Moomu's Cit Diary

[moomu]

Going to keep a daily diary of my experience with CIT (20mg). maybe it'll be helpful to people considering trying CIT for their condition.

I have had agrophobia for 9 years, only in the past 3 years has it improved any, also for the past 5 days i've been suffering from globus hystericus and found it really hard to swallow foods because of it, so heres hoping that sometime soon i'll be on the road to normality!

You're welcome to comment or ask questions daily, we're all in the same boat here, no matter what portion of the overall Phobia-monster is causing us problems!

Day 1
Took the first pill at 4:46pm, roughly an hour after my partner gets out of work, so she can always prod me and remind me to take it if i forget.
Within an hour i started to feel all kinds of weird, but strangely enough nothing too horrible yet, slight nasua.
A few hours later, about 9pm, jaw feels funny, as if it's now relaxed, given that it's been tense for the past 6 days with me stressing out over not being able to swallow food properly, this is actually kind of re-assuring.
Almost midnight now and other than the relaxed jaw and neck muscles feeling maybe a little too relaxed, i went ahead and took my nightly dose of gaviscon, which was a little harder than usual to swallow thanks to my neck and jaw, so far though things are looking okay.

Day 2
Morning so far, not due to take next pill till 4:40pm ish, however had quite a bit of trouble sleeping, got about 2 hours sleep the whole night, felt a bit weird now and then and found yawning too hard made me feel a little sick, managed to eat a ham sandwhich this morning however, without putting butter on it too (which i had done previously to make it easier to swallow), panicy feeling when about to swallow was still there but less obvious.
I doubt i will be eating solids like i used to so early on of course, but i despite the overall groggy slightly fuzzy feeling i have, i'm finding it hard to think negatively.
For the past week i've done nothing but panic over my swallowing problem, yet after a few hours of taking my first cit pill i spent about 2 minutes the entire night actually thinking about it, so i'm looking foward to what the future holds with this route.
I'm expecting the side effects to get worse over the next few weeks as more and more of the drug gets in to my system, but having read horror stories in the past of people puking and feeling like crap within hours of taking the first pill, i'm actually pleasantly surprised at how light the side effects currently are - of course, in a weeks time i may well feel completely different! :P

Evening - Taken second pill, made me a little edgey for an hour or so then i was fine again, around 10pm (5 hours after taking it) i had a really dry mouth that was making it hard to swallow, however after an hour or so this subsided, and unlike the first night i was actually able to get a fair amount of sleep, i'd say between 5 and 6 hours sleep total (went to sleep at midnight, got up around 8).

[moomu]

Day 3
Morning again, not taking pill till 4:40pm as usual, felt sleepy in the morning but got out of bed to drive my partner to work anyway, got back home, ate an apple and here i am typing this.
Definitely feels like i'm having a much easier time with cit than the first time i tried it, overall i'm feeling kind of neutral, which is an improvement over my highly strung up agitated panic i was experiencing 3 days ago when i convinced myself my current inability to swallow would lead to my demise.

It's clear to me now that i first had the swallowing problem due to lack of enough saliva, as low saliva production has been an issue for me this past week, i no longer feel like i have something desperately wrong with me, just that i don't have the correct amount of saliva to properly eat solids yet.

As usual, will update either tonight or tomorrow morning covering my next pill and the evening that follows!

[oldtime]

have you tried chewing sugar free gum to increase saliva production?

[moomu]

have you tried chewing sugar free gum to increase saliva production?

I haven't, but i've tried sucking on things like throat losenges, that kinda helps but only for a short period of time.
It's weird, i can sit and drink an entire bottle of water, and briefly, my mouth feels normal, but the moment i try to eat something it goes back to being horribly dry, and if i dont eat something within about a minute it's dry anyway.

[Greenman50]

That dry mouth passes mate , it did with me but it does make eating not that easy unless you wash it down with milk or water each mouthfull .

[snowgoose]

a lot of meds give you dry mouth .......and it goes eventually .
keep a bottle of water by you all the time to swill .
you can buy artificial saliva sprays from chemist ..............but truth is dont waste your money .........all the tips here are the best .
keep going ..and keep us posted x

[moomu]

Sorry for the absense, nets been down!
Been a month now since starting on CIT, and i have to say the improvements so far have been marvelous.

It's been nearly 10 years since i left my 5 mile radius "saftey zone", yet last weekend i figured screw it, jumped in my car and drove all the way to Wales and spend the morning walking along the beach, only to drive back that afternoon (a good 300 mile round trip!)

I can't even begin to describe how great it feels to have accomplished such a huge step, my road to recovery doesn't seem like such an uphill battle anymore.

[leeannes]

Well done moomu for driving out off your safert zzone x

[moomu]

Well, i figured i'd come back and update!

6 Months in
I feel like a new man, i have done more in the past 6 months than i've done in the past 6 years, i'm feeling more and more normal, i sometimes have issues with swallowing but the last time it kicked in it only really lasted a day and gradually dissapated, so long as i dont freak out and assure myself it's only because i'm focusing on swallowing that makes me have issues with it.

As far as all the horrible sensations and feelings i used to have before starting citalopram, theyre virtually gone, a few weeks ago i went a week without taking my cit, because i had a bad cold and wasnt well enough to pick up my presciption, and despite starting back on it as soon as i could i dont feel any worse off from the week gap, maybe a tiny bit edgy at first when going places but totally managable.

I havent had shakey legs in the car, or been biting my fingernails for a good 5 months now, and me and my girlfriend are planning to do a 600 mile round trip drive to pick up her friend next week - and i'm actually looking forward to it!
Before being on this medication, a 6 mile round trip would have terrified me to the point of not wanting to even leave my room!

I've been out of work for 10 years due to this illness, and last week i went to the job center to talk to my advisor, i'm now currently looking for work and hope to find a place to start working this january, 2013 isn't just a new year for me, it's the start of my new life and i absolutely can't wait!

[Carys]

Oh WOW !!!!!!!!