☼ joy2730: withdrawing from citalopram, quetiapine

[joy2730]

Just a quick update - my doctor has suggested I take 500 mg epilim to support my withdrawal from citalopram and so far it is going a lot better and now I am able to reduce  without as many symptoms.  Great.

[Frogie]

6 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

Just a quick update - my doctor has suggested I take 500 mg epilim to support my withdrawal from citalopram and so far it is going a lot better and now I am able to reduce  without as many symptoms.  Great.

That's great Joy!

 

I don't know what Epilim is?

 

Take care,

Frogie xx

[joy2730]

Epilim is sodium valporate abroad I think.  It is an anticonvulsant and a mood stabiliser and I have taken it previously - it is a bit like lamotrigine.  It helps me sleep and with the other symptoms.

 

Sorry you are still having a rough time with your fiancee - you must be feeling very stressed - it is not good is it?   I have been very stressed over buying my new house.  Relationships are difficult aren't they?  Let us know how you are doing - are you still reducing?  I can't see signatures

 

Joy

[Frogie]

6 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

Epilim is sodium valporate abroad I think.  It is an anticonvulsant and a mood stabiliser and I have taken it previously - it is a bit like lamotrigine.  It helps me sleep and with the other symptoms.

 

Sorry you are still having a rough time with your fiancee - you must be feeling very stressed - it is not good is it?   I have been very stressed over buying my new house.  Relationships are difficult aren't they?  Let us know how you are doing - are you still reducing?  I can't see signatures

 

Joy

Just be careful with a med like that. I was on Lamictal for a long time.

 

My fiancé and I will be ok. I just talked to him. I had to call him at work (which I usually don't do). He was very nice thanked me up and down and said he loved me very much. We will talk more tonight.

 

I haven't tapered for over a month. I had the sinus infection and was on antibiotics so I'm going to wait until the end of the month and see how I'm doing.

 

Good luck with your new house!

 

Take care,

Frogie xx

[AliG]

Epilem (Depakote) is an anti-convulsant often used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraine headaches. Would you mind adding that to your drug history please, Joy.

Edited February 22, 2018 by AliG

[joy2730]

AliG 

I have updated my signature.  Perhaps it is going to help me.  In the UK today doctors have said they want more people on antidepressants - why?

 

Joy

 

 

[apace41]

7 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

 In the UK today doctors have said they want more people on antidepressants - why?

 

 

New study conclusion.  I have not looked in detail and am likely not going to be convinced.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43143889

[AliG]

Joy, you can't necessarily believe everything that you read. You have to look at funding, research etc. and where does it come from? Media is skewed ~ the drug companies are very hard at work to convince the masses to buy their product. It makes sense, when they are raking in billions of $$ each year?

 

They want to keep people sick and depressed. It feeds their profit. They are after life - long customers which is why they are targeting the young. Our children don't stand a chance~

 

The drug companies fund the research ( in their favor). They suppress the truth with their power & $ in a highly manipulative and underhanded way. 

[powerback]

56 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

AliG 

I have updated my signature.  Perhaps it is going to help me.  In the UK today doctors have said they want more people on antidepressants - why?

 

Joy

 

 

The Royal College of Psychiatrists said the study "finally puts to bed the controversy on anti-depressants".

This is just one sentence from the report ,vested interest  and biased .its simply capitalism ,you want a service and we have a product . its very sad .

ignore most of these studies and news joy ,clean up our own rooms to quote Jordan Peterson .help people in our immediate circle and its up to them if they listen.

Antidepressants are here to stay like many other destructive chemicals .

Take care joy.

[joy2730]

Just a quick update - my doctor has suggested I take 500 mg epilim to support my withdrawal from citalopram and so far it is going a lot better and now I am able to reduce  without as many symptoms.  Great.

[joy2730]

Thanks for the comments about the news today.  I know you can't believe what you read in the press - I guess we all have to make up our own minds.  They never mention withdrawal problems do they?  

 

Joy

[samanthaelizabeth]

2 hours ago, joy2730 said:

Just a quick update - my doctor has suggested I take 500 mg epilim to support my withdrawal from citalopram and so far it is going a lot better and now I am able to reduce  without as many symptoms.  Great.

Good for you!  I hope you are feeling better!

[joy2730]

Yes I am.  I think it may help me to get down to 10 mg and I will be happy to stay there.  I get such horrible physical symptoms and mental ones that are totally dibilitating.  I am choosing to go with my doctors advice as she understands the difficult position I am in.

 

Joy 

[TikkiTikki]

Hope it continues well Joy. 

[TikkiTikki]

How's the Depakote going Joy?

[Flowers]

Hi Joy

 

Just read your last update. Hope you are doing well?

 

Love from Flowers xxx

[joy2730]

to answer about depakote - I found it made me a lot more relaxed and improved sleep but stopped it after a week as I don't think I will get off cutalopram completely and don't want another drug on board.  It is very tempting to take a drug to help but I don'

 think it is good really.  I am.now stuck back on 20 mg.  I nearly started to reduce again today but chickened out.

 

Like you TikkiTikki at 20 mg I feel there is a glass between me and everything else.  It is that my withdrawal symptoms are totally devastating.  I feel a lot better if I just reduce a little bit so that may have to be enough for me for now - but I do get afraid of withdrawal.

Joy

 

 

[Flowers]

Hi Joy

 

Well I think you have done very well not to continue with the drug if you can manage without it.

 

I know you are under stress with the house purchase so maybe it's not a good idea to reduce until after all this has gone through and you are more settled. Moving house is very stressful.

 

I hope you get some good days.

 

Love from Flowers xxx

 

 

[joy2730]

Hi Flowers

 

Thanks for your support, it means a lot.  Yes, I think I have made the right decision.  I am under a lot of stress but all the financial side of buying our new house is finished with now, however there is a lot of dealings with land etc that still needs to be sorted.  My work is very intense at the moment too.

 

However, I am gaining weight again and feel what others call on here 'cog fog' now that I am back at 20 mg, which I so don't need or like, so this morning I made a very small cut from 20 mg which I think leaves me at about 19.9 or 19.8 mg.  I do tend to notice even small cuts.  I also got to spinning and legs/bums and tums this morning and now have 4 days off work.

 

So I am not hoping for much in withdrawal just an easy of these uncomfortable side effects.

 

So I feel trapped by citalopram withdrawal, but love the support of this site and all the information.  I can remember once feeling OK on 15 mg, how I would love to get back to that, but my expectations are realistic.

 

Joy

[joy2730]

Update:

 

In an effort to tease out my weight problems and citalopram and citalopram withdrawal, I joined Slimming World this morning.  It was a lovely group of people. All my fitness work has not impacted on my weight at all and since starting to taper again my weight has gone up a few pounds, so I have taken the bull by the horns and I am going to do this.  Weigh in in a week's time, I always blame the citalopram for my weight gain, but some people take it without gaining weight.  Likewise my weight did drop when I got down in dose before but then I was feeling ill because of withdrawal.

 

I am not sure what is what anymore, I can't see a clear picture, but at least I will be eating healthily.

 

I hate getting my syringes back out and starting again, but if I don't I am just left on 20 mg so I might as well try again.

 

Slimming World is a lot easier to follow than Weight watchers, in my opinion, but when I tried Weight watchers many years ago I was taking some many psychiatric meds that everything in life was difficult to follow.

 

I emailed James Moore who does the Podcasts the other day, in a link where he was asking for withdrawal stories,  he suggested I use liquid to help.  I have already asked my GP for that and got brushed off.  It may be time to reconsider that.

 

Joy

[joy2730]

I am currently taking 19.8 mg citalopram and feel much better on this than 20 mg.  I am sleeping better and feel more relaxed.  It has taken me a while to moving from just getting rid of a tiny drop to this accurate measurement, I am going to update my signature.

 

Trying again, harnessing all I have learnt, not expecting much this time, but feeling well.

 

Joy

[powerback]

On ‎20‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 4:16 PM, joy2730 said:

Update:

 

In an effort to tease out my weight problems and citalopram and citalopram withdrawal, I joined Slimming World this morning.  It was a lovely group of people. All my fitness work has not impacted on my weight at all and since starting to taper again my weight has gone up a few pounds, so I have taken the bull by the horns and I am going to do this.  Weigh in in a week's time, I always blame the citalopram for my weight gain, but some people take it without gaining weight.  Likewise my weight did drop when I got down in dose before but then I was feeling ill because of withdrawal.

 

I am not sure what is what anymore, I can't see a clear picture, but at least I will be eating healthily.

 

I hate getting my syringes back out and starting again, but if I don't I am just left on 20 mg so I might as well try again.

 

Slimming World is a lot easier to follow than Weight watchers, in my opinion, but when I tried Weight watchers many years ago I was taking some many psychiatric meds that everything in life was difficult to follow.

 

I emailed James Moore who does the Podcasts the other day, in a link where he was asking for withdrawal stories,  he suggested I use liquid to help.  I have already asked my GP for that and got brushed off.  It may be time to reconsider that.

 

Joy

Good for you joy ,good on you ,best of luck ,just watch out for comparing yourself to others ,there is many factors to each persons journey with loosing weight ,be kind to yourself .metabolism can be a big factor .cutting down on refined carbs and sugars  is great thing to do .

Take care .

[joy2730]

Hi doing well on 19.8 mg citalopram, just in case anyone is reading, I can tell the difference between 20 mg and 19.8 mg, I feel more alert and sleep better.

 

In a few days on Slimming World I have lost a few pounds and feel full, despite not following it to the letter and still being on a learning curve with how it works.

 

I do believe I struggle with paradoxical weight gain when reducing the first few milligrams so Slimming World may be able to counteract that.

 

I feel having spent my entire adult life on weight gaining meds and appetite increasing meds I need to sort out my eating.  I may have been blaming the citalopram for weight gain when that is not the case at all.

 

Thanks Powerback for your support.  There is a further reason I would like to loose a little weight and that is at my leisure centre some people have asked me, discreetly, if I have gained weight due to alcohol, and this is not the case at all.  I may need to go for job interviews in the future and wouldn't want an employer to think that.  I do not drink at all apart from the odd binge drinking session when very stressed and because I don't drink much ordinarily that only amounts to a bottle and a half of cheap while wine and then I am asleep.

 

If I didn't work I would drink a lot more, so working is saving me from that, I do like drinking socially and to blank difficulties out sometimes, but this is at most once a year for me now.

 

Take care Powerback, hope you are feeling well because you have had times of being unwell if I remember rightly.

 

Joy

[powerback]

 people would actually say that to you in the leisure centre  .

I was the king of binge drinking, oh how ide love to block out things these days but I have to much to loose and I hate my drinking past ,I'm haunted by it .

I need to find a way to deal with the PSTD I have from the drinking past and the meds .

I do get you about drinking socially but I couldn't  find the stop button so its off limits .the  day I'm off meds and drink at the same time  will be a miracle . 

Take care and be kind to yourself .

[joy2730]

Thanks for your reply PB.  I live in a part of the UK known for its bluntness and lack of tact.

 

General update, I have been feeling well so far on 19.8 mg citalopram so tomorrow am dropping to 19.6 mg.  The maths are a little tricky so I am avoiding 19.7 mg, but I know if I ever get to the lower doses I will need to work on that. 

 

I had my first weigh in at Slimming World and had lost 1 1/2 lbs which is a miracle for me, and, more importantly I am starting to feel better for eating healthy foods. I remain convinced some of my weight is due to way my body reacts to the citalopram, but I need to learn more about food anyway and eat healthily.  For me, if I can get to about 15 mg citalopram, the weight seems to be easier to control.

 

I hope everyone on this board is doing well, although I know that is not very likely.  I think my central nervous system is stable at present and I do look a bit 'drugged' so am willing to drop a small amount tomorrow.

 

Wish it wasn't like this, wish these drugs were user friendly for everyone.  the only issue I have at present is constipation, which I always get when reducing citalopram and a change in my diet will not have helped that.  So I am trying to resolve that in a healthy way with spoonfuls of virgin olive oil and plenty of water and bran.  Also I usually get weight gain when reducing at these first few milligrams, so the dieting will help counter that.  I am continuing to exercise a few times a week, but really it doesn't help with my weight, just general fitness and well being.

 

The more I read about these meds the more I am sure that they are not good news at all.

 

Joy

[Flowers]

Hi Joy

 

Well done for joining Slimming World and your weight loss so far.  Can't believe anyone would ask you if your weight gain was down to alcohol!!!

 

Good to hear your CNS is stable.  Good luck with your intended drop.

 

Love from Flowers xxx

 

 

[joy2730]

Thanks Flowers, of course I have terrible constipation at present due to two things, withdrawal tends to give me this and changing my diet.

 

I am not setting my sights too high with either Slimming World or the citalopram drop, and am no longer aiming to get off citalopram, just to 15 mg where I seem to be a lot better.  Slimming World at least will introduce me to a more healthy way of eating.

 

I never ever thought that anyone would think my weight was due to alcohol!  So not only do I look like I don't understand anything about food and diet but I also look like someone who consumes a lot of alcohol!  Yorkshire people are very blunt!  Once again, I don't want to be slim, just to look healthier and as though I can look after myself.

 

Hope you are well Flowers, I think if I take this slowly enough I might get to 15 mg, but who knows?

 

Joy

[Flowers]

Oh Dear not the dreaded constipation as well! Poor you.

 

I quite like Slimming world and have done quite well on it when I stick to it! If it is still the same it was nice not having  to weigh food out all the time.

 

At least you are giving the SW and the drops a go. Good for you.

 

I have Yorkshire friends and they sure  know how to call a spade a spade! But are also very warm and friendly so can't have everything!

 

I am OK thanks Joy. I had a few good weeks but am up and down at the mo. Just wanting to stabilise a bit more before I decide my next step.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Flowers xxx

 

[joy2730]

Well I made my cut this morning, so now down to 19.6 mg citalopram, and my eyes look a lot larger, clearer and brighter, but of course that may not be because of the reduction but I suspect it is. 

 

If such small cuts make this type of difference, then it proves these meds are extremely powerful.

 

If I could start my first ever attempt to come of these meds again, I would do it all much more slowly.  My personality doesn't really do slow, but it really has to this time.  After all, I have the rest of my life available in which to make this work ............................

 

Joy

[apace41]

29 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

If such small cuts make this type of difference, then it proves these meds are extremely powerful.

 

Two thoughts, Joy.

 

First, congrats on moving back down and having a game plan for what you want.

 

Second, given what we know about the drugs and the power of the placebo effect, some of the "positive" you are feeling could be from your increased anticipation of wellness as you reduce.  In my mind, who cares?  If you feel better that's all that matters.

 

Best,

 

Andy

[joy2730]

I am feeling well on 19.6 mg, and am sleeping very well.  This is how I have been previously at this dosage.  It has been 5 days since my drop and so it will have registered in my brain now.  I also feel a little more alert, but as Andy pointed out that can be the placebo effect.  The placebo effect is, I know, particularly strong in me, for example when I have previously updosed I have always felt immediately better, even though, chemically speaking, that is impossible.  I have always thought this instant reaction was my 'mania' from my bipolar diagnosis, but now, with more experience and the benefit of hindsight, I think it was probably the placebo effect.

 

I could be repeating myself here, but I will do it anyway.  I emailed James Moore, who is putting together the podcasts, and he recommended I switched to liquid citalopram, but I have already asked my present surgery and they have refused.  James Moore acknowledged it is a cost based decision at times.  However, in the longer term I will eventually be moving to a new GP, where the answer may be the same, but I will ask it anyway.  It will be a long time until I get down to the lower dosages anyway.

 

I have shared the detail, as sometimes it is necessary to share these thoughts to help others.

 

Feeling wiser

 

Joy

[joy2730]

Still feeling well, in fact very well, despite the fact I have several stressors in my life at present, in my work and home life.

 

Only symptom is sweating, in the middle of last night and then this morning.  Now that I am wiser I know this is my CNS showing it is upset. I have also had a very brief spell of itchy skin.  I know now that I must not drop while I am having such symptoms. 

 

I do feel clearer in my head and calmer.  It feels nice to feel this calm, less wound up.  I am sleeping well despite my problems at home and work.

 

It is also my mother's 90 birthday tomorrow and we are having a little tea party for her, that could also be really stressful, but if I feel this well I can cope.

 

I have started to real my own thread over again, it is very enlightening, I am trying to work out where I tend to go wrong and why.

 

Joy

[joy2730]

Still feeling well.  Am going to make another small cut tomorrow which will take me to 19.4 mg which is far slower than the 10 % per month.

 

Feeling good calm and settled.

 

Joy

 

 

[Frogie]

12 minutes ago, joy2730 said:

Still feeling well.  Am going to make another small cut tomorrow which will take me to 19.4 mg which is far slower than the 10 % per month.

 

Feeling good calm and settled.

 

Joy

 

 

That's great Joy. I'm glad to hear that. I answered you on my thread.

 

Take care,

Frogie xx

[joy2730]

Thanks Frogie - I will look at your thread today  - I expect from this drop the odd nightmare sweating a runny nose a headache ear ache and nausea.  Hopeful it will all be very mild.

 

Also constipation and a bit of weight gain.

 

I will.post often for a few days - still.it is best that I don't dwell on bits of symptoms as that may start if health anxiety which a lot of nm people on this site seem to have

 

Joy

 

 

[Frogie]

2 hours ago, joy2730 said:

Thanks Frogie - I will look at your thread today  - I expect from this drop the odd nightmare sweating a runny nose a headache ear ache and nausea.  Hopeful it will all be very mild.

 

Also constipation and a bit of weight gain.

 

I will.post often for a few days - still.it is best that I don't dwell on bits of symptoms as that may start if health anxiety which a lot of nm people on this site seem to have

 

Joy

 

 

Hi Joy:

 

I hope you do well. I have Health Anxiety bad so I can relate.

 

Keep me posted

 

Take care,

Frogie xx