Horrible Withdrawal Symptoms From Celexa

[Marymickaela]

I've been on Celexa for maybe 10 years. I've been on a low dose for the last years (10mg). Met with my psychiatrist last week (5 days ago) and felt pretty good and optimistic. I take so many meds and am ready to get off of some. I take 300mg of Seroquel so we lowered that down to 200mg. I take 3.75mg of Klonopin and I told him my plan to get off of that, which was slowly. I sometimes took an extra 2mg when I was having a really bad day. I asked if we could lower the 10mg of Celexa down to 5mg. He said if I was going to go that low I might as well be taking nothing. So I stopped it.

Well I've been in hell the last 5 days. Excruciating headache and neck pain, low grade fevers which I've actually been running for a couple weeks. Feel just plain horrible. After a couple days I decided to take my leftover 100mg of Seroquel, cut them in half and take 250mg of Seroquel so it wasn't such a big cut. As of yesterday I had only slept 1 night out of 4. Yesterday was Saturday so my doctor's office was closed and my psych doc doesn't work on weekends so I went to the Intermediate Care Center to see a doctor for the headache/neck pain. He ended up dx'ing me with bronchitis and put me on a Z-Pax antibiotic, gave me Naproxin and 10 (5mg) hydrocondone pills until I could see my doc. on Monday.

I came home and looked up withdrawal from Celexa and there's all kinds of info that it is horrible and may last for 3 months. I did sleep last night, but am extremely tired today. I can't reach my psych doc until Tuesday, but feel he's going to downplay this and say "you're on such a small dose you shouldn't be having problems". I've been trying to get off the Klonopin for months and months and he told me that was going to be hell.

Has anybody been thru this? Any advice to get thru this?

 

[Della]

I'm not a doctor but I feel the doctor should have given you the 5mg of Celexa because it has to be a weaning off period for certain medications. You can't just stop taking the medication all together because some of the side effects can get so bad that you can die or end up in the hospital. Instead of stop taking it totally, you maybe should have taken it every other day until if you decide if you really need to be on the 5mg or just take it every other day. If I were you, go back to your doctor and talk to him a little more about it. Best of luck to you.

 

[Marymickaela]

What I did was take a 10mg pill again today. I loaded my week's worth of meds case today and took a 10mg Celexa and used my pill cutter and tried to cut it in half as best I could. It was hard as it's a 20mg pill that I've been cutting in half to get the 10mg and a small pill to begin with. Just did the best I could. I'm going to take the cut piece for this week and see if it helps. Not only was I discontinuing the Celexa, I was cutting the Seroquel down from 300mg to 200mg at the same time, which was another pill my body had to adjust to, which is why I upped the cut to 250mg. This week I'm cutting the Klonopin from 3.75mg down to 3.5mg, which my doctor knows about. I'm going to try and cut the Klonopin by .25mg every two weeks. I think I may have some bug on top of this, but who knows since the withdrawal gives you flu type symptoms.

If I call my psych doc I think he would prescribe me the 5mg if I insisted. I just feel horrible. Migraine type headaches with the same level of pain in my neck. Luckily I found a heated neck wrap to use to help my neck pain.

 

[Della]

That's good to help with the migraine headaches. Also caffeine can help as well. Drink some coffee or drink some coke or pepsi as those have caffeine in it also drink mountain dew.

 

[Marymickaela]

I just drank a small glass of Diet Pepsi. Can't drink too much caffeine this late (7pm) as I've also not been sleeping for the past week. I was taking Rozerem sleeping pills, but they stopped working so another med gone. I had a script for Halcion sleeping pills which also didn't work, but I doubled up on it last night and slept. I've also tried using holistic methods. Incense, candles, relaxation music, etc. I'll see if the Pepsi helps a little as the doctor only gave me 10 pain pills and I need to use them sparingly. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Della]

Have you tried Trazadone to help you sleep? If not, ask your doctor to try you on some of that.

 

[Marymickaela]

I have tried Trazadone several times and it doesn't work. We've been pretty much thru all sleeping pills too. I've become resistant to anything with a benzo base to it, which Halcion and many other sleeping pills have. I've been using 20mg of Melatonin and think that has helped me. One of the reasons I'm on Seroquel is to help me sleep, but it also gives me severe restless legs so I then have to take another drug called Requip to counter that. If I remember Trazadone gave me RLS too. The main reason I want off the Seroquel is the weight gain. I didn't realize it until I started doing some research this weekend, but Celexa supposedly causes weight gain. Nice! I had no idea.

 

[Ocean5]

"you're on such a small dose you shouldn't be having problems".

My old p-doc told me I could just stop Klonopin and Zoloft since I was on small dosages. She knew I was very sensitive to medicine! Glad I didn't accept her advice, and try to reduce on my own. Even then I went too quickly. Was hell. Then after severe seizures that ended me up in hospital I'm told I probably reduced Klonopin too quickly. Back on Klonopin (which I hate...affects my memory, critical thinking skills, and so much tiredness.) Reducing much slower this time.

Yea half the time you can't figure out if you are in withdrawals or something like the flu.

 

[Marymickaela]

Went to bed around 9pm. Still awake at 11:30pm so took an lavender Epson salt bath. Took another half of Halcion, which I knew I shouldn't and meant I had now taken a 2 1/2 dose altogether. After the bath I fell asleep until around 6:30am, took my Vyvanse (which I need to take early so it doesn't mess with my sleep) and went back to sleep until around 10am.

Tried to half a 10mg Celexa, but still have an excruciating migraine headache/neck pain, nausea, total exhaustion. Called to get in to see my Internist and she's totally booked until mid-November. HUH? What? I'm sick and can't get in for 3 weeks. That's unbelievable so am seeing the Nurse Practitioner who I saw the end of Sept. She dx'd me with a sinus/upper respiratory infection. I was supposed to go out tonight, but cancelled. No way do I feel like socializing.

 

[Marymickaela]

Just returned from seeing the Nurse Practitioner and she said I shouldn't be changing multiple meds at the same time, that I was having SSRI withdrawal syndrome from discontinuing the Celexa. Tomorrow I'm going to call my psych doc and get a script for a 5mg. I was taking 10mg. If I have the 5mg I can take that for a couple weeks and hopefully be able to cut it easily in half. She also thinks I'm having problems with allergies and a reaction to a Cortisone shot I got last Monday from my orthopedic surgeon. I've been having hot flashes and the day after getting the shot my headaches started. I'm upping my Seroquel back to what it was last week, psych doc had cut it from 300mg down to 200mg, so that the only drug I'll be cutting will be the Celexa. She talked about a CAT Scan, but I ruled that out, but she did do blood work, which I'll get the results tomorrow.

Why can't the doctor also say I should be resting, exercising when possible, relaxation, meditation, soothing baths? Things I'm doing on my own.

 

[Ocean5]

Sorry you are going through all this. Glad you went to Nurse Practitioner.

 

[Marymickaela]

Wanted to post an update on how I'm doing. I did call my psych doc and he called me in the 10mg Celexa as they don't make a 5mg. I'm cutting it in half. I told him what was going on and he confirmed I was having SSRI withdrawal saying "it happens". I love him, but am not happy with how he handled this. He basically had no time to talk. I got about a minute conversation with him. That was 8 days ago and I spent a week sitting in my chair with a heating pad around my neck to help with the pain. It finally eased up last weekend.

My EMDR session last Thursday started with me saying I was pissed at all my doctors and my therapist asked me if I wanted to put the headphones on. I did so we did the entire hour like that and I vented and vented. I don't remember what I talked about, except I started crying talking about my abusive dad.

It's a week later and I'm feeling much better. I've actually slept the last week without taking a sleeping pill. I mean really slept, which is amazing considering I've been on sleeping pills for years. I go to bed around 9pm and wake up around 6am. I get to have 3 hours to myself before my husband gets up. I'm even accomplishing some things around the house, which is helping me feel better about myself. Also, doing lots of meditation and using my Reiki to help heal my body and mind.

I had a massage last Friday and the therapist thinks I should get off all dairy and sugar. What did I do? For the next 2 days I major OD'd on sugar (candy). My husband said I was like an alcoholic told they could never have another drink. I think I kind of freaked as here I was dealing with med cuts and now "no sugar?". I finally got it under control and now am making seriously healthy green smoothies the last two days and have gotten the sugar out of my system.

I have my weekly EMDR therapy tomorrow and am in such a better place I feel it's the 1st time I'm not in crisis. Not sure what we'll work on.