Short term antidepressants success stories? Has anyone used them for a short period of time?

Id never really had a problems with anxiety before to be honest. I had a little sleep anxiety after my daughter was born because of insomnia, but it only lasted a few months and I managed to get myself out of that by slowly telling myself that lack of sleep was not the end of the world and that it was ok. Eventually i started to panic less about not being able to sleep and it eventually went away. But this anxiety has been on another level. It’s health anxiety I think, constantly worrying about why I was feeling so unwell, why I wasn’t getting better etc. I am usually a quick healer but the stomach problems were what tipped me over the edge I think. How are you getting on with citalopram? What is your dosage? 

Mine is also health anxiety, constantly worry about my heart because it thuds so much. The citalopram is working well so far, I’m on 10mg. It took a good 8 weeks for me to feel reasonably ok again but it is going well. I would like to come off it after 6 months ideally! My GP recommended 6 months so I think when it comes to that time I’ll go back and discuss it with her. 

How are you finding the citalopram? 

I’m only on day 3. The first day I had very bad diarrhoea within an hour of taking my fist tablet, but it did die down eventually. Yesterday I woke up on edge even before I took it, heart palpitations straight away, felt anxious up until around 2pm but the nausea seemed to have subsided a little yesterday and I was able to eat more. Today I have woken up much calmer. Still not feeling totally myself and a little anxious but no where near as bad as yesterday. I just feel abit weak and tired but then I have been through a lot physically so my body is still trying to get over that. I’m to hoping I only have to take for 6 months tops. Have you been attending any CBT sessions along side your medication. I was kinda hoping I could wait out until then without taking anything. But the physical symptoms were just to much. Did you have to take time off work during the first few weeks or were you able to get through it? I work with children and my symptoms seems to be at there worse throughout the morning and lunch ( which is when I work ) but I really want to be able to go to work because I love my job. I’ve already taken so much time off already. 

I have been attending counselling sessions which have really helped me, I have also cut out caffeine as that didn't help my anxiety levels. I also hoped I would be able to get through it without medication but the same as you, the physical symptoms were too much. 

I am a secondary school teacher and only had two weeks at school after I started taking them until we finished for the summer holidays so I was very fortunate that I didn't have to take any time off because it was the school holidays. However it did mean that my summer wasn't great but i'd much rather that than take time off work. 

I am glad you are feeling calmer today, there will be good days and there will be blips but keep going  

I’m glad it’s giving you some relief. This is a miserable journey. It’s 4:40am and I’ve been woken to high anxiety levels so I know I’m still not quite there yet. I might see if I can do a 4 day week for the next couple of weeks. Maybe that will help. Wishing you well over the next couple of months. Sometimes we just need a little help for a while whilst we get through a tricky time and then we can refocus and get back to normal once we have the right tools to do so. I can’t wait to feel like me again. Can’t come soon enough xxx

I agree, if you ever need a chat feel free to message me like you said we all need a bit of reassurance or just a sharing of experiences to remind ourselves we are doing this to feel more ourselves xx

Hey jade how are you doing? I’ve gone back to work this week and today is day number 7 of citalopram. Had lots of different side effects so far but it’s not completely debilitating like I felt before, I just feel really groggy, achey, sometimes I get heightened anxiety ( usually in the middle of the night or early hours of morning ) but I can usually push through it but with great difficulty as you can imagine. 

My work have agreed that I come back just 4 days so I have split my week and now have a Wednesday off. I’m a early years practitioner so working with the little ones is a very demanding job as I’m can imagine. It turns out that over half of the ladies I work with are either on citalopram or have been on it in the past. It’s crazy when you actually talk to people about it. Mental health is no joke and I’m glad people are coming around to being more open about it now. 

Hope you have been well 

Take care 

Sarah 

Hi Sarah,

I’m glad you’re feeling a little better and that’s great that you have gone down to 4 days at work! Hopefully that will give your mind a bit of space. We are currently trying to introduce mental health research at my work, there are a lot of students going through anxiety and I want them to know they can talk about it. 

I am good, it’s been a busy week I’ve put on a dance show at work and it went very well. It was nice to be so busy I didn’t have much time to think about anxiety! 

Xxx

Hello Diane. What was journey through citalopram like? I am only 26 days in three of those days being on 20mg from 10mg as my anxiety rocketed and I was very down. 

Did you find it made you feel very low? 

I had increased anxiety initially and gradually I felt better. It took about 8 weeks total. I did have to take another medication with it to keep me feeling stable. I started with Ativan and my psychiatrist changed it to the klonopin (misspelled ).

I also did lots of CDT I focused on strengthening my mind to control my emotions and the physical things that I was feeling. Yes. I was feeling low and scared.

What is CDT and did it work for you you? Also how long did the low feelings last? 

Sorry, I meant to say CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Techniques. Yes, it was very enlightenin and I learned how the brain works to cause anxiety and the low moods that partner with it.

It is hard to remember how long it lasted because it feels like forever and that it will never end, but I think the anxiety was pretty severe for about a year. I found that eventually I would smile or laugh at something which I hadn't done in a long time. I started dreaming again and that had stopped. Read up on CBT there are lots of free things on line.

Did you have a proper therapist or did you do your cbt online? Xx

I worked with a therapist for a short time, mostly read and worked on the techniques myself. Read several articles and then focused on what worked for me.

When I felt anxiety starting up I would take a walk or some other type of exercise to burn off serotonin.

What about when you were feeling low? How did you cope with that? Xx

I would either just find something that I like to do. I am a practicing Buddhist so I focus on the positive things in life. It could be something small like eating a favorite food, a beautiful sky etc.

I understood that I had to help the medication, it can't do it on its own.

Distraction from negative thoughts will work. You will be reprogramming your mind to stop the feeling low and eventually you will have fewer and fewer low days

How do you become a Buddhist if you don't mind me asking? I will try anything to stop feeling like this. How did you distract yourself from the negative? 

Sorry for keeping on xxx

First I would research everything you can online about CBT. You are stuck in what I call a negative loop. I've been there. It takes mental will power to, again what I call, rebooting my brain. Like restarting a computer.

Hey Rox 

I was given a number for my local therapy team in my area from my gp initially. I called them and then registered online. I have my first appointment on 23rd November, had to wait around 4 weeks for it. It’s free on the nhs if you live in the UK and basically I will be just discussing what therapy will help me on my first visit and they will put a plan in place for whatever they think will benefit me the most, whether it’s group CBT or one to one therapy. I have done couples therapy before and think talking is the best way to help any troubles that you may have. Speak to your gp about referring you. Hope you feel better real soon ( you will just take each day at a time ) x

And How did you learn to do that? Or is this something you learnt in CBT? This is what I'm struggling with xxx