Here goes - Citalopram the sequel

[1_benny_1]

thanks for the advice guys
i had an ..ok.. day 2day the thing is i just dread each day at work
and just cant wait till home time comes around its such a sigh of relief to get home and not have 2 worry abt what other pple are thnking abt u!
i took 10mg last nyt before bed and i did feel pretty gd this morning but my anxiety started too overpower me around lunchtime.
will try the same tonyt have anther apointment with the doctor 2moro aftr wrk so will c if i can try any quick fixes for those real bad days.
thinking of trying out yoga and joining an anxiety group c if that helps me overcome
my anxiety's because u just dnt knw if the drugs are making u better off or worse off!!!

[oldtime]

Benny, this is pretty tough love but as soon as you feel settled on 10mg you need to up it to 20mg. 10mg will not do anything as it is too low a dose to make a difference. Try to ride out the anxiety let it flow through you feel it for what it is. The cit will make you worse until your body gets used to it this could take 2 months. I gave up the first time I tried cit due to insomnia this time around I used zopiclone initially and longer term mirtazapine to counter the insomnia.

[crumble]

Hi,
Thought I'd join the thread as I'm also about to start a citalopram sequel.

I took it around 5 years ago for anxiety / depression and after a couple of years I felt so much better, it had really change my life so slowly came off it. I was unaware at the time that it was probably the cit that gave me my sleep problem.

So now after a short time on mirtazapine, initially for sleep and second for anxiety, I've found it not really of help for anxiety.

I'll be on both mirt & cit at low doses for the next two months. I'm really hoping the mirt sedative effect will counter-act any kind of insomnia inducing effect of the cit (finger crossed!).

I don't remember any other side effects the first time around but maybe I was just lucky.

Good luck all.

[oldtime]

Back from hols, we took a helicopter flight to Scilly Isles, they are very peaceful, a great place to visit is you are stressed out. Still no anxiety, I just keep thinking its too good to be true and that it will come back. Starting to forget about it more now, after all I had no anxiety for the first 40 years of my life. The physical side effects are fading as well, the numbness is reducing, and the pain down my left side is less bad. I have no headaches and I'm sleeping 8 hours a night. Thinking about reducing the cit to 10mg to see if it makes a difference, but will probably wait another month. I don't wont to rock the boat too soon and risk a return of symptoms.

[cathycrumble]

So I've read through 2 lessons now of the CBT4PANIC course. Last night I had my first PA since starting this course (about 2 weeks). I woke up and felt disorientated and had a racing heart. Normally I would get up go down stairs and get a glass of water and try to slow my breathing, then read my book until everything settles back down again. This normally takes about 1 hour and I feel drained at the end of it. This time around I thought 'YES' a chance to try out the technique from CBT4PANIC, you need to just let it happen feel the symptoms as an observer and be aware of your surroundings. Well it worked my heart rate returned to normal in a couple of minutes, I didn't feel terrible afterwards in fact I felt back to normal in less than 10 minutes. [Bring it on PANIC] Its the funny little pictures of the Bloke panicking in CBT4PANIC I keep thinking of, they really help you lose your fear.

Hi there just reading your sequel I am really learning from what you are writing. I am on week 5 at 40mg but, only been on 40mg for a week as I started the 1st week on 20mg then 3 weeks on 30mg and 40mg a week ago. I am not good been crying and terrible nerves in my tummy of a morning and feeling sick this has been the last week I have felt like this. I am wandering whether its because i have just started on 40mg. However, what you say about " you need to just let it happen feel the symptoms as an observer and be aware of your surroundings". Has made it clear to me. Instead of fighting panic just observe it till it goes. My big fear is going to have my blood pressure taken. I had a bad few years, I split from my husband (my choice) had a car crash and lost my job through having time off with depression and i was in hospital for a couple of days with a kidney infection thats when the bp went up and thats when my horrid fear started. If i can just not let the panic take over when i go for a bp check which by the way I dont have to go for another year lol. As it is fine. I feel silly having this fear but it is big in my mind. Sorry I have gone on a bit.

Cathy xx

[honeyp1e]

@ CathyCrumble my first week of 40mg was the same as you described and i just couldnt sleep at all ever am on about week 4 of 40mg and that has died down now so hopefully yours will 2 x x

[cathycrumble]

I hope so, I am off to bed, and I feel fine now but in the morning boom the old butterflys in the tummy return and my chatterbox all negative I might add starts up. But I have read Citalopram the sequel and some good tips on there which I will try and put into practice. Thanks honeypie for your reply I do feel i am still suffering side affects. I will just float on through lol. Thanks again.

Cathy xx

[oldtime]

This week will be my six months anniversary since starting citalopram. I have been anxiety free for the past two months with only the occassional short lived blip. My physical symptoms are slowly reducing, (numbness in left hand side of body / face, palpitations, headaches, shakes, aches and pains, IBS), although still there they are much reduced. I feel on the whole normal, and now enjoy my life and look forward to the future. I'm still feeling somewat fragile, like I couldn't cope with too much stress without reverting. I think I need another 3 months of AD's to give my body a good old rest after all its gone through then I will consider reducing the dose very slowly.

We all enjoyed a nice camping weekend at Longleat Safari park. There has been an updating of many of the attractions with lots of well designed exhibits, the meerkat enclosure lets you walk in amongst the colony with no fence between you and the animals. There is a new birds of prey show, the birds swoop over your head and you have to duck! I held a giant african millipepe and had parrots perching on my arms. The children loved it. Life can be good again, for anyone starting on cit however low you get never lose hope. When I was at my lowest that tiny spark of hope kept me going.

[oldtime]

I am going to try and get my fitness level back to what it used to be pre anxiety. That is my goal for the next 6 months. I'm going to yoga once a week and that is helping flexibility, I take regular walks in the morning before work. There is one thing that I am having trouble getting back to and that's cardio vascular training. When I get my heart rate up it feels to me like anxiety, I don't like the adrenalin I'm almost phobic of it. I'm going to try small exposure, starting with 10-15mins of skiing machine 3 times a week and see if I can get used to the adrenaline again. Does anyone else have a similar experience with going back to the gym?

[oldtime]

30mins CV today. On tuesday I had to leave the gym as the adrenaline made me feel panicky and shaky.

I've kind of analysed why I was feeling like this. This time as the adrenaline started to kick in, heart rate about 140bpm I let myself relax and just feel it, I managed to continue the 30 mins and felt ok at the end of it. It does feel like anxiety symptoms. Its strange its the interpretation that your brain makes of this feeling that is the problem. It can think there is something wrong and you feel terrible or it can think that you are on a high and you feel good. How your body is behaving is the same both ways, it's how you interpret that feeling. I used to feel great after running. Well I didn't feel great today but I didn't feel too bad either.