Anyone NOT had any side effects on Citalopram?

Hi all,

Got up early for gp this morning after a reasonable nights sleep. Gp sees am improvement but is not convinced it is all the citalopram as I've been near here before and relapsed before I took it. My hormones were fine when they were checked but my glucose was borderline so I've to have a glucose tolerance test. It seems to be likely post viral fatigue.

Am doing consistently better, had an odd blip while watching tv last night where I got wobbly and shaky and ended up weeing 4 times in the next hour but it settled quickly. I'm a bit tired today but think that's the early rise.

Back to wait and see for me.

Hope everyone else is doing OK. :-D

Hi, been reading most of the posts on this thread.

I've been one citalopram for 2 months now. Went on them because of things getting on top of me whilst moving house and job..

Mostly it's working, although I started to faze out and had real trouble concentrating again, with the bad headaches..

So back to the drs to be advised this was normal and sometimes you have a little slide backwards, so have had my dose increased from 20mg to 30mg.

I too yawn for England now with the sort of juddering of my jaw, very strange.

My question is do I take the whole increased dose or stagger it? Felt very strange after taking the full dose last night .

Many thanks in antisipation.

Donna

Thank you for the continued advice everyone.

Went to see my friend today ans she has invited me and my daughter out for the day tomorrow, so something nice to look forward to.

Donna I would go for the full increase. I went from 20 to 40mg after 8 weeks on 20 had side effects for 2 weeks during the increase.

I would strongly recommend giving cit at least 6 to 8 weeks before deciding if its right for you.

Think I am going to take your advise MrsVN and do some reading about self help for anxiety.

Everyone stay strong x

Thanks Emma,

will stick with it. Bit puzzling though, my dr informed me this drug was non drowsy?!

I'm so tired, whilst at work all day yawning my head off, all I do is yearn for my bed!!

Hi Donna, I think it effects people in different ways, it used to wake me up when I was on a lower dose so I always took it in the morning, however, I've upped my dose again since having a bout of depression and found that it's made me drowsy this time so I've switched to taking it at bedtime. I guess in terms of upping the dose it depends on how the side effects are impacting on your functioning day to day. I've been signed off work and don't have the responsibility of having children and have a husband to take care of the house so it was better for me to do it in one fell swoop and have stronger side effects but for a shorter time, whereas if you do it gradually you'll prolong the side effects and but they should be less intense.

Emma,

I'm glad you have something to look forward to. I had a day out with friends on Saturday and it did me the world of good, I was anxious about it in the morning and almost cancelled but i reminded myself that there was nothing to worry about as they're all good friends and wouldn't mind if I needed to go home early or got overwhelmed and I was absolutely fine. I had a lovely time and felt like I was back in 'the land of the living'!

I think it'll really help to find some strategies that work for you when you start having intrusive or racing thoughts. Like I said before it's just your body reacting to these thoughts as if you're in physical danger, your body doesn't always know the difference, that's what causes the feeling of fear and panic. It doesn't necessarily make the fear feel less real but it helps me to remember this when it happens to me. It's just a release of chemicals into your body that need to work their way out again.

Diane, so glad you're starting to feel more consistently better. Will you need to continue on the citalopram if it is post viral fatigue? Is there a way for the GP to know whether it is this for certain?

Christine,

Again, the negative thinking is another symptom of the illness so I'm not surprised you're thinking the worst! It drove me mad when I was feeling really poorly and people would tell me to 'think positive' 'oh, I see, I just need to think positive, oh silly me!' If only it was that simple!

Beco,

Hope you're doing okay today?

Xx

Hi Mrs VN,

The plan is to stay on it for 6 months at least and see from there as long as I tolerate it.

Like I say wait and watch.....

:-D

Well, that's good, I was worried you were going to say that it's completely the wrong treatment for post viral fatigue! It sounds as though you're starting to come out of the worst of the side effects now. If you think back to where you were three weeks ago (seems like a lifetime ago now!) there's been a massive improvement!

Faraway girl,

Are you finding it any easier to get some sleep?

Xx

Hi everyone,

I am on day one of 10mg,after a couple of hours I felt jittery,upset stomach,yawning and just generally

feeling a bit out of it.I have 3 children but my youngest is 10 months and I'm worried I will feel ill for the next

few weeks.My husband is at college 3 days a week and I haven't really got a lot of support so I'm hoping

I can maybe get some on the forum.I have only just started being anxious since getting pregnant with my

youngest.My doctor thinks i have post traumatic stress and havin my daughter has ha something to do

with it. I have this constant feeling of dread each day,I worry about my husband,my kids just everything.

I get these horrible thoughts and think they will die or I will,if i get a pain I think its a heart attack. My father

died 7 years ago in front of myself and mother,he had a heat failure and 2 years later I was in a serious

car accident which i was told I should not have survived because of my injuries so now years later I'm

scared to travel and I always think there is something wrong with me.I feel like i'm not in control anymore

So doc started me on 10mg to start and i feel terrible having to get a pill to make me feel better,I so lucky

I have great kids a wonderful husband why can I not shake this away myself,will I always have to take

them?

Thanks

Louise

Hi Louise the brain works in weird ways, sometimes it reacts badly when it gets overloaded, and causes anxiety and depression, we cant stop it happening as you know but we can help it, and Citalapram helps us get there thru the bad bits, deep breathing and meditation can help calm you while starting out and its really useful going forward too, Ask the Doc to refer you for CBT so you can learn to control your thoughts better when anxious and in general,

I can relate to you feeling terrible having to take a pill, I was like that too was so anxious and worse when told I had to take Cit so I took the prescription from the Doc and picked it up but thought I can do this without meds - I had my Cit for 2 months before I realised I couldn't do it on my own, and started taking them as at my wits end, I used to feel sick when I went to take them, and it made my anxiety worse, but then 5 - 6 weeks in I felt so much better, but it has been a tough ride getting here, this forum really helped as so many supportive folk suffering just like ourselves. It was good to know I wasn't the only one.

I started on 10mg increased to 20mg 20 days ago with literally no side effects on my increase except a few headaches which I had on 10mg anyway. I am so glad I took Cit as they have brought back my old self, no stomach pain and the grey veil in my head is gone, my chest pain is gone, so I am doing CBT to be able to help myself when I come off Cit, so as you can see I and lots of other folk on here have been where you are today, please just stay strong you will still be a good Mum, just remember it can take 4-6 weeks to feel the benefit as your body gets used to Cit but will be really worth it.

Take care and keep in touch,

Anne xx

Hi Louise,

It sounds as though you have had a really hard time. I would take the Cit as it will help you to start to deal with how you feel. It helps in a way where you start to think more logically and lifts your mood so that you can deal with feel anxious. Stay with it but I'm guessing counselling/therapy would be the best long term plan for you. I've had counselling and it does help talking. I am about to start a new course of therapy privately next week. Not sure if its CBT but apparently it will help me to deal with my thoughts and to help prevent certain thoughts causing fear and anxiety. A lot of my is based around death and I have at time intense intrusive thoughts.

Stay strong and take all of the help and support you need.

Anne,

You sound like you've come a long way in getting back to feeling yourself. Keep going.

As for me I am not as bad today. Trying to remind myself of how many goods days I have had.

The main issue I have again is that I am waking up feeling really sick and I start to stress about it.

Surely at week 6 this isn't a side effect still? Any advice on how I beat this? Nausea stopped after 2 weeks but its back really bad. I don't want it to become an issue.

I'm off out to brave the rain with my daughter and friend. I am sure that will keep me distracted for a few hours.

Love to you all x

Hi everyone,

Feeling very jittery this morning and horribly anxious reason being still not sleeping unaided took nytol last night and slept till 5 now am shaking like a leaf. Problem is my anxiety is to do with sleep any help/ advice would be grateful. I,m just so glad i found this forum.

xxx

Morning All,

I went to the doctor's this morning, a bit of a waste of time really, he just said come back in 2 weeks time. I did ask about the propranalol and he said I could take one in the morning but I almost feel that I have put words into his mouth, do you think I'm being silly, I don't mind if you say Yes.

I hope you are have a better day today and they keep getting better. xx

Hi everyone,

Please take Citalopram as prescribed because it works! I'm a walking advert of how Cit can change somebody's life.

Started Cit 20mg on 16th October, lots of side effects, increased to 30 after almost 4 weeks, now trying to decrease the dose back to 20 as I think it suits me best. For the first 7 weeks I was so anxious that my husband was scared to leave me on my own when he went to work. Was taking 1mg of Lorazapam and 7.5 Zopiclone as couldn't sleep at all. Then I started to improve and all the negative thinking, all the sleepless nights disappeared. Weaned myself off Lorazapam and Zopiclone, my headaches stopped, my dizziness stopped and I feel wonderful.

Went back to work on 6th January (staggered, so work till lunch for 2 weeks then full time after that). Smiling all the time, sleeping well, chatty and optimistic again.

Keep it up

Grace