Paranoia on discontinuation

[Spikie]

Hi all

I've been on 20mg Citalopram for a year and a half and decided, now I'm done with my CBT, to start to come off. On advice from here I've done this gradually and am currently at 10mg with minimal physical side effects.

However I have become incredibly paranoid, thinking that everyone who acts nice to me at work is 'up to something' and only pretending to be nice to me. I've also caught myself thinking that someone is typing about me purely because I am there and they are typing.

This wasn't in my CBT, aside from when we did 'can we really read minds', so I don't know what to do. Not sure if this is a side effect of discontinuation or whether this is just my natural pysche coming through.

[Ingenious]

I had some weird issues along these lines when changing dose on Citalopram, it was one reason I was glad to switch to something else. I'm pretty sure this is something that will pass, and hopefully quite quickly. The things to ask yourself are, were you like this before being on Citalopram (if not, that makes it likely this is just a withdrawal symptom), and how long is it since you reduced dosage?

Personally, I would make a follow up appointment to see your GP though and discuss these anyway - there are some options for reducing dosage differently (by switching to something else with a longer half life) in case you're very sensitive to changes.

Try and remind yourself when you have these moments they're a side effect of the drug - try not to read too much into it or panic too much.

[Spikie]

Thanks Ingenious.

I can't honestly remember how I was before the Citalopram! Certainly I had bouts of being paranoid, but I think I thought they were an effect of other areas, which have now been improved through CBT.

Every thing I do that is less than perfect is also making me incredibly frustrated, so I am spending time fuming at myself and having unhelpful thoughts.

More annoying than dangerous at the moment, I'm aware that these thoughts are stupid (being less than perfect won't get me fired, though posting on a message board at work might... :) ), but my ability to recognise how stupid they are is dwindling.

[Spikie]

Interesting, my attempt to distract myself from worrying about everything has manifested as mild OCD, namely that before I started work today I have cleaned the work microwave till it gleamed, then cleaned the cutelry, then decided that they were dirty again by touching the draining board, so cleaned that and then the cutelry again.

The people who don't know about my discontinuation are giving me a wide berth; the ones who do are going 'awwww' at me (metaphorically, mostly).

But I'm less worried, so hey!