[Closed] Citalopram - long term users assemble

That name rings a bell. I think my GF is on that stuff. If it's the same drug, she's been on it since I've been with her - 11 yrs. I'll be seeing her tomorrow. I'll find out the story...

Previous user here and got lots of helpful advice from my GP wife. Her view was always if it works, just take it. Even 20mg is a low dose and if it helps just crack on and take it.

Also did 2 years on 20mg. Took me about a year to wean myself off it - anxiety levels yoyo'd, was far harder than I expected, which probably fed into the anxiety.

In the end it was worth it - even though 20mg is supposed to be the lowest therapeutic dose, I'd increasingly felt a bit too numb and wanted to get back to normal.

Keep trying, keep talking to your GP, it will pass.

Should have added - not so much the lockdown but the pandemic has been a nightmare for my anxiety, and I've been so close to going to the GP to go back on it.

I doubt I'd have managed to come of Citalopram in the current situation

I was on it for more than 2 years but it was me that decided to try coming off it rather than being pushed by the doc (I'd been through a couple of years of counselling, CBT and a local MIND group so was in a much better place). I tapered really slowly so in your situation rather than dropping to 10 i'd have spent a while going 20/10/20/10 on alternate days, before dropping to 10 each day and IIRC I ended up with 5mp every other day - it took months from start to finish. TBH the hardest thing was remembering whether I was on a 20 or a 10 day so with hindsight one of those 7 day drug container things might help there.

Been on 40mg for seven years. Tried coming off last year. Tapered as per GP instructions and it was going well. Then lots of things happened in quick succession. Close friend died suddenly at 44, had a car crash in to the house and then the whole Covid lockdown and suffering with long Covid.

Got very low, anxious and started having suicidal thoughts. Didn’t want to go back on the tablets as they numb my emotions. Lesser of two evils though and here I am back on them. Will try coming off again at some point. It’s difficult choosing between feeling everything or being stuck in a sort of limited emotional range with no huge lows or big highs. Tried CBT and counselling but sometimes it’s just the brains inability to produce enough of the correct chemicals. Looks like that could be the case for me.

Difficult decision OP. If you want to talk pm me and best of luck

Gotta be honest, I'd have happily stayed on it forever, I had only pretty minor side effects and life was better with them, I can't see any compelling argument why I'd have changed that. In my case I found it became a bit ineffective over a long time so I ended up switching off anyway, but that's the only reason. It was a good ally.

Life can be hard even without pandemics and lockdowns and general existential terror, nobody ever feels guilty because they needed to get in a lifeboat instead of just swimming across the sea.

Thanks guys.

I’d ask what are the long term effects if you stay on?

Not sure that the side effects are worth worrying about compared to the alternatives with no dose, as you are discovering.

Clearly a personal choice, but if it’s working just crack on.

You’d maybe save about £9.50 a month though.

Been on and off 20mg citalopram (,mostly on ) for almost 20 hrs. Tried a few others but had various issues . I stopped everything for 6 months before covid and felt fine then had a major worry and became quite badly depressed with suicidal thoughts which I'd never really had before and generally felt awful /couldn't function .
Back on them now and probably will stay like that till my last breath as I don't notice any real side effects and it seems to keep my head above the water. I've also tried effexor (venlafaxine) , clomipramine ( dreadful side effects) , sertraline ..pretty good tbh, amitriptyline ( helps sleep) , Mirtazapine ..gave me awful side effects and nightmares , Pregabalin...quite good for anxiety but precipitated eye issues and others I forget. Citalopram is no problem for me hence why I've taken it for so long.

They've put me on a couple of these things over the years, including one that I insisted the stop supplying( I think it was clomipramine ) I could feel it was making physical changes to my thinking process and leading to very dark thoughts about ending it all, but I did recognize this was happening and so was able to recommend to my doctor i should stop being prescribed it , or anything else for that matter. I felt side effects were too much to bear and I would be better recognizing my thinking process and adapting it as much as i could to stay positive.

In the end it was only having a more positive outlook helped me beat the demons back and stay positive, by basically ignoring all and sundry. Bad day, nasty criticism, basically I said F*** it to them all, allowed it to wash away as wholly unimportant.
Exercise in the form of cycling constantly was extremely helpful, as you need to concentrate on that, which prevents your mind from wandering, oh an copious amounts of weed meant no bad dreams, or any dreams for that matter. That gave me more restful sleep patterns.
Had to give up the green stuff eventually, due to smoking too much, as in tobacco which is affecting the lungs, rather than any negative physiological effects.

If I remember correctly, one of the possible side effects is some loss of bone density with long term use. So some weight bearing exercise is a good idea.

I've just gone back onto Citalopram after a longer than 10 year break from it. Work stress and pandemic worries had lead to some dark places mentally. Hopefully the next 6 weeks won't be too bad and I'll be able to function again instead of flitting from thing to thing and being unable to apply myself to a task.

Try coming off it again once your off the cocodamol, I had that for a while for a trapped nerve and that did weird things to my head, maybe you'll be more successful without that interfering. No experience of the other one, but any opioid will send folks a bit funny

20 years on 20mg so far. Tried coming off but not worth the hassle. It’s getting a bit late in the year to start coming off it now. I was advised to start around Easter so you have all summer which is usually easier

I was on 20mg for a few years and my doctor recommended I try coming off it. This was during the first lockdown and, with all the additional anxiety, I decided against it. After Christmas, when the weather started to pick up, I started weaning myself off, dropping the dose gradually over a month or 2. I've been feeling ok, a couple of bad days, but mostly ok.

Tbf, there was no reason for me to come off it, other than the inconvenience, but I didn't want to be bound to it forever. I've been trying to be mindful (and sometimes mindless, which is equally valuable) and notice when I'm feeling shit and own it a bit. I didn't manage to get any CBT as my symptoms didn't meet a threshold, but reading around it and talking to my wife about how I'm feeling day to day has helped a lot.

Hope you get sorted man 🙂

Was on it for a few years and gradually came down from 30mg to 0 over the course of 2019. The side effects at each drop in dosage were horrible but I was determined to do it so I managed to get rid of the last 10mg in October of that year. I've managed to somehow resist going back on it I've the last year or so as my mental health has taken an absolute beating again but the memories of coming off it mean that if do have to go back on it again then I'll most likely be in it permanently so don't want to go down that route if I can help it. But saying that, getting off it was easier than my reaction to taking sertraline originally! That stuff properly messed me up for a few weeks when it started to kick in.

Good luck whichever route you decide to take, not exactly the best time for mental health issues.

been on it for about 14 years. normal dosage is 20mg and I take double if need be. I just live with it as it makes our lives better. I have no intention of trying to come off it.

I'm interested, I have always resisted meds in favour of more talking or active therapies (mainly beasting myself on a bike so you forget about life for a bit) but I don't specifically have anything against them. I have heard about 'numbness' on good and bad emotions, but other than C-O's bone density what are the real side effects in terms of damage to health? I don't mean to discount the numbness as being unimportant, but why does the majority seem to want to come off them. We accept that physical conditions may need medication for the rest of our lives but seems not with these. Is it a stigma still?

nausea.
sleepiness.
weakness.
dizziness.
anxiousness.
trouble sleeping.
sexual problems.
sweating.

Pretty much what poah has said plus randomly I find that my eyes are effected by bright lights or sunlight more. The worst part for me is the emotional numbness. Still get low sometimes but never get high spirited or happy as such. Sometimes feel like I’m missing out when I can see Mrs F is overjoyed by something the kids do and I don’t feel much.

When I came off then last year I had intense emotions from out of the blue. When it was good, it was fantastic. On bad days I honestly don’t know how I managed to go to work and act normal. Bursting in to tears, struggling to concentrate, thinking of ending etc. Really going to focus on fitness this year and hopefully try weaning off them again.

@theotherjonv

I was determined not to try meds, having seen a neighbour (with admittedly massively bigger issues than me) become a massively overweight lethargic zombie because of what he needed to be on.

I was lucky to have a great GP, and after a few discussions, she put me on the lowest therapeutic dose of Citalopram which is 20mg. Both she and the pharmacist warned me it would take 4-8 weeks to feel a difference, and things may feel worse in that time before it got "better".

Took about 6 weeks to suddenly wake up one morning and feel as though a cloud/weight had been lifted. I was also signed off work at the time. Just felt calmer, the endless internal chatter in my head had quietened down, and I was in a much better place to engage in the CBT from the NHS, and then counselling through work.

Without the Citalopram to help calm me down, I doubt the talking therapies would have worked as well. Just needed it to create the mental space to process stuff calmly and rationally.

No side effects in terms of weight gain or anything else

Had a couple of years on it before I began to feel it was dulling my mind a bit too much, and I felt ready to come back off it. That took longer than expected, a few wider family crisis set me back a bit, better to try coming off in spring/summer rather than autumn/winter.

I'm convinced meds bought me the time to help me deal with the issues at the time. I'm aware I'm prone to anxiety and the pandemic has been a nightmare at times. Meds have been very tempting, especially when you hit a long run of bad days, but I've resisted so far.

Happy to discuss if you like

Wow! Thanks guys,glad I'm not alone in this.
I don't feel that they make me numb emotionally, as I've always been able to compartmentalise things - problem was I kept them there and didn't deal with them.
The meds have given me the breathing space with the councelling to be able to deal with it better.
Started back on the 20mg today and got 6 weeks worth, then back for a review.
Having read all of the above I'm not too worried about long term now - thank you all so much.

And @northwind's analogy of "nobody ever feels guilty because they needed to get in a lifeboat instead of just swimming across the sea" is a great one too.

Fwiw the worst I had was the first night I took them, and I think that was probably because I'd read the leaflet and seen a lot of tales online of people having side effects. While I was on them for a bit it was as MCTD describes, the internal chatter was quieter and I was able to engage with the other therapeutic thjngs I was doing. Coming off was also painless and I didn't have any adverse reactions during the gradual reduction. It's probably like the covid jab where the folks who share the most are those with the biggest reactions so, especially if you're dealing with anxiety, it's easy to find a very negative picture which can then lead to its own issues.

I was on it for 6 months.
I just didn't get on with it, I was prescribed it for depression and only on a low dose.
I didn't really notice any thing when taking it apart from the bad side effects in the trouser department.
Starting and finishing was not nice though with horrendous headaches.

I decided to come off them over Easter, had been having counseling for a while and just ready. Been a $@#t year though.

We accept that physical conditions may need medication for the rest of our lives but seems not with these. Is it a stigma still?

For some, maybe. If we could put a drop of blood in a test strip, stick it in a meter and have it spit out that your dopamine or serotonin is low, perhaps that would change. It's a mysterious thing, the brain, so people are suspicious.

It only treats the symptoms! Said no-one. Ever. About insulin.

I saw a lecture by the Head of the psychiatry dept at Johns Hopkins or somewhere like that. He was talking about the controversy about medication. A lot of the patients they saw were middle or upper class, capable, good lives but weren't as happy and stress free and content as they thought they should be or were entitled to be. Studies showed repeatedly that a placebo was as effective for them as the medication. The second group, which they didn't see very much, partly because the Drs thought they were malingerers, or because they couldn't afford or find a doc, or because they were so ill they wouldn't. This group were ill. Sometimes horrifically suffering, either from the condition, or because the condition had destroyed their life.
That group, the studies showed, over and over and over, would benefit in drastic ways from the medication. The effects versus the placebo were exponentially better and undeniable. Yet that was the group least likely to get the medication.

He went on to explain that everyone latched on to the result of the first group,which was large, and dismissed the meds and therefore the condition as all in their heads (no pun intended). Ignored the second, where the meds literally and figuratively saved lives. If they could get them into their hands.

The bulk of people who need them may very well not need them forever, because CBT and the like may improve their condition. Others, who just don't crank out the right chemicals in the right amounts at the right time will probably need them forever, in order to live reasonabky well. As someone put it so very well, they will struggle to live free from depression.
They may be stigmatised for their inability to make the chemicals, or for being lazy or dumb or weak for needing the crutch of medication (try saying it about a diabetic!). Maybe one day we will have a definitely, quantitative test, which will shut up those people.
Until then, if the meds help, and you need them forever, take the meds. Living well is the best revenge on the ****s that would stigmatised it.

cromolyolly
Free Member

It only treats the symptoms! Said no-one. Ever. About insulin.

Yup. Though to be fair if I could think myself undiabetic I'd definitely give it a go. Pancreatic counselling...

I've been on Citalopram for a couple if years now Sertraline before that. I don't think I'll ever come off now. I had done before, then went back on years later. Each time I stopped it was because I felt they dulled me, knocking off the high bits as well as the low. However, after trying counseling and CBT I've come to terms with the fact that it's just my wiring that screwed and it's no different to taking antidepressants than it is the meds for the genetic hypertension and high cholesterol I inherited.
Anyway, what I'm saying is by all means try coming off them, in the proper controlled way, but equally you haven't failed if you need to go back on them.

This is how we need to view this.

nobody ever feels guilty because they needed to get in a lifeboat instead of just swimming across the sea.

I don’t consider they are fixing physical problems. The version I was told is that when you are happy its because the brain releases chemicals, What citalopram does is slow down the rate they are reabsorbed reducing the mood swings.  So in my mind they are just managing a chemical problem in my brain. This may be complete hocus pocus for all I know as I’m no medic but it works for me which is the important thing

What citalopram does is slow down the rate they are reabsorbed reducing the mood swings.

This is indeed how largely they work.

My gf has been on them for about 5 years.
They seem to work for her and no issues from long term use.