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Hello! A little about me. I was on citalopram 2012-2013 and weaned the ‘GP’ way eg just halved then quartered. It was fairly problem free, aside from brain zaps which went after a fortnight. I was then on Citalopram again 2014-2017 and weaned again fine, just brain zaps (each time for anxiety). Most recently, I’ve been on Sertraline from 2017. I was on 50mg and last September dropped to 25mg. This experience has been wholly different to citalopram. Since dropping to 25mg some 10 months ago, the brain zaps have never left. They make it feel as though my brain is back flipping or levitating, I get vertigo for hours after and it feels like most days are filled with buzzing, shocks and bizarre sensory disturbances (including a strange desire to constantly move my tongue, which sounds bizarre when written down!) Obviously, I react with more anxiety. I tried to drop again, alternating 25mg and 12.5mg in March, but it was a disaster. Sensory disturbances galore. I have a young toddler (2.5) and just can’t afford to be so unsteady and zappy around him. I feel stuck. The brain zaps seem permanent - despite being on this 25mg dose for nearly a year. I panic that the sertraline has permanently damaged my brain and I’m stuck in this hinterland forever. My GP doesn’t get it and I’m stuck with 50mg tablets. I’m aware there’s a wealth of info here to read through, but will need some time when I haven’t a toddler asking me to play with him! Any reassurance would be amazing.

Hello- My name is Emily. I'm almost 27 & have been on the Celexa generic, Citalopram for close to 11.5 years. I was originally prescribed the drug as a young teen for major depressive disorder & severe anxiety disorder. Through therapy, time, & the edge the drug took off, I recovered. I have had seasons of depression over the last 10+ years, but never reaching the level of despair I consistently experienced as a teen. Within the last 5 years, I've tried to get off Citalopram twice before (once via tapering with my PCP & once cold turkey on my own) & I've been unsuccessful with both due to the intense withdrawal symptoms (brain zaps, migraines, tiredness, dark thoughts, etc.) when I reached a low dosage (0-20 mg). Through what I've learned about SSRIs, my psychological stability, prolonged time on the drug, & young age, I desire to get off Celexa once at for all, however, I need help. I don't feel that the medical professionals in my life that can support me well through this process given my prior failed attempts. Please help me safely & effectively get off this drug. Summarized Details I'm a 27 year old female & I've been on Citalopram for 11.5 years. I'm only on Citalopram (40 milligrams) & I have currently started the process of tapering & I've been on 30mg for the last 3 weeks. I'm nervous to decline to 20mg. Initially, I tried to jump from 40 to 20mg (I had done this in the past without an issue) & had brain zaps so I cut the pills to take 30mg. Over the past 11.5 years (2012-2023), I've toggled between taking 20 & 40mg. I have used Xanax "as needed" in the past but haven't used it in a long time. The longer I've been on the drug at 40mg, the more difficult it is for me to decrease milligrams. I've really struggled when going down to 20mg Please advise if there is any more info you need.

Hello everyone I found this website earlier today whilst feeling particularly despondent about withdrawal symptoms. I've read a few posts and feel like I could have written them. I can't believe so many people are going through the same thing! Bit of history - I'm female, in my 40s, from the UK. Had mental health issues my entire life and began being medicated in my early 20s. I have to say that the drugs did help although nobody could ever really find a reason why I was so depressed and so therapy never really worked. Later in life with A LOT of therapy, I have been able to unlock the Pandora's box of my past and recognised that I experienced some pretty horrible abuse as a child and young adult which is almost certainly at the root of all of this as I never developed a solid sense of self or grounding in the world. I'm currently having therapy to address this which is going slowly but in the right direction. As you can see from my signature I've been on multiple psychotropic medications over the years . Six months ago I finished a taper of opiates I had been prescribed for pain and have been through the most horrific dark night of the soul which I am amazed I made it out the other end of. I am currently tapering my lisdexamfetamine (which I am prescribed for ADHD)as it rapid-cycles my mood and makes me alternate between manic & suicidal all in the same day. Ultimately I'd love to be off all the meds altogether. Right now I am feeling despondent as the lisdex withdrawal is causing hideous hideous brain zaps. I have discovered that lisdex & venlafaxine potentiate eachother so essentially I'm not just withdrawing from one, I'm withdrawing from both and this is what is causing the zaps. Anyone who has experienced them will know just how utterly debilitating they are and make you want to rip your own brain out. I'm actually dubious whether I should have been prescribed both medications together in the first place. I'm not working at the moment due to the withdrawals which is making me feel extreme guilt in addition the the shame at getting myself into this situation. I'm taking various supplements, not sure really if any of them are helping. I do quite a lot of exercise but am also prone to inertia and anhedonia which can make it difficult to find the motivation. Thank you to everyone for sharing your experiences and looking forward to being here.

Hi everyone As you can see from the sig I've messed up my taper. It could have been worse - doc told me to stop dead on 15mg back in August as I'd only been on it 8 months. It was me who attempted to wean off and I think I've messed it up, especially after reading around this forum for the past week. By the time I got to 3.75mg it was considered a "placebo" so I stopped. Anyway, I used to take citalopram many years ago after getting post natal depression, took it for quite a few years then just stopped dead (probably 10 years ago so not relevant to now). Absolutely no withdrawal problems. Not so this time! I was on mirt for sleep problems caused, probably, by my HRT not working anymore. My oestrogen level was non existent and the symptoms were appalling. I was on my knees with palpitations, anxiety and 2 hrs sleep a night for all of 2021 and had other health issues on top, and a bereavement. The mirt worked great and got me to a good place with sleep, hrt experimentation began to reap rewards and my level went up. Unfortunately I put on a lot of weight which caused other issues, like massive amounts of heartburn, and psychologically that made me miserable. Around July my hands became very shaky. We decided that it had done the job and it was time to come off. Like I say, it was my decision not to go completely cold turkey but this was not a supervised taper (as you can tell) and I wish I'd known about this forum earlier. I'm not doing as badly as some of you, but it aint great. My anxiety has crept up, the palpitations are back, sleep is not as good as it was but the worst thing, and which is causing me the most worry, are the shakes. In the evening I get full on internal body shakes which I know can be a withdrawal symptom so I'm putting up with it. It gets worse when I stress about it so I just take a deep breath and watch tv as a distraction (which does help). No, it's the shaky hands - I'm convinced I've got something bad wrong with me and I guess I'm looking for reassurance that this is a normal thing. Sometimes when I'm sewing, for instance, I can't thread the needle, or when putting on eyeliner my hand is all over the place. It seems to be with very precise actions that I have the problem. It eased off once my oestrogen levels went up back in September, really improved. It's come back in the past 7-10 days - I stopped mirt about 15 days ago - so I'm really, really hoping this is withdrawal and not something else. Sometimes I "feel" as if my hand is shaking but when I hold them out they're rock steady (so is this just part of the anxiety and me obssessing over it making it worse?). I think I could ride this out if I was sure I didn't have something else wrong, but it seems that this happens less on Mirt than on other ADs as far as google tells me, so I'm pretty scared. Also, I'm sneezing like the clappers (which I guess is histamine related). I can control it with beconase but if I forget it's always the early hours of the morning when it starts up, usually just after I've finally managed to get to sleep. An hour of sneezing is exactly what I need at 3am. Otherwise have taken up yoga, try to get a good walk every day, eat well, have cut out alcohol, drink lots of water. I'm doing all I can in terms of diet and exercise, but I keep checking my hands every five seconds and it's really going to do my head in.

Hi all, I have been monitoring this site for a while and have finally decided to join and seek advice. I have been on Citalopram since August 2020 - (A long undiagnosed testicular cancer diagnosis in 2019/2020 which battered my hormones and low mood during lockdown etc). I initially started on 20mg and over the last 2 years I have reduced (10mg 2021) and somewhat stabilised at around 5mg (half a tablet a day for pretty much the whole of 2022). In December 2022 I decided I’d go one further and make that a quarter of a tablet per day so roughly 2.5mg give or take. I remember feeling groggy for a few weeks but thought it was just the usual Christmas festivities/dark nights etc taking its toll on my body. On February 14th 2023 I decided to take the last dose. Citalopram had somewhat pooped out for me and I felt like the side effects were doing me more harm than good (excessive sleepiness, emotional blunting, zombie like). Withdrawal symptoms hit me hard and fast for roughly 8/9 days. All the usual suspects from what I’ve been reading (Lightheadedness, Headaches, Dry Mouth, Shaking, No Appetite, Heightened Anxiety, Tiredness/Fatigue, Nausea). I was mentally prepared for “two weeks” or so of discomfort so it felt like that was that, I was done, I was finally off Citalopram for good… How wrong was I! Fast forward another two weeks and I remember waking up with a sense of heightened Anxiety for no apparent reason. Since then I have pretty much been in a bad place both mentally and physically. The symptoms I have experienced in the last 2 1/2 - 3 months or so are as followed: Physical: Flu Like Symptoms, Headaches, Lightheadedness/Vertigo, Dry Mouth/Dehydration, Fatique, Nausea, Constipation/Diarrhoea, Body Tremors, Shaking, Restlessness (Mainly Legs), Hot & Cold Flushes, Appetite Changes (Leading to a rough weight loss thus far of 8kg), Throbbing test icle, Tingling sensation of skin, Heart Palpitations, Night Sweats, Vivid Dreams/Nightmares, Waking up in a state of painic, Insomnia. Mental: Heightened Anxiety, Low Mood, Impending Doom, Suicidal Ideology, Irritability, Confusion, Intense Mood Swings, Crying Spells, Depersonalisation. These symptoms come and go at different times at somewhat group up together in different ways. It’s been just over 100 days since my last dose and things are tough. I’d imagine a trip to the G.P. would result in a “relapse” diagnose and just more pills from what I’ve read so I’m hesitant about that and just trying to persevere. Supplement wise I’m not really taking anything at the moment. I spent a few weeks taking ashwaganda and a few CBD gummies very sparingly to try and ease symptoms naturally. I didn’t feel like either were helping and have since decided to try and let the body heal as it’s needs to. With that being said, I have thought about reinstating a small dose to hopefully ease some of the WD symptoms and reconsider a different approach once I feel stable again… Thoughts and advice would go a long way T.I.A

Hello I am from Germany and on 0,6 mg cita from 30 mg and 3 mg Mirta, both since 2019 slowly taper.

Current drugs: - 2012-present citalopram, currently steady at 25mg - 2020 lyrica: max 4mg/day. started tapering after 2 weeks and having worse withdrawal than from 225mg This case history must be very unusal given the low dose and short time. Has anyone heard of a similar case? Also unusual is the bad method I'm stuck with to calculate doses. Recent start and tapering of lyrica ----------------------------------- I started a microdose of lyrica January 1 2020, thinking I could test side effects and stop if they were bad. Worked up to a maximum of about 4mg/day. After 2 weeks I decided it wasn't for mej. Reduced to 70% of max dose and held 4 days but got serious withdrawal symptoms. I thought an increase might help so went up to 80% of my maximum for 2 days, symptoms got MUCH worse, then down to 75% (1 day) and 65%. I thought lyrica and citalopram might be interacting and that tapering citalopram might be easier, so I tried 20% less (25->20mg) one day. I got the worst anxiety of my life and haven't changed it again. Following that I stayed on 65% of my lyrica dose for 2 weeks while I stabilised. Now on day 5 down from 65% to 60% which has not been bad. So, tapering slowly seems best. BUT I cannot measure doses accurately because I'm dividing powder with a knife on a plate (see below). Would switch to liquid but I can only guess how much I'm taking in a day. I'd be grateful for any advice on what I should do! Or information about similar low-dose, short-term cases, or how to handle inaccurate doses. I've been advised by some to go cold turkey given the small dose and short time, and that might have been ok when I started tapering after 2 weeks, but now I've been on it 6 weeks total. I could just about handle the initial 30% drop from my maximum dose but I could not handle what happened when I raised it 10%, then lowered it again. Maybe my case will be useful to someone. If nothing else it shows you can get hooked on a very small dose. The rest of this post goes into background a little and a lot of detail about what I'm doing now, so may be of less general interest. Prior drug history ------------------ - before 2010: prozac then paroxetine then seroquel. never any real trouble getting off them. Just some anxiety/irritability. - 2012 lyrica (only) for 11 days max 225mg/day then tapered off over 5 days with bad withdrawal symptoms for about a week - 2012 mirtazapine for a couple of months, after the lyrica - 2012-present citalopram, starting near the end of the mirtazapine Why is withdrawal worse in 2020 than on a much bigger dose in 2012? ------------------------------------------------------------------- It's hard to compare the two but the current withdrawal seemed considerably worse even before I raised the dose again and made it much worse. Some ideas I had: - I'm also on citalopram now. - Use or withdrawal from lyrica in 2012 primed/changed something. - I got lucky when i went off quickly in 2012, just in time (tapering after 11 days of using it) and just fast enough (5 tapered doses) to escape worse withdrawal. - The down/up dose in first week or withdrawal made it much worse. Also changing citalopram dose for 1 day seemed clearly VERY bad. Switching to liquid ------------------- Day 1 of last taper (65->60%) was partly with liquid I got from a compounding pharmacy. I replaced about 23% of the powder with liquid. Symptoms from underdosing have been bad but less bad than raising the dose, so I aimed low, and took what should have been roughly 45% less liquid than needed (using my rough estimate at equivalance - see dosing method below for details). It was much too strong. I got more sedated than I've ever been on lyrica, lots of muscle twitches, then somewhat agitated when it wore off. I switched back to all-powder doses, and decreased the evening dose by 1/3 to compensate for the morning overdose, and from the next day remained 5% of max dose lower. This has gone surprisingly well despite the updose then decrease. I'm tempted to stay on the powder, but I can't divide into smaller amounts than 1/256 of a capsule with any accuracy at all. That means as I decrease the dose, the reduction step size will get bigger. The most recent step down (65->60%) was about 7.5% of my current dose, but that will become 15% of current dose given a few more steps etc. Also, if a shirtsleeve brushes my reference doses away I'm sunk - I'll have little idea how much to take. But if I switch to liquid, I have to guess how much to take, and try to correct for symptoms, and gradually replace powder with liquid. After the first drop in dose (100% to 70%) it seemed to take a few days for the withdrawal to really get going. If that's still true, adjusting the liquid dose up and down could easily get out of hand and be less gentle than the later, and proportionally bigger, powder decreases. So neither option is good. Powder dosing method (details) ------------------------------ The method I use to dose is awful: I divide capsule's powder into two piles of 1/2, then divide each pile agqin and again. Currently I take 1/64 + 1/128th of a capsule every morning and again at night. This has limited accuracy of course, but it gets worse; there is residue left on the plate after the division. The amount of residue has changed over time since I switched from a big knife to a razor blade, and I haven't been consistent about how much residue I leave. At one point I thought measurements would be more consistent if I kept "reference" piles of each key size: 1/32, 1/64 and 1/128. But I realise now the references are not accurate, and I'm basically eyeballing the new piles now to match the reference ones. To estimate how much my 1/128 actually is, I started a new pill, and divided it with as little residue as possible (using a razor blade, which doesn't leave much at allif you're careful). To my amazement I seem to have left about 50% of the pill as residue. Separately I began sweeping residue from another pill into a pile, which I estimated was about 30% of the pill. Another idea would be to weigh my 1/64th, but I suspect it's too little to measure accurately with any scale I can get my hands on. Potency of my powder -------------------- To make matters even worse, the capsules I'm using expired 4.5 years ago. From a short look on the net and talking with a pharmacist this might not be big deal. But also the powder sits on a plate being slowly divided for up to 2 weeks before I take it, so it may degrade somewhat.

Hi, I've recently got a prescription for Lexapro to counter panic attacks, ADD, and mild depression. I am supposed to take 5mg the first four days, then increase to 10mg. Now I've been using it for only two days, and I feel absolutely horrible. Reading all the negative experiences, side effects and withdrawal symptoms on the web, I'm convinced this poison won't help me at all in the long run. Can I stop taking this drug immediately, or do I even have to taper off after only two days on 5mg?

I am about 4 months postpartum right now. I was having terrible general anxiety and health anxiety. I spoke to my doctor and was prescribed Celexa. I felt comfortable with starting this medication because i had taken it in the past (about 5-6 years ago) with no issues. I started on Celexa 10 mg and immediately felt effects. I felt internal shaking/vibrating feeling. I experienced parasthesia in my upper body, jaw pain, and muscle twitches. I ended up in the ER and was advised to potentially continue the medication but to speak to my GP first. After speaking to my GP, I decided to lower the dose to 5mg Celexa. I was still experiencing so many reactions to the medication. My doctor said that Celexa shouldn’t be causing the internal shaking and vibrations. It made me more anxious. i decided that I wanted to stop the medication and asked my doctor about stopping. Was advised to stop and didn’t need to worry about tapering since on such a low dose. I occasionally feel brain buzzing and sometimes her twitches or internal shaking but has went away for the most part. Doing a low histamine and Whole Foods diet. Taking Vitamin D. Feeling better.

Hi all, I have been struggling off and on over the last 14 years with what I thought was anxiety the whole time, but am now realizing it was more likely withdrawal from stopping antidepressants too quickly. The first SSRI I was put on was Paxil. I tapered off after 7 months because I never really liked the idea of being on an antidepressant. I started having anxiety a few months later and was switched to 50 mg of Zoloft. I tried multiple times over the next 13 or so years to stop Zoloft, but the anxiety always returned, so back on I would go. In the fall of 2015 I had a return of anxiety after reducing the Zoloft to 25mg and tried to go back to 50, but it wasn't helping, so ended up going to 150mg before I felt relief. I again tried tapering last summer and got down to 25mg and experienced increased anxiety as well as insomnia. My doctor switched me to Lexapro last October, but it only made me more anxious, so after 10 weeks he switched me to Paxil. I got up to 20mg of Paxil for 3 weeks and wasn't feeling any better, so finally decided I had enough and wanted off the antidepressants. I started tapering at the end of January down to 15mg for 2 weeks, then 10 for 2 weeks, then to 7.5, and after about a week and a half at 7.5 started feeling really anxious again. I found this site and decided to go back up to 10mg of Paxil and stabilized for about 2 weeks and then started tapering 10%. Was doing pretty well for a couple of weeks at 9mg and then started feeling a little anxiety creep in. I talked to my doctor about switching to Prozac to make the tapering hopefully easier, so a week ago this Friday I started taking 4.5 mg each of Paxil and Prozac. I have experienced some ups and downs with anxiety since then, and am having a particularly difficult time right now. Feeling quite anxious and can't sleep. I took .5mg lorazepam tablet and am feeling a bit better, but not sure what to do now. I was going to switch to just 9mg of the Prozac and eliminate the Paxil tomorrow, but not sure if I should continue with the half and half mixture I have been doing or maybe even just go back to the Paxil alone? This just sucks so bad. I know I have probably screwed up my system so much with all of these changes and can only pray the damage is reversible. I was feeling pretty good earlier today, but then started feeling terrible as the evening went on. Haven't felt this bad in a while. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hello all. Thank you for letting me join this group. I am very grateful. I have been taking Celexa for about twenty years. I really want to stop. It’s like I suddenly woke up and thought, “wow, where did those twenty years go!? And how did I get here?” A bit like the Talking Heads song.

Rhi's Introduction topic I want to crow, or at least jabber excitedly, about the improvements I'm finally seeing in my health and mental/emotional wellbeing as a result of my taper. But I'm not "fully recovered from withdrawal" so I was hesitant to post in this area. Then I decided what the heck. Recovery doesn't have to be all or nothing. There are all kinds of success stories. I know people will be encouraged by what I have to say, as I am encouraged by others. So here it is. As you can see from my sig, I'm in the process of a very long taper off five meds, with a long time yet to go. But I am ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED at my improvement so far. Even though I'm still taking low doses of four psychiatric meds--I'm not sure I can find the words to describe how much better I'm doing and how happy I am at these lower doses, relative to how I was when I was taking those so-called "therapeutic" dosages. Neurontin completely savaged my ability to learn and remember things. Benzos and Lamictal are still making that something of a challenge, but the Neurontin was the worst. It also gave me the lack-of-impulse-control of a two-margarita drunk, and you can imagine what that did for my personality and peoples' impressions of me. I did and said stuff even just two years ago that makes me shudder to think now and thank my lucky stars I didn't get in more trouble. After I got down below 100 mg, all of this settled down a lot, especially the cognitive stuff. When I finally came all the way off Neurontin back in April, after about three months of recovery I seemed to stabilize out fully. My point is, though, I got the lion's share of my improvement not when I quit completely, but during the taper itself. Now I'm experiencing something that just makes me want to shout from the rooftops: I've gotten my motivation and enthusiasm back! After 20 years on antidepressants, I had forgotten what it felt like to actually WANT to do stuff! I used to go along with stuff proposed by other people, and I enjoyed it to the extent that I could experience "enjoyment" (something ADs cripple in me), but I usually felt like I would just have soon have stayed home, and left to my own devices that's pretty much what I did. It was hard, because my poor kids wanted to get out there and experience life. Fortunately their dad and some of my friends used to take them places and give them some adventures. I just never really wanted to do much. Which was weird, because before Prozac and Xanax, you couldn't keep me at home. I was always wanting to go out and do things. I was also very social, loved being with other people, got along well with them. Then for 20 years I became the opposite--agoraphobic, uncomfortable and awkward with people, socially anxious. Well--I'm getting myself back! I'm still on 2.7 mg of Celexa, but the zombie effect is lifting. You have NO idea how great it feels, and I don't think words can do it justice. Over about the past six months I've noticed that I'm back to being comfortable in social environments--more than comfortable, I love being with people, and people seem to enjoy me too. It's so much fun being a social human being again! And for the first time in 20 years I want to do stuff! When I have a day off work, instead of hanging around the house, I want to get out and explore the world, get out and try something new, meet people, see things, do things, touch the world, feel alive, explore, have fun! It's GREAT. So I'm here to testify (can I get a witness?--okay, that's a southern US cultural reference, ignore it if you don't get it) that at least for me, it's been possible to get back a lot of myself, a lot of what I lost on the "meds", just by slowly and carefully lowering my doses and getting down to low doses. The lower the doses go, the better I feel. There's a lot of room between "all" and "nothing", and that's the room where slow tapers play out. It was my hope that by tapering extremely slowly like I have been, all the meds together like I have been, that this would happen, that I would gradually and safely emerge from the nightmare miasma of "non-me" that the drugs had trapped me in. And it's happening. After two and a half patient years of tapering, it's definitely happening. For the first time in 20 years, you can't keep me at home, and I delight in social interaction. Just like how I remember myself being before they put me on the drugs. I'm not even going to go into the kind of karma that people earn by stealing 20 years from someone's life just so they can make money. That's not what this is about, although I have to say I feel pretty PO'd about it. I just want to say that you may not have to wait until you get to the end of your taper to enjoy a lot of benefit. And that tapering faster so you can get all the way off faster--it might not be worth the price, since tapering slow enough that you can still maintain a life and good health may turn out to be worth it when you get to a lower dose and you're functioning well enough to actually ENJOY that life and that health. And I want to say that YES, it's worth it. You can get yourself back. I've heard it from others, I've seen others do it, and I'm experiencing it myself. Hang in there! it's worth it!

Hi, I’m Kate and I most recently have been on Celexa. I was on 6 days at 5mg and was having a burning sensation all over my body worse at my feet. It felt almost like I was set on fire and numbness. I was having horrible panic attacks and just felt completely numb. After the 6th day I stopped Celexa completely but still having the burning sensation and numbness sensations on my skin. It has got a-little better and not as intense but still there:( I’m so scared I will never be the same. My dr. After the fact thinks I’m allergic to SSRIs and wants to put me on Cymbalta but I’m terrified to take it. Please tell me someone has a similar experience and can help. Thanks, Kate ♥️

Hi everyone. So grateful to still be here to be here!! Been a long 30 years! Am hoping to titrate down from last 10 mg of Prozac using the liquid form. Does starting with the 1 mg a month make sense? See how it goes? Finish off 1 mg of Valium first? Yes, scared to let go of the last milligram of safety net. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Moments of regret for ever having gone done the med road, but so very ready to "heal" what only covered up....sound too familiar? Best wishes and thank you!! 1992 – 1999 Prozac 80 mg, Klonopin 4 mg, Buspar 1999 – 2000 Stop Prozac cold turkey 1 year. Hell. 4 mg Klonopin. 2000 – 2003 Celexa, Lexapro, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft. Cycle through each med. None work. Highest dosages. 2004 – Effexor, Klonopin, Zyprexa, Lamictal, Provigal, Sonata. Always high dosages. Don’t remember mgs…. 2005 – Klonopin, Lamictal, Seroquel, Anafranil, Luvox 2006 – Klonopin 4 - 6 mg, Prozac 120 mg 2009 – 2013 – Prozac 80 mg, Kononpin 1 mg (Titrate from 120 mg to 80, and 4 mg to 2 mg) 2013 – 2019– Prozac 30 mg, Klonopin 1 mg (Titrate from 80 mg to 30 and 2 mg to 1 mg) 2019 – Ashton Protocol. Convert Klonopin to 20 mg Valium 2021 – Valium 1 mg. Titrate Prozac 15 mg to 10 mg in 2 months. HELL. TOO FAST.

Hello! I have been around these different types of boards just as a 'viewer' and NEVER thought i'd join but this particular group seems to be the perfect type for me-highly researched, and wanting to take their own health back and into their own hands! My quick story: struggled with anxiety my whole life on and off. Especially health worrying and obsessing. This past summer it got really bad and I couldn't stop looking online about symptoms of this disease or that. Facebook didn't help. And by the end of this summer it snowballed into depression because I was just feeling hopeless and consumed with worry I stopped going to the gym and doing things that interested me (like cooking healthy foods, etc). Backtrack-for a YEAR my GP was trying to get me to go on lexapro or paxil and i kept saying 'no' - so he gave me xanax. So I was taking that (.25 mg) for about 6 months at night and it was keeping things at bay (until this summer). So I go and see at talk therapist, to talk about my 'health obsessions' and she mentions that Celexa would be the 'perfect' drug for me and she's seen people 'just like me' do great on it. So I start taking 10 mg I think end of Sept/beginning of October 2013..I was feeling OK on it but around the 4 week mark I started waking up in a complete panic, sweat and couldn't breathe. Then these panic attacks led to suicidal thoughts-I thought I was going crazy, I was not ME. So mid-october I go off of it cold turkey (only been on it about 6 weeks). Felt awful for a week, tried 5-HTP, Valerian Root..felt a little better but my therapist and those around me kept saying 'i needed something' and I had friends who had been on these meds and were 'feeling fabulous' So I thought maybe I just didn't find the right med. So I decided to see a psychiatrist this time. Beginning of November, I see a psych, does an hour evaluation, perscribes me effexor. Started at 37.5..5 days later, panic attack in the morning, a plan to kill myself. *NOTE* I NEVER HAD PANIC ATTACKS OR SUICIDAL THOUGHTS BEFORE THESE MEDS My Psych and Therapist tell me: 'you would've had these attacks anyway, nothing to do with the meds, up your dose' - so I up my dose and spend 4 days at a mental health clinic for 'anxiety and depression' - Then for the next month I upped my effexor dose to 150. For a couple weeks I felt agoraphobic and didn't want to leave my house. Turns out the effexor gave me really high BP so my dr has been weaning me off of this (which i'm happy about anyway because I don't want to be on this and i'm glad my BP is my 'excuse' for getting off of it) - so now i'm BACK on celexa, but this time 20 mg. I have NO panic attacks BUT I have horrendous nightmares. Once i'm done weaning off of effexor completely in the next week or so ( i'm going to split the 25mg in half and then i'm done doing this weekly). But my question is-do I stay on Celexa? Will Celexa actually 'retrain my brain' to be 'right?' (my friend's GP actually told her that). Or am I just prolonging the inevitable of relapsing and I should just go off of it now. I'm researching SAM-e. St. John's Wort. positives: my mood has improved on celexa, my anxiety is down to nothing, BUT I wake up exhausted from these dreams, i have diareah, (sorry if that's TMI), and my obsessions about health are just turning into obsessions about what these meds really do to your brain. I'm meditating now, reading about buddhism which is helping and I journal every night. THANK YOU if you read this-or even a little bit-is it me or is it the meds that caused these attacks? Am I going crazy? I kind of miss the 'old me' looking back that was a worried anxiety mess-because atleast i was ME. Hindsight's 20/20 I suppose. Wishing you all well. I look forward to making some friends and hearing from you guys.

Hello...I'm new to this website and I'm still not sure how this works. I'm looking for some hope I guess that's what you'd call it. I have been on meds for 15 years. Only an SSRI until probably 3 years ago. I was on Celexa 40mg, Abilify 10mg and Wellbutrin XL. I was so over medicated I felt numb and I couldn't function. I didn't know what was wrong with me & then I thought maybe it's to much medicine. I lost my health insurance on 12-01-16 so I couldn't afford all these meds so I stopped taking the Celexa & Abilify on that day. I'm still on Wellbutrin. The reason I stayed on it was I heard it would cause seizures if I cold turkey off it. I did not know I shouldn't of done that with the other 2. It will be 5 months on May 1st that I stopped other 2 meds. The only reason I went on medicine was because I lost my grandmother and I was stressed. My friend suggested I see a Dr so I did. Stupid mistake! I didn't even know Abilify was an antipsychotic until I googled it looking for answers about what was going on with me after stopping meds. I came across discontinue syndrome and then this website. Most psychical symptoms are gone and insomnia has gotten a tiny bit better but the anxiety and I guess it's depression is awful!! I don't have insurance so I can't afford to go back on the meds & go back to not functioning. I'm just wondering if I'm going to make it through this? I'm really worried. God Bless!

Hello, I’m 39 years old. I’m really struggling right now . I think I may be suffering from discontinuation syndrome ??? Not sure. my current meds my psychiatrist had me on were celexa 60mg amitriptilene 100mg guanfacine 1 mg 2x per day Ativan 0.5 mg twice a day My psych had me taper off of amitripteline over the span of about 3.5 months . I was doing ok through the taper didn’t notice anything dramatic as I moved the dose lower and lower every 3 weeks . I took my last small dosage of around 6mg November 11th. just a couple weeks ago I got hit with severe depression /anxiety , much worse than when I was on the amitriptyline prior to tapering off . My doctor has decided to put me back on amitripteline so I’m taking 12.5 mg of that now , I’m on my second day back of taking it . I feel so horrible , I’m really struggling to get through this . Is there anything that can be done or that I can do to help get me some relief ??? Will going back on help too? I was hoping it would would any of these things help lessen the discontinuation syndrome? Like walking , or specific diet , vitamins ? I just feel hopeless and really need some guidance , help, support . I’m sorry to ask but I feel lost and without support . I’ve been suffering from anxiety and major depressive disorder for over 20 years . I look forward to being part of this group and hope I can find some help and support that I desperately need . Thank you

Hi everyone (sorry for the misspellings and bad grammar - I'm from Denmark). Started on citalopram in 2010/2011 after a longer period of anxiety, where I was afraid that I was going insane. Checked my self for symptoms that I was about to go insane, had anxiety all the time, could'n sleep and could not relax as I constantly had and "what if"-thoughts. I didn't really share it with anyone - just hoped that it would pass. I can't remember exactly when I started on citalopram, but It was after visiting my parents for Christmas where I just started crying and was doing really bad. year. I went to see a GP, and I was put on citalopram (after my own wish, because I just wanted to get better). I didn't get any sessions with a pshycologist until later, and not until I was on 40 mg. I stayed on that dose for a while and then went to a pshycologist. After that I slowly started to feel better and was able to taper to 30 mg, to 20 mg without any problems. A couple of years ago i went down to 10 mg. This was a little harder, but at that time I didn't know about withdrawal. I have been feeling good these past years (still had some problems with tiredness and I have to watch my wieght). I have been talking with a GP every year at checkups about the possibility of me starting to taper, but I haven't feelt that it was the right time until now. So in may ad the advise of my GP I started to skip doses. That didn't go well. I got irritated at my girlfriend, had inner restlessness, burning sensation in the arms, started to having trouble to sleep and about a week after i started to taper I was just feeling overwhelmed and had a feeling of panick once in a while. Then I upped my dose by switching between 10 and 5 mg every other day. That helped, and I started to sleep better and experiencing the windows. But I was afraid that I would screw up the when to take 10 or 5 mg, so I'm now cutting my 10 mg pill into qaurters to take 7,5 mg a day. It seems like I got hit again with the same problems as when i skipped doses. It's a long time since I started on citalopram, but I'm pretty sure that this i withdrawal and not a relapse, because it feels so different from back then. I'm now 35, and I would like to hear if anybody else has had the same problems with skipping doses and cutting in quarters that I have? And where to go from now? I have an appointment with a psychologist in Denmark who is writing a Phd on withdrawal, and I hope that he will be able to get me in the right direction. Kind regards from Denmark

August 24th, I was still a teenager, and offered a thc (10mg) edible from my mom. Once it set in, I had the scariest experience of my life. The panic was so bad I couldn’t move. My body felt nothing but war, red hot agony burning its way down my throat and scraping against my nerves. I have no other way to describe it other than a “panic attack,” though I’ve never had a panic attack before. The first “attack” lasted for about 4 hours straight, then hourly attacks occurred up to 5 days after. Conveniently I had also upped my Citalopram dose a month prior (from 10mg to 20mg). I can’t pinpoint if this is a “thc overdose” or serotonin syndrome. I told my doctor about what I had experienced but I couldn’t tell her about the thc part because it’s not allowed in my state for underage people. She diagnosed me with serotonin syndrome based on the symptoms I told her, but I’m not sure if that was actually the problem. Symptoms experienced with the attacks were: seizures, huge rush of anxiety and impending doom, throat tightness, trouble breathing, convulsing, burning, shaking/tremor/shivering, sweating/night sweats, paresthesia, numbness, no appetite, mental fog/confusion, heart racing, palpitations, diarrhea, and insomnia. I really wanted to go to the hospital, but I was reassured by my mom I was just having a “bad trip.” After that day, I tried to taper down my Citalopram under the conclusion that it was both the medication and thc. I had also been addicted to caffeine, and using 1 claritin in the morning and 2 benadryl at night. I stopped everything at once. I say it was a “taper” for my Citalopram but it was way too fast. After the first 5 days, I took 20mg. Waited 3 days, took 20mg again. Waited 3 days, split pill in ½ (10mg). Waited 3 days, split pill in ¼ (5mg). Then I went completely off meds by 9/7 (2 weeks after). The reason I was rushing was because the anxiety was crippling. I was scared of everything. Songs, daylight, food, sleep, walking, breathing—any ordinary thing became a trigger for my anxiety. I’d laid in the dark for weeks just trying to breathe. Nothing but breathing. I wanted to stop it and I thought if I changed everything at once it would eventually go away. I was wrong. At the beginning of my withdrawal symptoms (about 1 month later), I got covid so some symptoms are intertwined. Symptoms include: anxiety, hair loss, weight loss, face burning sensation, cramping in hands, night sweats, no appetite, dry mouth, auditory hallucinations (buzzing, staticky or springy sounds), mental fog/confusion/poor memory, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, heart racing, palpitations, diarrhea, insomnia & vivid dreams, throat tightness sensation, brain zaps/electric shock sensations, “sand papery’’ or static sensation in nervous system, feeling like my body is on “backwards,” nausea, bloating, heartburn/acid reflux, irregular menstruation (early, prolonged, & spotting on ovulation), restless legs at night, noise sensitivity/migraines, cold sensitivity, crying spells (when I try to hold back from crying, chest gets heavy & I get a lump in throat feeling). 2 months after, I started having chest pain and my heart rate was in the 110s. I went to the instacare and bloodwork & EKG came back normal (except low potassium). They prescribed me 25mg of Hydroxyzine for anxiety, but it did not work and gave me terrible sleep paralysis. After a few days, the pain got worse and I went to the ER. EKG was normal and they gave me a stomach numbing liquid for heartburn. It did not work. After a few days, the pain went away and I can only suspect it was my anxiety. A week after, I got my blood drawn for a checkup and everything was normal. I also had a brain CT scan. Everything came back normal. The 3 month mark is when I started experiencing weirder physical symptoms. Once or twice a day, I get this prickly sensation in my body. It feels like my brain is shivering and my joints are rusty. I still have this and a strange “flicking” sensation in my brain that comes and goes, usually triggered by moving my head too fast or blinking. Things have been getting back to normal but it is extremely slow. I am 4 months away from that day. I still suffer from crippling anxiety and panic attacks almost daily. I still can’t drink caffeine without panic attacks. Recently I tried birth control but it made my anxiety backpedal and I had to stop after just one week. So I guess now I’m just out of ideas on what to do. I don’t know why I am still having panic attacks when I’d never had them before. I have really bad medical anxiety and I keep telling myself there is something super wrong with me. I had to drop out of college because of my anxiety. Now my parents are pressuring me to get a job and move out but I feel like I can barely function. I can’t explain to anyone what I’m experiencing because I don’t know how to label it. I find it hard to believe all of this was caused by an edible or that I’d STILL be feeling the effects from it. I hope what I’m experiencing now is just withdrawals.

Hi All, I am new here and have been reading your experiences with the tapering of Celexa/Citralopram. I seem to be in a bad phase again at 1,5mg. Six hours of neck pain with muscular spasms. One of you guys wrote you took Epilim - or has anybody a tip on supplements which make you calmer and reduce neuro/muscular spasms. Its driving me nuts. All the best Mole

Hi, this is my first post on here. First, I want to say thank you to everyone who is bold enough to post on here, look beyond western Medicince, and having the courage to fight this absolute nightmare of a battle. This forum has helped me tremendously. Now I want to shed some hope. Ive been on Celexa for 10 years at 20mg. It helped me through nursing school as I became depressed seeing suffering and dying people for the first time. What should have been a short stent with and AD and therapy turned into an10 year ordeal with at least one unsuccessful attempt to wean off. Being the nurse that I am, I attempted to take my tapering into my own hands and went down 5 mg a month. I was absolutely great during the whole tapering and had one really good week completely off of the Celexa then it all came crashing down week two after my taper. I experienced extreme panic attacks and doom, chest pain, palpitations, dizziness, feeling numb, derealization, crying spells, severe agitation, mood swings that you can’t just snap out of no matter how hard I try, fatigue, a really bad itchy rash, memory issues, sleep paralysis, and just feeling so uneasy in my skin like nothing could be comfortable or peaceful. It’s like the nervous system thinks you’re about to get on a plane that will crash only you’re safe and in your own home. I felt like I had had 20 cups of coffee at times. Here is my hope. After reading some stories on here and hearing about how some people are on this journey for years at a time, I became very discouraged. How could I live like this for even a minute longer? Which is how I feel during a wave. It often seems it will last forever but the waves do pass. I have experienced the waves and windows and try to soak up every minute of every window. I decided last night to reinstate at 5mg to help with the discontinuation bc at the time the wave I was in was just unbearable. I am glad I did it. I already notice a difference. I felt pretty good today and have hope that a slower taper from 5mg over a longer time will help. It was nice to be able to work today and not have panic and/dizziness and I didn’t want to snap at anyone. Thank goodness. I don’t want to be on Celexa. I wish it was something I could just move on from but I now know after my second attempt to taper, that this will be a longer process than I though and that in time I will get my life back. Discontinuation for me has been hard. I realized I am not Superman and reinstated. It can look like a set back (which I felt at first) but I truly believe it was the right choice for me with noticing a difference and feeling better overnight. This is my story and everyone is different. I know it all depends on how long you’ve been off. I reinstated 6 weeks after my last dose. I believe the sooner the better. I hope this helps someone on here. Praying for all of you. There truly is no pain or torture than we all have been so unfortunate to know. It will get better.

Hi, this site was recommended to me and I'm very grateful to have found a place where people might understand what I'm going through. My story with antidepressants starts 10 years ago, but I've only really had problems with them within the past year. In 2017, I was switched from fluoxetine to citalopram. The citalopram worked for me, and I was quickly upped to a dose of 30mg, which I happily stayed on for 4 years. This takes us to November(ish) 2021. In November I was really struggling with my anxiety, and physical symptoms which were new to me. I had lots of tests done to rule out any physical illness, and nothing abnormal came up so I was just really confused about what was happening. Everyone kept saying it was anxiety but I couldn't really believe it, because the symptoms were so strong and I'd been dealing with anxiety my whole life and it had never presented like this. My doctor suggested that I increase my citalopram to the maximum dose of 40mg. I'd never been on the maximum dose as I'd always been warned off it because I am underweight, but I did it anyway. I tapered up to 40 by January and stayed on it for about 6 weeks. It didn't help whatsoever - in fact I just felt worse, because I had some side effects from the increase that I'd never experienced previously. Skin crawling, tingling and numbness on my left side, etc. It was horrible so I decided to reduce back down to 30mg. I'd achieved this by late February. At this point, my mental and physical health has been feeling awful for about 4 months. I wasn't able to work, socialise, or do anything at all really. I'd developed extreme health anxiety from having all these new symptoms which I was convinced could be a serious medical condition, and I had now started to develop constant nausea (my worst symptom, as an emetophobe). At this point my doctor started to talk about me switching medications altogether. I was open to it, because in 2017 I'd made the switch from one SSRI to another and it went so smoothly that I just thought this would be the same. She suggested Sertraline, so I started to taper down the citalopram in preparation for that. I got down to 20mg by May and it was really difficult. The nausea, foggy headedness and tingling symptoms were constant. But, looking back, in mid May when I'd settled on 20mg I actually felt a bit better for the first time in a while. I was able to do slightly more and felt less sick every day. I think a wise decision at this point may have been to stay on 20mg and just allow my body to calm down and give myself the chance to have a life again. BUT back in April, I'd had my first appointment with a psychiatrist. After telling him everything, he suggested a medication I hadn't really thought about, Mirtazapine. He told me that when I came off citalopram completely, I should start 15mg of mirtazapine then work up to 30. I sort of took this as a better idea than sertraline, I'm not sure why really...I think because I knew that mirtazapine increased appetite, and I wanted desperately to gain weight because anxiety always takes my appetite away. So I ditched the idea of sertraline (which my doctor seemed fine with after hearing the psychiatrists new recommendation) and continued to taper down further. I got to 15mg by the start of June, and tried to drop again to 10mg. Things were just getting awful, I felt I was worse than I was in May, and I couldn't see myself being able to get all the way to 0 without just having no life anymore and becoming a shell of a person. At this point my doctor prescribes me 7.5mg of mirtazapine to take alongside 15mg citalopram, as a sort of crossover, so that I could continue to taper down citalopram but have the mirtazapine to make me feel a bit better. I took the mirtazapine for a total of 5 days - it made me very sleepy, very groggy in the mornings, and very emotional. I did in some ways feel mentally better - my overthinking definitely reduced and I was finally hungry again which was amazing. But when I told the doctor that I'd been very groggy and tired and had felt very off kilter, she told me to stop the mirtazapine immediately and just stick to 15mg citalopram for a while. This brings us to now. I'm at a loss - I stopped the mirtazpine last week (which has given me withdrawal symptoms too, even though I was only on it for 5 days - headaches, pulsatile tinnitus, worse brain zaps and tingling) and now I'm just sitting with being on 15mg of citalopram, half of what I've been on for 4 years and feeling pretty hopeless. The worst part of all this is the physical symptoms which just disrupt everything. After reading on here and on reddit, I think I'd describe them as brain zaps - a sort of constant tingling in my head which makes me nauseous and makes me feel like my head is fuzzy. I also feel sick at the thought of doing anything - its so hard to describe, but I literally cant picture myself doing anything without feeling spaced out and nauseous. I feel like I am just not on the same plane of existence as anybody else - my head is spaced out, I can't enjoy anything, I feel like crying, my thoughts are quite literally racing and my body is just messed up by all these medication changes. I feel such regret for ever trying to withdraw from citalopram in the first place, especially when I was in a bad place to begin with. I can't imagine how to get out of this hole that I've dug for myself. After reading about medication tapering online I realise I've done it at the wrong time, and far far too quickly, and I'm living with the consequences now. As for trying to settle the symptoms, I've of course tried lots of different supplements with limited success. In fact, since stopping mirtazapine, I'd say supplements make it worse. A few days ago I took a vitamin B supplement and the next day my head was pounding and I had pulsatile tinnitus, and last night I tried a magnesium supplement and today my head is pounding again. I'm very lucky that my family is able to look after me during all this, but they are constantly telling me to 'get out and do things', which I think is their reaction to the idea that all of this is just anxiety, and nothing actually physical. Its so hard to get people to understand that it feels like my body and brain are falling apart, and that withdrawing from my medication (something I chose to do which was meant to lead me on the road to recovery) has made things so so much worse, mentally and also physically. I hope that this will be the lowest point for me and that things will improve, but I have no idea. And I don't even know whether my next step will be more withdrawal, or reinstating the citalopram, or just staying at the dose I'm at. But I'm pretty scared for any of those directions because I've just bounced from one bad experience to another, and somehow I'm scared that it could get even worse.

Hello! I am in a hell of withdrawal. I have been on many different SSRI’s in the past and they all worked but had intolerable side effects. About a year ago I started sertraline, and when it didn’t work my psych put me on Abilify and lamotrigine. The Abilify seemed to help a bit but gave me crazy anxiety and tardive skenesis. The lamotrigine has never seemed to do anything. Since last March I have been trying to taper. I’ve had two terrible experiences when my doc told me to stop the S and A cold turkey. I’m back on low doses of both. Currently I take 12.5mg sertraline, 2mg Abilify, 200 mg lamotrigine and would like to get off all of them, if possible. I have terrible anxiety and crying spells that I’ve had since starting the sertraline and Abilify. Im wondering which drug I should try to taper first?? Thanks for your help!

Hello everyone. I hope is doing well. I've been taking celexa for 10+ years now. I think from 2011 when I started it. But the last few years I've been feeling okay. Lately tried to jump into a new career. But because I take antidepressants I couldn't get the job. I want to use this opportunity to finally get off the medication for myself and be free. How I take celexa is a bit different. I would take 30mg then skip a day and take 30 the day after. I've been taking it like this for years. So my question is how do I taper from this?

Hello and nice to meet everyone. I have been reading as much as I can the past two days and feel like it is time to introduce myself. THANK YOU for everything you all have contributed, this site is a game changer. So many questions answered and a new journey begins. You can see my drug history and four month taper in my signature over the spring/summer (my psychiatrist at the time recommended two weeks, go figure). I had planned on a few crappy months going into this. Oh if I had only found this site first... Withdrawal didn’t kick in for at least two weeks, and slowly at first. I spent all of September and October dodging and weaving through good days and bad days, which I observed simply as “anxiety” (my original diagnosis) but with unusual physical symptoms. I journaled and kept calendar entries, mostly to record when I had to resort to Ativan (usually 0.5mg, occasionally 1mg). Other than for flight anxiety (two trips), I can count 17 times I took it over those two months, and only as a last resort. I had two sudden midnight “surges” (after feeling great) with shivers, out of control heart rate, even some diarrhea, which would last hours. I was convinced it was Serotonin Syndrome. The second one took me to urgent care the next morning for a heart checkup. A few days later a new psychiatrist then put me on Propranolol (beta blocker) as my primary concern was my heart. Propranolol immediately helped me observe and evaluate the “anxiety” I was experiencing which helped a lot. The new psychiatrist also had me stop 5-HTP after only a few weeks which was probably smart. I speak to him again this Friday, not sure what to share/ask given what I am learning here. I am now clear on the fact that I am riding waves of withdrawal symptoms, anxiety responds to the unusual feelings and emotions created by the withdrawal and adds its own icing to the cake, but I am focused on observing and not reacting, and doing my best to “ride it out”. The most unusual part of this “pattern” has been the timing of it all - usually kicking into high gear in the evenings after dark (earlier and earlier in my part of the world). I am nervous about traveling this weekend (short flight) but also realize I need to try and have as “normal” a life as I can stand under these conditions. My wife is awesome, understanding and super supportive. At 12 weeks in, I am not sure reinstatement is an option for me, even though I still have 5mg Trintellix in my drawer, and could try taking microdoses. Leaning toward a no, but I realize I may have run out of time to make that decision? I have read almost all the “required reading” but would still appreciate an opinion on that one. Also considering stopping my multivitamin, turmeric and mulberry leaf extract and taking only my “Super Omega-3 Plus” (Fish Oil) and picking up magnesium pills. I just started the Probiotic so I could drop it too, but not feeling like it would impact all of this either way? I am intrigued by the Reishi 415 blend to get some non-psychedelic mushroom love. Lastly my wife and I are thinking about therapeutic float tanks (she would love to do it again) and I have begun using our hot tub as part of my daily routine, along with many failed attempts at meditating. Anxiety was never something I handled well to begin with, and I realize now I must absolutely be on my game to dance this intricate dance. I will post any new thoughts, findings and curiosities on this thread as appropriate. I appreciate everyone’s support! PS- I opted to not use the appropriate abbreviations as I wanted to easily share this summary with family