Citalopram stopped working??

[maxmc2]

Hi guys hope you are all well..

I have been taking Citalopram now for about 6 months or so after coming of fluxatenine as i was getting killer headaches with them.

Im on Citalopram as i suffer from dizzy spells, spaced out and groggy all the time, plus the usual heart palpitations and general anxiety, some days i feel like there is a carrier bag over my head and i am struggling to see out of it, i feel worse in the mornings than in the evenings.

The reason im posting is i have an appointment with the doctors on friday. Over the last few months Citalopram seemed to be working id have 3 or 4 weeks when i felt fine and i would have a couple of days where i felt crap again but then would go back to normal, lately ive been feeling rough again for about 4 weeks and nothing seems to be changing, i feel as if Citalopram has stopped working for me. No doubt the doctor is going to up my dosage but im thinking well what if that stops working after a few months then im going to be going around in a viscous circle of upping the dose, i just want my life back and be able to feel normal again. I dont mind feeling crap the odd few days but when its non stop every day that i cant cope with.

Have any of you had this and what do you think i should do when at doctors?

[shazza19]

Hi there,
Yeah this happened to me too been taking Cit on and off for bout 5yrs my dosage was upped until recently I was on 60 mg. After 8 weeks of that and no improvement Doc finally put me on mirtazapine only been on it 2 days so far but just gotta wait n see. Think you just gotta push for what you want, sometimes you just feel like you not being listened to at all.
Hope you get sorted soon
:)

[maxmc2]

But the thing is i dont know what will work for me all i know if i want to feel normal and live a normal life, i dont know what medication is out there and what it does and what is the best, its a mine field and the doctor seems to hold the fuses at the moment :(

[oldtime]

You are likely to continue to have ups and downs taking cit as it is not a cure. Don't think of it as not working, you are just going through a bad patch. 20mg is quite a low dose so it may be worth trying a bit more to see if it is effective. I tried 30mg then 40mg and eventually settled on 20mg cit + 15mg Mirtazapine.

You cannot stop anxiety you have to learn to accept it and loosen its grip on you. Then you will continue to get anxiety like everyone does but it will not control you.

[Ingenious]

maxmc2 this is exactly the experience I had on Citalopram. I went through a cycle of feeling great for a while, then crashing, then upping the dose, then feeling better for longer, but then crashing again... repeating until I got to 40mg at which point I felt great for well over a month, then crashed. At that point I refused to up the dose anymore and the GP switched me over to Mirtazapine instead and it has been brilliant. That is not to say this is the right thing for you, or your GP might suggest something else, but I just wanted to reassure you there ARE alternatives. Ultimately, it's up to you to press home to your doctor if you really do not think your current medication is working. Once I went down from 40mg to 20mg Citalopram for a week I felt instantly less tired and groggy and much more awake, then I went over to Mirtazapine.

In total I was on Citalopram for around 6 months too.

[laurajoy88]

Im feeling exactly the same as the posts above. I'm on 40mg (upped every so often - have been on this for approx 7 months) and have crashed to the bottom again. I am going to go to my doctor and ask to change to mirtazapine, she did say about prozac but i'm not too sure about that.
It's nice to know we are all in the same boat x

[Ingenious]

Your GP will advise alternatives, these will be different depending on your exact condition, any other medication you are taking, and also what you feel about the side effects. Mirtazapine has a tendency to increase weight (through increased appetite) for example and is not for everyone. It's a shame all this is trial and error - often over many months or years!

[shazza19]

Yeah I've only been on mirtazapine for 4 days and I am constantly hungry previously I had no appetite and had lost weight, think I'll have to try and eat healthily or will end up size of a house:(:huh: