Citalapram to sertraline

what is your plan to swap over?

when do you start the sertraline? I'm on day 4 now

have you noticed a change since dropping the citalopram?

I'm the same, terrified it wont work too. we wont know until we give it a really good go.

what's your anxiety and depression symptoms??

how u feeling today?

i feel ok going to now do a week of 20 and dreading that setraline wont work

just keep pushing on it's hard but you wont know until you try x I feel the same so you arent alone x

deblou you will be ok, I too was like you, really scared,worried and anxious about changing but after being on citalopram for 6 months, 4th time of taking it, I was becoming progressively worse, felt like my whole body and brain was slowly shutting down, kept putting off changing, hoping and praying that things would get better, in the end I had to admit I needed to change meds so armed with, diazepam, propranolol, parecetamol, travel sickness tablets, something for upset stomach and meal replacement drinks, I went for it. That was 10 months ago and I have been back to normal for the last 6, wish I had done it sooner. I am not saying it is going to be a walk in the park, you will have 3 or 4 weeks of thinking what the hell have I done, take it slow let your body get use to a dose before increasing, do not put pressure on yourself to get better, it will come with time

hi sue that's exactly how I feel right now myself. I'm a week into switching and dont think I've ever felt this terrible before. my mood is so low and the anxiety is unreal.

did this happen to you when you changed over?

just looking for reassurance really as I'm not coping very well and feeling like I've made a mistake x

you haven't made a mistake, not doing anything about your illness would have been a mistake. When I was on week 1 of switching I was meant to start cbt for overcoming anxiety, my husband dropped me off and I promptly walked in, muttered something to the receptionist about being too anxious to stay and walked out again, my depression would have me feel there was no point to anything and lead me to sitting in the park with intrusive thoughts that I should not have thought but through all the first few ground hog day weeks I knew somewhere in the very back of my mind that these meds were going to work for me, just at first a glimmer of a few minutes, then an evening, then afternoon and evening, recovery spread through out the day. You are dealing with withdrawals as well as start up, yes it is hell but I promise you it will not last forever.

thank you for your support x

it's hard to keep going when you feel worse isnt it?

how long did it take until you started seeing little bits of hope? I know it's still early days and I'm only on day 7.

but feeling pretty low so thank you for the reassurance, it means a lot.

I think if I saw a tiny bit of improvement it would make me feel a bit more hopeful.

what was withdrawal like first you? It's hard to tell what's side effects and what's withdrawal.

I'm definitely a lot more anxious and my mood is lower I'm clenching my jaw a lot.

occasional stomach pains but nothing too bad and achy legs but that's also not too bad so far.

the withdrawal from citalopram was not too bad, but then I had only been on them 6 months and at 20 mgs, my Dr got me to go from 20 to 15 for a week, then 10 for a week and then 10 mgs with 25mgs of sertraline for a week then 25 of only setraline for 2 weeks with instructions to go to 50 after that but i stayed on 25 for 4 weeks then went up to 37.5 for 2 weeks then 50 , which i have stayed on, sometimes i think i need more but i give it time and it settles. Are you keeping a diary because when we are having a really bad time of it we tend to forget that we have had a bit of an improvement no matter how small or short it was, I know this may sound strange to you but if you are not having any really bad side effects, only raised anxiety and lower depression, it means they are already trying to adjust the chemicals in your brain, this time next week you should start to see some calming down, stay strong, you will win, you have already taken a dive off of the highest board by starting them

thank you so much sue.

keeping a diary would be a really good idea. I wouldn't have a clue how to word it just incase I make myself more anxious by not improving lol its mad what your head does to you when feeling I'll isnt it.

sounds like your withdrawals weren't too bad so that's good! I was on them for 4 years so I dont know how bad the withdrawals will be.

sounds like your doc knew what they were doing. I'm always told on here that docs dont have a clue and that's quite scary when you need a professionals help.

can that be a sign that they are trying to work. oh God I hope its soon.

did your anxiety get a lot worse and the depression or just a little bit

also I have a really fast heart rate, I assume this is normal too?

you don't have to worry how to word it is only you who is going to read it, write what you feel, sometimes it is therapeutic to write it down, get it out, read it and think was I really that bad. I am quite lucky that I have good GP's but also extra lucky that I work in a GP surgery so I can always double check and believe me there are patients that are far more mentally ill then you and me, I know that probably doesn't help because when we are anxious and depressed we become, through no fault of own, quite self centered and cannot see that others are suffering, I used to sit and watch people going about their daily business and think oh how I wish I was normal like them but then they tell us that mental ill health is on the up but nobody looked like they were suffering as much as me, ok I am rambling now, lets get back on track, yes a fast heart rate, or what feels like one is a normal side effect of anxiety, you may also feel like you heart is having palpitations because one of the central veins that go to our stomach is very close to our heart and seeing as this medication affects not only the serotonin in our brains but also our stomach, that is why our stomach gets upset and makes it feel like it is your heart, sorry if that is not a very good explanation but I am sure our friend google will explain it better

I'm gonna give it a go and it does sound like it would be good for me to do.

you are so right about when we are poorly it's hard to not be self centered isnt it? I have to keep checking myself and making sure I asked someone how they are too and if they are ok when deep down it's hard to remember too.

that's good that you work in a gps office so if you need advise it's pretty easy to ask I assume?

that explanation was fine honest lol x it was only recently I realised about seratonin being in your stomach too .

that's why I'm trying to eat a little regularly but really cant stomach anything at all atm

did you know when your withdrawals kicked in or was it hard to tell?

thanks again sue x