Success on Citalopram😁

It can take several weeks to feel any improvement whilst he goes though this I am afraid

Others will back me up am sure

Do you really mean 22 times or was that a typo?

In 2013 my recovery was very quick

This time was a good 6 before improvement started

I have always been put on 20mg

Glad I could help

Hi I'm sorry it was a typo. Only twice.

I want to give 15 a fair shot. Based on what I've read here and other articles although dose is important it seems giving time is vital. Until the brain decides to desensitize itself from extra serotonin levels free flowing and tells the neuron cells to go ahead fire away more we will continue to feel off.

I'm on week 4 on the med 10mg and 4th day on 15. Had a really good day yesterday hoping for more of those Mornings are the absolute worst.

Thank you all for the encouragement

Ur welcome .....although 20 mg is the initial therapeutic starting dose for most people unless your way over 65

What you can sometimes get is a return of side effects as you increase again from 15mg

That's why GPs tend to start at 20mg then let it settle

Personally I think it's better to go inat 20 mg and ride the storm from a medical perspective.

Starting my 5th week today. Experienced 4 consecutive days of feeling really good at the end of week 4 into the weekend where we are in vacation as a family.

And yet here Monday comes and even though in a beautiful hotel started to feel some of the symptoms again. Something about Monday's I'm not sure if anyone else experiences that then gets better again as week progresses.

I

It's not necessarily Mondays... it just happens like that

Empathy for you

One can have everything and still you get those dark days

Keep going

Well done👏

Hi. So I don't know whether to laugh at this or be scared. Today I arrived home from our 5 day vacation, on my drive home the palpitations started. As I got home much of the old anxiety thoughts and feelings I left behind slowly started to creep up. As I saw my inlaws (who live with us and my father in law recently sick with cancer which triggered this anxiety spell 2 months ago)

Anxiety got worse. I can't believe my own home, my place of refuge is the trigger.

I'm also disappointed because this is my 5th week on cit and I felt so much better while away and now that I'm home I feel like it's coming back. It's cheating if it only works while at the beach lol I need it to work at home!

That's all very understandable as you have a lot of anxious situations to deal with on top of your personal anxiety

Talk to yr Dr I had similar extra panic attacks like that. My Dr prescribed me propranolol a beta blocker which calms everything down slows the heart rate and helps stop that adrenaline and cortisol rushing round your body making you feel

awful

I have only needed 7 tablets over 6 months

Takes ten minutes to kick in

Also/Or try really deep slow breathing. Isolate yourself physically from a situation. Read a book. Listen to meditative music

Pacing myself and leaving things for another day is better for me

Yes I'm actually in low dose of metaprolol beta blocker. If I take too much it makes my anxiety worse.

Today has just been a tough one. Feeling all kinds of weird things. Tension in head neck and like a tingle in my forearms. Some brief minutes of feeling good then back down again. After nearly 5 really good days. Tomorrow I have a work meeting I'm anxious about where in the past I thrived in those. I can't wait to feel myself consistently again.

I guess the fact that I've had so many good days must mean the medicine is working and is the right one I just need to give it more time I guess.

Is it normal to be freakin out 5 weeks into medicine? I had 4 really good days as I said. Now I have a meeting for this morning and I couldn't sleep and I'm feeling super panicky this morning like I don't want to face the people at work.

Mind you 2 weeks ago I had a 2 day meeting I didn't feel nearly this anxious about it, now with more weeks under my belt on the meds and experienced better days why would I be freaking out? Is this normal? I hope this doesn't mean I'm going backwards or I'm not on right meds?

I think you are most likely experiencing a blip. I had them for a while too. It would seem that I was going along good for a few days then all at once I would have some bad ones then things would start to even out for me again. As I understand it these episodes are normal and for me at least they got further and farther between as I got further into treatment now I don't notice them at all.

Also does the clock start all over again each time you go up strength? In other words I'm 5 weeks total into the drug but only about a week and a half on the 15mg's. Does it take another 4 to 6 weeks on the new strength? I though because I had a month built up of the 10mg and because I felt so good 2 days after going up to 15 that I would just get better faster. But now I'm wondering if it takes more time. The nurse did say I should be in another 4 weeks when they increased it.

You don't get better faster because of dosage increase and yes you are likely to go through renewed side effects. My doctor has to me to do dosage increases slowly over a period of time so that they aren't as much of a shock to my system and the effects aren't as abrupt but yes I do still get them to some degree.

Oh ok. I just need to give the 15 more weeks then. Even if I do end up on 20. I'm so sensitive to this stuff. Today has been really rough.

I hope there's truly light at end of tunnel that makes this sacrifice worth it. Sometimes I think of just quiting and trying to face it on my own again. But then I will feel good and think oh maybe there's hope for me yet.

Yes It will happen

personally and I will say again I think the 20 mg therapeutic dose to start on is correct. Gets it all over at once

best for me anyway...

It's tough I know but carry on...

I know and I appreciate your encouragement. But I'm feeling so bad right now on the 15. Side effects worse and lasting longer I just don't see how I can go to 20 now.

I feel like side effects are so much worse at the 15. I can't get any relief for the last 48 hrs. I didn't experience that on 10. I at least had good evenings or afternoons.

Anyone go to 15 and feel it was too much then went back to 10mg? How did that work out? I feel like 2 weeks into 15 this making me worse not better.

Any thoughts greatly appreciate.

Hi Fernando 

I hope you find below helpful....

And everyone out there suffering ....

This was posted by another contributor to this site...Kate cogs. She found it on line...it's very true.....which you may find intersting.  Its about why you feel so rubbish when taking these meds, why your mood is up and down, why it takes so long and the process it all goes through.

Sorry its a long post.

When starting an SSRI or increasing it's dose , often makes people feel really rubbish, which can cause a great deal of stress as you begin to wonder whats happening, why is their illness getting worse, are these meds working etc.

Somone recently posted a great post explaining what these meds do in our brains, and I’d like to add further to this.  So, as already posted ….. the brain is basically a big dense bundle of nerves which carry electrical signals around our brain and body.  The nerve cells don’t touch each other, leaving a small gap between each cell, called a synapse.  So how do signals get from one nerve to another?

Neurotransmitters are chemicals released by nerve cells that tell a neighbouring nerve cell to pass the signal along.  A bit like pass the parcel.  Serotonin is one such neurotransmitter.   So when an electrical signal reaches the end of a nerve cell that deals with serotonin, that cell releases serotonin into the gap (synapse), which then crosses the gap and interacts with the nearby nerve cell and tells it to pass the signal along.

Once the serotonin has done it's job, the serotonin is then reabsorbed from the gap so that no more signals are passed until the next one comes down the nerve.  SSRIs, (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) interfere with this reabsorbtion process and thus it stays in the gap longer, which equates to more serotonin and more signals.

So furthering on from there ….. why do you feel so rubbish?

So, along with the releasing of serotonin, and reabsorbing it, nerve cells also have parts that detect an increase in serotonin level and tell the nerve cell to stop producing anymore serotonin until the level drops.  These are called autoreceptors, which are the reason you feel like so rubbish.

So the SSRI will increase the amount of serotonin that’s gathered in the synapses between nerve cells, but unfortunately the autoreceptors of the nerve cell pick up on this increase and tell the nerve cell to stop producing serotonin.  The result of this is that when you first start taking an SSRI your serotonin levels drop.

How do they go up again?

Eventually with continuous use of the SSRI medication, the autoreceptors become desensitised, that is to say they've continually told the nerve cell to stop producing serotonin but yet serotonin is still there.  In short they simply give up.  They stop telling the nerve cell to stop producing serotonin and your serotonin levels start to increase.

This desensitisation takes time, it doesn't happen over night and it won't even begin to happen until the SSRI levels have stabilised.  This is why you feel so rubbish, and is why your mood drops and your anxiety increases (also fuelledd by the fear of not knowing whats going on).  Your mood will be up and down as the seronotin continues to try to stablise.

So, to summarise:

SSRIs cause your serotonin levels to drop when you first start taking them.  Your serotonin levels will not rise until the autoreceptors in your brain have stopped working (become desensitised), all of which takes lots and lots of time.  Everyone is different, so for some it can be many weeks and other months.

I hope this helps some people to understand what these meds are doing and why you don't get instant results, compared to other meds that work in different ways which is the reason they can have a more immediate effects (benzos for example).

Yes I as read thisbthanks. The issue here is I'm not tolerating this higher dose at all. With 10 I was able to manage and have good days and bad days. With 15 as it's building here on week 2 I can't tolerate I have no moments of relief and anxiety + side effects are greater than before. It's been 4 consecutive days of feeling horrible. Like I just want to die. I can't keep this up for weeks.

Hi Gillian I couldn't help it I made the choice together with my wife to go back to 10mg today. I couldn't handle tolerate the 15 anymore. It made me worse with no relief at all in this my 2nd week on it, then when I was on the 10mg. I don't have my Dr appt til Tues afternoon and being it was weekend at just had to make a choice. And maybe it was wrong but I know I was not feeling right at all. Much worse. And I couldn't tolerate that for weeks. I'm still feeling horrible today as I'm sure it will take some time now for my brain to go back to where it was the 10mg. Do you know of anyone that this same problem and had to go down? I feel I didn't give the 10mg enough time as I was starting to have good days in just 3 weeks then jumped to 15 as I had pressure over me thinking I needed to get to 20mg. Now I regret it not being more patient and at least waiting for the 10mg to level set. I feel like crying every afternoon lately with high anxiety, fear, palpitations intrusive thoughts the whole 9 yards! I feel hopeless. This is so hard!! I wish I was at place where I can encourage others right now but I'm just not there yet. Help please.

And it was of some help

You will experience problems as you go down to 10 mg

As When you come off it altogether if one ever does ..... this has to be done very very slowly ...

But I can understand you need to do something

Let us know how you go on