Heightened anxiety week 4 Citalopram 20mg, reassurance needed
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hi guys,
Just looking for a little positive reassurance from people with experience of Citalopram.
Basically I overcame GAD and OCD for 4 years through therapy and 10mg Citalopram.
Recently I had a really bad reaction after x2 courses of antibiotics and was left with intense anxiety and depression. Along with lots of other things going on it was lingering far too long and with the help of a therapist we decided to go up to 20mg.
Basically from day 1 of 20mg I have had absolutely insane anxiety, intrusive thoughts etc and zero improvement with this over the last 4 weeks, diazepam is my only help at the moment.
While I appreciate that it takes time to see improvement, should I be persisting with anxiety as it is horrific? I can't see how it is going to suddenly stop, it is almost like the drug is too activating.
I expected week 1 to be horrific, week 2 90% horrific, week 3 80% horrific, week 4 70% horrific etc but it has just stayed at 100%
Do I bare with it or would you go down to 10mg again, potentially switch medication?
Thanks so much
0 likes, 3 replies
jadelou93 tom06625
Posted
Hi Tom,
I am sorry your having g such a hard time with this medication, it is horrible with the side effects it gives, it does heighten your anxiety a lot. I am now 8months in on 20mg, and I found that things felt very high until the 6week mark, after then it started to ease off from then. It wasn't until about the 5-6 month mark that I noticed all the positive changes, I was less anxious, I was able to go out again, my eating got better, the intrusive thoughts had disappeared by about 10weeks, but this is my first time on Citalopram so it was all new to me, I actually came to this site for help when things weren't getting any better, but in reality they were, you may feel right now that they ain't really doing much but please do hold on, you're doing so well, it is hard and scary but I do promise you it gets so much better.
You will have good days and bad days, more bad than good in the beginning but you will soon see that the bad days get less and you have a lot more good days!
I found it helped me a lot to write down my moods, like write in a book:
Anxiety
Fear
Sadness
Joy
and other things a like, and rate them for 0 being terrible and 5 being the best you feel. It was actually a little thing my Psychiatrist gave me, and I still do it now, it has helped me also see how much better I really am.
I hope you start to feel the positive changes soon, and I hope I have helped in some way. I am always here if you need a chat, I am always willing to try and help if I can 😃
Jade x
tom06625 jadelou93
Posted
Thank you Jade.
Update
After 7 weeks of feeling horrific on 20mg and zero improvement, my doctor has increased me to 30mg.
I am nearly at 2 weeks of 30mg and my anxiety, depression, intrusions are still horrendous. How long do I last out 30mg and Citalopram as a whole?
My psychiatrist said it takes up to 12 weeks but I am not sure if he meant per dose or just 12 weeks total on Citalopram. He also recommended a switch of medication but that just scares the hell out of me.
Any advice guys?
dubry7605074 tom06625
Posted
First of all, your doc is a quack for increasing your dose so soon. 7 weeks is far too early to change. Your mind hasnt had time to settle any. Then the updose gave you even more effects. Imo, you should still be on 20mg until you settle. More is not always better on these meds. I'm currently on 10mg. I started on 20mg and lowered to 10mg after my doc advised me the lower doses were more gor snxiety than the higher doses. I've taken this med for over 2 years and gave me my life back. You certainly did not need to change dosage after only 7 weeks.