Cold Turkey Citalopram after 4 years

Hello gandilove  oh I don't think going cold turkey is a good idea you can make yourself real sick from what I understand. My mom tried that with one of her anxiety meds and ended up in the hospital.i am on the cit  also and started weening my self from 40 to 20 last week I figure about a month then I will cut down again and do this for about 4 months then stop I've only been for over a year. I don't like it. Trying the natural way hopefully works. A lot of people on here have said no matter how you do it you will get side effects for at least a couple of months just got to ride it out and know that you will be fine . Almost everyone seems to get what they call brain zaps not looking forward to that.I would consider weening off if I were you  let me know how your doing  wishing you the best !!!

Oops no.  I have been trained in neuro chemistry and it will make you so out of balance.  There is a good discussion on here about coming off citalopram and I myself are reducing.  The most you should do is 5 mg drop and then wait 3 months before coming down again.  I have dropped from 30 mg to 20 mg and now going from 20 mg to 15 mg and then to 10 mg.  I only need it to keep my hormones in balance - as having extremely bad perimenopausal to menopausal time and I mean severe.  I have been on 20 mg for 4 years and believe you me dropping below 20 mg has stressed my body out.   Hope this helps Xx

Please don't go cold turkey on this medication, you'll be very, very ill and probably make yourself worse than before you started this medication.  I believe it can be dangerous to suddenly stop.

These need to be withdrawn so slowly, and even then you'll probably experience withdrawal effects.  Either do it by 10mg or even 5mg each time, and let each dose reduction take about 2-4 weeks before reducing it further still.

I came off them once, did it very slowly, and still got withdrawal effects which lasted weeks.

K xx

Cold turkey is not fun at all. I would most certainly ween off of them. They have horrible withdrawals. If you ween off of them, you will feel much less side effects and you will eventually be done with them. I can guarantee that you will most likely be right back on them just to get rid of the horrible side effects. Please, do it slowly for your own sake. Also, bear in mind that you have a chance of your depression coming back in a few months of it was a chemical imbalance. I'm not trying to be negative. Just telling you what I know from my experience and other people that I know. Would probably be a good idea to Google the withdrawal symptoms. Good luck to you. I truly hope that everything works out for you!

Hi All. I was prescribed escitalopram which is another name for the antidepressant in 2003 after having lost my only sister to cancer after a 7 year battle. I was assured by my Gp that it was none  addictive - I was on the lowest dose. A few years later Dad became ill and passed away and within a year I lost Mum (I had cared for both of them). I wanted to come off the meds but doctor adivsed that too much was going on in my life and to perhaps try taking 1 every other day which I did for a few years and I stopped taking them around 10mths ago. I admit I did cry more for about a month but gradually overcame this and am now fine with the occasional blip.