Posted by TheTaoOfPhil on March 6, 2008, at 13:23:37
Hi,
I am very med-sensitive and so my pdoc started me off @ 2.5 mg of Celexa. The treatment is primarily for anxiety: I have PTSD and since working through my history in therapy my anxiety has gotten a lot more difficult. My pdoc has successfully treated anxiety with a low dose (5mg Lexapro/10mg Celexa). So my target is 10mg. (My insurance won't cover lexapro :-(
The good news is that I already (after five days) feel less anxious even on this low dose. The other good news is that it is sedating enough when I take it that I take it at night to help me get to sleep, but the sedating effects that I had felt during the day appear to be diminishing.
The bad news is that I _think_ it may be causing me to wake up in the middle of the night. The problem here is that I was _already_ waking up in the middle of the night around 3:30 a.m., which is the same time I am still waking up. The difference may be that when I wake up I am a bit _more_ awake than I usually am. I am able to get back to sleep by taking a Chinese herbal supplement that I have, but waking up like that every night is starting to take it's toll. I feel generally better but also sleep-deprived.
I have read posts from the archive where people have reported this problem (not being sure how much it's the medication causing the waking), but those were from several years ago.
So, I'm wondering, if I increase the dose the next step, to 5mg, might it make this problem better? In other words, if it's the anxiety that's waking me up, as opposed to the med, then maybe taking more will cause me to sleep through the night. But if it's the med, then it might get worse?
Alternatively, has anyone had success combining Celexa with something else (something _non_ benzo) to help with sleep?
If I report this problem to my pdoc, who is extremely conservative about side-effects, she'll yank me off it and get me to try something else. But I _so_ want this to work. Trying this medication has been a really huge deal for me because I am so averse to medication that I have been doing everything to cope with my PTSD symptoms (yoga, meditation, other forms of exercise, acupuncture, Chinese herbs, western supplements, etc., etc. ) to avoid it. I have sporadically tried other medications (Neurontin, Buspar), but this is the one that otherwise has the least side-effects. Now that I am seeing what it's like to be less anxious with this medication, I really _don't_ want to try something else.
Thanks for your help.
poster:TheTaoOfPhil
thread:816564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080303/msgs/816564.html