Discontinuing an SSRI (Celexa)
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Anonymous
| I've decided it's time to stop taking Celexa, which I've been on for about 6 years. I'm tapering down to 1/2 dose for one week and then every other day of the 1/2 dose to minimize the withdrawal, but can anyone share their experience with stopping an SSRI? I'm nervous that there will be a lot of withdrawal symptoms even with the tapering. |
Anonymous
| I had a horrendous experience recently getting off of my antidepressant. I would suggest going down to a 3/4 dose instead of a half dose and seeing how you do. Then stay at that dose twice as long as you planned to. Is your doc not helping? (Honestly, many of them are clueless about tapering.) |
Anonymous
I have tapered off Celexa and did it so darn slow because I did not want rebound. Cutting back to half a dose would have sent me into a tailspin. The doctor essentially set up a schedule to have me off of it in two weeks when I had been on it for years. I stretched the weaning to a few months, so that at some point I was only taking granular crumbs. Even with this I still experienced brain zaps for a while. |
Anonymous
| i went off Prozac over the course of about a year. Reduced my dose by 10% every two weeks. I don't know if Celexa has a liquid form, but if it does you can titrate much more precisely. |
Anonymous
Yes, doctors have no idea of how to taper. If you are on facebook find a page for those who are taking the same thing and search for weaning off. Follow what they suggest. |
Anonymous
|
Be careful, OP, and do so under an expert medical practitioners care and guidance.
My GP ordered me off an SSRI/Zoloft once I was diagnosed with osteoporosis! This was based off of a flawed study showing correlation between elderly, depressed people who took a daily SSRI falling and breaking hips. But I took my GP advice and started to titrate down (from a very low daily dose taken for about 4 years). In short, I relapsed horrendously although I was prescribed this for treatment of panic and anxiety. Finally couldn’t take being so sick with anxiety that I returned demanding something else m. Got a second opinion from an rheumatologist who advised far better to be back on an SSRI than to be losing weight from near-constant queasiness and nervousness and being inactive and too depressed to exercise. Under care of a new GP, started Lexapro. I truly plan to take Lexapro for the rest of my life |
Anonymous
DP, PP--I have weaned off Celexa and Lexapro and would not follow a doctors suggestion for weaning unless they have actually experienced weaning themselves from the same medication. |
Anonymous
| My teenage DD has been on Effexor for 3 years, and it is notoriously the hardest antidepressant to go off of with horror stories everywhere. Despite that it caused lethargy and weight gain, I was terrified to take her off. We went to a psychiatric nurse practitioner who was supportive of taking her off and gave us a very careful and very slow taper schedule. We are now at the very tail end, with tiny doses every 48 hours and so far zero problems and my kid seems happier. |
Anonymous
| OP go much more slowly than you are planning. Look for guidance online. Others have done it and the slower the better for you in the long run. Best of luck to you. |
Anonymous
| Oof- OP here. I was on a relatively low dose-20mg and have taken 10 the past two nights. I can see if my dr can prescribe me some 10 mg pills to see if I can break those in half or if the liquid might be possible. Hopefully it is covered by insurance. |
Anonymous
| I tapered off Lexapro for about 6 weeks. I had some 5 mg ones and I also used a pill cutter. I still felt some side affects, but it wasn´t drastic. |
Anonymous
| Please keep us posted op. |
Anonymous
| Update: I decided to slow down waning off the celexa based on these reactions. It’s been ok so far- I went down to 10 mg per day for a few Weeks, then 5 per day for a few weeks, then 5 every other day. I generally decreased after I hadn’t had zaps for a few days. I took my last dose last Friday and have been dealing with some zappiness and irritability but no other side effects. I’m really glad I took it slower than my NP recommended. |
Anonymous
| My DH stopped 50 mg Zoloft cold turkey when his psychiatrist disappeared (yep, unethical or tragic) and he didn’t realize until he was out of refills. The first day off he had a headache. That was it. This was a major concern of mine when starting Zoloft myself so I gathered a lot of people’s personal experiences. While the internet is filled with horrible stories, I have yet to talk to someone IRL who described symptoms as anything more than a short-lived inconvenience. |
Anonymous
| ^pp. To be clear, I’m not saying I don’t believe the people who have bad experiences aren’t honest. I just wonder if the people who have bad experiences are simply more likely to chime in over the internet, making it seem like it’s the norm. |