Citalopram and Alcohol!

[LadyHaitch]

Hello all :)

I've been on Cit now for about 4 months and a 40mg dose seems to be the perfect dose for me. I have much more good days than bad and I am improving all the time.

I started to introduce small amounts of alcohol back into my life (due to birthday celebrations/hen nights etc) and seemed to be fine, but I went to a good friend's wedding on Saturday and had a pretty big binge and my anxiety is back this week with a vengeance.

I realise Cit is an anti-depressant and alcohol a depressant, and drinking alcohol defeats the object somewhat of taking Cit, but has anyone found a balance?

Is it likely my anxiety is down to this one binge? Or a build up of drinking small amounts the past couple of weeks? Has anyone had this same problem, and if so how long does the increased anxiety last?

Thanks all :)

Haitch

[Pongowaring]

It is horses for courses, I suppose.

For me, the last time i was on Citalopram, four years ago (I stupidly stopped), I didn't stop drinking. I was a heavy drinker - not going out and doing 12 pints or anything, but two or three glasses of wine every night. It didn't really have any impact on the Cit working.

However, one thing I will say is that if there's one thing that increases my anxiety more than anything else, it is a really bad hangover.

The last spell i had on the Cit (as referred to above) came after my anxiety increased massively - from easily bearable day to day to absolutely unbearable - after an extremely large boozing session brought on a horrendous panic attack, which then caused me to go into a spiral of increasing anxiety over a couple of months.

So, while I find frequent, low amount drinking doesn't affect me, large scale binge drinking is the worst thing of the lot - meds or no meds.

[LadyHaitch]

Thanks for replying :)

That makes a lot of sense, my drinking has only led to hangover once since taking Cit, and that was the Sunday following the wedding...and like you say, meds or no meds, for someone with anxiety binge drinking isn't good either way.

I think I need to back off drinking again for a while, and certainly no more large scale drinking sessions!

It probably doesn't help that I skipped a 40mg dose that night as well...

Haitch

[Pongowaring]

The day I had my massive, post-binge attack, I had been out for a surprise party at work, where we drank cocktails and champagne until about 4am. All we had to eat in that time were canapes.

next morning, about 11am - *crash* the attack dropped. Looking back, it was unsurprising.

I then spent god knows how long working myself into a state that it was going to happen again. Really, not good.

These days if I'm going to go out and drink heavily (extremely rare), I make sure I can spend the next day at home, curled up, recuperating.