Citalopram and Withdrawal

That sounds really scary moomin. I wonder if your post birth hormonal levels somehow affected how you took to the citalopram the second time? All our systems are interlinked, and you might have been super sensitive to the drug because of something like this.

I say this because I am post menopause, and this definitely seems to have affected how sensitive I am to the drug.

Although I don't have experience of just stopping the drug and discontinuation syndrome, if you read around on the Internet, experiences like yours are really not unusual. Also having a friend go through quite severe discontinuation at the moment..... its early days for her.

Does sound like you've mostly recovered though. Sounds like an enormously stressful experience.

Hi,

It seems that you had an adverse reaction to the drug for some reason, the second time you got it! Probably you did well to discontinue it, but since you didn't do it slow, you had the horrible withdrawal symptoms!

All you passed through, are widely reported at various sites from true sufferers including me,

and it seems that concerning withdrawal and discontinuation advice, the least we can trust is unfortunately our doctors.

You were very lucky That your symptoms were going better so quickly, as from what I am reading people are suffering for this reason quite longer and harder.

Also probably is better that you were gone through this acute withdrawal face, than suffering the protracted withdrawal one, several months after!

Take care

Thank you for your replies. Maybe it was something to do with the hormonal change and being very sensitive to it the second time around. When I explained the symptoms I was getting taking this drug she agreed with stopping immediately and getting it out of my system. As I only took it for 17 days I just couldn't understand why it was taking so long to get over it? I kept thinking that I'll be fine in a week... oh maybe another week... oh maybe by Christmas... oh maybe my Easter... I was so frightened these symptoms were permanent. I have been reading through posts on here during that time, but never had the courage to post in case someone said it would become permanent symptoms. It left me unable to hold a drink or use a pen to write as the shaking was so bad. I kept writing my symptoms down and noticed gradually month by month they were slowly disappearing. I never suffered with tinnitus before, but during the first few weeks I couldn't sleep in the bed with my husband, I had to sleep downstairs next to the TV or boiler as I had to find something loud to cover up the loud noises in my head. I kept replaying in my head the walk I did back from the pharmacy with the box of Citalopram, wishing I could turn back the time to before I took them and wished I had thrown them in the bin. I was so angry with myself for the mess I had created, but I was desperate, I was not functioning well as a mum and I had to get myself better for the sake of my three year old boy. This is the first time I have really spoken so much about this topic. In terms of my depression, I am in a better place now, so whether the drug did do something for that, then who knows? Thank you for listening x

Hi moomoomin, am so sorry to hear about what you have been experiencing.  I dropped from 30mg to 20mg suddenly last December and have to say the withdrawal was horrendous, I was also very tearful for months.  I went completely cold turkey on these years ago and had similar withdrawal to what you have described like the brain zaps, I also ended up with protracted withdrawal.  It took a long time but I got there in the end.  This time round, I was put on Cita for hot flushes, and ended up with lots of side effects as I had developed a sensitivity to meds so like you my reaction was different to the meds this time round.  I have read that going cold turkey can take longer to recover and it doesn't surprise me that you still have effects 9 months later.

Hi moomoomin, regarding protracted withdrawal, google Post-acute-withdrawal otherwise known as paws.  As horrible as your symptoms are, this may put your mind at rest.  I wish I could assist with your tinnitus, I too have the whooshing and am hoping it will disappear when I come off citalopram.  I noticed a slight improvement coming off another med, but unfortunately its still there.  Up until the last few months, I used to wake up to loud noises and thought I was being burgled, this happened regularly and its only recently since its disappeared that I realise it was the meds I was on.  I was on a cocktail of medication and am now only taking cita.