Coming off Cipralex

[Lydia2600]

I stopped taking Cipralex 4 days ago now; I was on 10mg for just over 6 months. They didn’t seem to do anything other than make me very dizzy (I have always suffered from dizziness anyway), make my migraines worse and increase my desire to self harm. The worst of the side effects was the sexual problems that developed, so I was very glad to be told I could stop taking them.

So far I feel absolutely terrible, I have blacked out three times in the past 24 hours, I feel dizzy even when I sit down and I cry at absolutely anything.

Can someone please tell me how long this lasts?

Also I would appreciate any advice of whether I should try any other medication? I have already tried Seroxat in the past, which was equally as bad.

I have a severe anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia and I also suffer from very bad panic attacks and self harm frequently.

Hope someone can help?

Lydia...

[tara]

Hi,

I came off cipralex about a year ago and I remember it well. It was a difficult time! I got dizzy spells ect.... I was told by my doctor to take vitamin B strong whilst comming off them as it helps....i'm not quite sure if it did but I did eventually get off them. It took about 3 months all in all to come off them completely.

Hope this hepls.

Tara xxx

Smile...it confuses people.

[nomorepanic]

Have you been coming off them slowly or just stopped?


Nicola

[Lydia2600]

<b id="quote">quote:</b id="quote"><table border="0" id="quote"><tr id="quote"><td class="quote" id="quote">Have you been coming off them slowly or just stopped?


Nicola

<div align="right">Originally posted by nomorepanic - 25 August 2006 : 22:54:57</div id="right">
</td id="quote"></tr id="quote"></table id="quote">

My psychologist told me just to stop taking them as I was only on 10mg, but it seems like most of the things he told me, this seems to be rather bad advice!

As I don’t have any tablets left, there is not a lot I can do, other than cope, see how I get on next week and make an appointment to see my equally useless GP.

Lydia...

[nomorepanic]

Lydia

Ok this is not the best advise but too late now I guess.

When I saw a psychiatrist recently she was really annoyed with doctors and how they slowly increase dosages of meds but when it comes to stopping them they do it in weeks or just advise people to go cold turkey! She said it should take as long to come off as it did to go on them so very slowly.

I hope you feel better soon though.



Nicola

[Lydia2600]

Just to add to my experiences of coming off Cipralex; last night I went shopping with my partner. This is always very hard for me because of my panic disorder and agoraphobia.

I have always suffered from dizzy spells due to my anxiety but since stopping the tablets this has been ten times worse. On the way back to the bus, I blacked out properly and found myself on the floor. My partner is very good at calming me down so I just cried for a while instead of having a full blown panic attack. Of course I am now very reluctant to go anywhere until these dizzy spells calm down a bit.

Also I am finding it very hard to concentrate for more than ten minutes. So my main advice for anyone reading this is to definitely stop any medication gradually, no matter what your doctor tells you. I just wish I had posted on this site two weeks ago!

Lydia...