Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

Drewguitar: tapered off citalopram


Drewguitar

Recommended Posts

Hello there! Tapered off of Citolapram here in the Uk (Scotland) after 8 years of 20mg. I have been at 0 since late august. Had no Zaps or muscle issues past the first month but my emotions are all over the shop. I think you guys call them neuro emotions? Some days I’m fine-ish but have mad agitation, others like today I have periodic crying spells and mad guilt/ shame about nonsense( man in his mid 30s, feels odd). My doctor wants me back on them cause he thinks I’ve relapsed but my life’s okay and it feels very different from my old panic attacks( they aren’t really attacks just general restlessness) . As a creative I feel so much more, well, creative since I stopped them and I sleep better. I’m just riding the waves til things calm down a bit! Will let you all know How it goes and once better fully I can stick around and help others!

 

Thanks

Drew :)

2014-Citolapram 20mg for Anxiety.
December 2019-Cold Turkey on Docs advise (even after 6 years he said id feel bad for 2 weeks then normal again....) Back on full dose by april due to PWS making life unbareable.
December 2020-Started Tapering to 10 mg-Felt pretty easy
May 2021-Started Tapering to 5mg-bit anxious but relatively okay.
August 2021 18th- 0mg til now December 29th PWS in effect again. Doing all I can to hang in.

 

Don't want to go back on the Citalopram but also find it difficult to cope with the agitation, crying and the loss of appetite. Taking 5htp, regular exercise and eating healthy. No caffiene, no alchohol.
Looking for hope anywhere I can get it:)



 

Link to comment
  • ChessieCat changed the title to Drewguitar: tapered off citalopram
  • Moderator Emeritus

Hi Drewguitar and welcome to SA,

 

Even though you haven't had any brain zaps, it seems like you are experiencing withdrawal symptoms.  When we take a psychiatric drug our brain adapts to getting the drug.  When we reduce or stop the drug the brain automatically tries to regain homestasis and this is the reason why we experience withdrawal symptoms.  Generally slow tapering will mean that withdrawal symptoms are mild, if any, because the brain adapts as you reduce the drug, whereas stopping the drug too quickly can cause worse withdrawal symptoms and possibly for a longer time as the brain tries to make things right.

 

are-we-there-yet-how-long-is-withdrawal-going-to-take

 

Q:  How did you stop the citalopram?

 

Please create your drug signature stating the drug name/s, the dose and the date you started taking that dose like this:

 

drug name:  dose, date; dose, date; dose, date;

 

Also see these instructions:

 

Instructions:  Withdrawal History Signature

 

You might be experiencing withdrawal symptoms which you don't attribute to stopping the citalopram:

 

Dr Joseph Glenmullen's WD Symptoms Checklist

 

We understand that members can be reluctant to start taking the drug again.  However, reinstatement is the only known way of reducing withdrawal symptoms.  I will provide the relevant information so that you can make an informed decision about whether you reinstate or not.  If the withdrawal symptoms are unbearable then taking a very small dose of the drug might be enough to bring them to a bearable level.  The idea of reinstatement is not get rid of withdrawal symptoms completely but to bring them to a bearable level.  After you stabilise you would then taper off slowly.

 

Please read Post #1 of this topic:

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

 

Post #1 of this topic explains how to get non standard doses.

 

Tips for tapering off citalopram (Celexa)

 

 

Please let us know if you would like to try reinstating and we can suggest a dose for you to try.

 

This is your own Introduction topic.  Each member has only ONE Introduction topic.  Your own Introduction topic is the best place to ask questions and journal your progress.  This keeps your history in one place and means you will not need to repeat your story. 

 

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

Link to comment

Hi Chessie and thanks,
                                       Im 4 months off of my meds total and having a pretty miserable time (Tried the taper suggested to me of just 25 percent and im feeling better in some regards and worse in others) Im not adverse to going back on a small dose it if makes all of this more bareable and I will take any help i can get.
My current thoughts are that at 4 months in if I go back on any meds its kind of like defeat...Is this a wrong way to think? Also will I have to go through all of this withdrawl stage all over again as this is the second time I've done this and each time its so tough.
Will taking the meds again mean il have to go through all of this again when I reach near 0 again?

Thanks so much
Drew :)
 

 

 

2014-Citolapram 20mg for Anxiety.
December 2019-Cold Turkey on Docs advise (even after 6 years he said id feel bad for 2 weeks then normal again....) Back on full dose by april due to PWS making life unbareable.
December 2020-Started Tapering to 10 mg-Felt pretty easy
May 2021-Started Tapering to 5mg-bit anxious but relatively okay.
August 2021 18th- 0mg til now December 29th PWS in effect again. Doing all I can to hang in.

 

Don't want to go back on the Citalopram but also find it difficult to cope with the agitation, crying and the loss of appetite. Taking 5htp, regular exercise and eating healthy. No caffiene, no alchohol.
Looking for hope anywhere I can get it:)



 

Link to comment
  • Moderator Emeritus

No it's not a defeat.  It has nothing to do with how strong or determined you are as a person.  It is the brain which still needs a tiny bit of the drug.  I would remind myself of this when I got to very low doses of Pristiq and it felt really stupid measuring out such a tiny amount.

 

When reinstating a drug after a long time my suggestion is to start with a tester dose.  After a person has experienced withdrawal their system can become sensitised.  This is not with the aim of reducing the withdrawal symptoms at this time but simply to test how you react to taking the drug again.  You could test with a dose of 0.1mg, or even less if you think you might become anxious about taking the drug again.  If you are anxious then you can mistake anxiety symptoms for a bad reaction to the drug.

 

You can make citalopram tablets into a liquid.  See the link in the last post.

 

It is unlikely, however possible, that you will not notice any improvement in your withdrawal symptoms with such a tiny dose.  If after one week of the test dose you have not had a bad reaction then you would increase the dose by a small amount.  If you had a definite reaction you would stop immediately.

 

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.  If after 1 week on the new dose you notice some improvement in withdrawal symptoms then wait for a further week and then reassess.  If after the first week on the new dose you notice no improvement or worsening, then you could make the small increase after the first week.  It is better to increase gradually by small amounts than to risk taking too much.  Keep notes for yourself.

 

Remember that the aim is to ease the withdrawal symptoms and bring them to a bearable level.  We have members here who have tried to find the ideal dose and ended up making things worse and for some of them it took a long time for things to improve after the worsening, which is why I am urging you to be patient and do things gradually.

 

1 hour ago, Drewguitar said:

Also will I have to go through all of this withdrawl stage all over again as this is the second time I've done this and each time its so tough.
Will taking the meds again mean il have to go through all of this again when I reach near 0 again?

 

The idea of tapering is to remove the drug gradually so that the brain only has to make small adjustments each time you reduce the dose.  This helps to keep the withdrawal symptoms to a minimum.

 

SA's recommended tapering protocol is to reduce by no more than 10% of the current dose with 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?

 

Note that if you are still experiencing withdrawal symptoms after 4 weeks you hold for longer.  It is better to hold for longer than to continue tapering when you still have withdrawal symptoms.

 

Stability

 

WDnormal

 

Moderator brassmonkey has written more about WDnormal in his Success Story:

 

tao-of-the-brassmonkey

 

And it is a good idea to go to a very low dose before you stop the drug completely.  I ended up going to 0.0025mg Pristiq but I probably could have stopped at a little bit higher dose.  I had other issues going on and decided to be extra cautious.  I might have been okay stopping at higher dose but I had already tapered for 6 years (started at 100mg Pristiq) and didn't want to mess things up right at the end.  In the scheme of things it was worth doing what I did.  If I had got off at a higher dose and had issues it might well have ended up taking me longer than it did.

 

Brassmonkey, another mod, was tapering Paxil, which is a difficult drug to get of because of its mechanisms, and his last dose was 0.016mg.

 

when-to-end-the-taper-and-jump-to-zero

 

Please continue to post letting us know how you are doing.  Please also update your drug signature with the dose and date of the dose change.  Thank you.

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

Link to comment

Thanks a lot Chessie, I definitely need to reinstate as I’m in a bit of a mess.Il have a think about what dosage to take and maybe try for 1mg or perhaps 0.5 as I’m really bad and I need to stabilise. If I have to go back on a higher dose il stabilise and begin a much better taper regime now I have the help of this wonderful forum. 5mg to 0 has been pretty unbareable so never doing that again! 
 

thank so much,

Drew 

2014-Citolapram 20mg for Anxiety.
December 2019-Cold Turkey on Docs advise (even after 6 years he said id feel bad for 2 weeks then normal again....) Back on full dose by april due to PWS making life unbareable.
December 2020-Started Tapering to 10 mg-Felt pretty easy
May 2021-Started Tapering to 5mg-bit anxious but relatively okay.
August 2021 18th- 0mg til now December 29th PWS in effect again. Doing all I can to hang in.

 

Don't want to go back on the Citalopram but also find it difficult to cope with the agitation, crying and the loss of appetite. Taking 5htp, regular exercise and eating healthy. No caffiene, no alchohol.
Looking for hope anywhere I can get it:)



 

Link to comment
  • Moderator Emeritus

I realise that you want to feel improvement quickly.  But you need to do this gradually and not panic.  We have members here who have panicked and tried to fix things and made things a whole lot worse.

 

I have just noticed that you are taking 5htp.  If it is only a low dose then it might be okay to continue taking it but down the track you might consider stopping it.  But if you do make a change to anything you need to do it one at a time otherwise you won't know what is helping/harming.   You will need to do your own research about this as I don't have any experience with it.

 

Please read this topic:

 

5-htp-5-hydroxytryptophan-and-l-tryptophan

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

Link to comment

Hey again Chess I’m not going any higher than stated( .5-1mg for a week or so til I find out how I feel. I took htp for about a week (one 50mg everyday) but have stopped so I can resume reinstatement. I’m struggling to get lower doses of citalopram so I have no idea how I would even measure out 0.1mg. That’s  an incredibly small number. I’ve diluted a quarter tablet 20mg in water and made solution of approximately 1mg. I was taking 5mg 4 months ago before stopping. First cold turkey I had was the same timeframe and I went straight back to 20mg Without much issue within a week or so.  I’m not panicking so much as I’m trying to use what I have and be accurate. 
 

ive requested a meeting with my doc for smaller dose so I can hopefully get liquid citolapram at 10mg and make it easier to be supper accurate.

 

thanks again 

2014-Citolapram 20mg for Anxiety.
December 2019-Cold Turkey on Docs advise (even after 6 years he said id feel bad for 2 weeks then normal again....) Back on full dose by april due to PWS making life unbareable.
December 2020-Started Tapering to 10 mg-Felt pretty easy
May 2021-Started Tapering to 5mg-bit anxious but relatively okay.
August 2021 18th- 0mg til now December 29th PWS in effect again. Doing all I can to hang in.

 

Don't want to go back on the Citalopram but also find it difficult to cope with the agitation, crying and the loss of appetite. Taking 5htp, regular exercise and eating healthy. No caffiene, no alchohol.
Looking for hope anywhere I can get it:)



 

Link to comment
  • Moderator Emeritus
3 minutes ago, Drewguitar said:

I’m struggling to get lower doses of citalopram so I have no idea how I would even measure out 0.1mg. That’s  an incredibly small number. I’ve diluted a quarter tablet 20mg in water and made solution of approximately 1mg.

 

You use more water. 

 

2.5mg in 250mL of water

 

divide both sides by 2.5

 

1mg = 100mL

 

divide both sides by 10

 

0.1mg = 10mL

 

So to take 0.1mg of dose you would measure and take 10mL liquid

 

Please double check my calculations.

 

how-to-make-a-liquid-from-tablets-or-capsules

 

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

Link to comment

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy