Citalopram or escitalopram

[Notsurewhattodo32]

Which is best for anxiety, emotional blunting, and overthinking?
Also side effect, weight gain, withdrawal, etc

I thought they were the same thing under different names?

I found Escitalopram much better than Citalopram for both anxiety and mood. I tolerated the initial first few weeks better on it too, which are always tough.

@Sundaysoon thats interesting thank you.
Did it help you feel less extreme emotions too?

For me escitalopram is significantly better but they work different on different people. I was on citalopram and it made me numb I hated it had no feelings good or bad then I moved over to escitalopram and its been brilliant iv been on it about 20 years

No completely different drugs

I haven't tried citalopram, but five years on escitalopram and I'm doing well. Just had to up my dose, largely because of external factors.

It was very subtle in how it worked for me. I suddenly realised a few weeks in that the anxiety was abating and my mood was levelling out, the over thinking and negative internal dialogue was quietening. I remember finding myself stopping and talking to one of the mums on the school run quite naturally, where as before I had become so withdrawn that I couldn’t get away fast enough.

I certainly had no bad experiences on it, whereas I found Citalopram quite limited in what it did for me, although it definitely did blunt my emotions and was part of the reason why I came off it… but I guess we all react differently to antidepressants.

@Sundaysoon thanks, that sounds very positive. Did you have any fuse effects, eg weight gain?

Anyone one else there please 🙏

I’ve not taken either, but I’ve been considering both. I got Chat GPT to make me a table of the pros and cons of both in the context of what I need them for, it was quite interesting although obviously it’s not medical guidance. So you could try that. It’s difficult with individual peoples experience as I think it depends so much on your individual makeup, your genetics etc.

Do you mean you want an SSRI to help with emotional blunting? As far as I know, they are all prone to cause that rather than relieve it.