Citalopram - Day One - Nasty Side Effect

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I hope to god what I am experiencing are the effects of Citalopram.

Took my first one, 20mg, at about 11am. It's now 6.30pm. My stomach keeps churning bad. Been the toilet for a number two. Feeling pretty sick, shaking a little and my anxiety has sky rocketed. Feels like a nasty panic attack. My heartrate shoots up, then goes down, then I get anxious and it goes up. My stomach feels like theres no food in it, even though there is.

Argh, this is awful. If it's doing this to me I'm not going to take it again.

I was taking 10 mg for 2 weeks, but didn't like what it was doing so now I am tapering off of it...don't meet with my psychiatrist for like a month...but when I do I will tell her it didn't work. It didn't make me feel any better, just made me feel more stimulated like I had maybe taken stimulants a bit more anxious, sweat excessively and was giving me digestive discomfort and constipation/diarrhea(obviously not pleasant things) so yeah not really something I want to be taking. I cut it down to 5mg yesterday, took another 5 today and maybe tomorrow I'll go without it.

I'm defiantly getting those stomach problems right now that's for sure. Awful. How can they prescribe drugs that can mess people up like this? I'd rather suffer with the panic attacks then have these issues.

When I was first prescribed Citalopram, I was started on 5 mg and worked up to 20 mg. Eventually I had to go up to 40 mg when the lower dose wasn't working anymore. I didn't have any of the side-effects that you mention so I guess it just depends on the person. I am surprised, however, that your doc would start you on 20 right away. Maybe if you gradually work up to that dose, you'd tolerate it better.
Best of luck,
Lydia

Well I was on 40mg in September, and in November I had a breakdown and stopped taking them completely for personal reasons. I still had 3 boxes of 20mg at home, and my doctor said she wants me back on 40mg and to start on the 20mg for a month then work up.

Feel much better now had some food. Still feel cloudy in the head but apart from that better.

that was one of the first ssris I tried, it gave me really bad chest pains and dizziness

Call your psych or whoever prescribed it. Your md can best make the call and tell you if it's likely the med and make a substitution if it is the problem. Since that was a violent reaction, I wouldn't take another, however, until you talk to your md. I wouldn't wait around on calling in the meantime. If you're suicidal or unstable, you need to be on something you can tolerate.

I started on citalopram many years ago at 20 or 25 mg, then when I started seeing my present psych in 2011, he upped it to 40 mg. I've never had any known side effects from it. However, I've experienced various non-psych meds that have made me very will. People react very individually to meds -- personal biochemical factors I guess.

Hi Liblady, I've been on these on and off for years though. I have had side effects in the past, but today was a bit of a strange one. I'm fine now. Once I used the toilet, and had some food I returned to normal. I'm not suicidal or unstable. It mainly to control the anxiety. The depression is very low at the moment and has been for a while now.

Reading around the web it seems some have had even worse reactions than me, but it seems to subside. Which is what I recall in the past with different side effects. I've reported the other side effects to my MD in the past and he's said they will disappear.

But is it possible for your body to reject them? Or build up some sort of tolerance that can cause side effects?

They started me out @ 20mg about three weeks ago. I haven't had any of the side effects the OP mentioned, but my sleep pattern is all f'ed up. I can only sleep for 3.5 hours max and then I wake up, like right when I should be getting REM sleep. I can fall asleep immediately after waking up if it's in the middle of the night, but like I said, I miss out on all the REM sleep. I'm pretty sure another month of this and I'll be acting out violent fantasies in a sleep walking stupor.

That being said, it's worked for my dysthymia and I'll take the sleep issues over constant suicidal thoughts. I feel for the OP though, gastrointestinal issues with prescription drugs are the worst.

I've been prescribed every major SSRI/SNRI available over the last eight years and have always ended up with profound nausea and increased anxiety and panic attacks; and the side effects didn't improve after taking the medication for more than a month. The only anxiety medication that has worked for me is klonopin, but doctors are becoming less willing to prescribe it because of its potential for abuse.

In the past I actually found my sleep was much improved BUT when if I did ever wake up I was covered in sweat! And yes the gastro issues are nasty. I did finish off a vindaloo takeaway in the fridge yesterday, so never know if that had a role to play somewhere although it was easily 24 hours+ since I ate that. I'll see what happens over the coming days. Fingers crossed my sleep remains the same.

Never heard of that one. There's another one they can give you mid panic attack that seems to be miraculous, but I've forgot the name of it. It's a popular drug.

Never heard of vindaloo before, had to look it up... yeah Indian curry dish, my first instinct is to blame that then the ssri. Could be a combo of both though too. But seriously the dish has loo (British term for toilet) in the name, lol. But yeah, hope you feel better soon.

I've ate them all these years and I've never put the toilet + "loo" together. /facepalm moment.

It should start working after a week of use