My doctor recommends Citalopram but I can't help thinking I just need to do more running...

[RunningUphill]

I am depressed. My glorious career went to sh*t last year, my eldest child has been diagnosed with autism, my husband works long hours and I find it hard with work and childcare to get out of the house to breathe/meet people/get some perspective. I'm either furious or in floods of tears or grimly stomping on the treadmill in our front room to try and tire myself out so I can stop thinking.
My doctor says I'm depressed and need counselling and Citalopram. I'm wary of the chemicals and side effects of the latter my knee-jerk reaction is to that I just need more fresh air! but at this point I can't figure out how the hell else to get better. Am very bored of being only able to think about how pointless and crap I am.
Has anyone else been here or got suggestions? I'd be very grateful.

I have been taking CIT for 2.5 months now for Anxiety. The only side effect i had was grinding my teeth and that only lasted a few days. Oh i also have the strangest most detailed dreams ...which i love and hope i never loose them !!

I cut down on my drinking (because i controlled my anxiety with alcohol) just before i started on the CIT ... and in the last 3 months have had the odd (maybe one a month) glass of wine with no side effects.

I also exercise in doors a lot more then i am able to go running outdoors ....I haven't put on any weight

Ugh, bad morning today. Feeling sick and dizzy and very low (though that's not news i guess!)

that was very self-indulgent, sorry. trying not to wallow but don't always succeed!

that's ok running - I have had nausea and dizziness too, and very bad headaches. Today is day 7 and it all seems to be easing off.

i have suffered from post natal depression and been on anti depressions and was on the one the doctor has said would help you i also got some cbt counciling which i found helped me (not saying it will help everyone). i am now in the recovery part and working for the dorset mental health forum as a peer support worker and with the sport leisure activity programme , so i would say give it a go with the tablets and therapy as well as do the sport part of it REMEMBER WHAT WORKS WITH ONE PERSON MIGHT NOT WORK FOR ANOTHER

I'm glad you are giving them a go RunningUphill. I found the side effects for the first couple of weeks quite horrible - really affected my stomach and bowels. I also found that it tooks upwards of 6 weeks for it to kick in properly and have an effect on the depression.

What dose are you starting on?

Ps - I didn't stop drinking and didn't find my libido affected by citalopram. Everybody reacts to things differently I guess. I have pretty much drinking on the head though in the last year and a half because I think drinking made my depression worse.

Alcohol is known to be a depressant.

thank you everyone.
i'm on 20mg since monday and so far feel a bit sick and sweaty in the mornings, and have had a couple of rotten headaches.
this is the first friday night in i don't know how long that i haven't had a drink, but i'm getting through it thinking how much better i'll feel tomorrow -- and how much easier my morning run will be!
had first cbt session today which was gruelling, but it's good to feel as though i'm doing something positive to fix things.
it's great to be able to talk to you all on here too and know that other people are going through it.

ADs did not work for me.The side effects were horrendous and I actually felt worse on ADS.
Three times I have gone on them,three times I have got much worse and then been told by the GP to increase the dose.Three times I came off them and three times I improved and got back to normal.
I suffer from OCD in the form of not been able to switch off worry.They are not the type of worry usually associated with OCD,eg handwashing or having a sexual thought that is inappropriate.My OCD is (for example)worrying that I filled in a form incorrectly or something along those lines.It is hard to explain but usually the worry is reasonable and goes on for years.I see a counsellor and they say,yes I would worry about that too.It has wrecked my Life,there is no proportion to my worry.I would love ADs to work but they just don`t.CBT has worked brilliantly for me,most times,sometimes the counsellor has not been the right one.Can I add a note of caution,this is a very personal view.I am aware that for some people,ADs have meant the difference between Life and Death,and it is obvious they REALLY are brilliant for many people,but not for me.Anyone else had a similar experience.Also I think having too much on,too much to cope with,difficult relationships and pressures feed depression/ocd.
I would like to recommend a book,Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert.Really helpful!Good Luck and please take care of yourself.

I found CBT extremely useful, it was very hard work and I had to think extremely hard but it got to the bottom of my thinking patterns and made me much more self aware, definately worth doing!

It worries me a bit that 30 odd years ago when I worked in an Office,there were so many middle aged women on valium,one even kept her little pills in a fancy pill box with a gilt edge.Then it seems prozac appeared in the 90s.I am not saying they are not needed by some people,but I do think that talking therapies , self-help books,hobbies even,play a valuable part in mental health.Chemical therapy never worked for me,but I was shocked by how easily the GP reached for the prescription pad.When my baby was diagnosed with severe brain damage,I remember the GP almost insisting on giving me a prescription.(which I left on the sideboard).Yes of course I was heartbroken,and very depressed.How would valium,diazapam or whatever stuff he seemed determined to give me help?(MUMSNET would have been brilliant then!)

I have an anxiety disorder that has gone on for years and eventually it got so bad that I took citalopram. I felt marginally better within hours of taking it and over the next few weeks I started to feel able to cope again. I took it for 6 months but had to come off it when I fell pregnant. Because I had to come off it quickly it was hard work, but since then I haven't felt anxious at all (6 months). I was on a low dose 20mgs and it has made all the difference to my life...

hello again
jardy, i completely agree with the points you make. i held off for a long time because i felt that what was really pushing me over the edge was simply the amount of time i was spending on my own in the house. but then i realised that walking around the supermarket crying over lost loo roll was not normal behaviour, and then also found that the weekends when everyone was home and i had loads of company i was just as bad. i'm looking at the pills as a way of helping me rebalance, while the cbt helps me rewire my negatives for positives.
mumsnet is definitely my third form of therapy!

Hi running,I see that travis had some really positive outcomes for her.I would have loved that to happen to me,but the reverse happened.I just got worse and worse on ADs.That was my personal experience.Docs said,oh you need to persevere or they increased the dose(which made me much much worse)It seemed to be the first port of call.
I would never go on them again.I have lost all confidence in them working for me,and would rather try and handle my mental health disorder in a different way.

We are all different and I think antidepressants do have their place, they certainly got me out of a hole when I had PND, but I think doctors dish them out too readily without going into the potential side effects and they don't understand how tough they can be to get off properly. My doctor still hasn't taken on board that I'm having to wean myself off so slowly it's going to take me five years in total to get off. I wish there was so much more help and support available other than pills.

I am on day 9 now and had no problems at all with bowels or stomach. horrible headaches but these are easing off. have only had 2 glassed of wine in 9 days too, so hard to tell if any side effects are de-tox related or AD related. i do think I feel a bit better though.

What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - you talk through a situation that causes you anxiety/angst/depression and learn how to break it down. To understand why you believe what you do, how true that belief is and how to approach it differently. It's excellent for some people.

Do you need to be referred by your GP for CBT then?

Hi all this is my first post on MN. Wasn't sure whether to start a new thread- I apologise running but there seems to be a lot of similarities so I thought it made sense to post on here.
I have eventually accepted that I may be suffering from depression to some degree. It?s taken me a long time to admit this, as I desperately wanted there to be a physical ailment that the doctors could treat. I was adamant it was to do with fluctuating hormones, but nothing conclusive had come back from tests.
Last Tuesday I started taking Prozac reluctantly. On Wed and Thurs I felt fab, but can't see the drugs working so quickly? Yet on Fri through to today, I feel really down again.
I have suffered quite badly with vomiting and/or diarrhoea since taking them and need to convince myself that the benefits outweigh the side effects, so if anyone can give help on how to cope with that I would be really grateful.
About a year ago I started running. I am useless at it and don't really enjoy it, but know that the endorphins should help me beat this so trying to keep it up. I still don?t know why I feel like this, I have a wonderful husband and 2 fantastic children. I see other people who could justify feeling like this, but why me?

I started doing early morning exercise in a bid to help my depression.I started to get worse.I increased the exercise.I got much worse.I got up at 6 to get to the Gym and joined all the other people exercising in an effort to improve.I got so bad,what with the ADs,and my manic exercise.It seemed to me that both were making me worse,as if my body recognised that it was all too much for it.I took a long holiday,had CBT,only did gentle walks taking in the scenery and ending with a latte,STOPPED THE ADs.After the holiday I was back to normal,before I was depressed.To IHBG,I was driven by the thought that running would aid my depression,however the reverse happened.I know there will be those for whome it did help enormously,but it didn`t help me.

Millimat - yes you do but you can ask to be referred. You normally would see a psychiatrist first I think, to check that it would benefit you.

How many of you on ADs are still working without any time off sick?

IHBG no need to apologise. I'm sorry you're feeling so rotten. I've found this forum very helpful. Can't help you re Prozac I'm sure someone will be along soon who can re the time off sick, I'm off for two weeks then going back. Any longer I think would be unhelpful because I need to keep in a routine. My GP thought I just needed a short break to try to get some sleep, get started on the pills and the counselling and to get out in the fresh air for a bit!

If you don't like running, don't run. I run because I love it -- I've used it as stress relief and for pure enjoyment for about ten years and I think no small part of my depression right now came about because I couldn't get out of the house to run outside and switch off properly. Perhaps if you don't enjoy it, IHBG, then jardy's approach of gentle walks and a latte might do you more good? It's more about getting time for you to switch off I guess. Or if you're looking for more endorphins then maybe a gym class? My CBT counsellor said it was important to get out of the house and do some form of exercise that felt like an achievement or a break from the round and round of home life .. but what that is, is up to you!

Good luck.