Slowly coming off Cit

[Mr Pants]

I have been on 20mg Cit for about 1 year now and have finally made the decision to come off them.

I suffered from emotional lability which was a temporary side effect from having a brain haemorrhage.

I am a very grounded person with a tight grip on reality and a logical mind.

My coming off Cit plan is to reduce to 10mg per day for 1 month then reduce to 10 mg every other day for 1 month then stop. This is how my doctor advised I should do it.

I have now been on 10mg for 5 days

My side effects are horrible. I am really tired and irritable, both my daughter who is 3 and my wife are having to put up with my mood. Also I feel incredibly tense, tingly and jittery. I seem to have vivid thoughts which provoke strong emotions over tiny things I have seen or heard.

Is this temporary? I am tempted to jump back to 20mg.

[Vanilla Sky]

I am coming off 40mg cit , planned to go down to 30 last week but i started getting head zaps , so im doing it next week as that will be a month on 30 . The side effects will pass , dont go back up as it will just prolong the effects . If they dont pass then ask your doc for advice. I plan to stay on 20 for a few months before i do the 10

[pinkdove]

I am reducing my dose of cit, was on 50mg, then around 2 months ago dropped to 40mg, then last thursday dropped to 35mg, i plan to stay on this for a month, and all being well i will reduce to 30mg, i think you should follow your doctors advice, but i think 5mg is enough for me to reduce in one go, so far no problems, good luck hope this helps :hugs:

[cathycrumble]

To reduce the citalopram I bought a book from the CITA orgainisation and there is a chart in it to help reduce without side affects this is what i was going to do but I have decided to wait a bit longer so I am staying on them. But this is how I was going to do it. And the book explains this.

My dose is 40mgs a day so I have took 30mg today then do the 40mg all week. the next time I reduce is next tuesday which is the following week I take 30mg again then the next week I take 30mg say on the monday then 30mg on the thursday, so I am reducing 2 days that week and i do that the next week. Then after that the following week I take 30mg 3 times in that week and then the next week the same until i am on 30mg then I stay on 30mg for 2 weeks then it starts again only i will go to 20mg and start the process again. untill I am on 5mg then 0. If you can't follow what i have written here. I suggest you order the book. It's called BACK TO LIFE. It was put together by Pam Armstrong. Good luck.

Cathy xx

[Helmet]

Take a look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/ssri.htm
http://ask.metafilter.com/109657/How-to-get-through-a-difficult-Celexa-withdrawal