Help -so close to being off citalopram

I did what you did  and yes it's tempting ..don't do it ...ride it out ..it's worth it it I promise ...DO NOT Do IT .!!!!!

Hi Carol,

I would ride it out, it is just the withdrawel and it will pass.

Hi Carol, I stopped taking Cit 20mg 2 weeks after 7 years, I feelthe same, heady, off stroke and cannot be bothered to do anything, I have struggled with this over the 2 weeks and it just won't seem to go away, but I have persisted in feeling like S^^^ and am determined to continue, because if I go back on them, I would have to feel this rotten all over again and I would rather die than do that. Hang in there and I am sure the days will continue to rid our brains of these so called chemicals. Bless you, if you want to talk some more reply to me, because I know exactly how you are feeling. Love Barbara xx

Carol Hi!

From someone who is not far in front of you in the escape from the effects of Cit 

I stopped after 6 weeks of Cit use due to significant side effects.

I am now 45 ish days off the evil drug and now showing significant improvments in my health which had been badly affected by the use of this drug.

You have a choice and it will depand on what you want to really achieve. Do you want to come off the drug and recailm your life or do you wish to be relient on it into the future ?

My view for what it is worth, is if you want to stop using Cit and as you have already commenced this action then stick to it and yes it WILL affect you in the short term, but you have already started down this road to return to the drug will only ease the situation but it will put you back to where you were before you started, consider is this what you want?

If you stick to your guns, at the end of what could be a miserable few weeks there will be  light at the end of the tunnel and life should be a lot better at the end of this period

I hope this helps

Dave

Hi all and thanks for all your supportive replies. After a couple of rubbish days and faced with a full day in the office I did pop another 10mg, before reading your posts. I will see if I can get through another couple of weeks without it.

After my attempt described above at coming off citalopram I was back to having what I call mildly stressy dreams as opposed to nightmares, restless nights and lethargy can't be bothered with anything in the day. I know it was showing to other people because a couple of people asked me if I was alright so I think I had a "Black dog" face (by the way I love black dogs). I was feeling snappy and stressy over trivial things and slightly tearful once or twice over nothing( I never cry). I remembered feeling a lot of these things before I went on cit, I am confused how you tell whether the symptoms are due to withdrawal or due to stress/anxiety returning which led to you taking it in the first place.If I still "need " it I have no strong objections to keeping up the 10mg every alternate day but obviously I would prefer not to be on it.

I guess I am still in the same "stressy" situation I was when I started taking it so how does it fix the brain so you can come off it? Love to hear what you have found along the way.

Is it your decision to make these changes to your dose or you GP? Also how long in between are these changes being made?

It is my decision but dr knows I was down to 10mg alternate days.

It took about 12 months to get from 40mg to 10mg alternate days and tehn less frequently so it has all been very slow with several weeks at each level.

GP suggested reducing to say 10mg every 3 days then 4 days etc until in the end you forget to take it. Tried that and w/d kicked in after about 2 weeks