Anyone NOT had any side effects on Citalopram?

Splendid news Grace !

Great example of what can happen after you felt so poorly. I'm so pleased for you and your family.

Take care

Chris

Hi - I'm after so advice/help. I've been on 10mg for 2 days and 20mg for 24 days for chronic anxiety. I've recently become depressed and suicidal in the past week. Although I did feel worse in week 1-2 I've had no relief from my anxiety and depression. Yesterday I had an episode of self harming. I usually wake up at 4 with anxiety attacks feeling like my whole body can't move. My mum has to literally lift me out of bed to get going. I feel anxious all day. I'm seeing my doctor today (this even makes me anxious). I feel like my whole life has been consumed by this. I don't talk, don't look forward to anything, don't smile, don't laugh. I've tried very hard to self help by trying to get out and do things but this takes a lot of effort and ends up in anxiety. I don't know what to do.

I think it sounds like you're doing the right thing by going to see the doctor tomorrow, it's really important you take good care of yourself. It might be a good idea when you're feeling calm to put a plan together with your mum for what to do if you feel like you might harm yourself. Your mum sounds really supportive so maybe she could help you to do this. It could include some relaxation techniques like a guided mediation or some deep breathing exercises and making sure you have someone with you for a period of time after your anxiety attacks. Even putting the plan together can help you to feel much more in control of what feels like an out of control and scary situation. Also, when you're calm it might be helpful for your mum to do a house sweep and keep hold of anything you could potentially use to self harm until you feel the risk of doing this has passed.

Look after yourself and keep in touch on here if you need support. Xx

Hi,

Seeing your doctor is the first step. Have you been referred for any counselling because other coping strategies apart from just medications might be helpful. Also have you tried mindful relaxation/meditation? There are phone apps which are free and lots people find they really help.

Sorry you're having such a rough time, but you will always find support here.

Hi Sedaw1

please remember it takes about 4 - 6 weeks and everyone is different, you are only just over the 3 weeks so hold on in there and please practice deep breathing to help calm yourself, also get exercise this helps so much. defo see your doctor if you are feeling this bad, maybe you need something else to help you get there, but please remember we have all felt really bad for the first 4-6 weeks, are you on 20mg now? Make urself smile every now and then as if you think happy you may feel happy, in the same way if you think sad and depressed this will consume you, so stop yourself thinking this way try to think how it will be when the cit kicks in for you and you feel better again.

Take care and stay strong and let me know how you get on at the doctors.

Anne

Hi everyone - I've just come back from the doctor and she has decided to take me off citalopram and put me on paxil which is suppose to be good for anxiety. She has also given me Diazepam to take before I go to bed to try help me sleep.

I'm very nervous about the change but I guess it's worth a go!

Hi guys, Mrs vn, diane ,anne and all,

As you guys know I not on cit but am suffering with anxiety/depression. My problem is sleep is my anxiety and need sleep meds to help me cope. last night had a real wobble:" these are not going to work " " i,m never going to get to sleep" does sleep pattern come back once meds are completly in system feeling rotten again. Where does it all end!

xxx

Hi sedaw,

Glad your gp was able to offer an alternative. Hopefully you will get more relief.

Hi faraway girl,

I found that night sedation didn't help beyond the first couple of nights. Have you tried relaxation/ meditation. I find that using apps on my phone with headphones sometimes help. The deep controlled breathing and focusing on that takes practice but seems to calm things right down for me. I'm finding it difficult to get to sleep but I'm no longer anxious about it, I just let it happen when it does.

Hi Sidaw,

Glad you got something to help with sleeping. I think the lack of sleep that often comes with anxiety and depression can make things feel so much worse. A friend of mine took Paxil for postnatal anxiety and it really helped her. Have they suggested any sort of counselling or therapy? Mindfulness and CBT can both be great for anxiety. I especially found mindfulness helpful when I was feeling really anxious or down.

If you wanted to go down the self help route then the book mindfulness: finding peace in a frantic world is really good (and recommended in the NICE guidelines) or if you wanted to try a CBT approach there's a great website called living life to the living life to the full which again is approved by the NICE guidelines and recommended by the NHS. The only thing is I wouldn't recommend using both as the strategies can conflict somewhat.

Hi faraway girl,

My sleep pattern is now returning to normal so hopefully yours will too soon! I think it's been a massive part in helping me to start recovering and healing properly. Initially I was only getting 45-90 mins sleep a night, then only 3-4 hours actual sleep with zopiclone and then dozing through until morning. It wasn't until you asked this question that I realised that I am sleeping properly again! I went to bed at 11:30 last night, had two cups of clipper sleep easy tea and a magnesium tablet. I briefly woke up when my husband left for work at 7:30 and then slept right through to 11! I think my body's catching up on the sleep it missed when I was still really poorly!

Emma,

How are you getting on now? I know you had a wobbly few days. Are you feeling any better now? (With the cold and the anxiety)

Xx

Hi all,

I new to this thread but not the forum and have had some great support from some of you already. Thank you.

For those people suffering from broken sleep and not wanting to take prescription sleeping pills, I have had reasonable results for the last two nights taking over the counter 'Kalms - Sleep' tablets. They are herbal so probably better for you than some of the stronger ones. The recommended dose is 3 or 4 tablets an hour before bedtime. I have tried taking 3 and I am finding that I drift off to sleep much easier. I still wake in the early hours but I am told that will get better as I get more used to Citalopram. Anyway, the 'Kalms' might not work for everyone but might be worth a try if you are anxious of sleeping meds!

I take my 20mg citalopram in the morning. Does anyone else get a wave of tiredness and lethargy in the first couple of hours after taking? I am yawning like a good un and could easily go back to bed. If this indeed a side effect does it get better after a while?

Regards

David

Hi David,

It's strange how citalopram can effect people differently. I used to take it in the morning and it'd really wake me up, however since this increase it started to make me drowsy so I switched to bedtime which really helped, although I have much more vivid dream but I can cope with that.

Just a word of warning about the herbal sleep remedies, most of them contain valerian which can react badly with citalopram. I'd hate for anyone to take them and become poorly. They can cause problems with the heart rate slowing down too much so check the labels. The non herbal nytol are actually safer as they're just an antihistamine so they won't do any damage or form any dependency the way prescribed sleep meds can.

Xx

Thanks Mrs VN.

Very good advice. I did check with my pharmacist before taking these and she said it was OK providing I was taking the Citalopram in the morning. I think I will double check with my GP as well though.

I think I have learnt a lesson not to recommend over the counter remedies on forums like these though. As we are all unaware of the potential interactions with Citalopram and any other medicines that folk might be taking.

So just to re-iterate. My Kalms recommendation comes with the strong recommendation of checking with your GP first.

David

That makes sense, I guess it's if you take them both at bedtime that problems might occur. I guess the safest thing to do when taking anything over the counter is to double check with the pharmacist or GP but as you already checked with the pharmacist David I'm sure it's fine. The only other over the counter/herbal thing that I know isn't safe with citalopram is st john's wort which despite being available in supermarkets with no real monitoring can react badly with a lot of different medications and foods.

There's also a good interactions checker on a website called drugs.com which is really handy as you can double check things on there really easily.

I'm just really cautious as in my day job I often work with people with mental health problems (yep, even those of us who work in the field aren't immune to mental illness!) and know that certain foods and supplements can have really bad reactions with some of the stronger drugs used to treat mental illnesses.

Hope your sleep pattern sorts itself soon, a week or two back I thought I'd never get a full nights sleep again and now I'm sleeping 11 hours at a time!

Xx

Hi everyone,

Many thanks Mrs vn what i.ve got to realise is it only 21/2 weeks since my major meltdown at drs and am still in creasing dosage of meds. I do have times during the day and evening when i feel like me again. Also just been out for a walk which does help eventhough i got wet thru and so did the dog. My dr signed me off for a month yesterday. How long did you take sleeping meds for Mrs vn if you dont mind me asking?

Hope everyone ok

xx

Glad you're starting to feel more like you again! It's such an awful feeling. I remember trying to explain it to my husband and saying 'I feel like someone who's never met me having to pretend to be me' it's the only way I could think to describe it! I'm definitely me again now which feels great! I'd really missed myself!

I was prescribed 7 7.5 mg zopiclone a week after initially becoming really poorly. The doctor warned me to space them out because he said he wouldn't prescribe them again. I took the full tablets for three nights, (didn't sleep through until the third night) then cut them in half and took half a night for the rest of the tablets. I then used nytol every night for about 10 days but haven't needed to take anything (other than the magnesium tablets which I thought I might as well carry on taking them as it won't do any harm and it's good for teeth and bones as well as relaxation.) I've also made sure I avoid caffeine after about 4pm. I didn't even notice I'd stopped taking the nytol until you asked about sleep this morning!

David,

I did reply to you but I put a link in so not sure the message will be approved! I was just saying that I'm sure it will be fine for you to use the kalms tablets if you checked with the pharmacist. I think I'm just overly cautious because through work I know that some of the stronger medications to treat mental illnesses can have bad reactions with other meds and even food and drinks so I always double check anything I take! There are websites where you can check interactions between medications.

Xx