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Coming off citalopram

2 replies

Mrspinknails · 23/01/2025 15:41

I was diagnosed with ond in 2015 and put in 20mg of citalopram. I was 38 at the time. Over the years I've gone up to 30 and back down to 20 again which is where I've been most of the time.
Fast forward to now. In Dec I spoke to my gp saying that I didn't think they worked for me. She said it was common that if you take them for many years.. the effects wear off. We spoke about sertraline and my husband has recently had a really positive experience with it so I tried that just afyer xmas. This was after I had weaned down to 10 of citalopram.
To say I had a bad experience is an understatement. I went mad. I don't say that likely. My mood shifted and I was in a bad place after using them for a week. My gp was concerned so he told me I had to stop. He said it was a rare reaction but he had seen it cause psychosis in some people. This scared the shit out if me so I stopped immediately and went back to 10. He did say it may have been a combination of withdrawal and a new drug..he couldn't be sure.

So anyway..here I am now. I was on 10 then alternated days of being on then off..thrlen gradually moved to one then off for 2 days. To be honest this took a lot longer than the dr suggested. He said just stop after a week. I wasn't happy with this so I weaned off.

I've not had any for 4 days. I feel weird.dizzy kinda drunk and have really heavy legs like lead. I'm hoping this passes quickly. Had anyone weaned off and had these symptoms pass? I've also had hot flushes back again amd considering I'm on hrt I wasn't expecting this again.

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

OP posts:
DemelzaandRoss · 23/01/2025 19:14

A Panorama programme last year on coming off Anti depressants, highlighted how ignorant GPs are in telling patients how they should withdraw from these drugs.
To stop taking Antidepressants it is imperative to allow a lengthy period of reduction. This is even more crucial when the patient has been taking them for years.
One week would not be long enough.
When I stopped Citalopram 10mg, I dropped one tablet a day for 1 month. I did not have any withdrawal symptoms after 7 months.
Unfortunately, five years later I had another Anxiety episode & was prescribed Venlafaxine. This drug was impossible for me to stop taking. I now take Duloxetine 20mg. If you have to change drugs I wouldn’t recommend Venlafaxine.

Mrspinknails · 23/01/2025 20:37

DemelzaandRoss · 23/01/2025 19:14

A Panorama programme last year on coming off Anti depressants, highlighted how ignorant GPs are in telling patients how they should withdraw from these drugs.
To stop taking Antidepressants it is imperative to allow a lengthy period of reduction. This is even more crucial when the patient has been taking them for years.
One week would not be long enough.
When I stopped Citalopram 10mg, I dropped one tablet a day for 1 month. I did not have any withdrawal symptoms after 7 months.
Unfortunately, five years later I had another Anxiety episode & was prescribed Venlafaxine. This drug was impossible for me to stop taking. I now take Duloxetine 20mg. If you have to change drugs I wouldn’t recommend Venlafaxine.

Thanks for the reply.
I'm tempted to have 5 mg tomorrow

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