Escitalopram.

[hk1993x]

I'm now on week 4 of escitalopram 10mg and still feel anxious and sluggish. Does it get any better? 🥺

@hk1993x How did you get on with escitalopram? I have recently started taking it and would like to hear others experience

Hi im still on it, it works well, still have my down days but I'm doing okay with it. No side effects etc ☺️ good luck to you!

@hk1993x thanks for replying. It is good to hear something positive. I am really struggling right now.

@Pineappledancer ive just restarted again after a break - how are you getting on?

I am on day 9 - took my 9th tablet this morning. Mornings are awful for me. I feel so anxious and can’t necessarily pinpoint why. I’m also not sleeping well on them either - trying to find the right time of day to take them.

started at night, moved to lunchtime, now taking early morning when I get up.

@Lucillebatwings

Hi! Nice to hear from someone in a similar position. I started on escitalopram 8 weeks ago. I initially took 5mg and this seemed to be amazing and I was feeling a lot better very quickly but after 6 weeks I fell apart again.

I went up to 10mg about a week and a half ago and have been really struggling. I also have terrible anxiety in the morning. I feel pretty awful most of the day, really finding eating difficult, cant concentrate on anything, miserable, etc. I sometimes get a bit of relief in the evening when I feel almost normal for a short time before bed.

The first week on 10mg I was incredibly tired but I feel this is getting a little bit better. I am managing to sleep okay although sometimes I wake up too early with the anxiety feelings.

Do you have anything to help with sleep? I have been prescribed zopiclone and diazapam in the past to help with sleep and the initial anxiety symptoms.

I have been on a few other ADs in the past and would say how I am feeling is similar to what I went through each time at this stage. Each time gradually over a few weeks the morning anxiety became less intense and the evening 'relief' began to appear earlier in the day until I felt OK again.

This time is a little different for me because it has has been brought on by a situation I am going through which is ongoing so I am not sure what effect this might have.

Can I ask what dose you are on? Did you have a similar experience with side effects when you went on escitalopram before?

“ have been really struggling. I also have terrible anxiety in the morning. I feel pretty awful most of the day, really finding eating difficult, cant concentrate on anything, miserable, etc. I sometimes get a bit of relief in the evening when I feel almost normal for a short time before bed.”

I could have written this word for word

I am on 5mg - and yes felt similar last time too.

I have awful health anxiety and going through some health stuff just now that is making me spiral. When I feel better about that, I feel less anxious. But of course I’m so anxious about the health stuff that I am hyper focused on it.

Im sick of myself tbh. Sick feeling this way. It really only came to a head last week, was just about managing ok until then.

Today, day 9, has been my most anxious day yet I would say. I feel shaky, sick and just miserable - have zero appetite and feel my appetite is worse when I take them in the morning.

Last time the worst of the side effects began to pass going in to week 3. I had no appetite at all for the first 2 weeks. Zero. This time I’m managing to eat a little at times.

@Lucillebatwings it's horrible isn't it. It's good that you are managing to eat a little, try and keep it up. I try and force myself to have "easy" food like yogurt, soup and bananas when I can't face food. Then hopefully manage something "proper" later in the day.

Hopefully these side effects are nearly gone and we can start to feel much better very soon.

How is everyone today. I’m 11 weeks in to citalopram now was starting to get better but hit a blip again.

It’s only day 11 for me - I think blios are to be expected @Catsservant and I also think the meds on their own won’t make things better. I’m considering CBT or EMDR alongside but just couldn’t have done that up until now.

We are travelling today - my morning anxiety quite literally had to be put on the back burner this morning which wasn’t easy.

I am still experiencing terrible health anxiety.

I'm on 5mg, was amazing at first, got my life back (I'm dealing with a serious ongoing heath issue and was completely falling apart). I have been on it for 4 months, but started to notice its not as effective as it was before, its like the effect is wearing off a bit. I'm not going on a higher dose though, I was on citalopram before it was really difficult to get off from. Ideally, I would like to stop after being on it for 6-12 months. But its an amazing drug, I was literally a crying mess, not sleeping and not able to function and got back to my normal self within a week of taking it.

I also put on about 3 kg in weight - anyone else had this issue?

@Lucillebatwings I had CBT but didn’t personally find it helpful. Mines just awful anxiety for no reason at all which is very frustrating. My depression improved quite quickly it is the anxiety which has been slow to respond, noticed I started to improve around week 8-9. I have just had a hysterectomy last Monday so maybe this has caused the blip. How long did it take to work for you last time and did you experience these blips

@localnotail No im struggling to eat again because my anxiety is so bad. I’m on 30mg as I cross tapered from Paroxetine when it stopped working last year. Did you experience blips last time, how long do they last

I was on citalopram before, not on escitalopram - I went on to escitalopram as I was told its a cleaner, better version of the drug. I only now striated to feel like its not working anymore, I have no idea what this means.

I was on it before twice, approximately 2-3 years each time. I never had "blips" it was always consistently good, main issue for me was complete emotional numbness (I had no feelings at all, no stress, fear or anxiety but also no joy or excitement) and weight gain that was hard to shift. I was on 10mg or citalopram. I also had MASSIVE issues trying to get off it, I tried tapering but it never worked - I had to go cold turkey both times, even thought it was not advised.

Hi everyone. I am on day 12 now of 10mg escitalopram. Yesterday the morning anxiety was really bad but I felt that as the day went on i felt a little better than I have been feeling maybe, even though in the morning i felt i was worse than ever? Its so hard to judge as everyday is different.

Today I have slept a lot more again. My partner has been at home with me today which has helped a bit i would say.

I have been on sertraline and fluoxetine in the past on various doses. I have always found starting them and increasing doses utter hell.

I definitely experienced blips during these times as well. After feeling things were getting better I would have a couple of days which felt worse again, before seeing a bit more improvement. I think this is normal when started a new medication.

@Catsservant hope your surgery went well. That is a huge thing to go through. I think that is very likely to be causing your 'blip'. Take care of yourself as you recover.

@localnotail it is good to hear your experience, it is interesting how differently it effects us all.

I am interested to see if this medication will have an effect on my weight. At the moment I am struggling to eat but hopefully this will stop soon.

@Lucillebatwings well done for managing to travel today, hope you manage okay with that.

I am cancelling everything I am meant to be doing at the moment. I know that going out and doing stuff might be helpful, but the thought of it causes me so much worry.

@Lucillebatwings I have had CBT in the past which I found was a little bit helpful. I would like to try some other therapy once I am more settled and able to engage with it. Not sure what would be the best type for me though.

I tried CBT but it actually made me worse, it only amplified my problems. I had conventional counselling as well, NHS and then private, it was massively expensive but absolutely useless. This is why I praise citalopram - the drug managed to do in a week what no counselling done in months.

@Pineappledancer my anxiety was worse in the morning as well but that had started to improve, better at night. Yes my surgery was fine, it’s just this awful anxiety 😒
@localnotail im sorry for your ongoing health issue, hope you are better soon. I know you don’t want to increase your dose but maybe you could just to tide you over this difficult patch. I agree though SSRI are a nightmare to try and come off. I found the same with CBT an expensive waste of time, especially as I have anxiety for no reason.
@Lucillebatwings my appetite is affected as well, I find on days I feel better I stuff my self to make up for the other days 😊

@Catsservant I cant say I have anxiety for no reason, I basically have an illness that can go either way - ok or really bad... And in the meantime I need to have an internal resource to cope with it as I still need to function as a parent, to work and to live my life normally. Which is hard when you are faced with your own mortality. No amount of talking would make me feel better, it all seems like superficial hippy crap to be honest. But changing my brain chemistry seemed to have worked immediately, and I'm really grateful for that.

@localnotail I’m sorry to hear that, constant worry and fear is very hard to live with and function normally

Yes I'm on 15 mg and it's light and day (in a good way) compared to when I first started taking it.

@localnotail I am on 5mg too and it worked ok for me before. Couple of times I considered going up to 10mg but didn’t. Coming off of 5mg was fine for me - no issues at all really. Would you not consider trying 10mg since it worked so well to start with?

5mg is apparently a very low dose and not considered to be the therapeutic dose. But my GP said she feels that is a good level for me at the moment.

I hate mornings so much right now. I’m so anxious it’s horrible.

@DeepRubySwan can I ask how long you have been on the medication? Glad to hear it has had a positive effect.

@localnotail sounds like you are in a really difficult situation right now, I am sorry to hear that.

@Catsservant @Lucillebatwings how are you feeling today?

I am finding this so tough.

@Pineappledancer I’m really not well at all. 11 weeks in now upped to 40mg and 50mg of quetiapine. Feel hopeless and struggling to eat again my anxiety is just so awful. Are you struggling with side effects?