Tapering down Citalopram

Hi Folks,

Today was my first half dosage of citalopram. I am going from 40mg to 20mg. I would like advice on tapering down, suggestions for minimizing withdrawl symptoms. Thanks.

Please, post your progress with the Citalopram taper. This is a med I would also like to stop, but if I miss a couple of days I begin to have vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams. The longer I'm off of it, the worse the dreams get. Definitely good that your're tapering. It's the only way. Good luck!

I would check with your doctor. I tapered off citalopram and it was hell, but everybody is different. For me I had to go really really really slow. I tried to go from 40 to 20 to 10 over about a month and it was a nightmare. What was crazy about it was my doctor told me to figure out my own taper schedule and basically said I could do it however I wanted. Needless to say I got rid of that doctor quick. Anyway, I ended up going in 5mg increments about a month at a time, so from 40 to 35 to 30 etc for over 6 months. I actually could not completely come off citalopram without withdrawals even that slow so doc switched me from 15mg citalopram to 5mg Lexapro and I then tapered down from 5 to 2.5 then off over a few months.

Ultimately it was not a good idea for me because the depression hit again within 21 days of no meds.

Good luck, I hope it's better for you. Also don't forget to consult your doctor.. But my personal opinion is that 2 weeks is not enough so if they say that then get another opinion. I'm not a doctor just somebody with experience.

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I saw an interesting piece of advice on tapering where someone did something along the lines of:

40, 30, 40, 30, 30... etc.

I would certainly check with your doctor though. Good luck!

I gave this med a try about a year ago, and it was making me extremely lethargic amongst other things, so I decided to taper off. I bought a pill cutter and did it pretty slowly. A week at 35, a week at 30, two weeks at 20, a week at ten and two weeks at five. Those are approximations of course, as it's hard to cut a pill even with a pill cutter. But doing it slowly like that, I only experienced discontinuation symptoms a handful of times. I became very hyperactive the first couple of days, and experienced the "brain zaps" a couple of times when I went from 30 to 20. Other than that it was more or less easy going.

Actually, my doctor is having me go straight from 40mg to 20mg because an EKG showed my heart has an arrhythmia.

Today was my 3rd day with the new dose. I'm not sure if it's the placebo effect but I felt some my old anxiety. I'm going to try to do more yoga and drink tea instead of coffee. Over time! Haha

Well that's a good reason! I hope the yoga and tea help!

For me going down to 20 was not the hardest part it was anything below 20, maybe you can take it slower after this jump to help minimize the withdrawal? What did the doc suggest?

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Yep, the heart arrhythmia is scary! We don't know if I had it before taking Celexa because before then I'd never had an EKG.

The doctor hasn't suggested any method for tapering in particular, and has gone along with all of my suggestions. I go to Kaiser and am new to their health care system. It's very surreal, my doctor and I have met once and since then all of our communication has been through email.

Hmm that's weird. I have never been a fan of Kaiser but maybe they've gotten better over the years. I never did see them for mental health, just physical stuff but didn't like it much.

I think the doctor should always make the tapering schedule, but that's just my opinion.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

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OK so tomorrow I'm going from 30mg to 20mg. I'm tempering this by not having drinking coffee for four days, thinking it will help my anxiety.

Also, planning on going to yoga either tomorrow or Sunday

It's been going well so far?

So far, I think I've psyched myself out about it after reading all the bad withdrawal effects, so I was pretty scared. I'd been drinking loads (3 large cups) of coffee until I started tapering down. Since I've been reading about how to deal with anxiety naturally, my main symptom, I've decided to drink less caffeine. I'm drinking black tea but I don't really get the jitters.

Today is the beginning of a new test, though, since I'll be going down to 20mg. I'm also *trying* to drink less, since for some reason I've been drinking every day for about a year. I'm reading that drinking makes you depressed (haha what a surprise). So I'm trying to learn natural ways to tame my moods.

I get nervous in social situations, that's why I drink. So far I've either had beers at parties or have just refused to go out, staying at home where I'm comfortable and relaxed. My goal is to be able to go into a social situation and not feel the need to drink.

It sounds like you're making some good progress with things. Hope it continues, best of luck!

I know the feeling... I avoided reading the leaflet for Citalopram because I knew it would just be triggering with my health anxiety. Sometimes it's best not to look unless you are getting actual side effects / withdrawals!

Starting today I am going from 20mg to 10mg. Every time I step down I get a bit nervous but I'm excited to try this out. I am trying to be very aware of my moods and honest with myself about how I'm feeling, but life takes its turns whether you're tapering down medicine or not. I've had a whole range of different feelings, but nothing so debilitating like crying all day and night, which is where I was at when I started with the Citalopram about two years ago.

Maybe I've got my **** more together, or maybe I'm just more confident now.

Had a second EKG today and it came out normal! Woop

That is great news! Very happy that hear it! So are you still planning to get off citalopram or just stay at 10mg?

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Planning to get off it completely, and see how that goes, no hard and fast rules about it. It's my first week on 10mg and I just emailed my doctor asking her to advise me on where to go from here--- down to 5mg, or straight to 0.

I do notice when I drink now that I don't feel very drunk as I did, haha.

Other than that, I'm pretty much feeling normal-ish. One of my uncles passed away unexpectedly on Friday, so that's sad, and I'm in a transitional phase of my life where I'm looking into grad school and tired of working the same uncomplicated job I've had for 7 years. I would say I feel good overall, though.

Sorry to hear about your uncle

Glad to hear the tapering is working out, for you.

Ok just be careful. I hope it works out without the meds for you! If not at least you know you the great abnormality went away with a lower dose and perhaps you can use it again.

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Ok I have hit a wall! This is 8 days after I've stopped Citalopram. Yesterday had some coffee and it made me jittery. I was irritated all day and wanted to lash out at people. I had committed to going to a party and really didn't want to go, I wanted to go home and eat ice cream.

Today I bought some magnesium, 500mg. It is supposed to be good for anxiety. At first it worked and I instantly felt a lot better, but then I was triggered by something my friend said (a very nice compliment) and starting weeping.

We'll see what happens next.

Yeah caffeine can definitely make you anxious... I suppose you'll have to do your best to avoid anything that might be triggering whilst you adjust.

I'll be very interested to hear how long it takes you to adjust to being without the Citalopram. I'll probably be coming off mine next year at some point.

How long did you stay on the lowest dose/what was it, before tapering off fully?

Good luck with it all.

I was on 10mg for two weeks before I went to 0! Today is much better by the way, ups and downs though so far.