High tryptophan foods
Posted , 5 users are following.
I have been on Citalopram for 5-6 years now. I had settled on 30mg and found I had been without any blips for the last 2 years. Only, I had found that after having xmas meal 2 weeks ago I felt that a reactions had occurred, like too much serotonin from all the high triptophan foods (like turkey) and sparked off a case of mild serotonin syndrome. I have been suffering from anxiety of varying severity on and off for the last 2 weeks.
I was just wondering if there could be any advise or if anyone could relate with this. Will it settle down naturally or will I need to lower my dose?
Bit of previous history; In the first year I had tried taking small amounts of 5-htp (bad idea I know) to try and compliment the citalopram which I thought initially was ok but then managed to kick off a form of sertonin syndrome a few weeks down the line which was hellish.
From then I've found that it takes only small amounts of high serotonergic food products to practically trigger a similar effect.
P.s. I know it isn't the full serotonin syndrome as it would have hospitalised me. But I found I experienced dizziness, heavy sweating, agitation, high anxiety, diarrhoea....etc
0 likes, 9 replies
toria_07298 will24638
Posted
it will die down will as food only stays in your system for a certain amount of time, im the complete opposite to you im withdrawing and eat turkey and dark chocolate daily x
michelle45874 will24638
Posted
I was the same was going along nicely then had a severe reaction to antibiotics set me right back to the beginning . It might be that u need to lower your dose i started on 20mg now on 10mg
katecogs will24638
Posted
You can never get too much tryptophan through food as the amount does not pass the blood brain barrier like medicine does.
Never take 5-HTP along with any SSRI meds - it does not compliment it. I started 5-HTP but only when I’d stopped SSRI’s - they act the same as an SSRI so basically you’re overdosing and more likely to get serotonin syndrome that way - never by food.
I’d expect that due to your exposure of heigtened anxiety you’ve created the anxiety loop to restart.
Most people who have anxiety will find they’ll feel worse after an event, especially Christmas. The anxiety condition is born from stress, so give yourself a stressful situation / event (however mild) and it’ll follow up with a blip. There’s lots of people already posted on here they’re feeling rubbish after Christmas.
Now in the loop you’re worrying about how you’re feeling which is causing more anxiety - and the anxiety is then causing more side effects and thoughts.
Allowing those feelings to be there and don’t try analysing them, trying to fix them because that’ll just make you worse. Let them be, know that if you stop worrying about them, stop trying to fix things, relax, slow down then your body will heal itself (your nervous system will heal). Absolutely this is true (though anxiety will tell you otherwise).
This blip will pass.
will24638
Posted
Thanks for the your responses and input. It's hard to know what to do as I find that GPs don't really have a clue on how to advise on antidepressants.
I think I will try and hold out for a few weeks and see if things settle, and if things are still bad will look at dropping down to 20mg.
toria_07298 will24638
Posted
you will settle again will just be good to your tummy as 80 percent of serotonin is in the tummy x
toria_07298 will24638
Posted
foods dont pass the blood brain barrier but the vitamins and nutrients in them do! have a google! im sure the turkey can only do you good! i get plenty of magnesium in my diet and it calms me alot x
will24638 toria_07298
Posted
It is a bit baffling though, as I could clearly feel it all coming on after eating the food. I know it shouldnt be the case but it seems a lot of strange stuff seems to happen to me in regards to this.
I will have a look at incorporating magnesium in my diet.
thanks
toria_07298 will24638
Posted
if you have a bath epsom salts are excellent will x
will24638
Posted
A month or so on from this and last Sunday I had another major explosive anxiety bout, that I believe was the result of eating food that was too high on the tryptophan scale. It kicked in at 4am and gave me massive heavy sweats and unbearable anxiety. Resulted in me having to call in sick for a week.
I decided therefore to drop my dose from 30mg to 20mg on Wednesday. As described above this is due to the mild serotonin syndrome induced by a (perhaps) too high dose of Citalopram and eating food high in tryptophan.
5 days on I can feel the withdrawal kicked in last night with anxiety (that I can identify as being related to the withdrawal only).
I am just wondering how long the withdrawal period would be expected to last when dropping from 30 to 20mg?
I have been on citalopram for about 6 years, and this particular dose I think 4-5years.
Regards
Will