4 weeks.

[Bryan86]

So tomorrow will mark 4 weeks. I'm at a funny place with it now. I honestly don't feel any real difference, if anything I think I was better off before I started. I had the occasional panic attack and periods of disassoction before I started but I still had an ok social life and worked full time, now I haven't had a major panic attack in about 2 weeks (which were never a major problem anyway) but my disassociation is generally a bit worse and I'm finding it hard to get out of the apartment without panicking, and I've been out of work since I started these meds. Plus my sleeping is a total mess, I can't sleep until 5-7am most mornings now which is so frustrating.

The one thing that is playing on my mind though is that I was initially prescribed 20mg but the side effects were too bad so went down to 10mg, where my GP suggested I stay. I'm thinking is it time to up to 20mg? I'm pretty nervous about that but I'm nervous about most things these days so I'm almost past the point of caring, I just want to start get better.

[Spot-the-frog]

I am on week 6 of citalopram, and have been signed off work for this time. I was on 20mg Cit to start and now on 40mg. I didn't have any problem going up to 40mg, in fact I don't feel that much different to be honest.

I feel better than I did 6 weeks ago but not quite right. Still having problems with sleeping but it is a bit better than it was, I also have hot flushes and a dry mouth but can deal with that. I would love to have just one decent nights sleep, am sure I would feel much better if the sleep was sorted. I don't feel like going out much so have to make myself and this makes me feel a bit anxious.

I too just want to get better and be right and ok for when I go back to work at the end of the month.

[Emphyrio]

I found that the meds I've been on 'kick in' around the 5-6 week mark. Give it another week on 10mg and see whether you get a lift from it. After that you could see your doc for advice and possibly go up to 20mg. A lot of people do appear to receive benefits on "sub-therapeutic" doses though so there is a chance that 10mg may work for you. A study found that 64% of people benefited from 20mg prozac, whereas 54% benefited from just 5mg. I wouldn't be surprised if this was similar for citalopram.