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For anyone starting or changing Citalopram dose due to anxiety please read!!

Posted , 6 users are following.

Aimee87
Aimee87

Hello! I am currently 2 months into 10mg citalopram and 12 days into 20mg for anxiety and panic disorder brought about by a health scare in November 2019 which turned out to be nothing but left me with terrible anxiety!

I wanted to post some advice on here and I can't tell you how much this forum has helped me this week.

For the last 12 days I felt like I was going crazy. The increase in my dose made my anxiety so much worse, I convinced myself I had every illness going and even my foot appeared swollen to me when it wasn't! This forum saved me. Reading about other experiences gave me perspective - that I wasn't going crazy and to trust that I would come through the other side.

I woke up so early in the mornings, crying, sweating, panicking and dry heaving because of the irrational fears in my head.

Day 12 today and admittedly with the help of 10mg Propranolol 3x a day I have had two good mornings - not perfect but much better. There are a few side effects to them and the main one for me is taking longer to fall asleep and dreaming very vivid dreams, but I can cope with this if the days are calmer.

I have also started a 9 week mindfullness course and CBT - I can highly recommend! Mindfullness teaches you that you are separate from your thoughts - just because you think it doesn't mean its true! This is very powerful, ask yourself what am i allowing myself to believe right now? Is this really true? I can recommend an online resource that costs nothing that can help you with this if you message me privately. I am only 4 weeks into mindfullness practice and they say it takes around 90days but I am determined to practice everyday.

I am hoping 20mg proves to be the right dose for me, but only time will tell. I am also not solely relying on the medication either, I am trying to work on changing the way I think also.

Hope this helps anyone struggling with anxiety or panic, it really is a terrible thing to suffer with and anyone who wants to comment/talk on here please do. Like I said, I genuinely believe this forum pulled me through this week so thank you to everyone.

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • lois95799
    lois95799 Aimee87

    Posted

    this forum also made my recovery alot easier to understand.it took me 8months to recovered on 10 milligrams .thanks to katecogs iam here talking about it .i also felt like you or perhaps worse.is alot easier when starting to feel better to put mindfullness into practice.

    • Aimee87
      Aimee87 lois95799

      Posted

      I have also read a lot of Katecogs information and it helped me too. I had 10mg 7yrs ago and that was fine but after having for two months this time around I felt it wasn't working quite right. My anxiety is worse this time around as well so maybe this is why the lowest dose wasn't quite working as before. I'm hoping this is going to work for me, its early days but I have seen an improvement the past couple of days 😃

  • graham69986
    graham69986 Aimee87

    Posted

    Thanks for your post aimee its a big help. Im just coming up to my first month (20mg) and have been suffering with a lot of side affects which have made my health anxiety worse plus lots of increased anxiety which has caused me to fear every mole, freckle, spot and skin blemish. I have had a few good days but last few have been bad again so hoping to see some improvement soon. Ive also got my first cbt session next wednesday so really hope that helps with my itrational thoughts and fears x

    • Aimee87
      Aimee87 graham69986

      Posted

      Thanks for commenting. Why don't you download one of the calming apps? They have short meditations where you literally just sit and breathe for 10mins, they can have a really calming effect.

      Your symptoms will eventually fade, try to distract your mind as much as you can and don't look for problems. All of this takes practice. Let me know how you get on with CBT - I've had two sessions and already feel like the tools its giving me are so useful. x

  • lauren56079
    lauren56079 Aimee87

    Posted

    ho aimee! im on my 6th week of 10mg - was feeling slightly better last week but yesterday and today ive had the worst anxiety, heart palpatations, nausea and dizziness. Im hoping its a blip - did you have any in your first couple of weeks? I feel back to square one! x

    • Aimee87
      Aimee87 lauren56079

      Posted

      Its still early even in the 6th week - it does say on them that they take at least 4-6weeks and everyone is different! however, 20mg is the recommended dose for anxiety in adults for anxiety BUT plenty of people recover on 10mg (I did last time) i would give it at least 8 weeks and see how you feel then - if not then you can always talk to your GP about increasing to 20mg. Also, there so many things that effect our emotions - the dizziness and way you're feeling could be down to you being run down, or getting a cold. no one feels 100% healthy all of the time x

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