Think I forgot to mention in my last missive that two weeks ago I saw my shrink and she put me on the antidepressant Citalopram. And whether by coincidence or whether the two are related, my mood has definitely lifted in the last few days. I’m afraid I am sceptical to the last about psych meds. My experience is that they do not (consciously) make me feel better, but have sometimes made me feel worse. Other times they disappointingly seem to have very little effect one way or the other.
My experience of depression is that it invariably does lift eventually anyway, new drug or no new drug. But for now, I feel inclined to give Citalopram the benefit of the doubt. You never know do you. Maybe it’s the wonder drug I’ve been searching for all these years! I like the fact that it’s meant to be good for social anxiety and the like as well as the depression. It seems to be quite the flavour of the month, as I know quite a few people who are on it.
Like Stormgazer I must say that I love this time of year. Perhaps paradoxically it seems to be the time in my life when I make a fresh start. It’s always linked with starting a new course for instance, which I’ve done so many times, almost always with great excitement and anticipation. I also really get off on the colours. I often come to a standstill when out walking, just transfixed by a particularly beautiful tree.
Which reminds me that Richard was over at the weekend, we are quite aimiable at the moment and we went for a long walk on the Sunday up through Alexandra Palace, and along the Parkland Walk at Muswell Hill to Highgate Wood. Richard once did a course in Arboriculture and Tree Surgery, and so he knows a ton about trees. By the end of the walk I was amazed, mainly by my own ignorance and by how many different varieties of tree there are. If you asked me to name all the ones I could think of I would probably only come up with about ten.
Don’t know much about tree-ology…but I do know that I love them…especially decked out in their autumn clothes.
Talking of clothes that’s another reason to love autumn. Clothes get interesting again. You have an excuse to wear more layers, and be creative. Some of us (usually the young and the skinny) look better the less they wear. Most of us it’s probably the other way around, certainly it is for me! Yesterday I treated myself to two lovely Merino wool jumpers and a smart shiny black padded jacket from Uniqlo in Oxford Street. Aah, retail therapy!
Take great care of yourselves dear peeps…
Am I Still Ill? 
Comments on: "Citalopram etc etc…" (5)
Thank you for the mention and the link – I’m always pleased to make the acquaintance of a fellow lover of Autumn 🙂
I have no experience with Citalopram … oddly, because I’ve tossed back a nice array of pills. The scale I’ve learned to judge by is whether or not the medication is having any bad effects (scary, huh?). It’s like testing for live wires with wet fingers, but it’s the best way for me to approach new medications. Once that hurdle’s cleared, I try to judge my mood, and go from there.
Do you have or use a mood journal, by any chance? That is a really good way to chart the effects of medications, by having on paper (or on computer screen) on what days your moods went where, and what your medication and dosage was.
I am glad that the citalopram is going well so far. I was on it for a while but then changed. I know what you mean about the joy of retail therapy but as a student I am doing more window shopping than real shopping at the moment. Hannah X
Thanks Stormgazer. I have just linked to you on my blogroll. Regarding Citalopram, things look promising but only time will tell. I have to monitor myself closely…there can of course be the danger of antidepressant meds flipping one over into hypomania. I am on a low dose – 10mg, and I’m going back to see my shrink next week as she wants to monitor me too. Good idea about the mood journal. In a small way this blog functions as one of those, I guess, though I haven’t been posting enough lately.
Hannah, thanks for your comment. Will be following your adventures in Manchester with interest!
My experiences with antidepressants were bad enough that I won’t take any more of them. I’m currently on lithium and Abilify (which has its own risks of provoking a manic swing), and this combination seems to help me. At least, it has kept my moods ‘relatively’ stable, with fewer incidences of hallucinations and paranoia. Since the Abilify keeps me a little closer to the ‘up’ side of the mood scale, the antidepressants haven’t been missed, even the antidepressants that made some impact on my depressive episodes.
The mood journal has, for me, mainly been something to show me on paper that, yes, the lithium has made a positive impact (there are those times when I don’t believe it). The advantage it has over a blog is that it requires less reading to glance at a scale. The disadvantage is that it can be pretty annoying, at times downright impossible, to categorize a mood on a scale.
I hope, when time does tell with the Citalopram, that it says good things!
Thank you for the link – consider the link a reciprocal one 🙂
I was on citalapram for a while… the only major effects it had was Good: really delt with the anxiety, Bad: horrific night terrors.
Other than that they really had little affect on me (i was being treated for uni-polar depression – which it turns out is actually BPD *shrug*).
Good Luck with it all anyway!
x