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Increase to 40mg

Posted , 11 users are following.

graham69986
graham69986

Good morning I have just had my review with my dr after 7 weeks on 20mg and she has now increased my dose to 40mg as my health anxiety still hasnt improved.

I told her that id read on here that i should give it at least 12 weeks however she doesnt agree and thinks i need to increase now. I also said im worried about the side effects if i increase but she also said that shouldnt happen.

Has anyone else had success with going up to 40mg?

Thanks

0 likes, 24 replies

24 Replies

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  • lala25752
    lala25752 graham69986

    Edited

    your GP must be kidding. increase to such high dose after only 7 weeks. This is ridiculous. No wonder psychiatrists are always so vocal about giving more training to GPs about SSRIs. 20 mg is a good dose for anxiety related disorders. this dose should be given at least 12 weeks to work if not longer. this medication works by altering the levels of neurotransmitters. while that happens serotonin depletion occurs making us feel worse for few weeks for some people like in my case it made me feel worse for about 11 weeks with slow improvements from there. only now after being on this medication for over 16 weeks I can say that its finally working. I been studying and working in mental health for few years and seen so many people that fell victims to GPs either over prescribing, increasing too much or switching of medication. this in turn sent a lot of them to psychiatric hospitals where I worked and finally they get put under a psychiatrist care and get back on track.

    because of these sudden increases and overincreases people sometimes are so against ssris. as they go through horrible time while it could be avoided by just giving time for the dose to work.

    I would say stay on this dose for a other 7 weeks and see how you do then. it is a very slow working medication.

    • graham69986
      graham69986 lala25752

      Posted

      Thank you to everyone for your advice, i have decided to remain on 20mg for another few weeks and review again after 12 weeks then and only then maybe consider an increase.

      A jump straight to 40mg does seem a bit extreme and im unsure why my dr suggested it after only 7 weeks, perhaps it was because i told her that my health anxiety wasn't improving yet although i did say that id read on here i need to give it longer

    • Jonesy77
      Jonesy77 graham69986

      Posted

      I've just replied to your original message I see you decided to stick with 20mg for a while longer. Hope it works for you.

    • graham69986
      graham69986 Jonesy77

      Posted

      Thanks Laura im hoping if i give the 20mg longer it might start working for me as i worry about going up to 40mg due to all the side effects and it also being harder to eventually get off them. My health anxiety is still bad but fingers crossed i turn a corner soon

      Hope you start to see an improvement and get better soon x

  • Jonesy77
    Jonesy77 graham69986

    Edited

    Hi Graham. I've just increased from 20mg to 40mg and it's day 13. I've struggled with heightened anxiety and had to get a short course of diazepam to calm me down. I've had success with 40mg before so hopefully it will work for you but I definitely think you need to expect side effects from the increase until your body gets used to the higher dose. Best of luck. Laura

  • tamsin07572
    tamsin07572 graham69986

    Edited

    hi graham yes from reading your posts i can see that your health anxiety is still pretty bad. are you doing other things to help yourself? counselling, cbt (there are some great free modules for health anxiety online), podcasts, meditation, relaxation etc? i have found that 30mg seems to be the sweet spot for me this time round. i would try that before going to 40. 20 to 40 is a big jump and will probably give you lots of side effects. i did the increase in two stages - 5mg then another 5 three weeks later to minimise the risk of side effects and it seemed to work

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