Gowanb: Celexa side effects and withdrawals

[Gowanb]

 I Hello I hope I’m starting this topic in the right place, if not let me know! 

 

Ive always had terrible anxiety and OCD. On March 11th I was precribed Celexa 20mg and began taking it each day. 

 

It caused side side effects like dizzy ness, weird feelings, stomach issues and other things. All were manageable. At about 3 weeks in I started to get these hypnic jerks at night, right before I fall asleep a part of my body will “jerk”. The jerk usually involves a feeling of anxiety and a weird feeling in my chest and stomach. I stopped taking the Celexa on April 2nd (yes I know this was a bad thing to do, I just kinda freaked out ). I had terrible withdraw symptoms after a couple days like flu symptoms, dizziness, muscle spasms and other things. Most have left by now but the hypnic jerks are still here. It has sent me into panic many times, thinking I have some form of neurological disease like parkingsons or ALS. This is the only motor symptom I have right now. 

 

I have never experienced anything like this before the SSRI. 

 

Anybody with similar side effects of a SSRI and how long did it take to go away? 

I hope I can get some news here. I told my doctor and she didn’t know about this, I have scheduled a appointment with a neurologist but that won’t happen till June 24th. 

 

Thanks for any info!! 

[Shep]

Hi, Gowanb.

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants.

 

On 4/30/2019 at 5:39 PM, Gowanb said:

On March 11th I was precribed Celexa 20mg and began taking it each day. 

 

It caused side side effects like dizzy ness, weird feelings, stomach issues and other things. All were manageable. At about 3 weeks in I started to get these hypnic jerks at night, right before I fall asleep a part of my body will “jerk”. The jerk usually involves a feeling of anxiety and a weird feeling in my chest and stomach. I stopped taking the Celexa on April 2nd (yes I know this was a bad thing to do, I just kinda freaked out )

 

Is this your only experience with a psychiatric drug?

 

This sounds like an adverse reaction, so discontinuing it after 3 weeks may have been the right thing to do. It takes a month to develop a dependency on the drug.

 

Immediate adverse reactions to SSRIs? How long for recovery?

 

You may find some helpful information to handle your symptoms here: 

 

Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements, as many members report their nervous systems are simply too fragile to handle them. However, magnesium and fish oil tend to be calming to the nervous system and many people report they do help. Please only add in one supplement at a time and at a small dose. For more, please see:

 

 King of supplements: Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil)

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker

 

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[Gowanb]

Hello! Thank you for the reply! 

 

Yes this is my only experience with any drug like this. I guess my body doesn’t take these kind of drugs well. I still get the hypnic jerks at night, but they seem to be slowly getting weaker. 

 

Is this his a reaction that has been seen before? It just freaked me out cause I thought I had a horrible neuro disease developing!! 

 

March 11th-April 2nd Took celexa 20mg daily. 

No other medicine was taken at this time 

Stopped taking cold turkey on April 2nd

 

      Had a really bad series or withdraws like feeling I had the flu for days and sweating, and every night getting the jerks. 

The jerks seemed to almost go away, but then came back with terrible anxiety and almost like a adrenaline rush right of feeling when trying to go to sleep. ( I assume it was a withdraw symptom too ) 

i wasn’t getting any sleep when they first started, but am getting alittle bit of sleep now. 

 

Well im hoping they will eventually go away! I know me being a constant state of super health anxiety isn’t good either! 

 

 

[Songbird]

It does sound like you experienced an adverse reaction, which indicates your system does not tolerate Celexa.  It may take a while to recover, but you should recover eventually.

 

A better treatment for anxiety is to build your own coping skills.  You might like to look into books and recordings by Dr. Claire Weekes.  She is no longer alive, and the books were written a long time ago, so they sound a little old-fashioned, but the techniques she teaches are very effective.  See our topic:  The Dr. Claire Weekes method of recovering from a sensitized nervous system.

[Gowanb]

Thank you for the info! 

 

Are hypnic jerks a side effect from a antidepressant/withdraw symptom that you guys have seen? There really the only issue I have and I’ve been off the celexa since April 2nd. It’s just starting to worry me 😕 

 

Last night i had them and they seemed to be more in my whole back so it was hard to sleep. I just hope that they go away eventually. 

[Gridley]

 

 

1 hour ago, Gowanb said:

 

Are hypnic jerks a side effect from a antidepressant/withdraw symptom that you guys have seen? There really the only issue I have and I’ve been off the celexa since April 2nd. It’s just starting to worry me 😕 

 

Last night i had them and they seemed to be more in my whole back so it was hard to sleep. I just hope that they go away eventually. 

 

 

Here is SA's topic: hypnic-jerks

 

It includes several success stories about the jerks stopping.

[Gowanb]

Thank you for that link! 

 

Ok so this has been seen in antidepressants as a side effect and a withdraw effect. Thats relieving enough haha. 

Helps to know that i dont have a terrible disease or something like that. 

 

Another question for you guys. If i got a side effect on celexa, is it normal for them to last awhile after stopping the drug? 

 

Sorry if my questions are kinda dumb, im super new to antidepressants and am just really worked up and scared right now!

[brassmonkey]

Hi Gowanb--  welcome to SA, I'm so glad you found us. Especially for a new member there are no dumb questions but we may giggle behind your back for some. (sorry, I'm two days post surgical and on heavy pain drugs).  Really though, ADWD is such a complex subject it can be very hard to get a handle on at first. So ask away.

 

A side effect is an unwanted condition/sensation directly caused by the presence of the drug, while withdrawal effects are ones caused by reducing or removing the medication.  So if you are getting side effects they can continue as long as the drug is present in your body and, depending on the drug, for several weeks to months after quitting.  The good news is that they should decrease as your dose decreases, if you are tapering.  You CTed, which is another case entirely.  You will be getting plenty of withdrawal effects, but no side effects.  I strongly recommend that you read this thread,https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/17909-are-we-there-yet-how-long-is-withdrawal-going-to-take/

 

Especially the chapter "But I only took it for a Week", this will answer a lot of your questions.

[Gowanb]

@brassmonkeyThank you for the info! 

 

Hope your surgery went well! 

 

Yea i started getting the hypnic jerks while on the Celexa ( a bunch of other side effects included ) I did stop cold turkey because they freaked me out and was sure they would go away ( i also didnt know that you needed to taper off these kinds of drugs. I was on celexa for 3-4 weeks and i have been off of it for a month now today and ares still getting the jerks at night. 

 

When i stopped i got a huge amount of withdraw symptoms, most have left now but the increased anxiety and panic is still here. Combine that with the jerks and im a complete mess right now, cant go a single moment without thinking about the jerks and how they are associated with a neuro disease like MS or Parkinson, but i dont have any other symptoms that would associate with those like tremors or memory issues or anything like that.

 

Im am, happy that you said that side effects from a AD can last awhile after stopping, well happy that you didnt say something like " no this is serious go get help immediately your life is in danger" haha  Sorry i have terrible health anxiety and always think the worst is happening. But now i am in a horrible state of panic as you have stated that it can take 18 months for this symptom to go away!!! I DONT THINK I CAN MAKE IT 18 MONTHS!! im hoping that in the coming weeks/ they start to diminish. I know it can take months for the brain to correct the issues the medication caused. Or maybe i am reading it wrong and your talking about withdraw effects, not side effects of the medication. 

 

These jerks suck! ( i never had any issues like this before the drug, i use to sleep almost to much haha). Ive read alot of post on here recently and i guess a month isn't that long compared to others on here, which makes me sad for the people that are dealing with issues from, these toxic drugs and my heart goers out to them. 

 

I did ask a neurologist this question and he said that hypnic jerks are a side effect and pretty much what you said that it can take awhile to leave, but i thought it would be better to get in touch with people that are actually experiencing issues from this drug and am happy to be part of this forum. 

 

Hoping that sometime soon these stop because there driving me bananas!! 

 

I usually take unisom to sleep now which i dont know is a good thing or a bad one either.

[Altostrata]

Hello, gowanb, how are you doing?