Stopping citalopram or other Ads

[8thplace]

Hi. I've been on citalopram 20mgs for 3ms after a period of work burnout, stress and low mood / depression. Gp started me. I have carried on working throughout. I am feeling a bit better and am thinking about reducing or coming off them. I do think part of how I was feeling in bleak December was worsened by SAD, which I do know I am prone too.

Any advice or info pls, on stopping or reducing Ads. I will talk to GP, but just wanted to hear other POV from real people first.

Thank you.

Bumping. Anyone??

Hi 8thplace! Great that you are feeling a bit better. I'm on citalopram and have had the experience of coming off them twice now... I think the normal advice is to stay on them for a while longer, usually 6 months at least. From my experience, I would recommend coming off them v gradually... when I haven't (went cold turkey once - please don't do this!) I have had "brain zaps" and feeling pretty wobbly. No shame in carrying on with them a while longer until you are in a really good place to stop them. Good luck and feel free to ask more qus :)

I take citalopram. I think that the advice is to stay on them around 6 months minimum as pp said. Perhaps in that time you could try reducing to 10mg? With gp advice? I know when I have added 10 mg to my 20mg I can just add it and reduce easily. However as 10mg is quite a low dose I would definitely seek GP advice in getting down to that.

Then if you stay on the 20mg for a few months and taper to nothing with advice from the GP on how to do this you will probably have a fairly ok transition.

I've been on citalopram for 7 years. I don't actually know if I could do without it and I'm OK if that's the case. I did reduce down to 5mg once around 2 and a bit years ago. The withdrawal symptoms were minimal as I did it very slowly over many months. However once at 5mg I was told it wasn't enough to be clinically significant and I did feel very irritable and anxious. So I started a different ssri, sertraline which made me feel physically unwell and didn't help my anxiety. In reflection I wish I'd just sat with the emotional and anxiety side for a little longer. To see how it panned out. However I did a few panic attacks on the sertraline so I just wanted to make it better.

So my advice would be when you eventually come off them to be prepared for some emotional instability and try to ensure you do it at a time without much going on in your life. Where as I got to the very low dose and coming off when I was starting a new job which wasn't sensible.

Slowly is the key. I alternated 20 and 10 for about a month, then went down to 10, then alternated 10 and 5 for a month, then 5, then 5 every other day for a few weeks, then nothing. Good luck!

VERY slowly. And only after your mood has been stable for some time. Under GP advice. Reduce a tiny bit. Stay on that level for quite some time. It took me months to come off but no side effects.

Very slowly and don't listen to gp! I was on them 18 years and got swapped to sertraline 15 months ago I had horrendous withdrawals and I still suffer this length of time on ... I didn't even know wd existed anyway saw a doctor who said it was withdrawals and I should have tapered over 3 years not 3 months ... so do it slowly you should be ok after 3 months if you want tapering advice look at surviving antidepressant xxx

Thank you all. I needed to hear this very slowly message. I know I'm feet lung a bit better but prob not ready to think about stopping yet, based on your advice and more of my own reading/ research.

A bit better is not good enough. I'm still vulnerable and closer to the edge than I want to be reminded. Good days and not so good days still. I'm a work in progress, still healing and recovering. I have to be patient

Feeling.. Not feet lung. Soz.

3 months is nothing. Stay on them.

There's nothing wrong with the medication if it helps you- it's still fairly new in your system too so I expect in another 3 months you'll feel better than now.

I work with people with all sorts of mh issues, low and high level. So many people are on medication it's ok and I don't really like the word normal, but it is.

I have friends on medication and have told them the same. Life in general can be tricky enough... then 2020 arrived!

Take care.

OP question - DID the drugs help do you think, or have other things in your life changed that helped?

Note ADP's are only effective in a relatively small proportion of cases - something like ~30%) and these tend to be the more serious conditions. There's practically zero evidence they confer any benefit beyond placebo for mild depression.

Not that placebo is useless - with something like depression placebo can get you through a few bad weeks.....

So if you feel you don't need them, definitely come off them, but be warned, you may experience withdrawal effects. Check with your GP, but they'll probably advise halving the dose for 2 weeks - then half again etc...

Great news that you are feeling better, just to echo pp's, my advice would be to give yourself permission to continue to take a maintenance dose so you can really benefit from stability, despite what you may be telling yourself there is no rush/pressure to come off the meds. Also agree with everyone on the go slow message, my own impatience led to brain zaps and I wish I had just given myself a bit more breathing space.

My DS has been on sertraline for a year 50mg
He has decided he wants to come off so has halved the dose. It's been almost 2 weeks now and hes had no side effects so far. The GP was quite blasè and just said go half for a while then stop I'm trying to encourage him to take it slowly.
But I agree with pp 3 months is probably not long enough.

I’ve recently come off citalopram after nearly 12 months (had 6 months of mirtazapine/sertraline before that).
I was on 30mg, then around October I dropped to 20mg, and when I was stable on that I dropped again to 10mg. The last couple of months I gradually started spacing them out, so from every day to every other day, then every three days and so on. This whole process I was in regular contact with my Dr, and if I’d had any issues we would have stopped it. Definitely do not try and do it on your own.
If you’re feeling ok now, make sure you’re doing the non-medicated stuff that helps but you can’t find strength to do when you’re in the depths, like eating healthily, exercising and generally looking after yourself and your surroundings. You’ll want to have those habits in place before you start reducing the drugs!

@WhatNowFrantic

My DS has been on sertraline for a year 50mg He has decided he wants to come off so has halved the dose. It's been almost 2 weeks now and hes had no side effects so far. The GP was quite blasè and just said go half for a while then stop I'm trying to encourage him to take it slowly. But I agree with pp 3 months is probably not long enough.

"But I agree with pp 3 months is probably not long enough."

What possible benefit can there be for staying on them longer??

NB The longer you stay on ADP's the more your brain chemistry will become dependent on them.

I was on 40 mg for about 3 years. I dropped to 30 for a couple of months and 20 for 8 weeks and then 10 mg for about 8 weeks and I just stopped I had a Rocky 4-6 weeks after stopping and then it was ok