Citalopram/possible misdiagnosis/cold turkey

[Notlostjustexploring]

I was torn between putting this here or the neurodiverse board, so I tossed a coin. Hopefully this is the more appropriate board.

TL:DR I think I was misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2020 and put on citalopram. Can I just come off it abruptly and suck up the side effects?

Full details
I was put on citalopram August 2020, following blood tests for "tired all the time" and a bit of a nervous breakdown following lockdown/small children/high workload/stressy job etc.
2021 I received a diagnosis for ADHD and started taking Elvanse alongside the citalopram (under a psychiatrist).
2021 I also picked up the fact that I had rock bottom levels of ferritin (private blood tests picked it up, ferritin not tested as part of the GPs "tired all the time" blood tests. ) so I started heavy duty iron supplements and gained energy and life back.

Late last year I had a conversation with a Physician Associate at my GP about something else, but we did discuss the low iron levels and he said that could very easily have caused depression symptoms.

I've currently been shelling out for a private prescription for Elvanse and ideally I would be moving to shared care with my GP to take over the prescribing. GP is not happy prescribing both Elvanse and Citalopram.

So, given that I possibly shouldn't have been on citalopram in the first place as my symptoms being chalked up to ADHD (anxiety), severe iron deficiency (depression) and a global pandemic and associated shitness (anxiety and depressionsymptoms), and the Elvanse is, for me, the best thing since sliced bread, can I just come off the Citalopram cold turkey, so I can start getting Elvanse prescribed by my GP and save myself a fortune? I understand the withdrawal could be unpleasant, but I'd rather get it over and done with in the summer months. I do think that the anxiety might be legit, but how much of that is associated with the ADHD I don't know.

We will ignore the fact that my GP would happily have left me on Citalopram for the rest of my life when I should actually have got an ADHD diagnosis (repeatedly sought through GP) and low iron diagnosis, and had I not been in a position to seek that out on my own, I was looking at worsening physical health due to my ever decreasing iron levels and worsening mental health due to the low iron and ADHD.

Thank you if you made it to the end of that, and I'm very grateful for any thoughts.

Is there a reason why you don't want to reduce your cit dose slowly over the summer months? Same amount of time and less likely to have severe side effects

It is not advisable to just stop any anti depressant, an HCP can advise the best way to reduce dosage and come off the drug with the least amount of side effects. One common symptom, especially if you just stop, are brain zaps which are like little electrical shocks in the brain. They are disconcerting but do disappear.

As long as I'm on citalopram, the GP won't prescribe the Elvanse, which leaves me paying private prescription rates that work out the best part of £200 a month. Depending on how long it takes to "properly" come off citalopram, that could be the best part of a grand. Stopping Citalopram abruptly means that the GP could take over prescription immediately, and I'd just be paying NHS charges. To be frank, I'd rather put up with a couple of weeks of discomfort and save the money...

Possibly I'm trying to work out if going cold turkey is just "not advised" or closer to a "terrible, terrible idea". I will obviously speak to my GP about it, I just no longer have much faith in their advice, so the more information I have prior to that conversation the better I suppose.

Please don't do this cold turkey. It could be unpleasant and make you feel really unwell. Someone I know developed suicidal impulses during withdrawal and tried very hard to act on them. That's very much a worse case scenario, but there are good reasons why all the advice is to taper your dosage slowly.

Can you switch the prescriptions? Citalopram on a private prescription is peanuts next to Elvanse; it's actually cheaper than the NHS prescription charge I believe (don't quote me on that!). So could you get the private doctor to dispense a few months of Citalopram so you can wean off it more slowly, and your GP to prescribe the Elvanse?

Okay, so that sounds like a fairly compelling reason. I'm alright with any physical discomfort from side effects/withdrawal but suicide ideation seems a step too far.

For clarification, I've not gone cold turkey, was just considering it!

I've come off under medical advice. I withdrew it over a month or so. My low mood came back, then improved again (since then a whole different scenario happened and I'm back on them, but that's a different story).

While I understand your reasoning, it's better to do it slowly.

I've just realised I thought I'd been replying to individual posts, but it seems not...

I'll ask about swapping the private and NHS prescriptions around, might be worth a punt.

Thank you very much for your advice, I'm very grateful!