[KevinCaresUSA]

I have made the decision to taper off of the citalorpram I have been on the past 10 years. I'm in a much better place in my life and want to kick this. 7 days ago I went down from 20mg to 15mg. The withdrawal symptoms have been increased anxiety, high bp, ears/head burning up and a strange pulse sensation in my neck. I've been walking around my house with a cool wet cloth around my neck and have draped it over my head at time, as well as dipping my head in the sink to cool down. I didn't think going from 20 to 15mg would be this bad, but what I can say is that today was a little bit better than yesterday. This sounds crazy reading this. Have others has these symptoms? I have klonipin on hand and trazadone at night to mitigate some of the symptoms, which after citalopram I will want to come off of those. I was hoping for a fun summer, but it looks like for the next 6 weeks anyways I will be dealing with withdrawal symptoms. Then probably another month once I am completely off. It easy to go back to 20 mg, but I have made it this far I am not going back.

Does anyone have any advice? Tips? Words of encouragement? Thanks!!

Kevin

[fnuppsi]

Hi!

Well done - you can do this! As I understand withdrawal CAN be really bad. It depends on the time you have been on the meds and on individual factors.

I am in the same situation. I have been on citalopram for 9 yrs and started diminishing the dose on May 5. At that time I was on 20 mg and went down to 10 mg directly. I felt ok on 10. After a few weeks I went to 5 and now I have really bad symptoms. Mine are mostly psycological, though.

I have memory losses, I am confused (hard time concentrating), dizzy, anxious and sad. In the beginning I suffered from a very bad temper but that subdued.

I feel like you - it would be easy to increase the dose again and continue to take the med for the rest of my life. But I would like to at least TRY to live without them. It's hard though, and I don't get any help from doctors. They don't seem to think SSRI are bad to get off...

Mayby we can do this together? How are you feeling today?

[MeditatingMan]

I too have been tapering off a med, Geodon, which is an anti psychotic. I can understand the heightened anxiety you are feeling and offer the following link which provides ten techniques to calm yourself down. These have been working for me and hope they help you too.

10 Instant Ways to Calm Yourself Down | World of Psychology