Swap 20mg Citalopram to 20mg fluoxetine

[Martha21]

Hi, been having a horrendous time with my anxiety and depression recently. Could not face up to upping my dose of citalopram from 20mg to30mg because to be honest, I have been on it for 6 months now and had more crashes than ever before. I used to be on escitalopram for a few years which was fine to start with but then seemed to stop working for me.
Anyway, I have been to the docs today and after a long discussion he wants me to try fluoxetine. He has suggested I stop taking citalopram tonight and start taking the fluoxetine, a straight swap. I am worried about the whole thing and feel I can't cope with the anxiety. Has anyone out there done a straight swap with these meds? Any success?

[crazy_cat]

Hi, I've literally done the exact swap a week ago after being taken into hospital following a breakdown at work. Citalopram made me feel so low, and this didn't pick up even after 6 weeks, suicidal thoughts were much more prevalent and in short I went completely nuts. First up was diazepam to calm me down for the weekend then on mon my doc changed me over, straight swap, no overlap. The fluoxetine is ok, don't notice it so much, don't feel so low, but then I am still on diazepam as well, although reading some of these posts that seems common. The only side effect I'm having is hideous stomach troubles, but that has only been happening for 4 days and seems to be calming, whereas Citalopram caused me to nearly pass out on a number of occasions.

I would change, but see if you can get something for the anxiety in the meantime, for me the diazepam has been a lifesaver, but if you need to work/drive it would be a bad idea as it zones you out completely, but this has been great as before I was surviving on about 3 hrs sleep a night.

Hope this helps?

Good luck xx