withdrawlsucks: citalopram withdrawl ... does it ever go away... 2 years in

[withdrawlsucks]

Just though I would say hello and tell my story

13 years of dizzyness.. been diagnosed with vestibular migraines... Had anxiety feeling for 25 years... Started citalopram around 6 years ago at 15mg took for 4 years and stoped cold turkey as was not helping my disseness no more.. felt a little better for around 5 months and then boom.. everything fell apart.. lost job had to move back in with parents... Over the next 16 months I had tried about 15 anti depresant drugs plus tons of supplements.. everything.. all made everything worst.. what i have experienced is not a return of otherginal anxiety.. I now suffer with extreme anxiety Especialy morning .. body buzzes chills sweats.. bad insomnia.. depression.. a few things have got better over last 6 months get a small window here and there.. only to go back down hill within a day or two... If I do physical stuff I burn out all The time.. sure I have cHronic fatigue.. suffer food intolerance now.. also agoraphobia at times... Life suck... Hope I continue to improve... Want a life back.. have spent the last 12 months reading a lot online about drugs and withdrawal.. its all bad.. and feel for everyone going through it... Wish I knew then what I know now before taking that demon pill.... I am so sensative I react to any supplement or medication no.. grrrrr .. and nobody I know understands including the stoopid doctors.. lol.

[clearday]

Yes, all sounds like protracted SSRI withdrawal to me -

 

chronic fatigue is just that, feeling tired all the time, I had that for three years after stopping Prozac, it cleared up, took a long time -

 

I am currently battling Celexa's equally evil twin - Lexapro;

 

Welcome! All that you just said I have heard time and time again on here........

 

Here, we understand what you're going through -

 

A moderator will be along to greet you. 

[withdrawlsucks]

Hello thanks for The reply.. yer I am pritty sure it's protracted SSRI withdrawal everything fits.. ain't been back to my doctor in months.. he can help or give me anything anyway.. even benzos don't really help with most symptoms.. not that i am taking benzos.. but have tried them a few times... May try a few of the Russian drugs tbh to see if they help.. but tbh may just try and see what happens taking nothing.. stopped taking all supplements yesterday.... Have tried just about everything you can think of.. everything has a adverse effect after a few days.. from 5htp to fish oil... Can't eat or drink a lot if things now... Used to love weight training.. Pfffft.. even if I have a good window for The day exercise just decks me .... Ear pain and sensitivity is huge for me.. it sucks ... Part of that is vestibular migrains but The drugs made it worts ... I see you have ear problems to from lexapro

[clearday]

Yes, the head pressure causes this ear ringing 24/7 now for two months - hit me out of nowhere ten months after cold turkey Lexapro -

 

And this head pressure/ear ringing is also associated with generalized over-sensitivity to things such as nicotine or benzo than I normally was before this wave  - the occasional small amount of xanax for sleep certainly helped get me through the insomnia wave -

 

IMO it is more important to avoid things rather than adding things to the body during this protracted WD, that is just my experience -

 

I'm on fish oil and magnesium now but so far has not helped - it seems this WD has it's own timetable regardless of what I do -

 

Avoiding stress and eating healthy is obviously the basic thing to do - patience and time being the real healers - that is my experience, but perhaps others here will have more helpful suggestions, I am just one flawed messenger.

 

You and I missed the boat on reinstatement and long slow taper, I suppose -

 

I am very hopeful for recovery; I got through the Prozac ordeal, so I should also be able to get through this too.

 

The Moderators here are the ones to listen to - I can just share what I have been through, that is my contribution -

[withdrawlsucks]

Yer all sound very familiar.. really sucks.. my life is over at The moment although some things have got better some things have gotton worst lol.. also get body aches and pains I never used to have.... And find it hard to concentrate or enjoy anything.. it's nice when I get The odd day that comes along and I feel ok like.. but it's always on my mine.. I know this is goingng to be short lived.. and then sure enough next morning my chills and body buzzing will start up... Always around 7am and till about 11am is The worst.. not sure if is some form of adrenaline or what or cortisol levels... Tried all sleeping axis over counter ones.. nothing really helps.. I am really going to try and stay off everything for a week or two.. not much else one can do.. yep we definitely missed The boat.. I was never ever told not to stop cold by doctor in 4 years I was on them either lol...

[clearday]

Same here. You sound like I was during the worst two years of my Prozac WD .....and I bounced back for sure, to a tolerable level of function and happiness...

 

Also I have heard from others, similar like you said, that symptoms worse in AM due to adrenaline etc....

 

My current two-month head pressure/ear ringing wave has windows and waves within it - ringing goes away for short time, then comes back raging - similar to the progress of a fever, how it spikes then goes away, spikes then goes away - hoping it will just go away for good !  

[withdrawlsucks]

Yer I pritty much have had the year thing for years but since I came off the citalopram after a few months it got worst.. I to. Get it in waves.. was every day all day... I get ringing.. fluttering.. noise sensative some days that is almost unbearable.. it's bloody horrable... What I have definitely found is... Some supplements or foods definitely make my ears worst... Lots of things like fatty foods.. salty foods.. milk.. calcium.. nearly all herbs or mushroom extracts.. even magnesium can.. unless I use the transdermal spray... Anything like a Chinese meal also makes them worst.. this is also all part of vestibular migrains .. but being on ssris definitely made all this worst... When my withdrawal symptoms hit me after about 5 months after citalopram I also had bad head scabs appear.. never had anything like that in my life.. that took a year to go.. and also I had piles at The same time.. they took about 6 months to pass.. all part of withdrawl from info I have read :-/

[withdrawlsucks]

One stoopid thing I did was about 3 weeks ago was take a paxil tablet.. thought I would give them a go.. I only took 5 mg... And bloody Hell it made me ill... All symptoms went worst and set me back for a bit.. thrown everything out now... Only thing that did help a little was mirtazapine I took about a year ago for about 6 weeks.. stoped my morning stuff but just made me so tired and also gave my bad eye twitches... Lol.. which most things do that affects cns.. trazadone was another.... Why do most of these antidepressants have antihistamines in them I want to know lol.. think that screws with you to !!!

[clearday]

That's all interesting information, thanks - those are some horrendous symptoms you got hit with! Head scabs and piles, yikes - 

 

Similar to you, my Prozac WD all hit four months after stopping. The delayed onset of symptoms meant that I never connected stopping Prozac with all my WD hell that lasted for years. Took me eleven years to figure out that the Prozac did it to me!

 

Paxil seems to be one of the worst of these drugs - although all SSRIs suck for folks like us - many people are just fine on these drugs, and have an easy time when they quit -

 

If you want, you can click on your name at the top of this page, click on "My Settings", then click on "Signature" in the lefthand column and write a brief drug history that will automatically show up on your posts like mine below. It helps people to give better feedback during posting - 

[withdrawlsucks]

Yer I not sure what I was thinking with the paxil thing lol.. it's The worst of them all from what I have read to.. I have also had my cortisol tested and it very high at night and early hours .. and this is shown to be the case in a lot of people in ssri withdrawal... I am going to try some new supplements to bring it down at night..lactium being one .phosphorylated serine. The other thanks for that i will update profile Tomoz with the many devil pills I have tried :-/

[withdrawlsucks]

Gutted I never found this site and what was going on before I tried taking all the different tablets to fix myself.. have no doubt delayed the healing time...

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

WDS,

 

I would just like to mention that trying to fix withdrawal syndrome that happens when you come off antidepressant drugs faster than your body can rearrange all of its physiology back to a normal state is not at all fixable by any supplement or pill. Adding in supplements and then stopping them or using and discarding over the counter medications throws your system into an uproar too. Most people have found magnesium and fish oil to be the only supplements they can tolerate but some find those cause problems too. You have to somehow get through this period of upheaval and wait until your body settles down on its own. You do this by eating as well as you can (plenty of veggies and fruits, easy on the sugar and many have to quit caffeine altogether), getting at least 8 hours rest every night, a half hour's gentle walk every day and reduce your stress as much as you can.

 

I believe the first antidepressant was synthesized when scientists were tweaking antihistamine molecules. I'd have to find the link but they were fiddling with isoniazid, a medication given for tuberculosis and they found those people treated with it noted improvements in their mood. I'll find the link and post it here for you. But there is definitely a link to AD's and antihists and often they cause a bad reaction if you take them while your body is in withdrawal.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Actually I was wrong, if you do a search for 'isoniazid + antidepressants' you'll find the story and antihistamines are woven into it too. I believe I precipitated protracted withdrawal by following my docs advice to take a rx antihistamine (atarax) for a sinus problem and I spent a year in agony because of what that did to me. The only thing I was able to take was magnesium citrate and it kept my heart palpitations at bay (they are often a symptom of autonomic nervous system upset caused by wd syndrome).

[withdrawlsucks]

Thanks 5600 for the reply.. and yes over time I have come to the same conclusion and agree with everything you have said.. there is no answer except rest , food , ... I have insomnia still and it won't let up.. and that makes a difference the next day.. some nights are a bit better and this does alow me to function better tye next day.. today.. I just ain't got any energy to do nothing... And I think I will just try some magnesiam at night next week and leave the fish oil... I can't go anywhere near coffee or tea.. oooo no.. and as for antihistamines.. been there tried them on their own.. send me pair shaped also.. not good at all :-/

[clearday]

Proper sleep has always been my weak point, even before taking SSRIs.

 

When I got hit with protraced SSRI WD eleven years ago,the main problem I had was terrible fatigue, made worse by non-restorative sleep patterns in my brain due to SSRI use. For these past eleven years, I have two kinds or days, either very lousy (didn't get restorative sleep) or tolerable (got restorative sleep). 

 

While I was on Lexapro over the last 5 years, this pattern continued. Seven months after I CT (cold turkeyd) Lexapro, I went through a brutal insomnia wave. When the wave was over, I began to sleep deeper and better than all 5 years on Lexapro. For almost  months now, I have had restorative sleep every night. (I hope it lasts). It seems that the insomnia wave involved my brain restoring itself to natural sleep patterns.

 

So for me, it seems that SSRIs badly affected my ability to get restorative sleep. SSRIs mess with serotonin, and since serotonin is a key player in sleep brain patterns, it makes sense that SSRI use and WD would cause things like insomnia and non-restorative sleep.

[withdrawlsucks]

Pre citalopram I could sleep for fun lol.. what I mean is I could go to bed at 11pm and sleep straight through to 8 or even 9 if I wanted.... Bar tye start up my sleep pattern was still ok on citalopram bar tye past year.. when I think it stoped forng it job and side effects started to appear... And when i came off altogether.. it all got worst... Sleep is so important.. hope mine comes back with time... I sleep for a few hours and then bam wake and it's just in and out then all night... And tired all day.. sucks !!!

[clearday]

Sleep is so important.. hope mine comes back with time... I sleep for a few hours and then bam wake and it's just in and out then all night... And tired all day.. sucks !!!

 

That sounds similar what my 3 month insomnia wave was like. Hopefully one of these months your body will finally decide to readjust back to natural sleep patterns the way mine has done. For me, it took seven months of being off the Lexapro before my body finally said ok, time to rearrange the furniture back to normal....

[withdrawlsucks]

Yer it's the bloody meds I have taken after the citalopram that have prob stopped my system re adjusting.. and prob activated my cns along with tye mass of supplements and herbs... It's almost like I became addicted to tryingng somethibg new every few days.. I need to leave it all alone and hope it comes right... Life on hold is a pain in the ass :-/ wish there was a magic formula lol

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Honestly, WDS, if you could just get that one thing and manage to keep from taking anything except food for as long as it takes your nervous system will eventually calm down. I know it it true because I did it myself. I have a kind of theory that unless you have some demonstrable thing like 'scurvy' that proves you are low on a certain vitamin, just leaving everything alone is the best thing to do. Every time you take something, your body has to change itself to accommodate it while still trying to restore its natural equilibrium that got messed up.

 

It is really hard to do. We are constantly bombarded by messages to 'take pills' or 'stuff' for whatever ails us instead of giving the body the tools (rest sleep sunshine activity) it needs to do its work.

[withdrawlsucks]

Yer I do totally agree with you I have prob upset my system time and time again.. well I am really going to try now and keep clean... I have tried everything anyway. Lol.. not even a benzo sorted my sleep out.. and would have a rebound anxiety within 24hrs from 1 pill.. again as you say.. just unsettling my system... So I am a few days in now without anything so just going to take one day at a time and see how I go.. nothing else I can do... :-)

[Fresh]

Hi  withdrawalsucks  , welcome to the club none of us want to be members of  (ha ha).   You're in very good company here - we've all been seriously affected since starting antidepressants. 

 

There's so much information here that it will take a while to digest it all.   You might take a look in Symptoms and Self Care.   A lot of people recommend Epsom salts in

a bath , or magnesium spray , or sipping magnesium mixed in water.  

I can relate to you trying a bunch of different things , but as you've realized , nothing touches the developing protracted withdrawal.  Re: mirtazapine - is "fatigue" preferable to "living hell" ?

 

Anyhows , good to have you here.  

 

Best wishes ,  Fresh

[withdrawlsucks]

Lol.. thanks for the welcome fresh.. yes inhave been reading heaps.. loads of good infor... I think I will give magnesium spray a go.. as I think i have taken so many supplements and such my stomach now has a few issues... Which is a potty cause holy basil does help my wake up anxiety but cripples my stomach.. bugger !!!!! And yer that mirtazapine made me worst than I was.. the fatigue knocked be sideways.. and ain't really recovered from it ... Today was terrable ... Did get 4 hours sleep last night. Then just dream dream wake wake.. every 10mins.. crazy dreams lol... And 7am like clockwork cortisol or adrenaline surges and full on body anxiety till about 11 am... It's horrable mun.. went for a short walk then.. anxiety has claimed now... Just exhausted lol Grrrrrr

[Fresh]

The word on the street is that ginger tea can work wonders to settle your stomach.   I preferred crystalized ginger myself.

Hang in there , you're getting there. 

[withdrawlsucks]

I even have a sensitivity to ginger... Makes my ears crackle and pop lol.. crazy how we develope these sensitivities... Milk has become one of my worst.. and I used to drink it by the bucket load ... Can't touch it now.. may be its cause milk is basicaly all sugars. :-/ I have given up on all herbal tea... Reaction to it all.... And it's a pain with ginger.. cause it did help with stomoch well ... Grrrrr lol

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

The best thing to do right now is plain food, no 'weird teas', nothing in excess (to manipulate a purported deficiency), lying down and calmly resting if sleep won't come, a gentle walk twice a day and a bit of time in the sun (do you have a little of it anywhere where you are?). Basically what you have to do is give your nervous system gentle consistency (which you may have never given it before in your life!) and allow it to sort of 'lean' against this so it can continue to come to new levels of homeostasis all on its own.

 

There is always the tendency to 'do' something (anything!) that you read or someone says might work. For me? I hate the taste of ginger, wouldn't even try it for nausea for this reason no matter what anyone says. But I have always found having a bite to eat when I am nauseated usually helps. A few crackers and some plain water often settles things for me. Counter intuitive I know.

 

To recover, in the horrible year I just went through while having all the autonomic nervous system upsets of protracted wd, I gritted my teeth and just went through it. I constantly attempted to distract myself from what I was feeling using everything I could but it turned out the most useful thing for me was computer games. Over and over and over till my system settled and I could start reading a bit and watching some tv. It is a really slow process but we all eventually get there. We have to, when the drugs are causing more harm than good and we have to get off them.

 

And I pretty much ate the same foods, day after day, stuff I knew my system was ok with but others would be screaming 'but that has gluten! or wheat! or (insert bad thing here)!' Time enough for me later to explore that stuff. I'm not there yet, I have a sort of uneasy truce going on now (in my 3rd year off drugs). The nervous system has calmed but the emotional stuff is got me stuck. Such a process it is.

[Canadiangirl]

Withdrawsucks I also deal with dizziness probably on a daily basis. Things don't spin around but I always feel off balance which in public makes my anxiety go because I always worried about falling over. Is there anything you have tried that helps with this at all. Just curious actually sometime I just breakdown because I am so tired of feeling dizzy so much.

[withdrawlsucks]

Thanks 5600... I think they are very wise words indeed.. I just threw out 3 draws of supplements and have decided to go it alone with diet and calm... One thing I know has been upsetting my system is.. when I start to have a good day I think arrr I am better.. and do some exercises.. press ups and light weights.. this is Nit helping at all. It is knocking my system back.. it happens every time.. I have been keeping a eye it. So it's just going to be food and a walk from now on when I am up to a walk.. and plenty of rest and loads of films lol.. I live in Swansea Wales by the way so not loads of sun but it's not to bad... Up until about six month ago films would to affect me in a bad way.. kInda upset the system.. but still find it hard to consentrate on stuff.. also fish oil is a no no.. tried it yesterday. Increases anxiety as it did before.. so that's it from now on....

 

Canadiangirl may I ask have you ever had your ears tested for balance problems or ever had any back or neck problems.. ? Sometimes these issuers can even be the cause of anxiety... Unsteady or vertigo,, knocks the confidence and can cause anxiety... But then you also have the anxiety dizzyness.. but up places.. feel like everything is closing in.. panic and dizzy off balance which makes you more anxious and more dizzy.. vicious circle.. I have experienced both types...... Are you in withdrawal ?

[Canadiangirl]

No I have never been tested in my ears or anything. I should look into that. I have been off lexapro for 10 months now. I did taper alittle too quickly I thing. I did 1 mg every month from 10 mg.(so it took me about 10 months). It's weird because the back of the head where it head meets the neck is where I have pain and a lot of heaviness feeling. Almost makes my head feel really heavy. I had an mri done a few weeks ago and that was all good. I had 2 small strokes about 5 yrs ago so I don't know if that's where the imbalance comes from. I had the strokes in the cerebellum which is where ur balance mechanism is. ( the strokes though were older when they were found they can't tell if they were strokes or damage from a virus). I really wasn't a candidate for a stroke so the neurologist said he thinks it was more likely from a virus.

[withdrawlsucks]

If you were not off balance before the lexapro withdrawal I would say it was that guys causeing the balance problem... It's hard to tell.. may be you need to have your neck checked out as this is one of the main causes for balance issues along with the ears.. I never had a neck problem before my withdrawal and now if is always stiff and cracks and pops all the time... There are meds out there that can help with balance but you need to know the exact cause... Vestibular testin and a neck scan would rule stuff out.. and if the dizziness is from withdrawal prob only time will heal it... These bloody meds have so many side effects it's incredible.... But I never found a natural supplement that helped with my balance problems even before the I took a ssri.. betahistine is a med that sometimes helps as are some antihistamines... But they all have their own side effects.. and would not recomend them if in withdrawal.

[withdrawlsucks]

The strokes may well of knocked your equilibrium out so the feeling of dizziness is increasing your anxiety... Which inturn can increase the dizziness.. took me time to work that out... But it's very true..

[withdrawlsucks]

Also do you work on computers or are you on them a lot.. this can really increase dizziness.. I Speek from experience.. I still can't go on computers.. only my mobile screen.. computers make me dizzy as Hell