Depression, Aspegers and Cytalopram

[bathtub]

Hi all

I am a 42 year old male recently diagnosed with Aspergers and currently on Cytalopram for high depression and moderate anxiety. I wanted to give some info on medication in case it's of use to anyone.

I decided to quit smoking after 25 odd years of being married to the weed. I had tried just about every solution on the market and I eventually went to the NHS who gave me a fairly high dose of Champix. Champix is a mild antidepressant and works by inhibiting the receptors that react to nicotine addiction theoretically blocking your craving to smoke. It worked for me but unfortunately triggered a chemical imbalance which resulted in a mental breakdown, exasperated by high stress at work and an at the time, undiagnosed aspergers syndrome.

the resulting recovery (six months signed off work) and therapy resulted in a formal diagnosis for aspergers and Cytalopram to help with depression and anxiety which were pretty severe at the time. I started on 20mg of Cytalopram which took the edge off for about 5 months, then plateaued so up to 40mg which was fine for a few months but again, the dread came creeping back, so up to 60mg resulting in nosebleeds, cramps, borderline delusional behaviour and severe bruxism. Currently back on 40mg for a bit before assessing whether i need a different med.

So my main challenges are that I have Aspergers which is permenant and (hopefully) temporary depression and anxiety and trying to figure out which of the three is responsible for certain behaviour or thought processes is very frustrating. I am back at work but taking it very easy.

If anyone has any questions about any of this please message me or ask away in this thread.

The Cytalopram has worked well in general for me but after a while it seems to lose it's ability to defer the depression - wondering if anyone has had similar experience?

bathtub

[NoPoet]

Hi mate, read my Survival Guide, there is everything I have learned and experienced about citalopram in there. :)

Originally I went onto 20mg of cit 2 years ago. It helped, but I was semi-permanently anxious and depressed and I had a lot of side effects. Eventually I realised that I'd plateaued exactly as you describe and I finally settled on 30mg. That dose worked almost immediately and made me feel very positive a lot of the time although there were a number of bad days or weeks (blips).

Looking back, it is obvious that I was still depressed and suffered from anxiety, because I didn't continue with therapy once the medication made me feel better. (Classic mistake.) When I came off the meds, BAM, anxiety and depression took over once more. I'm building back up from 10mg now.

Citalopram cannot work properly when we're crippled with issues. Citalopram is not a cure. See it as a support tool, a canvas roof which props itself over our heads to keep the rain off.

If you found that the medication plateaued while you were still receiving therapy, you're probably better off looking for another type of med. If you weren't receiving other therapy, try sticking with 40mg and getting counselling. Also contact the Samaritans and Anxiety UK as they provide a very useful service and Anxiety UK can provide you with cheap telephone or face to face therapy.

Finally, I reckon that any medication will lose its effectiveness if people rely on it completely and don't try to push forward with their recovery. This may be wrong or naive, who knows, but there's got to be an element of truth in it somewhere. I know loads of people who've been on antidepressants for years (like a decade or more). Have they really explored their problems and tried to better themselves? Only they can answer that I guess.

[allergyphobia]

Hi there,

I just wondered how you have been diagnosed with Aspergers? I've suspected my partner has it, I just wondered what your symptoms etc were.

Hope you don't mind me asking :)

[bathtub]

Not at all

I knew I was not neurotypical when in my 20's, before that I just thought everyone else thought like me, I did not know later what the problem was. The first clue was when my daughter was diagnosed with semantic pragmatic disorder, turns out this was a misdiagnosis and she has aspegers which we found out though reviews with a clinical psychologist. my counsellor during my time off work informally diagnosed me as she had worked closely with several adults with aspergers, I pursued this though self assessment and NHS adult diagnostic service but it was a long process and adult autism diagnosis is poorly understood and underfunded in general. There is a private clinic in Coventry - Maxine Aston, who specialise in diagnosis for adults with aspergers also.

I am still undergoing ongoing assessment and counselling at an NHS unit in Birmingham.

My particular traits are:

lack of empathy
hypersensitivity to multiple conversations and loud noises
inability to have a conversation normally (do not understand when to speak and when to listen, do not pick up on facial or body language signals)
literal thinking
time to process
distress and anxiety when schedules/routines change


there are others but these are the main ones.

bathtub

[bathtub]

Psychopoet - way ahead of you - read your stuff months ago and it is excellent - I had always had an aversion to meds, even painkillers etc but your guide is superb and really kept me grounded when going though the pro's and cons of starting on Cytalopram.

You should be proud of your guide - I wll always point people to it when I can!

bathtub




Hi mate, read my Survival Guide, there is everything I have learned and experienced about citalopram in there. :)

Originally I went onto 20mg of cit 2 years ago. It helped, but I was semi-permanently anxious and depressed and I had a lot of side effects. Eventually I realised that I'd plateaued exactly as you describe and I finally settled on 30mg. That dose worked almost immediately and made me feel very positive a lot of the time although there were a number of bad days or weeks (blips).

Looking back, it is obvious that I was still depressed and suffered from anxiety, because I didn't continue with therapy once the medication made me feel better. (Classic mistake.) When I came off the meds, BAM, anxiety and depression took over once more. I'm building back up from 10mg now.

Citalopram cannot work properly when we're crippled with issues. Citalopram is not a cure. See it as a support tool, a canvas roof which props itself over our heads to keep the rain off.

If you found that the medication plateaued while you were still receiving therapy, you're probably better off looking for another type of med. If you weren't receiving other therapy, try sticking with 40mg and getting counselling. Also contact the Samaritans and Anxiety UK as they provide a very useful service and Anxiety UK can provide you with cheap telephone or face to face therapy.

Finally, I reckon that any medication will lose its effectiveness if people rely on it completely and don't try to push forward with their recovery. This may be wrong or naive, who knows, but there's got to be an element of truth in it somewhere. I know loads of people who've been on antidepressants for years (like a decade or more). Have they really explored their problems and tried to better themselves? Only they can answer that I guess.