citalopram

[hellodolly]

so as long as i remember i have had strong feelings of depression paranoia & suicide, then last year in the one month two of my granparents died after long illnesses & my long term girlfriend broke up with me now all of this was extremely hard but made harder by the fact that i lost half of my family due to arguments during this time aswell & my ex wsa the only one i thought i could count on(shes not the person i thought she was & i am happy we are not together) but it hurt to lose friends at that time & i started to self harm again & the thoughts of suicide became alot stronger & much more frequent so i decided to take the leap & soeak to my doctor about this however i didnt tell him about my thoughts or feelings(he didnt really seem to want to know) but he put me on 20ml of citalopram per day& told me to come back in 3-4weeks, now i have only been taking them for one week, but i am finding them quite difficult to deal with, now i was having trouble sleeping before hand anyway (the doctor knew this) but its getting really bad now & some nights i am not getting any sleep at all, i am worried that when i start my new job in a few weeks that this is really going to affect my performance, not only that but when i AM getting to sleep i close my eyes &get bright white light flashes going right through my head, i have also been having palputations & getting really nervous when trying to sleep, then the days that i actually do get a few hours i wake up & i am shaking all day, does anyone else have these problems or know if they are normal? any replys would be greatly appreciated.

[Idstain]

Hi :)

it's normal to have increased anxiety in the first week or two and is kind of a good thing as it shows that it's getting into your system . You may have to wait a little longer before it starts working on your depression though :)

[KK77]

All the symptoms you're getting are quite normal for citalopram, even though they're not pleasant. I would go back to your GP and be honest about how you feel. I'm sure he's not as unsympathetic as you think - it may just appear like that to you because of the way you're feeling right now.

20mg can be a bit high for some people in the beginning so ask if he can try you on 10mg first. This may help with the sleep, palpitations and trembling you're getting. The other side effects you mentioned can also be common, so don't worry.

I'm sure you know that these drugs take time to work, so you have to be patient for a few weeks.

Anyway, hope you start to feel better soon.

[bellabessnjet]

I had all your symptons when I starts on Citalopram. It took me 6-8 weeks to get rid of them and then increased to 40mg, didnt have any side effects when I increased dose. my Dr told me take them at night rather than in the day, but I know some people get told to take them in the day. I would agree with the other posts about sticking it out for a few more weeks and seeing your Dr. I remember how horrible the first few weeks were I lost over 1/2 stone couldnt eat, sleep etc but I am know better and dont suffer from these.
Good luck
Angela

[Alicat]

Hi there,

I had all these symptoms when I started taking 10mg. It was horrendous. I actually stopped taking them. I've been on Prozac without many side effects but people say that Citalopram is really good once it starts working. I hope you feel better soon :hugs: