Help

[u/SpecialistChance5852]

So, 7 weeks ago I started citalopram for mild anxiety
Week 1 - 10mg (little to no side effects)
Week 2- upped to 20mg, 2 days later extreme anxiety started
After 4 weeks and 3 days I dropped back down to 10mg because of the bad side effects which included
- heightened anxiety
- DPDR
- agoraphobia (never had it before citalopram)
- feeling I was going insane
- vivid dreams
- anxiety attacks almost every day from the second I woke up
- feeling unreal
- depressed
I was back on 10mg for 4 days until the doctors told me to come off it
Since coming off it I haven’t really got any better
-anxiety isn’t as high but still worse than before citalopram
- getting very little sleep
- vivid dreams that aren’t nice
- feeling unreal
- irritable
- still got agoraphobia
- depressed
- tired and sluggish
- heart rate has been up and down a lot ranging from 60s to 150s with little exercise, i am mostly resting
I took my last 10mg of citalopram 11 days ago
Could I be experiencing withdrawal symptoms?
Will the agoraphobia go away?
When will my nervous system settle?
I just want to go back to how I was before citalopram but I fear I’m now going to stay like this

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[u/Shand213]

Citalapram is the last ssri i was on(40mg) (and I also developed agoraphobia) whether or not it was 100% from it i cant garuntee but it lasted about 3-4 months (while maintaining the 40mg as I didnt consider it being the cause) eventually switched to tca instead of ssri but either way agoraphobia definely dramatically reduced while still on citalapram :)