Celexa

[Zeta]

I know this isn't one of the main meds I've seen listed here but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this medication for anxiety? My doctor is wanting to prescribe Celexa to combat my ongoing anxiety.

Any information would be much appreciated!

[beatle]

Celexa

I don't have first-hand experience with Celexa, but I know there have been threads on this medication earlier.

I do know it is an SSRI antidepressant. I have tried several SSRIs, including Zoloft and Cipralex, and they make me crazy. You are not supposed to take them with alcohol, which may account for my severe mood reactions (I became manic and paranoid -- unable to sleep and unable to focus on anything, sometimes hallucinating). Obviously, I stopped taking them (although my doctor kept saying I just had to give it time... in my opinion she was breaking the Hippocratic oath with that kind of advice).

I recently saw a psychiatrist at the referral from my therapist, and she said I am bipolar and have anxiety issues, and that SSRIs are NOT good for that at all-- she said they would increase the anxiety levels (makes sense). She prescribed a "mood evener", lamictal, which didn't have any side effects and did seem to even out the mood swings a little, but didn't do much for the anxiety.

However, if you've read the thousands of posts on this forum, you will see that for people with anxiety issues (and there are a lot of them among us) Baclofen relives anxiety pretty much from day one.

[j-vo]

Celexa

I've taken celexa as well as other SSRI's. I never had any bad side effects, but have had good. It was a feeling of relief from being frustrated over stupid things. Things didn't bother me as much. I guess at some point, I decided I wanted to try and go off these meds, but never was successful because I would end up in such a deep depression. I've also got severe anxiety problems. Didn't notice that it helped this much, but has helped my depression.

[Wally22]

Celexa

I take citalopram which is the generic celexa. I love it! I have taken it for about three years now and it makes all the difference in terms of my depression. However I don't suffer from anxiety so I don't know how it does for that. I have never suffered side effects. It does take a few weeks to "kick in". Each of us has our own reaction to drugs, the first anti-depressant I tried didn't work at all. You might have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince, but it's worth it.

[lilnev]

Celexa

Two years ago, deep in depression, I finally asked my doctor for an antidepressant. And because I've had a lot of social anxiety all my life, I asked for one that might help with that as well. She put me on citalopram, which lifted my mood dramatically. It maybe helps the anxiety some? Hard to say, certainly not completely, but it maybe got me back to my long-term average, from a worse state. It has worked so well for my mood (quite possibly a literal life-saver) that I'm not about to switch or stop. No side effects except transient sleep disruption (less than a week) when I started or increased the dose.

I've now started seeing a cognitive behavioral therapist to address the social anxiety, which is challenging and kind of scary, but I think it's work I need to do.

I think citalopram's effectiveness might depend on the nature of your anxiety, too -- generalized, social anxiety, phobias, PTSD....