experiences with celexa and possible side effects

Hi all,
I am writing to get some feedback from those of you who may have been on celexa in the past or are now. how did you like it? did it help anxiety? and what were your start up side effects?

I have been on zoloft in the past, a few years ago and had some success but when I tried re-starting it a few months ago I reacted horribly and it seemed to make things worse. It all started when i started having insomnia and it turned into this cycle of insomnia and sleep anxiety. My new doctor had me taper off and we tried addressing the sleep issue through other means (mirtzapine as needed, other sleep aids, etc). I seem to be getting a little better, especially since also going off beta blockers, but i still worry about sleep and i have my rough nights (a rough night isn't just it takes 2 hours to fall asleep, it is I am awake all night til 4am or later, and have to work on 2 hours of sleep, and then the whole next day I spend anxious about the next night). I know my serotonin levels are low (had neurotransmitter testing my naturopath did) so I'm sure i could benefit from an SSRI, but i am so afraid of making things worse. I also do not want to continue to play this game of taking stuff to "force" sleep. I hate doing that. I would rather take a med that address the anxiety cycle and hope that helps. The sleep meds seem to not work real well for me, or they work once and then stop.

The reason I am asking about celexa is my doctor says she has seen people had success with it. Additionally, i have a few friends who have done well on it. I know, we are all different. I know that start up side effects wouldn't last forever, but I really do not want to exacerbate my sleep issues any worse. I tend to have anxiety that morphs and gets focused on different things.. for a long time it was health anxiety, and now its sleep anxiety.

Just hoping someone has had some positive experiences or ideas for me thanks!

I've been on celexa since 2007 and love it. It works great for my depression and anxiety. In fact I didn't realize that it was working so well on my anxiety until I had to go down in dosage, will get to that in a second, and discovered my anxiety went up, and I had to adjust my seroquel dose upwards to compensate.

But, and this is a big but, Celexa can have cardiovascular complications at higher doses, especially in combination with the atypical antipsychotics. I had an ECG done when I was IP, and discovered that I now had a prolonged Q-T interval, which increases the risk of heart Arrhythmia and consequently heart attacks. So we reduced my dose from 40 mg to 20 mg. So if you do go on it, have your heart monitored.

Good luck with it.

splitimage

do you know if the risk is the same if the person stays at a lower dose and isn't on any other meds? that is a potential scary side effect, but I think I've heard that about other SSRIs too, not sure which ones. I've had some weird cardiac scares recently but nothing was ever found to be wrong, so this is something I'm ironically more anxious about, LOL.

I was on Celexa for ~ 10 years. At first 20 mg/day, then 40 mg/day, then 60 mg/day. Had to come down to 40 mg/day due to aforementioned issues with heart problems. Since coming down I have experienced huge issues with my anxiety and depression, mainly physical symptoms that I haven't really done anything about for a couple of years because my anxiety was lying to me. Now, I am currently working on getting onto Zoloft. In general, Celexa worked well for my anxiety but I think it ran out of gas after a while. I gained a lot of weight on it due to appetite increases and it made me sleep a lot, so be careful with that. I don't remember any issues with startup cus I was drinking a lot at the time and not paying too much attention to that stuff. I completed all of my undergrad with a high GPA on Celexa so it was working well some of the time!!! Best of luck!

Thank you for the info! man the sleeping a lot would be a welcome change, I miss sleeping!!! the eating thing i will be careful, but i am a long distance runner so I am pretty active - i eat a lot anyway, lol. if i slept more and had more energy and less anxiety, i think i could get back to running like I'd like to be. did the sleep thing happen pretty soon for you, or did it take a long time? god i welcome that. it seems like a lot of people report insomnia on it.

I don't know what the startup effects will be like for you or how its going to treat you a couple months down the road, but I know that increased sleepiness was a thing for me and a friend of mine who is on it. Other things play roles in sleep (and anxiety) too that you may want to consider such as caffeine and nicotine. I can't remember how long it took for me to experience the excess sleepiness and it is probably dose dependent as well. I am learning again for myself that it is important to be patient and give the medication a chance. What do they say, 8-12 weeks? It seems like a long time but the payoff could be worth it. Also, I keep a printed excel sheet and track my symptoms and progress. If the drug is not right for you, you can always try something else.

Thank you, those are good ideas. I don't smoke thankfully, and I've reduced my coffee intake to mornings only. I think i've developed a lot of good habits, just wish i could get back to sleeping normally and not worrying about it. My anxiety tends to jump from topic to topic, it used to be health anxiety and now its sleep anxiety.

I have been in denial about my anxiety for over 2 years now and it has cost me a lot of money, time, and pain. Apparently I had health anxiety and did everything I could to try and fix the issues I was experiencing... turns out I was just depressed and anxious all along. Now trying to get onto another SSRI. Sigh, learn the hard way I suppose. Sorry about the sleep anxiety.

I sure understand the health anxiety part! I have had that for years. still do, but now the anxiety is more focused on sleep but everything is related. and now I'm starting to have depression symptoms too... sadness, loneliness, not wanting to be alone, not feeling like doing stuff, loss of appetite, etc. Just kinda came on tonight. I know I should just give the celexa a shot but I'm worried about start up side effects. LOL never a dull moment.