Success on Citalopram😁

Hi Gerrymoo, i'm just coming up to 3 months on 20 mg Citalopram and still feeling pretty bad.  When did you start to feel better and in what way?

Would very much appreciate your feedback as I'm worried these are not this is not the right medicine for me.

Hi Anna, briefly with no past history I was hit with a sudden wall of anxiety last summer , cutting a very long story short I started 10mg citalopram which was increased to 20mg 3 wks later. I had terrible side effects both on 10mg and then increasing to 20mg. Increased anxiety made me think I was going out of my mind. Combined with nausea and insomnia made life pretty miserable. I just felt exhausted and lost about two and half stone .

Gradually from going through every awful day to having better spells towards evening, life started improving. I felt a notice improvement towards Christmas and a definite improvement mid January. Strangely enough the sudden improvement followed a blip in which I was advised to go up to 30mg. I didn't, I prayed it was a blip.and it was. Valium and the support from this forum got me through such a terrible time! ..

I'm back at work fully now and coping in a very busy stressful environment, hang on in there Anna. Are you having some good days or parts of a day? If so then it's obviously starting to work . It's so hard

Thanks so much for getting back to me.  It gives me hope that it took a while for you to recover.  I have had good days but not recently (last 2 weeks have been tough) but yes, I usually feel better in the evenings and a couple of weekends ago I thought I was ok again.

Glad to hear you're back at work and you've put this ordeal behind you. Hopefully this is just a blip I'm having before an improvement.

Thanks again, it's appreciated xx 

Hi gerrymoo

How long were young off work for?

How did you feel about returning?

I am aiming to get back next week after sick leave. Working wasn't the cause but certainly didn't help. Things are sorted now.

I know my anxiety is going to ramp up but I think it will do me good to get back.

Any advice would be great 😀

Hi Zoe,

I was off for 5 months in total- a long time! It's a strange one really because I love my job añd although it's very demanding both physically and mentally I never believed it was the cause of my anxiety. However, I had been pretty well over Christmas and then had a horrible blip 1st week in january and had an appt with my GP who signed me off another month and told me to increase the dose to 30mg.

This was a turning point because no way was I increasing the dose I just couldn't face it and also I didn't want to be off work for another month! I gathered that I would have to face work at some point and just phoned work and told them I was going back. Once I'd made my mind up I've never looked back. Never had any more anxiety, just got on with it although the phased return helped massively. Work were brilliant and I've never looked back although I'm exhausted when I get in.

Hope this helps zoe- how long have you been off?

I've been off 10weeks.

If having a phased return too.

I just don't like the thought of returning and not being 100%. I know that being off work now is not helping my recovery and that I will feel better once in there.

I thank me confidence has just had a knock.

Zoe , I was exactly the same. I just wanted to be 100% but knew I would just have to bite the bullet and go back. That's what I did and been back 8 weeks now, I just dreaded the return of that horrible feeling. I think it'll take a long time until it's a distant memory but I am starting to distance myself from it now so hopefully as time goes on in won't think about it at all. Only time I notice I'm not as good is when I've not slept well.

As it said previously I know my anxiety is going to ramping ⤴ with the thought of going back to work. Hey-ho it is!!

I really want to go back and know that by working I well have less time to ruminate.

I have put everything in place to make the first day as stress free as I can but it just so nervous.

Any advice to prepare please?

When you go to your GP for a review mention this Anna. It maybe not the drug for you and you can swop to another SSRI....but it must be under gp direction or you will be ill.  You can't stop cold turkey

it may be you need a slightly higher dose and you will feel rough as you increase the dose again. Even by 10 mg 

i just gradually woke up each morning feeling better and better. Mornings were my worst time. I couldn't even face sorting the laundry...

i am dancing on tables now! 😂

How are you feeling now?  Just wondering, since it has been a little over a month since your last post.  I was upped dosages pretty quickly on this medicine and going to talk to my GP today.  I went from 10 to 20 to 40 within three weeks.  So it has been a lot of fun with the side effects

you can’t dance on tablesevery day no!

but I have to learn to manage myself 

get up get sorted do things I don’t necessarily want to do and trybe grateful 

Lifes irriations get in the way don’t they but the medication is only 60% isn’t it?

You have to use self help skills for the rest of it I feel 

How long before you started feeling better?

THE second time ... probably slowly improved from 6 weeks onwards

maxing out by 12 weeks

am still on it

manage myself in all ways across the board ,,,,