Intro / Health Anxiety / Adverse SSRI reaction

Hi guys this is my first post my names Jordan and I’m 24 from the UK, just gonna explain my story and too see if anyone can relate or has any tips.... it’s a long one so buckle up

My anxiety and panic disorder started on jan 1st 2019 I went to bed as normal had a very vivid dream which was a nocturnal panic attack, from that day I’ve had extremely bad insomnia now on Lorazepam just so I can sleep, following this I was having panic attacks and vivid dreams every day...

I went to see my doctor and we agreed to try everything other than ssri’s at first, healthy eating, gym etc.... I tried all that for another 2 months and gradually got worse

This was when it was time for me to try Citalopram (celexa), for the first few days I was having bad panic attacks then it got better for abit.... Day 18 I had my adverse reaction.

Day 18 I went to go to bed then I noticed my body started vibrating and was getting burning pains... carried on for another 4 days and it got way worse.... so the docs took me off

The symptoms carried on and I’m still riding them 4 weeks later, the symptoms are:
-Pulsing sensation in my head
-Tinitus and ear popping
-Vibrations and internal tremors in my chest, legs, elbows
-DR / DP
- Flashing lights and patterns when closing my eyes
-Can’t sleep without Ativan, if I try to sleep without I go into a half an half dream awake state
- Chest pressure
-Numbness and pins and needles
-Extreme anxiety and sense of doom
-Joint weakness and cracking

My doctor will not accept my adverse reaction and reckons everything I’m having to endure on a daily basis is all in my head, and is anxiety

My body is getting weaker and I look like crap, I’ve had blood tests come back fine, just waiting on an mri scan to see if it’s messed my brain up and it has also given me sleep apnea which I’m now on a cpap for

Can anyone relate and will it get better

I feel like I’m loosing my life, it’s cost me my job and it’s putting my parents under a lot of stress

They started me on 20mg and I had an extremely bad reaction which I still have all the side effects of now 4 weeks after stopping.

It’s messed up my central nervous system so my body is in overdrive hence all the vibrating etc

The doctor wants me to go back on an ssri as he believes all this mad stuff going on is just anxiety, but my body does not like them at all

Its been a hellish 4 weeks so far

20mg is too high a starting dose for celexa-esp for some one senative to an ssri. think about dropping to 10mg and see how it goes. other opt is to try something else. on 10mg I have no side effects at all and anxiety is gone and I sleep again. at this low dose it did take 6 weeks to take effect. anxiety does terrible things to ones body -even symptoms you cant imagine. its hard to tell if you are having a bad reaction to the med or its the anxiety sometimes. keep us posted on your progress

Seeing my doctor again Friday to get my blood test results as they are trying to rule anything auto immune out, also got an mri test next Thursday to rule out any tumors etc


It’s been 5 weeks since I’ve got off the ssri’s and my body just seems to be deteriorating, the sensations are almost unbearable, but I’ve read up and people have had similar experiences to mine

Fingers crossed it passes soon, I know for certain I’m not gonna take an ssri again it feels like my body is slowly shutting down

Kind regards

Jordan

no issues at all on celexa . I am on the smallest dose only 10mg . I plan to stay on this low dose as long as its effective. I failed on 4 ssri,s before this one and did research and found this ssri is recommended for those who cant usually handle stronger ssri. if ssri isn't for you-you should ask your dr about other options. let me ask you do you feel worse since trying celexa or same as before you tried it?