Has anyone tried Citalopram anti depressant?

I have been prescribed this (20mg) by my doctor after recent incidents and I haven't taken it yet as I am not sure whether I really need it, how I feel about taking SRRIS for a long period of time and what side effects it causes......

If you have taken Citalopram before can you share your experience with me?

Thanks

Hi Natty

Although i can't advise you from a medical point of view and can't advise you on whether or not to try or not try the medication you have been prescribed. I have used citalopram as an antidepressant and unfortunately didn't really help me if i remember rightly from what i was told by my GP it can take upto 6weeks for the medication to begin to help. I don't think i had any side effects it just didnt help me feel any better, what makes you feel like you don't need to take it if thats what your doctor has prescribed? Can you think what it is that puts you off taking it?

Hope you manage to come to a decision, could you maybe go back to your doctor and discuss this with them?

Take care

I do not want to become dependent on it in the long term, I am worried that I might become dulled and not be able to feel emotions in the same way and I do not like the idea of the pill taking. There must be a natural way to help lift my moods - feels unnatural

This was one of the only medications (including lamictal and arguably wellbutrin but i only took it for 3 weeks) that helped me to some extent. It is a more mild mood lifter but it kept me to a point where I was stable and functional, and could say i was content enough to enjoy life, atleast sometimes. It might just be me though, zoloft and prozac killed me inside (the latest addition to this circle being lithium for moderate bipolar) but theyve helped a lot of people. The sad part about this process is that its really trial and error so it takes a lot of time and unfortunately money, while you have to suffer for a long time. My dad got a DNA test which tells you which medications your body metabolizes best, and he says the medications he took after doing the test worked wonders. Its a cutting edge process so most doctors dont even know about it, but if you can find someone who does it thats probably worth a shot.

barrano247 wrote:This was one of the only medications (including lamictal and arguably wellbutrin but i only took it for 3 weeks) that helped me to some extent. It is a more mild mood lifter but it kept me to a point where I was stable and functional, and could say i was content enough to enjoy life, atleast sometimes. It might just be me though, zoloft and prozac killed me inside (the latest addition to this circle being lithium for moderate bipolar) but theyve helped a lot of people. The sad part about this process is that its really trial and error so it takes a lot of time and unfortunately money, while you have to suffer for a long time. My dad got a DNA test which tells you which medications your body metabolizes best, and he says the medications he took after doing the test worked wonders. Its a cutting edge process so most doctors dont even know about it, but if you can find someone who does it thats probably worth a shot.

Wow that test sounds interesting! Im curious to try it. I just ask my primary care if they can do a DNA test to see which meds my body metabolizes best? is that all i should say?!

I take it at that dosage to help my anxiety and have for a long while now (just over a year I think.)
Personally I don't feel numbed by it and still feel the full emotional range quite effectively, unfortunately this still includes anxiety and dark moods.

It has helped to a certain degree, I don't have as many panic attacks now as I used to... but on the depression front I don't think it has done a lot for me personally, I still get very low moods and struggle to pull myself out of them just as much as I always did.

Though having said that I did feel better on them initially for quite a long while and have only been feeling really down again since being diagnosed with cancer this year, so logically it is probably related to that.

If I'm honest I would like to wean myself off them, but not because they've done nothing, more because I'd like to be able to cope on my own.