basil: mistakenly went cold turkey

[basil]

Hello all,

 

Male, 27 years old. I've been on 40mg of Celexa (citalopram) for nearly 3 years for depression/anxiety. The reason for me deciding to get off my AD was because my depression/anxiety was seemingly linked to an autoimmune disorder, which was resolved through careful dieting and drastic food elimination. I noticed I would feel good emotionally until about an 30-60 minutes hour after taking my AD. After taking it, my mood would lessen and things seemed worse. Concerned my ADs might be contributing to my negative moods (like so many other seemingly benign digestives), I eliminated them pretty much cold turkey. Now, after all the horror stories I am reading online, I've become drastically concerned about permanent damage caused from lack of tapering. I still feel a numbness, and lack of empathy within myself - which I'm heard can be permanent. Frankly, I'm frightened. 

 

Week 1 - After 4-6 days cold turkey, I suffered all the symptoms you'd expect. Dizziness, insomnia, insane irritability, brain fog, some nausea, ringing in ears, light sensitive, extreme lethargy, extremely temperamental and with oscillating mood, diarrhea, sleep paralysis (for the first time ever) and vivid dreams. All the symptoms really, except I wasn't really depressed or anxious. However, determined to move forward, I carried on.

 

Week 2 - All the symptoms really, except I wasn't really depressed or anxious. A week later the symptoms slowly reduced in intensity. Slept a bit better, not as fogged, not as irritable, diarrhea went away etc.

 

Week 3 - Today I am nearing the 20 day mark. As I thought things were getting gradually better, some things seem to be going awry. I've become a bit more anxious and worrisome. Especially about this. My mood is still not depressed, but it is oscillating pretty rapidly. Getting to sleep is a struggle, and I'm not waking up refreshed. I'm still very lethargic, and have the forewarned flu symptoms mentioned so often in these circles.

 

 I guess my question is, what should I do? Should I remain off the ADs and weather the withdrawal storm? Should I go back to my regular dosage and try tapering properly? How long should I expect to endure these symptoms?

 

[SkyBlue]

Welcome, Basil.

 

I promise you that your symptoms are not permanent. There is a lot of fear-mongering that goes on (hopefully not on this site), but your symptoms will definitely heal. 

 

I can understand it can be frightening. The good news is, you have found a great place with others who are in similar situations and are healing. 

 

More good news is that you are only 20 days out. There is a very real chance of "reinstating" and tapering more slowly. 

First, please fill out a drug signature using these instructions: https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/18343-please-put-your-withdrawal-history-in-your-signature/

 

When we know more, we can advise more.

 

Hang in there, and again, welcome. 

[ChessieCat]

H basil and welcome to SA,

 

SA recommends tapering by no more than 10% of the current dose followed by a hold of about 4 weeks to allow the brain to adapt to not getting as much of the drug.  Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

When the drug is taken away too quickly we can get withdrawal symptoms:  Dr Joseph Glenmullen's Withdrawal Symptoms

 

The only known way to reduce withdrawal symptoms is to take the same drug that the brain has adapted to.

 

When reinstating a drug, because your nervous system can become sensitised because of withdrawal symptoms, we recommend a smaller dose.  Do not go back on the last dose you were taking.  Your brain will have already made some adaptions since stopping the drug.  It is better to start with a small dose and increase if necessary than to risk taking too much, which can make things worse.  We can suggest a dose for you to try.  These drugs are strong.  If you have gone straight from 40mg to 0mg, you might find that 5mg is enough.  Please read Post #1 of this topic:  About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

 

The idea of reinstating isn't to get rid of withdrawal symptoms completely but to bring them to a bearable level.  It takes about 4 days for a dose to get to full level in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.  You will need to be patient and try and stay as calm as possible.  It is important that you do not panic.  When we panic we can make bad decisions.  Some members have panicked and taken too much drug and/or increased too soon and have made things much worse.

 

Please see this topic: are-we-there-yet-how-long-is-withdrawal-going-to-take

 

We suggest keeping daily symptom notes so that you can see how reinstating is affecting your symptoms.

 

This topic explains how to get the dose you need.  You can make your own liquid from tablets:  Tips for tapering off Celexa (citalopram)

 

Please create your drug signature using the following format.   Keep it simple.  NO diagnoses or symptoms please - thank you.

• details for last 2 years - dates, ALL drugs, doses
• summary for older than 2 years - just years and drug/s

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature

 

I will provide additional information in the following posts.  This is your own introductions topic where your can ask questions about your own situation and journal your progress.

[ChessieCat]

Snap, SkyBlue and I have posted at the exact same time.

[ChessieCat]

Here's some additional information which might help you to understand what is happening:

 

Recovery isn't linear it happens in a Windows and Waves Pattern

 

Withdrawal Normal Description

 

When we take a psychiatric drug, we are adding chemical/s to the brain.  The brain then has to change to adapt to getting the chemical/s.  It might have to change something to do with A and then once that change has been made it affects B so another change has to be made and so on down the line.  It is a chain reaction, a domino effect.

 

The same thing happens when we take the drug away.  That's why it's possible to experience such a vast array of withdrawal symptoms, and they can change, and be of different intensity.  These explain it really well:

 

Video:  Healing From Antidepressants - Patterns of Recovery

 

 

On 8/31/2011 at 5:28 AM, Rhiannon said:

When we stop taking the drug, we have a brain that has designed itself so that it works in the presence of the drug; now it can't work properly without the drug because it's designed itself so that the drug is part of its chemistry and structure. It's like a plant that has grown on a trellis; you can't just yank out the trellis and expect the plant to be okay. When the drug is removed, the remodeling process has to take place in reverse. SO--it's not a matter of just getting the drug out of your system and moving on. If it were that simple, none of us would be here. It's a matter of, as I describe it, having to grow a new brain. I believe this growing-a-new-brain happens throughout the taper process if the taper is slow enough. (If it's too fast, then there's not a lot of time for actually rebalancing things, and basically the brain is just pedaling fast trying to keep us alive.) It also continues to happen, probably for longer than the symptoms actually last, throughout the time of recovery after we are completely off the drug, which is why recovery takes so long.

 

AND

 

On 12/4/2015 at 2:41 AM, apace41 said:

Basically- you have a building where the MAJOR steel structures are trying to be rebuilt at different times - ALL while people are coming and going in the building and attempting to work.

It would be like if the World Trade Center Towers hadn't completely fallen - but had crumbled inside in different places.. Imagine if you were trying to rebuild the tower - WHILE people were coming and going and trying to work in the building!  You'd have to set up a temporary elevator - but when you needed to fix part of that area, you'd have to tear down that elevator and set up a temporary elevator somewhere else. And so on. You'd have to build, work around, then tear down, then build again, then work around, then build... ALL while people are coming and going, ALL while the furniture is being replaced, ALL while the walls are getting repainted... ALL while life is going on INSIDE the building. No doubt it would be chaotic. That is EXACTLY what is happening with windows and waves.  The windows are where the body has "got it right" for a day or so - but then the building shifts and the brain works on something else - and it's chaos again while another temporary pathway is set up to reroute function until repairs are made.  

 

[ChessieCat]

We strongly encourage members to learn and use non drug coping techniques to help get through discomfort and tough times.

 

Understanding what is happening helps us to not get caught up with the second fear, or fear of the fear.  This happens when we experience sensations in our body and because we don't understand them we are scared of them and then start to panic.

 

This document has a diagram of the body explaining what happens in the body when we become anxious:

 

https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/AnxietySelfHelp.pdf

 

Anxiety Stuff - all kinds of stuff about anxiety attacks and things that help ...

 

Audio FEMALE VOICE:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes)

 

Audio MALE VOICE:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes)

 

Non-drug techniques to cope

 

dealing-with-emotional-spirals

 

Dr Claire Weekes suffered from anxiety and learned and taught ways of coping.  There are videos available on YouTube.

 

Claire Weekes' Method of Recovering from a Sensitized Nervous System

 

Audio:  How to Recover from Anxiety - Dr Claire Weekes

 

CBT Course:  An Introductory Self-Help Course in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

 

Resources:  Centre for Clinical Interventions (PDF modules that you can work through, eg:  Depression, Distress Intolerance, Health Anxiety, Low Self-Esteem, Panic Attacks, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Social Anxiety, Worrying)

 

On 4/28/2017 at 4:03 AM, brassmonkey said:

 

AAF: Acknowledge, Accept, Float.  It's what you have to do when nothing else works, and can be a very powerful tool in coping with anxiety.  The neuroemotional anxiety many of us feel during WD is directly caused by the drugs and their chemical reactions in the brain.  Making it so there is nothing we can do about them.  They won't respond to other drugs, relaxation techniques and the like.  They do, however, react very well to being ignored.  That's the concept behind AAF.  Acknowledge, get to know the feeling involved, explore them.  Accept, These feelings are a part of you and they aren't going anywhere fast. Float, let the feeling float off as you get on with your life as best as you can.  It's a well documented fact that the more you feed in to anxiety the worse it gets.  What starts as generalized neuroemotinal anxiety can be easily blown into a full fledged panic attack just by thinking about it.

 

I often liken it to an unwanted house guest.  At first you talk to them, have conversations, communicate with them.  After a while you figure out that they aren't leaving and there is nothing you can do to get rid of them.  So you go on about your day, working around them until they get bored and leave.

 

It can take some practice, but AAF really does work.  I hope you give it a try.

 

 

[basil]

Hello all,

 

It's been about 4 and a half weeks post cold-turkey and I, for the first time, am feeling extremely anxious. Is this normal? Is the half-life of these medications last that long in my system? I didn't experience anxiety or depression as symptoms up until this point. 

[ChessieCat]

On 1/17/2019 at 5:16 AM, ChessieCat said:

 

The only known way to reduce withdrawal symptoms is to take the same drug that the brain has adapted to.

 

When reinstating a drug, because your nervous system can become sensitised because of withdrawal symptoms, we recommend a smaller dose.  Do not go back on the last dose you were taking.  Your brain will have already made some adaptions since stopping the drug.  It is better to start with a small dose and increase if necessary than to risk taking too much, which can make things worse.  We can suggest a dose for you to try.  These drugs are strong.  If you have gone straight from 40mg to 0mg, you might find that 5mg is enough.  Please read Post #1 of this topic:  About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

 

The idea of reinstating isn't to get rid of withdrawal symptoms completely but to bring them to a bearable level.  It takes about 4 days for a dose to get to full level in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.  You will need to be patient and try and stay as calm as possible.  It is important that you do not panic.  When we panic we can make bad decisions.  Some members have panicked and taken too much drug and/or increased too soon and have made things much worse.

 

The information has previously been provided (see above quote).  Please complete your drug signature so we can suggest a reinstatement dose.