Was feeling better, now I am bad again, help!

[UnknownUser]

I think this is week four of Citalopram (10mg for 5 days, then up to 20mg). Last week I was feeling a great improvement, but this week I feel pretty bad. My morning anxiety has come back, I am thinking about death more again (which is a huge problem for me!), and my appetite has decreased (thankfully it isn't completely gone). I am trying to resist my benzo pills each morning now :(

I don't know whether to blame my medication or my mental trigger, as I started feeling bad on Saturday after reading something that very specifically related to my death and existential anxiety.

Is it normal to feel ok for a week and then crash back down? Should my meds have stabled out by four weeks? If so, is this a sign that they perhaps are not working enough for me?

[dafni]

Hi, it needs more time for cit to work than 4weeks,from my own experience i know benzos made me worse mentally and phisically so i stopped them, stay in the forum for talking and avoid reading depressing things. Love

[UnknownUser]

I try to be sparing with the benzos, they do help me feel better but I don't want to be reliant on them or develop a tolerance. I have Oxazepam 15mg pills that I cut in half.

I really hope the Citalopram will work for me, what threw me off is that I was feeling much better last week but this week I feel bad again. Is it normal to go back and forth like that?

[dafni]

Oh yes, im on the 3d month, had a couple of great weeks and now back again...

[jillyb]

I was the same. Thought, hey, these are really working but then, bam, anxiety really heightened. I am in my third month and still plodding on. I am still waking up with the usual anxiety surges, which is horrid. I intend to just plod on for the time being as my mood (not that I realised I was depressed!) has improved. I do have a lot of real stresses at the moment ( daughter in law with complications in pregnancy) so maybe that's having an effect. I am starting cbt again soon (I know all the theory and could probably get a PhD in it, but can't seem to apply it!). This is my first time ever on meds and it took a lot of persuading to get me here, so I really hope they work. There's so much info on here about cit and it's really helped me. Good luck and just keep posting, people on here are really, really supportive. X. Ps I'm still taking the odd diazepam and my GP was happy for me to do that as long as it only occasionally. I took 2mg most days in the start up period, as prescribed.