citalopram

[jabsie]

have been on it for about a year due to postnatal depression and a phobia of children being sick am trying for another baby and hope to come off tablets tried before but came out in a panic .Im now thinking that im addicted even though have been to by my doctor that this cannot happen and am thinking that i cant do without them and even panic when i get to the last couple in the packet . Ireally dont want to stay on them forever has anyone else ever been in this situatuation please help

They aren't addictive but you do have to come off them gradually, by reducing the dose in stages. Your GP will advise you how to do this. If you come off them gradually and still ultimately have problems, this would probably be to do with the condition that initially caused you to start using them, rather than addiction .

I think the GP would advise reducing the dose over a period of maybe 2-4 weeks or more.

I hope you manage to come off the tablets when you are ready, and feel well and happy.

thanks so much for the feedback and for being so quick will talk to doctor soon

I hope you are able to get some good support from doc.

I've always found when coming off citalopram that it is weeks and weeks before I start to feel the absence of their effect. Apparently thay have a very long half-life i.e. they take a long time to clear out of your system. So if you start to feel very bad as soon as you stop taking them it is possibly at least partly to do with your fear at the thought of doing without them rather than to do with the actual loss of the drug.

Does that make sense? Everyone is different of course and I might have had a very different experience from you. Good luck, anyway.