Talk me through citalopram

[Nogodsnomasters]

I have so many mental health problems I don't know where to start, health anxiety, emetophobia, PTSD, germphobia and more. I've tried everything except for medication because I am terrified of medicines and their side effects. I've had counselling several times different types including being in therapy right now but it's not stopping this and my anxiety is getting worse year on year as well as physical health (IBS, acid reflux etc) and I'm struggling to cope.

I've decided today that I am going to ring the GP tomorrow and ask for medication. I've been warned off sertraline by 3 different people and recommended citalopram by a few friends plus hubby takes it so I'm going to specifically ask for it.

I am genuinely scared shitless of putting this in my body and it making me feel worse than I already feel right now as I'm honestly hanging on by a thread and can't afford to feel any worse than I already do. Nausea as a side effect scares me due to my emetophobia. I was wondering if it's worthwhile cutting a tablet in half and starting off on 5mg for a while to start off with.

Can anyone give me any good stories?

Why have you been warned off sertraline, in my experience it’s no worse side effect wise than citalopram and no real difference in efficacy, citalopram is effective for anxiety but one of its main problems is that in initial treatment it usually makes anxiety worse, takes two weeks to have any noticeable effect and six to be fully effective and cutting a tablet to just take 5mg while it may reduce initial anxiety will simply take even longer to work

I had bad side effects from both Prozac and sertraline, but I was fine on a low dose of citalopram. It really helped me. Everyone is different, so I would say if one med doesn’t suit you, don’t be put off trying others, there will be something that will help without having any negative effects. Good luck.

Citalopram life changer. Start on a low dose.

No side effects from citalopram?

Warned by 3 people that the side effects were much worse with sertraline. One said severe night sweats and sheer exhaustion on sertraline but with citalopram only mild tiredness/yawning.

Thank you. What does did you start on and what were the side effects like?

I started on 10mg and stayed on that dose, no side effects whatsoever. I knew it was working about 3 weeks later when I found myself singing... that hadn't happened in a long time.

Ive been taking it since october. Started on 10mg and worked my way up to 30. I felt a bit worse before i felt better but i havent had a single side effect apart from
sleepy / zombie the first 3/4 weeks.

Problem with antidepressants, they all work, what suits one person doesn’t automatically suit another, one person may experience bad side effects, someone else very few, please don’t be swayed by what people say, listen to your GP or whoever prescribes them, your basing your decision on the experience of a few, a prescriber based it on the experiences of many

Tried Prozac years ago and although I had no real side effects it didn't do anything to lift my mood so I was very sceptical about trying any other antidepressants when I had a big bout of depression during the second lockdown. GP suggested Citalopram at 10mg, I did get a couple of side effects (dry mouth and tiredness) for the first month or so however my mood lifted only a couple of weeks in - it works brilliantly for me.
I did have a little blip where my mood dropped again and GP upped my dose to 20mg and I have been on this dose ever since.
However I would also agree with previous poster that different drugs work for different people and there isn't one magic pill for everyone - a lot of it is trial and error to see what works for you xx

My dh takes 40mg long term for bpd and bipolar and it’s been life saving and life changing for him. Amazing. He’s been on it 6 years now and intends to be on it for life. It was the 4th type of medication he’d tried - he couldn’t get on with sertraline at all and some of the stronger meds like mitripazine (prob spelt that wrong) just made him almost catatonic and made him put on so much weight. He was unable to work until he started citalopram. He started on 10mg and slowly went up to 40mg which seems a good dose for him.

I took 60mg for 2 years for severe pnd in 2003 and that worked well for me too. I haven’t needed it since.

I find Citalopram very good. My GP started me on a low dose of 10mg so no side effects and I then increased it to 20mg after a few weeks. It works very well for me and I don’t have any side effects at all.

Both citalopram and Prozac gave me awful side effects from day one, even on the lowest dose. Sertraline - barely any effects and worked really quickly. Everyone’s different.

Did you or your husband experience bad side effects?

Thanks everyone. I am just so so scared. And can't live like this any longer. It's ruining my life.

Not really. I honestly can’t remember because my experience was so long ago. My dh had very minimal ones, I think he felt a bit jittery for a week or so but nothing awful and certainly nothing compared to the other drugs he’s been on. He was prescribed diazepam to take alongside it for the first week or so if he felt particularly anxious but found he didn’t need it. Don’t be put off of it by reading all the side effects, you may not have any at all and if you do the long term benefits may be worth persevering anyhow.

I have been on citalopram around a year now. I started at 20mg and increased to 30mg after 4-6 weeks ish. I had a few side effects with the 20mg but nowhere near as bad as what I'd been reading. To be honest I can't quite remember what they were now, but I think along the lines of nausea, a headache, feeling spaced out and feeling absolutely exhausted all the time. They didn't last long though (the tiredness lasted the longest) and increasing to 30mg didn't cause any further side effects. The majority of the side effects had disappeared within less than a week, the tiredness took longer but it's not unusual for me to feel like that a lot of the time anyway. I definitely made the right decision going on them.

I've never had any nausea from citalopram, and certainly no vomiting. It can have some weird side-effects - I had the random yawning, cold sensation in feet, ears ringing brain zaps when coming off it, which sounds dramatic but it's not that bad and better than the alternative in my case! I think at the beginning I felt quite spaced out too but I was quite ill with anxiety and was put on too high an initial dose so that was probably part of it. I was started on 20mg when it should have been 10 and working up. Now on 20mg/day and no problem.

I've rang the GP and I'm waiting on a call back. So scared.

I picked up the prescription today. 10mg of citalopram. I feel so scared. I think I'm going to break them in half and try 5 just to start with to make sure I don't have bad side effects for a few days.

10mg is a low dose, I think you would be best to just go for it. Also, if you do split the tablets please make sure it’s okay to do this as some tablets have a gastro coating on them and they will irritate your oesophageal tract if you break them open.

I started on 10mg and now on 40mg for the past 3 years.
No side effects. I would advise taking 10mg, splitting the tablet will make it an extremely low dose

I only wanted to try the 5mg for a few days just to prove to myself that nothing bad will happen. I honestly can't afford to feel any worse than I already do and I'm scared shitless that I will end up unable to sleep, sweating, more nauseous than I already am, dizzy - the list goes on.

Take the 10mg, it’s already pretty much a half dose as it is.

I’m just starting on it too so happy to be a buddy and start them together?

I’ve been on Sertraline for the past 5 months and am weaning off that and onto Citalopram so I’m a bit nervous about side effects and withdrawal.

I don't know how easy it is for you to get an GP appointment but if you're really struggling to take the pills, could you ask for an anti sickness medication, just in case?
I have severe emetophobia and was prescribed cyclizine with my antidepressants after it was clear to the Dr that I would massively struggle to take them because of worrying about side effects. I wasn't prescribed many, and they were literally just as a back up, just in case, so I felt better able to take the pills.