im coming off

[bubblefizz]

Ive decided that this medicine is not for me, ive cut down to 6 drops a day which is 12mg was on 16 drops a day but was going worse.
ive dropped down over the past 2 weeks, and yes im not as anxious but im SOOOOO tired, weary and very achy specially my neck and shoulders, not sure if its withdrawl or what.
but i feel ILL

anyone??

[suzy-sue]

Hi Angie,sorry to hear this hasnt worked for you. You are experiencing the effects of withdrawal,all your symptoms are normal. Glad at least your anxiety isnt bad,thats something I suppose. You seem to have reduced your ammount rather quickly,sometimes its better to do it slower.Has your Dr told you what hes going to give you in its place? You will still get withdrawal symptoms when you havnt been taking any for abt 3 weeks,so dont worry ,If they become worse in the meantime speak to your Dr ,he/she may think coming off over a longer period of time would be better for you.Good luck, hope you feel better soon .Luv SueXX

[PoppyC]

Hi Angie
Sorry to hear your medication has not worked for you. What medication are you taking?

[alias_kev]

Hi. As suzy-sue said that's pretty fast to reduce your dose by so much. Especially as you have the drops I'd have suggested reducing by only one or two drops at a time and waiting until your symptoms/feelings stabilised before the next reduction. That seems the best approach to tapering off a medication.

Quoting the SPC for the tablets (should be the same for this bit):

Withdrawal symptoms when treatment is discontinued are common, particularly if discontinuation is abrupt (see section 4.8 Undesirable effects). In clinical trials adverse events seen on treatment discontinuation occurred in approximately 40% of patients treated with citalopram.The risk of withdrawal symptoms may be dependent on several factors including the duration and dose of therapy and the rate of dose reduction. Dizziness, sensory disturbances (including paraesthesia), sleep disturbances (including insomnia and intense dreams), agitation or anxiety, nausea and/or vomiting, tremor and headache are the most commonly reported reactions. Generally these symptoms are mild to moderate, however, in some patients they may be severe in intensity. They usually occur within the first few days of discontinuing treatment, but there have been very rare reports of such symptoms in patients who have inadvertently missed a dose. Generally these symptoms are self-limiting and usually resolve within 2 weeks, though in some individuals they may be prolonged (2-3 months or more). It is therefore advised that citalopram should be gradually tapered when discontinuing treatment over a period of several weeks or months, according to the patient's needs (see “Withdrawal symptoms seen on discontinuation of citalopram”, Section 4.2 Posology and Method of Administration).

On Citalopram with a half life quoted as 35 hours (how fast it leaves your system) I estimate something like 9-11 days for the in body level to stablise and its not quite stable then on a big drop. This is a mathematical guess as we have to guess how much remains after 24 hours (next dose), roughly 1-(24/35*0.5) but thats almost certainly inaccurate.

[reallyfedup]

hi angie. I stopped cital 12 days ago and started on escitalopram - hope you feel better soon. Keep in touch love x

[Krakers]

Hi Angie - there can be as many withdrawal symptoms as side effects. They can get you both coming and going.

Everyones different, so give it a couple of weeks and see how you are then. From experience I wouldn't put too much faith in what the manufacturer says about a lot of things. I know they have all the data, but I always listen to my own body (hence why I don't read the leaflets that come with meds anymore - used to scare me silly!).

I've had bad withdrawal after coming off sertaline after only a week, and no withdrawal coming off librium after two years. I've taken over 20 different types of meds to date with varying results.

Take it easy and I hope you feel better soon.

Krakers.

[bubblefizz]

The reason i reduced suddenly was because i missed a day and i noticed that i wasnt tooo anxious, so i thought i would reduce it instead of just stopping full stop.
i feel like ive wasted 6 months on this meds and id had enough.
im not even sure if im going to go on anything else its put me off

[lucylocket]

hi bubblefizz, thought you were doing well on the cit as you hadn't posted for a while did you stabilize on the 16 drops, maybe it was too strong for you do you feel better on the lower dose???? take care lucy x

[PeteB]

I have been on citalopram for two years. Been really well on it for the past year so now starting to reduce. Gone from 20mg to 10 mg for the past three weeks.......had a few bad days but hopefully this is just the withdrawal. Going to take one every other day now for a week and a half. Anyone else reduced it this way? How long after you stop totally does it take to not have withdrawal??

[john1]

I have been on 20mg of citalopram for six months for depression and anxiety.I had all the various side effects too. Most went away but I still had to put up with a stuffy nose ( like I had the flu) lack of sex drive , ringing in the ears ,mild nausea and headaces. But it did kick my depression and anxiety completly. I felt it was time to go off them and dropped down to 10mg for 5 weeks. I then dropped down to 5mg for 3 days.I have now been totally off them for 11 days and I have the odd day when I get little bouts of anxiety and lows but these dont seem to last very long. I also have been getting headaches off and on , tiredness and vivid dreams at night as well as a little nausea and mild brain zaps. The stuffy nose is disappearing and my sex drive is starting to come back.I am feeling more and more like myself everyday , but I am just riding through the withdrawal side effects. Everyday seems to get a little better. The side effects are very similar to when I first started taking citalopram. My body now has to re adjust to not having it anymore and Im expecting things to really improve over the next three weeks. I will keep you posted with my progress.

Cheers John1