25 male, feel alone, found this forum need help :(

Craig my heart goes out to you. Im not a doctor so what I'm going to say to you is based on experience and my personal research. What I gather is the reson you were put on this medication was to deal with your social anxiety. While you say your mood is improving the anxiety is not. You need to know that citalopram increases cortisol production in the beginning which is the fight or flight chemical. I have to say it seems you are losing hope. Are you? Because remember thought are just thoughts you don't need to act on them. Here is what you need to ask yourself, what do you think caused this social anxiety? Did you have adverse childhood events? Look up epigenics because stress can cause changes to DNA. Some people think they are doing better when in fact they are actually becoming spell bound by the drug. Change in doseage can cause problems and you might not recognize it. Are you getting any talk theraphy along with meds? If you want further info contact me again.

Craig, these meds often take many months to start working, and during the wait you won't see any sign, which is why people often increase their dose without needing to.  They often make you worse before they make you better.  

A larger dose doesn't mean you'll get better any quicker, and it won't stop the anxiety immediately.  Also every time you increase your meds you'll get more side effects - you need to give each increase time to settle and for your body to adjust.  But perserverance and patience and you'll find the meds will start helping you.

It often around 3-4 months when people start feeling changes - we're all different and all take different times to recover.  Don't try and rush through - you can't force it to happen for you.  But the meds will help in time.

Also as you start to recover on these meds you'll often feel like you beginning to feel well and then find yourself back down in that hole again.  That's normal on these meds.  You'll get these blips every so often because its your body adjusting.  Have a look at my post about why these meds take so long and why you often feel rubbish https://patient.info/forums/discuss/reason-meds-take-so-long-and-why-you-feel-rubbish-571394

Mari is right - prolonged stress often brings about anxiety, depression etc.  Your body can only take so much before it boils over ..... resulting in anxiety or even a panic attack.

There's a great website that you might find helpful too - look for Anxiety No More - if you can't find it I can send you the link.  The guy has a book and he talks of how to help yourself and also talks about social anxiety.

In the meantime, keep on with these meds, but do slow down with the dose increases.  They really will help you.

There's lots of people on this site going through the same as you and will also help.

K x

Craig, I'm 27, on 40mg and feel lost. I feel so isolated at times I too have lost friends as a result of my anxiety but I'm trying to build bridges.

I have one person at work I turn to support for and my boss has now complained we talk so that's now been banned. My family live 200 miles away and although getting smashed out of my head sometimes helps it makes me feel 20 times worse the week after.

This forum has helped me realise I'm not alone, things take a long time and get worse before they get better.

We will all get through this together.

Hi Craig. I would say don't give up. As hard as it for you, there is always hope. Has gp referred you for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy? That along with your citalopram could help greatly. It can take a good 8_12 weeks for citalopram to kick in and so, try the 30 for a few weeks and hopefully, in next two weeks your anxiety will reduce. If not, you could ask gp about mirtazapine along with your citalopram. That's a very common combination the mirtazapine helps anxiety and sleep, and works well with mirtazapine for mood and anxiety. ( take mirtazapine at night).

Craig I know how you feel about the social aspect of things i try to avoid them big time.  I was at the Dr this afternoon and she has upped me to the 20MG I am dreading taking them.  Hang in there mate and message if you feel alone