Citalopram (Celexa)

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hi

I know a lot of people on the forum have tried citalopram and I ve searched through some old threads on it.

Im interested in how many people have been made hypomanic/manic by takeing it.

I've been on it since February for anxiety, and seems to work well. No side effects that I'm aware of.

I stopped taking it because of that and it just wasn't helpful.

I took it a few years ago under it's Australian marketed name Cipramil.

It made me kinda overly happy and euphoric at first (I just couldn't stop smiling) but then lessened to not working at all over the next few months.

I think I was on this. I took it for a little while and it kinda numbed me out and then made me feel freaky, so I stopped, and that was my little experiment with the SSRI drugs.

I have been 60mg of Celexa for over a month now. Thus far, I have experienced no hypomania/mania and no side effects that i'm aware of. My mother claims she has noticed an increase in my shaking/trembling, but I have been shaking/trembling to some degree or another all my life. I have not noticed any increase myself and I think this just may be because she's looking for side effects and has rather negative view (not entirely without reason) of prescription meds to begin with.

Like all anti-depressants i've taken (dozens over the years), I don't think this one has done anything to alleviate my depression, increase my motivation, decrease my anhedonia, etc....Therefore, I don't know how much longer i'll stay on Celexa. All I can say is that my depression seems treatment-resistant. Nothing seems to help, not medication, not exercise, not a combination of exercise and meds, nothing. I just can't find anything in my life and even existence in general to be undepressed about. Depression just seems to me like a perfectly normal, realistic and understandable reaction to my own lot in life and to a significantly lesser extent, the human condition in general. I can't imagine anyone in my shoes who wouldn't be severely depressed. I can't afford any alternative treatments either like ECT or deep-brain stimulation and my insurance certainly won't cover them.

It hasn't given me hypomania. It works rather well for me.

I cant recall any differences (I would go on and off it occasionally, even with my counselors knowing). But eventually I was bullied off it altogether by friends and family.

It was bad for me. I started taking it during my freshman year of college, and i ended up getting kicked out of my dormitory midway through for a lot of illegal activities i had done, which i wouldn't have done on a normal basis.


it's different for everybody, but if you show bipolar symptoms, i would be wary when taking it. It felt so good, for me, but it ruined a lot of friendships i could have had.

I was taking a teeny dose every day just to combat the Effexor discontinuation symptoms I had been having for a couple of years. I did not get manic, with it, but I believe my dose was not even therapeutic- like 5 mg a day just to keep me sane. After my current doctor diagnosed my ADHD and put me on Wellbutrin and Ritalin, I stopped taking it, and I have no "brain zaps" from the Effexor symptoms. A few years ago I was being treated for bipolar disorder but I never has mood swings or manic/hypomanic episodes. After getting on a few different meds I started having very manic episodes. I believe Celexa and Effexor are similar in nature. They affect certain brain chemicals, which may be the reason people get manic with them. Since I was not properly diagnosed, my chemicals were all screwed up from the meds. I felt better for a while on the wrong drugs, but I was manic as hell and that mania can feel pretty good.

All along it was my dopamine that needed the help, not the seratonin. Celexa and Effexor affect seratonin, (Effexor affects both seratonin and norepinephrine) while Wellbutrin affects dopamine and norepinephrine (SSRI vs SNRI vs DNRI), so I was not getting the right chemical adjusted and it didn't really help me to take the Celexa or the Effexor.

Now I am even keel and not depressed, and I barely take any Wellbutrin- just 75 mg a day really. It is the Ritalin that really helps me. It also has an effect on dopamine even though it is a stimulant.

Just thought I would share that bit because doctors can be wrong, of course. I would just ask them what chemicals they are trying to adjust and why. See if it makes sense.

I've just been put on 20mg a day for depression, hopefully wont be long term.

Oh, and not to mention it takes me a really really really long time to get off inside women after taking citalopram. That may seem not so bad, but it sucks in reality.

maybe it will. i guess. i don't know your situation. i just know out of the girlfriends i have had, that has always been a problem. they feel inadequate, like my taking a long time is something about their being unattractive.

It didn't lower my libido though.

It just made almost every relationship since then that much more difficult to maintain. I guess. I would just think about that before doing it. Cuz i mean, that last's a lifetime, not just the length of drug usage.

Oh. You're a girl. I didn't realize or even think about that. Well. I have no idea then. Im sure the drug affects male and female differently, in that regard.