Can Citalopram stop working?

[racingheart]

I've been on Citalopram for about a year and it's been one of the best years of my life - nothing spectacular, just the feeling that I am myself again and can cope with what life brings.
But recently some of the old warning signs of depression have started up again. Sleeping in the afternoon, procrastination about even the easiest of jobs (like posting a letter!) Irritablity. Irrational screaming at the kids 9which I hate, hate hate doing. Hate seeing them creep around me in case I fire off at them. It makes me feel so low.)

Yesterday I was out shopping and it got worse. I felt an overwhelming urge to snap at people who were annoying me. I didn't, but give it a week and I will be, I can tell. Also nearly burst into tears for no real reason. So all the signs are there. What do I do? Ask for a stronger dose? I'm on 20mg now.

I can't bear feeling like this and knowing it's only the beginning - it'll get worse. Please help.

Make an appointment to see your GP or your psychiatrist now. They are in the best position to advise.

Once you've made the appointment, look at some of the ideas on this website:
www.llttf.com/

If you have been on the same dose for a year racingheart and it has worked fine so far then i would say you probably need a larger dose, 20mg is the lowest dose and it also comes in 40mg and 60mg so maybe you should go back to your GP and explain that its not having the same effect, or your GP might suggest a different AD but if citalopram suits you then you should ask for a higher dose, i am on a different AD ( mirtazapine ) and it stopped being so effective after about a year and my GP upped my dose.

Thanks Unwind and BSV.

Citalopram really agrees with me. It has transformed my life for the better. I've tried other things in the past - prozac - disaster - and seroxat - just felt numb and dead. On citalopram I feel like me. That's why I'm so disappointed that the effect is wearing off. Will go to the doc. I've clicked on the link, Unwind. Thank you so much for that. It looks really helpful and practical.

I posted a thread with same question a couple of weeks ago (didnt get much response.) I have been on citalopram for 2 years now and felt fab the first year. Then went downhill this time last year, so went up to 30mg from 20mg. The same has happened this year and feel pretty dreadful again and have gone up to 40mg now. I did wonder if it sort of wears off, for that reason.

However my doc looked back thro my notes and realised that I have a track record of being low at exactly this time of year going back a while. God knows how I never noticed, but anyhow she has diagnosed me with SAD. I intend to use lightbox and ADs from now on, so fingers crossed for next winter/spring.

I probably haven't actually helped here other than saying, yes, I have wondered the same as you! I do hope you feel brighter soon tho.

Actually, JTG, you've really helped a lot, so thanks for replying. Because I've noticed exactly the same thing. I hit rock bottom in March every year. I work from home a lot of the time so often don't leave the house all day. Maybe SAD is part of the problem.

Do you know much about lightboxes - can you get them on NHS?

Oh could well be, working from home makes you a prime candidate apparently. I had always assumed that SAD kicked in during the autumn or early winter, but having googled it etc it isn't uncommon for it to affect people thro to April or May even. I turn up at my docs in the first week of March nearly every year apparently...almost to the day! Wierd.

I read this to help me find a light box:
www.sad.org.uk/recommended.php

Then used Amazon too for reviews etc.I had to buy one privately, don't think you can get them on the NHS, and it was £200 but if it makes me better thats fine quite frankly. You can hire them from some companies tho.

I read somewhere that you can feel better in a few days of use, but thats not my experience. I still feel rubbish over a week later, but to be fair, this has been building for a while over the winter so seems unrealisitic to me to think there is a quick fix. I have written off this year tbh, but hope to crack it for next year.

Good luck with it, winter blues are a pain!

Hi, I have experienced the wearing-off effect (not just with citalopram) and ended up with increasing doses and/or changes to ads. Are you doing talking-therapies too? Only when I eventually had long-term counselling after about 7 years of on-off depression did things improve.
Have you tried daylight bulbs for winter blues? I find them helpful (obviously not as good as a light box but far cheaper).

Hi chocattack,

no I haven't tried those bulbs. I will do. they sound good too.

Talking cures are not for me. I'm 99% sure that my problem, which is very long standing, is chemical. The few times I've begun any form of therapy or counselling I've hated it, felt absolutly lousy and severly depressed. The citalopram has been so brilliant until now. It just turns me into back into who I am without depression. I don't have deep dark problems. there's a history of moderate to severe depression in the family but I don't see how looking at this with a stranger will make me feel better. I'm very aware of it and the problems it caused when we were young. But I don't fee that raking over the past helps me. Even with someone who claimed to do CBT she started off by digging into my background and I felt more and more unsettled and resentful of her. Guess it doesn't suit all people.

Sorry - that sounded a bit dismissive, Choc. Was trying to type while my husband kept talking in my ear. Thank you for replying!

Not dismissive at all, racingheart. Whatever works for you. Though I was intrigued that you felt lousy and severly depressed when beginning the counselling that you don't need!!! Good luck with the doc and hope things get back on track soon.

LOL. I know what you mean. But I am a bit of an analytical, navel- gazing person in secret and have lots of memories and ideas about why our family is as rife with depression as it is. I just don't like sharing them with strangers. It makes me feel all queasy and sneaky to talk about my family with some slip of a girl who makes notes on her clipboard and doesn't speak English. (NHS always seem to give me French counsellors that don't understand a word I say.)

My parents are a bit odd, but they did their best. Their best wasn't right for me and it left me with pretty poor social and life skills and very low sense of self, but I really don't want to bang on about that and focus on it because they meant well and still do. They just have unusual, not always helpful, ways of showing it. It would be so easy to resent them and get all angry with them but I'm in my 40s FFS. Too old to bear grudges. And they've mellowed a lot. I don't quite 'get' therapy. Why dredge up stuff you can't change? Why not just look forward?

But I'm very happy to take a pill that reinstates whatever chemical my brain doesn't make.

..."to talk about my family with some slip of a girl " oh to be of a certain age!! I so get that!! Thanks for the chuckle.

Racingheart, you sound like the female version of my husband who is on 20mg of Citalopram. He fees same about therapy. What happened next? Did you change the dose? Hope you are well.

racing just because they didn't mean to damage you doesn't mean you don't need help to heal from the damage!

It's not sneaky and it is important. How we get through childhood affects our adult lives and therapy can change things.