Citalopram withdrawal

hi tiger!...Dito......! with a big fat capital D !! i had my last tablet about 8 or 9 days ago and still feel whooshy and light headed! i havent a clue how long it last for, wish i could help u there but i cant.nothing is forever tho and i know it sounds easy but try to forget about it or ride with it and in time our bodies will adjust to its absence. hope this helps....take care....Luke

Cheers Luke and its nice to hear from you again.

You seem a lot better in yourself these days, well what I can gather from your posts, so how are you?

This wooshsy feeling is driving me mad, I have had it previously when I have come off other ad's and i remember I went through hell with it then.

It just seems as though you get over one thing and then another problem occurs, I can honestly say I don't know how I keep going!!!!

hiya tiger! well first of all u keep going because u are meant to keep going.....!!!! im up and down at mo,just started seeing a human givens therapist,1st session bloody amazing! i had the best week ive had in a long long long time! it felt like i had well and truly cracked it.i have felt a bit sh** since(about 2 weeks ago) but that 1st session has given myself a new belief that i will be fine soon! hows u? u seem not to good,u will get there one day tiger u really will.once again dont worry too much about the withdrawl symptons,they cant last forever!(he says as his head spins like a record!!).u take care tiger....Luke.....x

Hi there, I have been told to come off the dreaded 'C' and to try something else. I was on 40mgs a day and now down to 5mgs. I have done it very slowly, but still feel awful. I mean seriously, I thought I was going to die.

If you still feel terrible with withdrawal, ask your doc. for small amount of diazepam to get you through. I did this and found that coming off 'C' has not been as bad as other meds I have come off. Am starting new meds on Monday so can look forward to another couple of weeks of hell while my body adjusts to them. Can't win can you!!

Hope this message helps, even a tiny bit.
Thinking of you.

Hi there Garbles

Thanks for your post, its pure hell isn't coming off them, I think I have got over the worse now, but I still feel damn crap, I may go back to my docs gonna ask if I can have some further tests done because I don't feel right at all, and I feel this way whether I am on tablets or not, I really would appreciate being sent for a scan just to rule out any other stuff thats playing on my mind.

I am continually drowsy, lightheaded and off balance, I feel so disorientated and as though I am not with it, this is totally not me at all, I am very scared that I will never be 100% right again.

How are you coping at the moment?

It is awful isn't it. This feeling of withdrawal will not last for ever. Why are you worried that you have something else wrong with you?

Before I went back onto my meds. I was convinced that I had everything wrong with me, and once I had a pain somewhere, I believed that I was going to die. Do still think this some time, but I guess when you are depressed you think that maybe this a way out. Of course it is not. But the only way I could get it out of my head was to go the docs. and ask him to check me. He was very good, probably thought I was a hyperchondriach, but at least he reassured me that I was okay, until the next time. Don't be ashamed to ask. If you find it hard to speak to him, why don't you write him a letter before you go to see him. I now do this all the time, as I find it so much easier to write what I am feeling, as when I get there I can't remember what I was going to say.

I know that doctor's say being depressed will not last for ever, but I am sceptiple. But being on top of it is the answer. As I said I have been depressed for over 10 years and when I think about it was probably in my teens as well. Am 46 now. Long time isn't it. I do have a very supportive family, my lovely 4 children. My eldest daughter is 15 and understands so much. My eldest is 18, but he is off to university soon, and just really does his own thing, not to say he doesn't care, he does understand, but just doesn't make a big thing of it, same as my two youngest age 12 and 11. They have accepted that mum is mum, and acts a little weired and is not like their friend's mum, but they don't love me any less. My husband copes in his own way, although I know it has affected him. I did offer to leave, but he says he is quite happy to carry on, and says he loved the woman he married, not that he doesn't love me now. I guess it is a different kind of love.

I really do try, some days I can cook a meal, sometimes I can't. Sometimes I can do the washing, sometimes I can't. Don't do much housework now, even though I used to be so house proud. But I ended up beating myself up trying to keep everything going. Plus working full time. I then realised that it didn't matter if all the chores were not done. Nobody else seemed to care. It takes a lot of pressure off. I don't think it has damaged my kids, they are very bright, well adjusted, polite, clever children and independent, which is what you want right.

So am feeling pretty awful at the moment, constantly sick, can't eat, head spinning, can't sleep, but apart from that great.

Please get in touch if you ever want to chat and let me know how things are going. Get that pen and paper out. You might find it difficult at first, but once you start you will find you need another piece of paper.

Much love

Argh that was a loveley post a you sound such a nice person and reading through what you have written you sound very brave.

I'm sure your family admire you for what you are going through and how you deal with your issues on a day to day basis.

I think I am always assuming there is something wrong we me because I have come to the point where I think to myself 'I am not really depressed, yeah perhaps the main problem is the anxiety but I feel that it is only triggered off by these symptoms I am complaining with right now!'

I felt really good earlier on, now all of a sudden I have started getting head rushes, which make me feel so off balance, this will then lead to me feeling drowsy, my speech will begin to slow down and I begin to feel not with it, this will last tfor the rest of the day. I just feel as though its a waste of a life, one minute I can feel ok and BUMP, something comes over me and destroys it all leaving me to feel like a complete zombie, I am just so fed up of it all, I am so miserable because of it!!!

Do you think we will ever be rid of this????

In an Ironic way.

I turn my head to the right (or left) and my brain shakes back and forth LOL!!
Not only that, just moving my eyes does it, all this is far more apparent when I get tired. I feel like a cartoon man with those vibration lines circling my head. Glad to know it is the pills because I thought it was worse, I am on them due to a car accident I am yet to heal from and fear the day I have to go off of them again for good, one week without them is bad enough I can't image how long it will take for them to completely wear off when the time comes

Dizzyasshit

My experience with Citalopram redefines the term nightmare. I've posted lots about it on the Citalopram section of the anxiety and Panic forum. I just could do with some advice right now or to here from someone who has gone through a similar thing.
Basically I went on this damn stuff for depression and PTSD ( really bad anxiety ). I had 4 days coming on to it of hell with massively increased anxiety ( had most other side effects aswell but that was worst). Then another couple of days feeling delirious like absolutely dreadful like I would fall into a coma. Eventually felt calm but very very strange like i was strange to be in my body or be in this reality. Basically depersonalisation. Tapered of the 20mg, 2.5mg a week ( I wanted to quit right away but scared of the startup effects returning on withdrawal ). Guess what? They all returned once I got down to 2.5mg after 8 weeks. Only this time worse. depersonalisation so bad thought I had died maybe. 3 hour periods of feeling like I would fall into a coma ( panic attacks? ). After my last tablet of 2.5mg, had a week of complete physical fatigue, not being able to talk properly or think and bad dp and dr. Since then had a lot of dp and dr and felt depressed. dp and dr are the sickest things I have ever experienced like half of me is on the other side. Last few days, not much dp or dr hardly but severely depressed, like I can't carry on. A scary kind of depression. Feeling cold all the time, like I'm ill or something but I'm not. Don't know what the **** to do now. Anyone else been through this? Should I try and stick it out? I'm thinking of going on prozac as it worked for me before when I was *just* depressed in years gone by. Thanks. Take care.

Hi, first off I'm new here-- only just discovered this forum and I'm glad I have because now I can talk to like-minded people as it were-- instead of well-meaning friends and unsympathetic doctors!

A few months ago I was prescribed Citalopram for moderate depression and got onto a dosage of 30mg. Cut a long story short, it screwed me over. I never wanted to go on ADs but I was at the end of my tether. Thing is, I then reached the end of a different tether. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them so much.

So one night I went out and ended up forgetting to take them, and as the next day wore on, I started feeling AMAZING, better than I had in months. I snapped, I went cold turkey and apart from 10mg that I had yesterday when I was withdrawing pretty bad, I've not had any in about a week.

Emotionally, I feel fantastic, but the withdrawal symptoms are worrying. I know, I know, you're not meant to go cold turkey-- but I think it's the only way I'll really kick them. I definitely, definitely want nothing more to do with them.

The constipation and sexual dysfunction that they gave me are disappearing, thankfully-- but now I'm getting the 'wooshes' that some of you have talked about-- I feel suddenly lightheaded every now and again-- I'm getting the head judders, tingles, and constant shivers.

Does anyone know if I should be over the worst of it ? I'm really feeling pretty bad and I need some help sticking it out...

Best wishes to everybody by the way.

Hi!
Sounds like we've done just the same at about the same time!
I ran out of tabs about a week ago and haven't been back for my new prescription...
Haven't found any positive changes since taking them and was getting angry about it, so decided to "just quit". Like you, I know it's not the recommended way and am afraid that something terrible may happen.
My main symptoms since then have been escalating "whooshing" in my head/ behind my eyes a bit of weight loss and some periodic mood swings (yesterday I herad myself laugh like I haven't in years...yet it felt a bit "wrong".
I'm worried about admitting to my GP that I've done this, but wondering if I should.
Also worried that I might be risky driving with the whooshing (wonder if it is real or imagined dizziness?).
I'll keep checking up on you and we can maybe share this time together and reflect?

Hi Booboo. Yes I'd like it if we keep in touch on here for a bit-- it'd be a good moral support

I don't think I'd drive in this state. The wooshes aren't really impairing my functioning-- each woosh is only a couple of seconds and I'm not fainting or anything, but it's better safe than sorry.

How is your mood in general compared to when you were on them ? I felt blank and spacey on them, and now I feel much more REAL than I have in ages, which is fantastic.

I will have to tell my GP eventually, but not for a while. Anyway I just imagine that she will give me a bit of a telling off for quitting like that, but at the end of the day, if we feel better for it then that's the problem solved isn't it ?

I'm feeling rather hopeful about it at the moment. Withdrawal won't last forever and the first week of it is probably the most painful (just like the first week of starting them). I'm going to do some research on it, maybe check some websites and talk to some old friends, and I'll report back.

Much love.

I've found an article on SSRI discontinuation. I couldn't see anywhere a specific indication of how long withdrawal will last, but the good news is, the half-life of citalopram is relatively short compared to fluoxetine for example. The head twitches and wooshing (they call it 'brain zaps') are common and apparently there is no evidence that they are dangerous to the patient.

I can't insert the address of the article, or even use the name of the site, because I've not been a member long enough, but just do a search in that encyclopedia site that begins with W. There's probably tons of stuff on this forum too... it's just finding it

Bon courage anyway... it shouldn't be long.

Hi, twoforjoy!
Thanks for your speedy contact: my ability to get to the computer is a bit "hit and miss", depending on my animated 2 year old, but I'll keep looking and replying when I can!
I read something a bit earlier from a Maudsley Hospital Pharmacist, saying that "just coming off"is fine (by that he meant a daily reduction over a period of around a week)!!! So that can't be dissimilar to what we are doing, surely?
On Citalopram, I feel pretty inert and personality-less as well as completely Asexual, which is horrendous! Its hard to know quite how I feel at this moment in time because between the "brain zaps", I feel anxious about what I'm doing and that makes me a bit tearful. I haven't told my husband or parents because I know they'll be angry...but I need to make a stand and I really do think that I need to "just get off" and face what's underneath the drugs again. I'm going to trawl a bit more later if I can once my lttle mite has gone to sleep...
Good to know you're there: I'll let you know if I find anything of positive use.

Booboo1