Citalopram

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No, never.

For me the side effects are worth it .. Before being on it I felt I'll just leaving the house .. Now I have bee init for years like three or four and yes I get the sexual side effects but me an the wife work around that so to speak ... Now I can live relatively normally tho I am taking stemitil which is a bit of an anti psyc drug too

I haven't been on that stuff, but my wife was, several years ago. It made her zone out, not communicate, stare off into space... you get the picture. Not pretty.

oh thank goodness someone else mentioned grinding teeth as a side effect of SSRIs! I have had this happen everytime I started taking one, and each doctor I told gave me a look and said "are you sure it is from the medication?" or otherwise totally dismissed the correlation.

Meditation and eating well and avoiding sugar are excellent goals, but when someone is deep in the darkly broken places of depression and anxiety... for me it is like after a certain point my body no longer is ABLE to relax and be well, much less breath deeply or comfort myself in those ways. I was always scared of medications because I didn't want to lose my personality or creativity, but there is a definitely a point where depression/anxiety stole both of those things anyway.

Good luck to everyone who is trying something new, and congrats to those who have found something in this world that works for them

I've taken the stuff before. Got off of it pretty easily (tapering off slowly from 40 mg to 5 mg). There was no effect until I got up to around 20 mg. 40 mg was when the anti-anxiety effects started to take place. I'm back on it again, starting at 10 mg all over again. Somehow, I wish that I never got off of it, but I was afraid that I was becoming dependent on it. I am taking it for anxiety and depression.

I was put on it, supposedly for one year only. 6 years later I came off it. The withdrawal was sheer HELL. I felt like I was going insane and there were brain zaps galore and nausea and dizziness. I ended up having to take Prozac to counter the effects of the Citalopram withdrawal! When I was on Citalopram I had constant stomach problems especially dyspepsia (aka indigestion), acid reflux and nausea. I had to take another medication to get rid of that! The stomach problems have reduced greatly since I changed to Prozac. Basically I didn't have a good time on it, but as long as you are being carefully monitered it should be okay. Oh and don't stay on it for 6 years...

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Currently I'm taking citalopram because I was suffering from suicidal depression. Before I took it I had suicidal thoughts once to twice a week. The only side effects I suffer is the need to take a nap in the middle of the day.

yes, it caused my brain to go all crazy and my breathing changed while sitting up and laying down. I was prescribed lorazepam after I went to the hospital to help with it. I no longer take it.

I hope I don't get any sexual lameness side effects from my prescription. I seriously hope I don't.

It seems like such a common side effect from what I see here.

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THINGS I LIKE
Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurs, Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Music, Tuna, Chocolate milk, Oreos, Blue things

Parasaurolophuscolobus. Parasaurcolobus. Colobusaurolophus.
....And Nunchucks are my friends.

I took it for 2 years, I wont say it was useless because it did help me beat pretty severe OCD that was ruining my life at the time. It made me more sociable and "happy go lucky" too.

It stopped working after around a year and a half though, and was causing me to sweat buckets at the tiniest bit of physical exertion, so I tapered off it and was put on paroxatine which Ive been on now for about a year. Paroxatine is EVIL. Hasnt done a thing for me, no notocable benefits at all, ive been trying to come off of it for 5 months now but the withdrawal symptoms are horrendous. Ive had to taper down very very slowly, much slower than i had to with citalopram, if I miss a single dose, or taper down too quick as I tried to at first I get horrible head zaps (which i got while coming off citalopram but nowhere near as bad as the ones with paroxatine), nausea and digestion problems, not to mention really horrible dark, borderline suicidal rebound depression and apathy.

Thinking about going on escitolpram after i finally manage to to kick this evil drug to the curb, just hope it doesnt make me start sweating again...


Oh and the sexual sides with citalopram (and there were some for me, mainly delayed orgasm) are NOTHING compared to the sexual sides you get with paroxatine. When I was on 30mg paroxatine I literally had no sensation in my junk at all. I think they actually prescribe it for premature ejaculation sufferers because of this.

Resurrecting this thread.

The psychiatrist I just went to a few weeks ago prescribed Citalopram. He said it would take 3 weeks before I felt any effects.

The first day I took it, about an hour after, I felt much WORSE. It gave me palpitations, tremors and worse anxiety. Horrible drug for me.

I was so upset, I reported my reaction to the FDA.



All I needed was a Valium and I would have been okay because I know that works for me.

Citalopram is often the first drug doctors try because it is so mild and has few side-effects in comparison to more heavy-duty antidepressants. In fact, a lot of the time it is used almost exclusively for the psychological effect; in mild cases of depression just the thought of "I'm taking a medication -> my depression will get better" is enough for an actual positive effect, even though it's not the drug itself that's causing the effect. If that makes sense.

Guineapigged
You mean like a placebo effect?
Ewww....that's horrible.

I could not believe how bad this drug affected me after the first dose. I wasn't expecting to feel anything. It's a good thing the first day I took it I wasn't as much of a mess as I was the day before.