Anyone experienced withdrawals coming off Citalopram

[nickynoo]

Hello,

I am just asking this as I have a suspicion that the constant dizziness I experience everyday is due withdrawing from my meds as this seemed to appear when I came off the Citalopram and a contraceptive pill at the same time......I have had dizzies for 10 months now and just wondered if anyone else has ever experienced this......or am I just being silly.......would just love to get to the bottom of my dizzies as my Dr thinks that I get it as a result of depression/anxiety (had lots of tests done to rule out things), but I can't help thinking its something else. Also exhausted all the time, which fair enough, is probably due to low mood - just wish all this would go away and let me live my life to the full like I used to.

Thanks....Nickynoo  £$%

[lou]

i think your doctor is right when i felt bad with my depression i had experiences of feeling dizzy a lot. it was horrible sometimes i felt i would pass out or fall over i felt that dizzy! definitely a sign of depression.
i also came off citalopram had no effects at all.

[nickynoo]

Thanks Lou for writing.......strange how depression would be able to cause such a random physical symptom, not nice at all, feel like I'm on a boat most of the time, absolutely exhausted all the time too (was worried about CFS but don't think it's that). If you don't mind me asking, how long did you feel like this for and how did you get it to stop?  :)

[lou]

gosh i felt like it for ages at least a year! i thought it was because i drank of an evening - not loads but i still thought it was that, as i felt like i was in a permanent fog - just awful. i feel for you having to feel like it. i too was extreamly tired, exhausted and thought i had M.S or some other disease! like you say its mad how your body can react to stress and depression, i gave up drinking so i could eliminate that but still felt the same. the dizziness only stopped when i went to my doctor to be diagnosed with depression for the 8th time! and they put me back on another anti depressent and the symptoms started to go away, i'm still on anti depressents and haven't felt dizzy since.
my body has found other ways to react though this time round i have developed an aggressive form of excema on my hand and foot which is so sore i can't tell you. nothing compared to being depressed though. oh and prior to that my last bout of depression came with a year of having chronic hives lol

[nickynoo]

Oh joy seems I have at least another couple of months of this then  "£" . Its awful waking up everyday feeling the same, not knowing what it is, how to make it stop and how long it will be going on for. Its hard enough being down without having to battle with these other symptoms, which make u fall even deeper into that hole. The really annoying thing is that I don't drink, take drugs or smoke so find it a bit frustrating that I feel bad when I try so hard to be healthy.

So it was only the ADs that made your dizziness stop or were you doing other things to help with your depression at the time that could have made the dizziness subside? I am a bit anti- antidepressants (not that its bad for people to take them as I am sure they help millions of people to find relief of their symptoms) I just feel that I would like to try to battle this holistically, so far with no avail, drugs will be my last resort (the experience I had with the Citalopram put me off).

I too have panicked myself about what it could possibly be I have come up with things from brain tumours to god knows what.........have a bit of a health anxiety now so googling is not a good idea for me to do, but I have found myself searching and scaring myself silly  "£$

I am glad that I have at last found someone that understands what I am going thru with this dizziness, I was thinking I was alone. I am glad that you got rid of though as it is so horrible.....maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and it will all be gone.........now where is my magic wand???.....

[hairyyahoo]

i wasn't impressed with citalopram either, the side effects out weighed the benefits for me.  when i came off them i quit cold turkey and i got dizzy too but it only lasted a couple of weeks. it was almost like being slightly drunk all the time, and occasionally getting a headrush like when you stand up too fast. according to my quack at the time you're supposed to wean yourself off slowly over the course of a month or two, gradually reducing the dose and frequency so your body doesn't get too confused, or something like that.

[Glen53]

Hi Nicky.

I took the same drug during last year to try to help with my low moods ( a long story in medication section ) I found that whilst I was on it I felt better, but once I came off i would overthink everything and give myself headaches and dizzyness. It did eventually fade away, but only when I was feeling good about my life. On bad days I would still get headaches. Im now back on it again, so we will see if it helps once more.

I would say that if you get really anxious it is likely to be the stress you are causing to your system. In a way it sounds like it is the withdrawal from the drug - it is no longer there to help suppress the feelings you get. Your body gets used to having it there to help, so you are having to take a little extra stress now the drug has gone. It sounds very similar to my experiences with it anyway, but as I said above it does improve over time.

I would add though, that if it continues then ask the doc again. The very thought of trying to do something about it will ease the anxiety you are getting. 

Hope this helps.

[nickynoo]

Thanks for the replies....seems that alot of people have experienced the same thing coming off the meds. The trouble is I stopped the meds back in December last year and started getting the dizziness constantly from January, so by now the meds should be completely out of my system, I initially assumed that the dizziness was due to the withdrawals to begin with and now I have no idea, just seemed a bit strange how this all started when I stopped the Citalopram. Just find it really hard to cope with sometimes, especially on my bad days, I am trying to just get on with my life and try to ignore all this but most days this doesn't work, I do listen to my body, when it says rest I rest, but how much resting do I need to do....I feel so lazy. So what do I need to do to make it go away? Are drugs the only answer??? huumph

[Glen53]

Its most likely stress related and can be fixed easily, if for example your stress is leading to mild hyperventilation (overbreathing) it can play havoc with your blood gases and cause dizzyness. I have browsed over your previous posts and didnt see anything about breathing exercises - have you tried these? (sorry if it is there and ive missed it - had a bad night and have not slept!) If not then have a go at them when you feel anxious - it may help. There are people on here who have tried them and find them useful from what I can see and they may be able to advise you further on this.

If this does not work then go back to the Doctor again. Before you go back, see if there is any pattern (does it come on more at any particular time of day?) and mention any such patterns to him. Ask if you could be referred to someone who is a neuro specialist too, they will have a better understanding.

Hope you feel better soon.