Long term widrawal, anyone?

Hi Steve.

I am on Fluoxetine and have been for 15 years. I have tried to come off them before and each time it has been hell. I was also on citolapram for a while but switched back because I got on with them better. Withdrawal should be done very slowly and under the advice of your doctor. Mine took me off too quick! They take a few weeks to get into your system but a lot longer to get off them.

Chat to your doctor you may need to go back on them. If they help you cope with life it may be worth it.

Hope you feel better soon. Let us know how you get on with doc.

Helen.

It's withdral symptoms coming back

Probs with this site...don't give up ..I'm 3 months off cit ..hard hard work but worth it

I did it slowly over a year ..still got withdrawal......almost gave in loads of times but glad I didn't...stick with it ..it's woth it ..I feel great now after 3 months of bad days 

Hi, I stopped taking Cit after 8 days because off horrible side effects. Its day 5 off them and still have visual disturbances. Anyway, in terms of helping ease the withdrawals making sure you have plenty of water ea day ( approx 2ltrs or more depending) and take magnesium either through Epsom Salt baths or another good quality magnesium supplement (I'm a using Magenesium Chloride spray) may help as your body is trying to get rid of a toxin and if we are helping our body you could feel better sooner   

I came off Citralopram once (back on them again though) and think the withdrawal symptoms took around 4-6 months to go completely - felt emotional for a long time after (I'd cry at anything) ;-).  If you think about how long it takes for this medicine to get into your system and work, then I reckon it has to take the same time to come out of your system.

I reduced my meds so slowly by 5mg each time for weeks, before reducing again until I got down to the last 5mg which I took every other day for a week, then every 2 days and so on until I finally stopped.

I did really well off the meds but unfortunately decided to restart due to the stress of coping with family illness.  Started them before I got ill again.

The side effects will go eventually, but it's a pain when you've got it.  One remedy I was recommended when on a cruise in rough seas, was to drink ginger ale.  It cured my sickness (and my husbands) within about 15 mins.

Different sickness I know, but worth giving it a try.

K xx

Thanks everyone for your kind words an support. I enterd a turbulent stage in my life and needed to do somthing pro-active about my panic disorder. So I opted to get back into therapy and change my meds.

I had a graded exit. The side effects were rough coming of them but I stuck it out and I felt great when it was all over but then I started to get sick again. I went from 40mg Citalapram and I am now on 100mg trazadone.

Im thinking it might be prudent to go back on the citalapram ontill things stabalise and then take a much slower grade off them. I honestly dont mind if they dont do much for my anxiety to begin with as long as I can stop feeling sick and actually have the power to get out there and do stuff.

Any way,  its all just thought vomit. I have my appointment booked for next week ill see what the GP has to say.

Thanks guys. Ive been on the pills im on now for 3 weeks or so and only gone upto 100mg from 50 this week. Its a shame you cant take a mix of Citalapram and Trazadone and you cant cross taper them due to the possibility of Seratonin syndrome, apparently. I understand your sentements going back would render all the hardships pointless.

From reading and personal experiance, reintegration of the offending medication will result in an almost emediate turnaround in symptoms. I guess I just need to have a chat with the doc about wether the meds Im on are a good fit for me both long an short term. I wont go into too much detail but there is alot presure to get my panic disorder in chack and soon.

I guess my theory is: If the curent meds fill the hole left by the citalpram then my withdrawal should abate the withdrawal leaving me with just the side effects of the new meds. Alternativly, which I believe to be true is that the new meds are too different to fix the withdrawal leaving my to cope with that and the new side effects.

The trazadone contains a sedative, which short term has been great. Ive actually been able to get some sleep. But long term this might hinder me a wee bit. Im going to be entering the wonderfull world of tattooing which takes an emense amount of concentration. I guess now is the ideal time to make the decission.

I would like to thank you all again for you wonderfull words of advise and support. Im aware that my initial question has been answerd and it is indeed normal to feel the way I do given the cercumstances, It has since become a place to vent. Thanks for allowing that.

I will let you all know how my appointment goes and what the plan is and ill call the thread and let others learn from my experience. Thanks again and I wish you all well.