Coming off citalopram. :(

Hi Clare

prob a big drop between 20 and 8 mg not working in your favour. Have A talk to a pharmacist. I know your doctor said to do these large drops but another opinion won't hurt.

Beautiful day

I'll be interested to see if you find it better to alternate the 10 and 12.5 before settling on 10mg. This approach was also recommended to me for another drug I took and worked very well with citalopram with minimal probs. Have so far come down from 20mg to 2.5 mg.

20,15 ,20,15

15mg

15,10 ,15,10

10 mg

10,5,10,5

5mg

5,2.5 ,5,2.5

2.5 mg

My pharmacist has advised me stay on 2.5 mg for a few months and then stop and NOT to tailor off by skipping every second day. By the end of Feb I will stop for good. yahoo. It's a great summer here down under so good timing for me.

Is Gillian still with us?

Also when I go back to the chemist will ask about something natural Mrs Mac..She did mention something to take that boosts seratonin naturally and assists when coming off these drugs. Will ask again. I kind of forgot about that as I am on another med and find some things don't mix well. I think my pharmacist trained in complimentary medicine and gives excellent advice about natural alternatives.

Go well every one

My neurologist got me to do LARGE drops. But I did and still am struggling with it.

I have now had to pay private to see another neurologist in hope he can help.

If you like I will keep you postd?

5HTP might be what you're thinking about, Marbel and think I will get it to stop this light-headed feeling. I think the doc. told me to come off far too quickly but, hey, I'm surviving!

Withdrawal Symptoms

Some of the commonly reported withdrawal symptoms are as follows.

Lightheadedness

Headache

Burning sensation

Unexplained tingling

Nauseated feeling

Dizziness

Tooth discomfort

Abdominal cramps

Unexplained pain

Increased tiredness

Frequent chills

Agitation

Irritability

Confusion

Mood changes

Vivid dreams

Sleep disorders

Anxiety

Hi Espcapee

I was feeling fine, the first few days, off them but sitting here in tears because of the horrible dizziness. Had an idea I would crash. Have taken a 10mg. I'm sure I was told to come off them far too quickly. What have those tablets done to my brain???

Marbel,

I too am interested in what ever that herb is your pharmacist recommend to increase serotonin.

Let's see last week I enjoyed ( not really) a migraine that took me out for a few hours and today a little dizzy. The dizziness I thought had stopped, but apparently not - the beginning of week 8 @ 2.5.

Still agitated over little things, but doing lots of positive self talk.

However, given that I am in a much different place in my life - menopause - ugh! IDK, if some of my issues are related to the hormone flux taking place? Just thankful to be coming off - one day at a time.

You know I wish everyone well today.

Michelle

5HTP definitely is the herbal alternative, Michelle. Not been good today with 'the head'.

I started taking 100mg 5htp- you can get it from healthspan in the uk - i took it for a month before I started reducing my cit dose. Then my dr said you shouldn't really take the two together- I came off the 5htp and remained on 20mg cit and boy the withdrawal was horrible - I thought I would literally fall apart everything was painful and of course I was jumpy and anxious. It may just be that I'm susceptible to the chemicals but I'm not too keen to try again to find out!

Read that Clare and you mustn't take the 2 together as that will give too much Seratonin which, it says, can be fatal. Holland and Barrett sells it.

Has anyone taken the 5htp on it's own ( with out cit etc.) with good success? Is this something you can take for awhile or just a few weeks then stop?

Thanks - MIchelle

Lots of articles on it. Take like you would Cit. but not together.

I did find an article regarding 5htp -:

It does say specifically NOT to take with any SSRI

Say about 12 weeks is the max. Anyone with experience would like to hear your thoughts.

Best - Michelle

Hello

I visited the pharmacist today for the usual meds!. I asked her about something natural to use while coming off citalopram. She agreed with you Mrs Mac about not taking 5htp with them. She recommended a natural sleep support as this is an important serotonin pathway.

The product she recommended is a natural source of melatotin made out of tart cherries. It is made by Tru2u.

Hi Clare I also asked about mouth ulcers. She said vitamin b deficiency. I also had awful mouth ulcers when dropping another drug and it made me feel 100% yuk. So I can really sympathise with you. They ran their course. I'm pretty sure I took vit b to help but it was a few years ago. I prob took vit c as well as I use that always , especially when I have an ailment.

When I came off citalopram in 2000 i started on st johns wort for a few months after i had finished cit. I'm not sure about its popularity these days. But it seemed to work for me as a transition.

Hope your dizzyness sort themselves out Michelle and Mrs Mac.

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in checking posts but I have removed several links from this discussion as we do not publish direct links to commercial sites. If you want to exchange specific links to articles or commercial sites can you please use the message service to do this. This also means the other user(s) will not have to wait for me to approve the post or otherwise.

Regards,

Alan

Emis Moderator

Thanks Marbel. My cousin swears by vitamin D tabs. so might try these as well! I've ordered the 5htp with zinc and vit. b added so will try that first.

I see Tru2u is a NZ site and I'm in Scotland. Will do some research. It's just finding the right thing for us.

Onwards and upwards! Dizziness not so bad, today.