To increase or not to increase: from 20 to 30

[chicaplatense1]

I have a question. I am on week 4 but I feel like what has been bothering me the most are side effects from the Citalopram.
I have hot flashes that feel like sunburnt skin at night and cause me insomnia. I also still have Anxiety but it feels different than the Anxiety that I have when not on the medication.
These feel like side effects to me and I am getting impatient waiting for them to go. My apetite has returned which is good.
The hot flashes in the middle of the night would not happen when I wasn't on this med and I feel that if they were to disapear my mood would lift.
I am conficted between upping the dose to 30 mg (I am on 20mg now) and keeping it the same. I fear that upping the dose would increase side effets but then again maybe not. Maybe it would help.
I also feel like the hotflashes appear when I am anxious and the medicine is dulling a panic attack that now manifests as a "hot flash" but this symptom still makes me anxious and sad. Maybe a 30mg dose would dull it to the point that not even the hot flash happens, but maybe I would have an increase in anxiety again.
I must sound crazy here and I must be driving you all crazy with all my case scenarios and all my "what ifs..".
Thank you for listening though. I find this forum very supportive and helpful.

[mrsnobody]

iam sorry but i carnt advise you on if you should increase your meds. ive replyed as i dont like the thought of threads not getting anyone replying. best wishes

[Vanilla Sky]

See your doc about increasing your dose. You will not get any more side effects on increasing

[chicaplatense1]

Thank you mrs and vanilla for your replies.... I'm thinking about it.

[anxiousant]

stick at it with 20mg, it worked great for me last time. give it more of a chance trust me

[chicaplatense1]

AnxiousAnt,
Do you remember how long it took for you to stop being Anxious on this med?
I also feel kind of sad...

[anxiousant]

honestly first time it worked great. I remember being on 10mg for about a month, but then on new years eve I got drunk and the next day felt anxious/worried about it not working, so I upped to 20. I can honestly say it worked great first time but this time it's different (maybe cos I was new to it last time)

how are you doing in terms of tiredness? I'd stick with it...it seems to be making me feel better, thoughts aren't racing anywhere near as much. but this tiredness is annoying as hell

[chicaplatense1]

It's my second time too. I am a little tired but I also get some insomnia at night. I wake up several times but fall back asleep.
I had really bad nausea and lack of apetite but that's gone now.
Less racing thoughts also and no Panic Attacks, just some Anxiety at moments. Seems to be getting better.
Why is it different this time for you?
This time,how long have you been taking it?

---------- Post added at 20:35 ---------- Previous post was at 20:33 ----------

Hot flashes at night were really bothering me but they have not been bad today. I hope that means that they are going away....

[karenp]

The last time I took Citalopram I went up to 40mg, one week at 30mg and then up to full max dose. I'd been on the Citalopram about 5 months though 20mgs and just wasn't getting 100% better. I do recall getting a few hot flashes again but nothing like the ones I had on initial start up of the drug and I felt so much better in no time at all. (:

[chicaplatense1]

That's encouraging Karen.
Also I must say that in the mornings when I first wake up I feel down and sad.
I have this anguish in my chest and feel just sad, like I will have to suffer for ever like this.
I also wake up after 4 hours of sleep at night and I go back to sleep but I after that I wake up every 2 hours. I wish I could get a solid night of sleep and not wake up with a feeling of anxiety/emptiness in my chest.
Mariana