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View Full Version : My boyfriend's medication, please help.



chubit
26-08-09, 00:22
Hi, I'm here to enquire about these tablets, not for myself but for my boyfriend.

He has recently been prescribed citaloplan as the first medication he has ever needed.

He is now 18, and has had anxiety attacks from around the age 16 upwards, these were originally stress induced.

The reason why he is now using meds. oppose to past 'grin and bear it techniques' is because in the past year it has affected his ability to eat.

It started when he chocked on a piece of chicken, and myself being vegetarian, became really quite adverse to all meat. Next he choked, very slightly, on toast, and from then on refused to eat bread.

Then he went to center parcs, and did one of their health machines; -i think its very important to point out that this completely failed at giving an accurate reading. Telling my under weight boyfriend that he should cut down on saturated fat. And is unhealthy.

This really affected his confidence of food, cut out anything with high fat contents out of his diet. What's worse is that because of this constant pressure of what foods to eat, the variety of things he did eat reduced to more or less: Soup, a third of a carton a day. Low fat yoghurt. And tea. All things which are near damn impossible to choke on, you may imagine.

He has now been to a dietitian, she has confirmed that said machine should not be trusted, and that 'my boyfriend' is so under wieght that he can eat anything and as much of it until he gets closer to 11 stone. [he was currently around 8, and is 5ft 11" ]

This was all quite worrying, specially as he was still having attacks, which were increasing in occurrences. Last week he was prescribed citaloplan, and refused to read the guidelines and side effects due to believing it will induce more than help. I instead read them and am particularly worried about quite a few things mention;

My boyfriend isn't depressed, he does get very down about his panic attacks and is particularly optimistic, but he is not depressed. I have read articles were people who only have anxiety are treated with anti depressants INCREASES the chance of suicide attempts. My boyfriend gets anxiety because of his fear to KEEP alive, not because of life.

Second was the list of side affects, just looking at the 'common' ones alone, they all look very severe, one being suicide attempts another increasing anxiety. Thats not including sleeping problems and sweating in the 'very common' section which he has experienced. What worries me more is that this is only his second weak, and his doctor has told him to move up from 20mg, when this packet is completed, up to 40mg.

I'm aware I have written alot, but i am very concerned and know my boyfriend won't do this for himself, in fear he will increase his anxiety.

If you have ANYTHING to say about the above, from your problems eating to citaloplan it'd be a great help. Feel free to mention other medication, my sister has also been through a fair few, so it won't go over my head.

Hope you can help.
Natalie. xxx

Crush
26-08-09, 18:24
Hi, I'm here to enquire about these tablets, not for myself but for my boyfriend.

He has recently been prescribed citaloplan as the first medication he has ever needed.


I do not recommend to see dietitions and as few medical professionals as possible as this will add to the anxiety.

What I think is happening is your bf is associating food with panic attacks. Many of us associate a shopping mall or enclosed/open spaces with panic.

We have probably all changed our diets during our worse anxiety periods. That is however a symptom of the anxiety. You are changing your life around to accomnidate the anxiety.

I remember I thought my chest pains were from gas so I ate ONLY hotdogs becuse they contained no gas. I ate no veggies at all. And after a week I thought I was doing well so decided to have some veggies in chinese stirfy. That caused me to have panic attacks and chest pains all night. Sweats at night.

It was my subconsious mind playing tricks on me.

Then because of my stools getting darker from only eating hot dogs(constipation), I thought my urinary tract could be bleeding (my anxious creative mind was making great stories for me to be anxious over). Then I got anxious over that possibility.

Then after I drank wine and noticed wow I'm really tipsy after 1 glass. That was actually me just being dizzy from the anxiety.

So get this. And I'm glad I can laugh about this now.

I actually thought that the reason why I was getting so dizzy after that glas of wine was because my digestive trac was bleeding so the alchohol was going directly into my bloodstream!! lol.. it was all just my anxious mind playing tricks on me. This story wasn't funny becuase the next day it caused me a trip to the ER.

I found the medication works only after 3-4 weeks of taking it regularly. I'm on my forth week and realized it's just NOW working hehehe.. That is why I'm here and can laugh about it.

Here's what I recommend.

Stop self diagnosing online. Do NOT research dietary medical problems online because trust me, there will be a worse case scenario for any symptoms you give. That was one of the mistakes I made.

The cause of his problem is anxiety. He has a fear of having a panic attack while eating. The answer to his problems is the citalopram and nothing else (i recommend). He just needs to know it's in his subconsious mind and to be logical about it. He needs to be patient with his meds.

Once the meds kick in, he'll look back and laugh at the fact he couldn't eat food. He wont be worrying about it anymore but he'll need to start eating what he likes.