Alberona : tapered Celexa too fast - reinstate or stay off?

[Alberona]

I am new to this site and so thankful to have found it. 

 

I was put on Celexa at age 43 for my extreme anxiety. I never had any major depressive episodes. In the past four years I began practicing meditation and yoga, am in great physical shape, eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly. I thought with these new coping skills and sustained physical health, I could go off the Celexa which I felt was beginning to dull me. Not to mention my life changed considerably. My regimen was as follows:
Celexa 40 mg for 15 years (2000-2015)
Tapered to 20 mg for 3+ years (2014-2018) no side effects
Tapered from 20 to 10 mg from June 2018-December 2018: some mood changes but nothing too significant.
Tapered from 10mg to 5 mg from January 1, 2019 to March 31, 2019. Experienced increased dizziness, headaches, anxiety, tinnitus.
Stopped taking completely on April 1, 2019. 6 weeks later, to the day, had major panic attack, major anxiety, and depression.

 

I am now 79 days Celexa free and I am feeling hopeless and extremely blue at times. Educating myself after the fact is disheartening. I know I did a too-fast taper and am contemplating on going back on a small dosage to stop this bleakness. I never had depression or felt this bleak before Celexa and I am angry and frustrated at myself, my doctor and the system. I’m doing all the right things: yoga, exercise, mindfulness, meditation, eating right, taking all the recommended vitamins, and have a good support system. However, I’m almost 63 and can’t wait or bear the thought of feeling this way for the next two or more years. One of the biggest frustrations is not having a health care provider who knows anything about withdrawal. This uncertainty of how long and how bad is doing me in. 

 

From what I am reading, I am wondering if going back on a small dose and then tapering the CORRECT way would be best for me. I’m a teacher and am off until September; I will retire after that school year. Don’t want to blow my pension. 

 

I am so thankful I have found this website! It is the only real help out there and no one is trying to sell me anything. 

 

Alberona

 Celexa 40 mg for 15 years (2000-2015)
Tapered to 20 mg for 3+ years (2014-2018) no side effects
Tapered from 20 to 10 mg from June 2018-December 2018: some mood changes but nothing too significant.
Tapered from 10mg to 5 mg from January 1, 2019 to March 31, 2019. Experienced increased dizziness, headaches, anxiety, tinnitus.
Stopped taking completely on April 1, 2019. 6 weeks later, to the day, had major panic attack, major anxiety, and depression.

[bubble]

Hello Alberona and welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. There are a lot of people these days coming to these shores in a similar situation after cold ticketing or fast tapering so it's taking us a bit longer to reply.

 

It's great that you took time to taper and give your brain a chance to rebuild yourself. But as you probably realise by now the last stretch was too fast for your brain to catch up. Especially if you stopped at 5 mg which is still a high dose despite what doctors would say.

 

I reinstated after 40 days and saved myself from horror so I'm all for trying to reinstate. It is best done sooner rather than later but we see people being successful even 8 months after stopping. There are risks of adverse reaction involved but since we suggest reinstating at 1 mg or even less it can be safely discontinued if it doesn't work.

 

Study the link I will enclose, ask questions and you will be able to make a decision on whether to reinstate or not yourself.

we recommend tapering by no more than 10% of current dose every four weeks.  

 

 

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

  Some people may be able to taper more quickly than what we recommend, but many can't and run into withdrawal problems months down the line.  This is quite common.  

 

Here is some information on withdrawal and the reasons why a slow taper is advisable.

 

What is withdrawal syndrome.

 

Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list.

 

When we take medications, the CNS (central nervous system) responds by making changes over the months and years we take the drug(s). When the medication is discontinued, the CNS has to undo all the changes it made. Rebuilding the neurotransmitter production and reactivating the receptor and transporter cells takes time -- during that rebuilding process symptoms occur.  

 

These explain it really well:

 

Video:  Healing From Antidepressants - Patterns of Recovery

 

  On 8/30/2011 at 9:28 PM,Rhiannon said:

   On 8/30/2011 at 2:28 PM,  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.

 

Please be aware that sometime withdrawal symptoms don't appear immediately after a too-fast taper.

 

Delayed onset of withdrawal symptoms

 

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium (magnesium glycerinate is a good form) and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system. 

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

Please research all supplements first and only add in one at a time and at a low dose in case you do experience problems.

 

Please add a drug signature, including drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements in the last 12-24 months. Also include supplements. This will help us give you the most accurate advice we can.  It can be as simple as the date 4 1/2 years ago when you started Lexapro (was this at 30mg?), and you're recent taper with dates and doses.

• Any drugs and supplements prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years. 
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago) 
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016. 
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses. 
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs. 
• This is a direct link to your signature:  Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

Edited June 20, 2019 by bubble

[Alberona]

Thank you for this- I am forever grateful.  I had a horrible  episode last night. The docs prescribed me Tradozone 25 mg which I have been taking since May 16. No problems with it. Last night I instead took 3 mg of Melatonin. Went to sleep easily and woke up at 4am so extremely dizzy that my husband had to help me walk to bathroom. My arms and hands were tingling and numb, my mouth was extremely dry,  and after drinking water, I vomited.  I became nauseous about 15 minutes later, without more water, and vomited twice more. After two and a half hours of this I became Desperate. My husband reread to me, everything you sent and I had him split a 5 mg Celexa in half and took 2.5.  Within 15 minutes the muscle spasms, tingling, numbness, and some of the vertigo subsided but I still had hot and cold flashes. Fell asleep after 30 minutes and woke up 3 hours later. All symptoms except slight dizziness are gone but I feel horrible and sore. One part of me thinks the melatonin could have triggered this but couldn’t find any backup for that. I was 86 days Celexa free. It’s bumming me out that I had to reinstate but I never ever want to experience that hell. 

[bubble]

The effect reinstating can have is really powerful but it can and usually is quite bumpy for some time, depending how long you were off and how traumatised your central nervous system got in the process.

 

Let us know how you are doing.