I definately was dependent on Lexapro. I suspect that I am not physically dependent on Citalopram. I was dizzy when I was off of Lexapro for two days. If I drove, I would have had to call someone to drive me home from the psychiatrists office and to the pharmacy to fill the next prescription. I don't want to try going without Citalopram to see what its withdrawal symptoms are.
For the person who mentioned getting the depression back after getting of the AD, Prozac has the longest half-life. I read that it's withdrawal symptoms tend to be around a week later. I have not looked up Citalopram's timing of withdrawal symptoms.
As for masking the depression/anxiety, I doubt it. I still cry a lot even on an anti-depressant. I was up to not crying for three to four days and one time I went for a WHOLE week but I still cried a lot. When my T went on medical leave, I went back towards crying with two days in between. I am not sure about other anti-depressants because a co-worker of mine said that she hasn't cried in a long time. I think her AD kills her emotions or something. I don't think mine kills my emotions (I have only been trying ADs for a little less than a year.) It definately makes it easier for me to be there and participate in therapy with T. Sometimes my negative thinking interfered with my ability to talk about anything else other than when I cried and why. I seemed to need my T to tell me better ways to look at it until my cognitive behavioral therapy monkey got back on-line. I had it trained into me by a previous T.