd child iv stated to get panic attakcs almost allday everyday i dont know if it is a side affect of the bettablockers but it might be worth seeing your doctor as i was briill on them untill i had grace :) thinking of you at this time

[PoppyC]

Hi Bonnie!
Thanks for your post :)
You have panic attacks all day, everyday??? :ohmy: How do you cope?!!! Poor you!
I went to my gp this morning and have been told to gradually withdraw off them as my blood pressure was too low - I have very low blood pressure normally - hypotension. Gp also said I should have been seeing some benefits from them, which on some days I did, but mostly not. I was very up and down on them which I could cope with but not the awful panic attack from hell on Sat night and I dont usually get panic attacks - I had some last August. I am sorry that you are now getting them again.
I have been prescribed Venafaxline now so will give them a try after I am off Cit.
I have felt terrible past 3 days and like my head was about to split in 2! I nearly passed out last night. Thats probably due to the low blood pressure though.
Do you take Beta blockers as well as Cit? Do they help?
My sister has just started on beta blockers. In fact every single one of my family is on anti depressants and anti anxiety tablets! :wacko: