Are you having an anxiety or panic attack? Have you been working hard and want to succeed in a particular task and have been in overdrive for a long time now?

Have you been prescribed at least 20-25mg of Citalopram? Do you know what this drug supposed to do?  Celexa is the most known Citalopram drug, so, do you know Citalopram’s side effects?

Let’s start.

What is Citalopram?

Before we answer, let me tell you about this friend of mine.  She is very friendly, down to earth, and overall a nice person. I like her very much. The only frustrating part is that she is a perfectionist. Everything must be done the way she wants it. There is no negotiation once her mind is set. This to me is very frustrating and I know that it is the reason she get these awful panic attacks.

Anyhow, she is working very hard with a specific project and she just could not go to sleep. She let me know that the project was making her feel very anxious with a bit of paranoia…

She was just trying too hard to make sure the work was done to perfection.

You can not imagine the toll that this was this taking on all of our friends, her family and the poor co-workers… A panic and anxiety attack is not easy on the person who is suffering from the attack disorders but it also takes on a toll on friends and family.

Today I understand that almost all panic attack sufferers have this “must be perfect mentality” that really changes the “panic attack” gears to the upper levels. It just makes the whole situation awful and hard to deal with.

She told me that, she tried to rest for an hour or two the other days and woke up with a full-blown panic attack and had to go the hospital.

Not good, as she is great person.

The doctor prescribed her with 20mg of Celexa. What is Celexa? Celexa is a  best-selling antidepressant.

Celexa is also know as Citalopram.

Citalopram is used to treat the symptoms of major depression, social anxiety disorder and panic disorder as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celexa.

From researching about Celexa I noticed that all the research done on the drug it consistently and significantly improved symptoms of depression of the patients.

So I asked my friend if she was feeling better after taking the medication and she said she did but that now she feels a little more moody, sleepy and a feeling of not really into the project as before. I reminded her that she needs to wait and see if the drug does do work on her.

I told her that Citalopram's main characteristic is to help restore the brain's chemical balance, which helps improve mood.  But, sometimes, medicine needs a bit of time to be in the body’s system to take effect. I think she needs to give some more time to see if this drug will work for her. I truly hope that it does.

What are Citalopram’s side effects?

I found that Celexa or Citalopram side effects are nausea, dry mouth and sleepiness.
As an update on my friend, at this time, she is only experiencing the sleepiness side effect. In my estimate, that is fine, she is always so wind up that I am a bit happy she is sleeping. I will see how long that feeling last but for now,,, like I said she needs the sleep. But if it prolongs, then, she will need to go back to the doctor for re-evaluation.

At that time, then, the doctor should either stop or change the medication.