Has citalopram worked for you?

[fedupofanxiety]

it just increased my anxiety and panic attacks never helped me just made me worse!!!

[Cygfa]

I took cit for 2 years and it worked really well, very few side effects to start with, then I just felt like myself for the first time in ages. It was great. I came off last year, but now my depression and anxiety are back and I've started on Citalopram again, this is day 6. The side effects are worse than the last time but bearable, and I hope that eventually cit will do the trick for me again. Starting CBT as well in 3 weeks.

xx

[Tracy43]

Worked great for me, certainly changed my mind on "happy pills".

[Str33tb0y]

Definitely worked for me

The last two weeks im almost back to my old cheeky happy go lucky self

Agree that the side effects were a nightmare to start off with, but Im glad i stuck with it

[befuddled1]

It seems to be something about me that I just can't tell what drugs do for me. I don't know what I'm like in the first place to be able to judge or something.
I've been on it 8 years. Today I spoke to a dr and we decided (she decided) I could come off it. She said maybe it hadn't been doing anything. Hmph.
I wasn't comfortable enough with her so I didn't tell her the right things. And I'm not sure she understood.
All I know, with citalopram, is when I've tried to come off or lowered dose things have gone wrong. And that when I came off cold turkey I had some unpleasant head-whooshy side effects.

[Anxious-in-Canada]

Hey Befuddled,

I wouldn't suggest "Cold Turkey" you have been on them quite a bit of time. You should start by reducing the dosage by 2.5mg - 5 mg for a few weeks and then decrease again by the same amount for another few weeks. Just to be sure you don't experience severe side effects...

Perhaps talking to your doctor again and making sure you tell the "right things" cause he/she can only diagnose what they know about...

Hang in there.

[jenniferrrrrr]

i used to suffer from major panic attacks, which left me crippled over in pain, my chest would get so tight, everytime i got emotional or angry, the pain would get worse. citalopram has helped with the physical pain but i still have panic attacks, just without the pain. i'm suffering from major depression and i must admit since being on these tablets, i feel like i don't want to do anything, or go anywhere.

i have just been took off lyrica (pregabalin) as it made me extremely bad, i basically didn't want to wake up in the morning. it did help with my anxiety pains tho.

i hope citalopram works, i cant sleep, im getting about 3 hours sleep a night! im also thirsty all the time.

[laddy1975]

I have had just about the same experience as you. Two years on it straight, came off and did well for a while and then it all came back. Went back on and the side-effects were rough. It also took a much longer time to get the beneficial effects as well. Good luck to you. Be patient.

[lenore]

I think the Citalopram has definately taken the edge off my anxiety, but I'm very tearful lately. When I was on Fluoxetine I was really anxious but it took the edge of the low moods. Maybe I need to go 50/50

[hollygirl]

I was on Citalopram but only for about 12 days - they made me a hundred times worse and then I started to get really strange suicidal thoughts - they were very strong and also violent (I have been very down in the past and had the old 'oh if it could just all end' type thoughts but never been so bad i actually felt like doing it) - almost as if my mind was not my own. I called emergency doc and she said to stop them asap that day so did. Then cried for two days straight then started to feel better.

I was on Prozac about three years before that and for the first three months felt great - really great but then I started more and more to feel like a caged animal and then really angry and irritable with everything. Got to point where felt like I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. So came off them - just stopped them and know now I am very lucky I didnt have severe side effects by doing that - but I didnt know at the time.

These two experiences have put me right off any new SSRI type pills - but if my symptoms keep being really bad i might try a trycyclic.