I’m 39 and started on Citalopram when I was 27 in 2014 after a period of high stress at work and home. After the docs kept misdiagnosing me or discounting my symptoms they just put me on pills, which did work for many years. I felt back to normal. There were a few low blips here and there but they started to get more frequent towards 2021 so I was updosed to 30mg. It worked for a bit but I again I started to get more frequent dips and balance issues etc.

The doc suggested I switch meds to Sertraline. It was a straight swap and caused a few months of bad WD symptoms. I stabilised after 5 months but don’t think I’ve ever felt back to how I used to. After doing research on this I started to realise that maybe the pills were actually causing my symptoms rather than relieving them, and that maybe I’d been left on them for too long. I didn’t have any follow ups until 8yrs after I started on them. And why would I get off them if they were supposedly helping me? Do you think I just reached poop out on Citalopram?

Determined to get off them I started tapering in Feb 2026 going down by 10% every 3 weeks. What followed was a big crash and bad WD symptoms. Headaches, sweating, nausea, no emotions, bad brain fog, spaced out, bad balance. I held for 13 weeks until relative stability before tapering by 8%. I figured I needed to go slower and lower cuts. Wasn’t as bad as last time, but still had medium WD at 5 weeks, which lasted about 2 weeks. I’m now in another really bad wave at 8 weeks after the last cut.

I think one of them coincided with getting a cold. I wonder if that can be a catalyst? Has anyone had this as a trigger?

My worry is that if I can’t tolerate the WD on such a small reduction and it’s taking 12 weeks between cuts then it’ll take years and years to get off. I’m not sure I can handle that. The journey seems too rough and too long.

Why do these waves keep happening when the cuts are so low and I’m waiting so long?

Do I need to reduce even less and wait even longer?

I have 2 boys (7 and 5) and worry I’ll miss out on their good years whilst I’m stuck in this turmoil.

I still go to work in a high functioning job, but it’s such a struggle.

Edited July 30Jul 30 by SarahMc

Welcome to the forum!

 

This is a volunteer-run, community forum aimed at helping those who are tapering and/or experiencing difficulties with psychiatric medications and withdrawal syndrome. We are not medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice. We simply offer support and opinions which you could use as talking points with a medical provider knowledgeable in withdrawing off psychiatric medications.

 

Please familiarise yourself with the forum rules and the disclaimer located here: Guidelines

 

Please make sure your signature is kept up to date with your drug history. This will allow members to see some basic information about your drug history and situation so that they may help you best. Information on how to do this is located in the FAQs section above, but here is a direct link: Update Signature

Once this is done, future posts made by you will have this signature turned on by default. For this reason please keep it clear but condensed as possible.

Please use the format outline here Preferred signature/drug history format

I'm so sorry to read about the tough time you've had recently you will find plenty of support here for sure.

 

7 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

After doing research on this I started to realise that maybe the pills were actually causing my symptoms rather than relieving them, and that maybe I’d been left on them for too long. I didn’t have any follow ups until 8yrs after I started on them. And why would I get off them if they were supposedly helping me? Do you think I just reached poop out on Citalopram?

We see this a lot, folks who reach tolerance to their antidepressant at a certain dose and then have the dose increased only to reach tolerance again down the line. It certainly sounds like what was happening to you.

7 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

The doc suggested I switch meds to Sertraline. It was a straight swap and caused a few months of bad WD symptoms. I stabilised after 5 months but don’t think I’ve ever felt back to how I used to.

We never suggest swapping meds, this was essentially a cold turkey off the citalopram and a reintroduction of a second drug. Unfortunately most doctors don't recognize the risks of swapping drugs like this. It's no wonder that you didn't feel back to how you used to after only 5 months.

When you say you stabilized after 5 months, could you describe what you mean by that? Were your WD symptoms completely gone, or still present at a low level?

7 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

My worry is that if I can’t tolerate the WD on such a small reduction and it’s taking 12 weeks between cuts then it’ll take years and years to get off. I’m not sure I can handle that. The journey seems too rough and too long.

Your nervous system has been through a lot in the last year and a bit. Many people take a long time to recover after cold turkeying a drug, especially one you'd been on for over 10 years, so you may have started tapering too quickly after your switch. Usually we don't recommend tapering unless you're stable, which means you have WD symptoms at a severity of about 1-3 out of 10 over a long period.

We also recommend tapering at a maximum of 10% per month, not every three weeks. See this link: Tapering Information.

Some people can't tolerate 10% cuts every month and need to go slower -- it's all about listening to your body and finding the tapering speed that works for you, while remaining as functional as possible.

Right now I think it would be best for you to take a long hold and not make any further cuts until you've been stable for a good while. It sounds like your nervous system needs a nice break after going through a lot of tough changes recently.

8 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I think one of them coincided with getting a cold. I wonder if that can be a catalyst? Has anyone had this as a trigger?

Definitely unrelated illness can trigger an increased in WD symptoms, but I suspect in your case your nervous system has not had enough time to recover from a number of shocks over the past year. Patience and listening to your body are truly key in this process.

8 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I have 2 boys (7 and 5) and worry I’ll miss out on their good years whilst I’m stuck in this turmoil.

I still go to work in a high functioning job, but it’s such a struggle.

I know this is really hard. But I think if you give your body a break, wait to truly stabilize, and then start making very slow cuts to find a rate that works for you, you have a better chance of being able to taper while maintaining a decent level of health and functionality. You don't necessarily have to wait until you're fully off meds before things can get easier. If you taper very patiently at a rate that minimizes WD effects, you can hopefully minimize the struggle and continue living your life while tapering in the background.

We all want off these drugs, believe me. But we've seen that trying to rush to get off them only creates more problems, and can actually prolong your taper in the long run if you keep having to hold for long periods to stabilize.

In the mean time this is what I would do if I were you:

 

-Stay Hydrated 

 

-Eat a good clean whole food diet, avoiding processed foods and sugars.

 

-Stay away from caffeine, alcohol and antihistamines and any other psychoactive substances.

 

Supplements are to be avoided initially, as they often irritate our nervous systems. Try to get your nutrition through food.

 

Down the line, you may wish to introduce Fish Oil and Magnesium. Those who can tolerate them have found them calming to the nervous system. Be careful try one at a time and start low and see how you get on should you choose to try them.

 

A daily walk is very important as much as you can manage, if you can manage it. Gets you your fresh air and Vitamin D does wonders for your mind!

 

You are very welcome here and I hope you find the site supportive.

Edited July 30Jul 30 by SarahMc

Thank you @SarahMc for replying. And thank you for all your efforts on this site. It’s nice to have some support from other people in similar situations.

You have confirmed my suspicions that the switch was probably a bad idea, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. I am where I am. Interestingly I went back to my docs today and they suggested try switching to Fluoxetine as it “may help make the withdrawal easier”. I knew it wasn’t the best advice when they said it. I’ve lost all faith in them, which I guess is why a lot of us are here - trying to muddle through it ourselves together.

1 hour ago, SarahMc said:

When you say you stabilized after 5 months, could you describe what you mean by that? Were your WD symptoms completely gone, or still present at a low level?

I believe I was fairly stable. Similar issues to when I was on Citalopram towards the end, some ups and downs, mild anhedonia. But I never felt quite right. I put that down to the new drug not totally agreeing with me or different side effects. I figured if I started tapering off then the side effects would reduce potentially.

How will I know when my next cut could be then? How long is a long hold? It’s been 8 weeks so far and I’m in the middle of another bad wave now. All from an 8% cut…

1 minute ago, VelvetBreeze said:

You have confirmed my suspicions that the switch was probably a bad idea, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. I am where I am. Interestingly I went back to my docs today and they suggested try switching to Fluoxetine as it “may help make the withdrawal easier”. I knew it wasn’t the best advice when they said it. I’ve lost all faith in them, which I guess is why a lot of us are here - trying to muddle through it ourselves together.

I wouldn't recommend you to switch back to fluoxetine from sertraline, you can still have insanely bad withdrawals, and there are downsides to the half life being that long, plus you could get destabilized further stopping sertraline and restarting fluoxetine

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

Interestingly I went back to my docs today and they suggested try switching to Fluoxetine as it “may help make the withdrawal easier”. I knew it wasn’t the best advice when they said it. I’ve lost all faith in them, which I guess is why a lot of us are here - trying to muddle through it ourselves together

I agree with @Lighty that it would be a bad idea to switch to fluoxetine. There are others on this forum who have tried the “Prozac bridge” and it has gone poorly.

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

How will I know when my next cut could be then? How long is a long hold? It’s been 8 weeks so far and I’m in the middle of another bad wave now. All from an 8% cut…

I wouldn’t necessarily think of your current instability as only due to an 8% cut, it seems more likely to me that it’s the cumulative effect of all the changes you’ve been through.

Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea to hold or taper according to a rigid schedule, especially if your CNS is already sensitized. I think it’s better to use dates as general guidelines or check-in points. For example, you could say “I’m going to hold for 4 months then check in with myself to see if I’m stable enough to make a cut.” Likewise, you could plan to taper on a monthly basis but we’ve seen here that it can be a bad idea to push through WD symptoms of more than like a 1-3/10 severity because the symptoms can stack and lead to a big crash. So a taper should always be led by how your body feels, if that makes sense.

I can’t tell you how long to hold, but people do often hold for many months to achieve real stability. I went through over a year of multiple med changes and have now held for almost 4 months, and am not close to being stable. I imagine I’ll be holding for 8-12 months if I keep improving at the same rate.

I hope that helps. This whole process is very unpredictable and non-linear, which I know can be incredibly frustrating.

Hey @VelvetBreeze Welcome to the forum. Sarah and Lighty have given you some very good advice. I agree, nice long hold is the way to go here. How you are feeling is certainly down to the cumalitive effects of everything your system has been through.

It was reasonable for you to think you were experiencing side effects from the drug, and getting off is often instinctively makes sense, however the body needs time to heal and adjust to all the changes that have been made. Tapering whilst not stable or at a speed that is too fast leads to worsening rather than improving. You'll know when the time is right to continue your taper. I know 8% sounds slow, but often we have to go slower than this, the body sets the pace. Best to take this journey one little step at a time. Tapering from a place of stablity is much easier and leads to a better position once off the drugs.

21 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

You have confirmed my suspicions that the switch was probably a bad idea, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. I am where I am. Interestingly I went back to my docs today and they suggested try switching to Fluoxetine as it “may help make the withdrawal easier”. I knew it wasn’t the best advice when they said it. I’ve lost all faith in them, which I guess is why a lot of us are here - trying to muddle through it ourselves together.

You've reached a point that many of us do, sadly.

There is very little science on antidepressant withdrawal, and suggestions like this are simply guessing.

Sadly, support groups such as this also cannot offer you definitive, science-based solutions. However, much of the advice here is an amalgamation of the experiences of many, many patients across not only this group, but previous ones such as the older SA forum that ran for 15 years, which itself drew upon experiences from previous forums.

I can see that you're worried about taking a long time to taper if cuts are small and that's valid. What I would say, is that a successful taper is one in which you're able to live life and the taper happens in the background. You may find that as you reduce your dose carefully enough to not induce significant withdrawal symptoms/suffering the other side effects you're experiencing might improve.

I think it's worth waiting until you're more stable to resume tapering, but when you are ready, you may wish to consider that there are alternatives that might be more tolerable:

Micro Tapering - Tapering - The Antidepressant Harm and Recovery Forum

Thank you so much for your advice and support.

I’m currently going through a bad wave which came out of nowhere and, like I said before, seems at odds with the small reductions and time since I last cut. I guess I’m still learning what I can tolerate. I’m getting hot flushes, really bad anxiety/panic attack feeling (which I’ve never had before), I’ve cried three times today (which I haven’t done in over 8 years), not really eating anything, struggling to engage with anything, bursts of hopelessness, frequent jerking body spasms/twitches Not nice.

From what you’ve said I think I just need to hold for a very long time until I try again, and let my CNS calm down properly. Maybe 3-6 months at least.

I suppose even if I get down to 50mg and stay there then it’s progress. I do want to get off the drugs, but if it proves too hard then I’ll have to stay on them.

13 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

From what you’ve said I think I just need to hold for a very long time until I try again, and let my CNS calm down properly. Maybe 3-6 months at least.

Yes I think that sounds like a good idea. Your body needs time to settle down.

13 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I suppose even if I get down to 50mg and stay there then it’s progress. I do want to get off the drugs, but if it proves too hard then I’ll have to stay on them.

I think anyone can get off these drugs, and I think it is worthwhile to do so. They are not kind to our bodies and long term use is not good at all. However coming off them quickly is MUCH worse. So a slow body led taper is the way to go.

@VelvetBreeze it might just be that you don't tolerate an abrupt cut in one go.

This is why some choose to micro taper.

You may wish to have a read of this:

The Brassmonkey Slide Method of Micro-tapering - Tapering - Surviving Antidepressants

This was a method developed by an old SA user who struggled to tolerate other forms of tapering, but managed to successfully taper this way. It's a variation of micro tapering.

From the post:

"The second option is the “micro-taper”.  This involves reducing a tiny amount every few days over a very long time.  It does a great job of reducing symptoms but is very tedious and takes a very long time to complete.  There needs to be something in between.  Something that can reduce the effects of the symptoms and yet doesn’t take forever to complete.  This is where the Brassmonkey Slide Method comes in.

 

The idea behind the Brassmonkey Slide Method is to maintain the speed of a standard 10% taper while reducing the symptom load by taking the reductions in smaller bits.  When I was researching my taper, I observed that there was a large hit of symptoms that occurred several days after the reduction was made.  These symptoms would then peak and decrease over the next several weeks until the person would return to an average state of feeling bad.  My idea was that if the reduction were taken in smaller pieces fairly close together you would experience reduced symptoms for a shorter period of time and by doing reductions back to back, as the symptoms resolved, a person could maintain a 10% reduction and experience reduced symptoms."

Thank you @Luke I will consider micro tapering in future. My symptoms and waves seems to come weeks after I have cut though so I’m concerned that micro tapering would just be lulling me into a big crash. Hard to know I know.

My first crash was 5 weeks after my second taper (which I did only after 3 weeks since my first cut). This took weeks to get out of. As far as I was aware my baseline as back to normal when I tapered again (12 weeks since the previous taper). But here I am again suffering a couple of bad waves (5 weeks and 8 weeks after the previous cut). Maybe I wasn’t properly back to baseline and should have held longer to allow my body to fully recover from the crash?

All the guidelines said to wait for at least 2 weeks since baseline, which is what I thought I did.

Like I said in my previous post, I think I’m just going to hold for a significant amount of time before trying again, and the brassmonkey taper could be a valid option.

@Chippy thank you for your guidance too. I think I’m just coming to terms with the fact this is going to be years and years until I’m off them with a slow taper, but I’d rather have a comfortable run than go through the suffering.

Can you really go through it with minimal symptoms? The thought of experiencing symptoms for 8+ years is terrifying and daunting. I know it’s best to get off them, but staying on them seems like the path of least resistance.

13 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

@Chippy thank you for your guidance too. I think I’m just coming to terms with the fact this is going to be years and years until I’m off them with a slow taper, but I’d rather have a comfortable run than go through the suffering.

Can you really go through it with minimal symptoms? The thought of experiencing symptoms for 8+ years is terrifying and daunting. I know it’s best to get off them, but staying on them seems like the path of least resistance.

Pleasure

Yes it can take some time to process what has happened here for sure.

It is hard to say how you will be during your taper, it can be up and down, especially after the nervous system has taken a hit. It is why I really believe most should hold when they get into bother, and for some that means a long hold.

Holding allows the body to heal and adjust, creating a better platform for a taper. I do think this can keep symptoms much more bareable and that allows you to live whilst tapering rather than suffer, and of course the chances are you will be in a better place at zero too. I hope that makes sense.

It is hard to know, yes.

The BM taper did have holds built in to try to stop this effect, but as with all of this, everybody is different and we need to listen to our bodies.

Perhaps the larger cuts at the start already sensitised you, and smaller, more regular cuts might be more tolerable. It's difficult to say.

All we can really do is make you aware of these methods and that others who have struggled with one-time, larger step downs in doses have had success with them.

As @Chippy said, and I suggested in an earlier post, it's difficult not to look at the whole taper and to be very daunted by it, however if it can done in a way that is manageable for you, you will hopefully have a good quality of life whilst it happens in the background.

I spoke to my doctor about why this is potentially happening.

He said that a straight swap from citalopram to sertraline is standard practice and usually well tolerated, even after the length I’ve been on them. Seeing as I’ve never been properly right on Sertraline maybe it just doesn’t agree with my system? He said he’s never encountered anyone in my position in all his years and it’s very unusual. He doesn’t think the theory of destabilising my nervous from the switch is plausible.

He gave me a few options, one of which was to go back to Citalopram as that seemed to be better tolerated and then could try tapering from there. This makes me nervous though, as wouldn’t this just shock my system again?

I don’t want to keep feeling terrible all the time so it’s an option I’m considering, but I don’t know who to believe and I’m cautious about going backwards.

Have people gone back to their previous medications? Would this cause havoc? I’m worried it would trigger severe withdrawal again seeing as I can’t even tolerate 8% reductions right now…

9 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

He said that a straight swap from citalopram to sertraline is standard practice and usually well tolerated, even after the length I’ve been on them.

This kind of 'standard practice' causes all sort of problems and is very dangerous.

10 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

Seeing as I’ve never been properly right on Sertraline maybe it just doesn’t agree with my system?

It is a common misconception that you just have to keep trying these drugs until you find the one that 'works' for you. What you are experiencing is drug harm. When your nervous system is irritated by these drugs, switching and moving doses around causes more and more problems. I would strongly advise against this.

11 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

He said he’s never encountered anyone in my position in all his years and it’s very unusual.

This is because he is only trained to see relapse. People who get hurt from their doctors end up either not realising this is what has happened and continue to get hurt or/and end up finding the WD community and realising what has happened and getting help. They often don't report the harm let alone tell thier doctors about it.

13 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

He doesn’t think the theory of destabilising my nervous from the switch is plausible.

Well, I can point blank tell you he is wrong and I would either find a doctor who understands all the latest information about how to deal with these drugs or just take matters into your own hands and listen to the advise and support of people on here to educate you so you can help yourself.

17 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

He gave me a few options, one of which was to go back to Citalopram as that seemed to be better tolerated and then could try tapering from there. This makes me nervous though, as wouldn’t this just shock my system again?

I think this is a bad move.

How you feel now is a combination of things. You can't reload how you felt before you started to not feel good. Each move causes more harm unfortunately. Looking at your footer I think you have tapered a bit quick and now your nervous system is letting you know about it.

19 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I don’t want to keep feeling terrible all the time so it’s an option I’m considering, but I don’t know who to believe and I’m cautious about going backwards.

As I said this would be a bad move, I know it is tempting to look for the quick fix, but I am almost certain this would make you much much worse than you are now.

20 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I’m worried it would trigger severe withdrawal again seeing as I can’t even tolerate 8% reductions right now…

Exactly, 8% can be too much for those with sensitive nervous systems.

My advice, hold this dose for as long as it takes to get stable. Which we would suggest is 1-3/10 symptom severity and then taper much more caustiously with our help of course if you need.

Can you confirm what your symptoms are for me atm and rate them? It could be you could try a small updose and see if that helps things however if you are dealing with anxiety, so more activation type symptoms, I would worry this could amp things up for you.

You could perhaps consider speaking with Dr Horowitz and getting his thoughts too of course. Send me a PM and I can give you more details about how you do this.

Sorry things are so tough for you. Now you have found the comminity and the reality of all this, please don't get sucked back into believing the doctors. Many have done this before and have regretted doing so.

Chippy

Thank you.

My physical WD symptoms are largely resolved from the wave a few weeks ago. Ive stopped twitching, sleeping ok, eating is normal, no hot flushes, no crying spells or feelings of impending doom. I just have a bit of underlying anxiety. What has hung around is increased depersonalisation (I feel quite disconnected with things), Spaced out, Anhedonia, decreased motivation, general low mood.

These symptoms have all been there since I switched to Sertaline last year.

I just saw a psychiatrist who is apparently clued up on the latest information, but I genuinely don’t know who to trust anymore. He said that maybe when I switched I wasn’t on a large enough dose equivalence which has meant I never fully stabilised. He also mentioned that maybe I just needed an antidepressant because I have an underlying illness, and that maybe (again) I might be best going back to Citalopram which seemed to be better tolerated. But then I’m worried that this is just the trap and they’re looking for relapse… Its so hard to know what to do.

I have never felt completely right since switching so it feels like what he’s saying could make sense and I’m fed up of feeling rubbish for over a year now.

47 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

My physical WD symptoms are largely resolved from the wave a few weeks ago. Ive stopped twitching, sleeping ok, eating is normal, no hot flushes, no crying spells or feelings of impending doom. I just have a bit of underlying anxiety.

This is all very positive.

48 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

What has hung around is increased depersonalisation (I feel quite disconnected with things), Spaced out, Anhedonia, decreased motivation, general low mood.

These symptoms have all been there since I switched to Sertaline last year.

This is very likely caused by switching the drug. Switching upsets the nervous system often causing an injury.

49 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I just saw a psychiatrist who is apparently clued up on the latest information, but I genuinely don’t know who to trust anymore. He said that maybe when I switched I wasn’t on a large enough dose equivalence which has meant I never fully stabilised. He also mentioned that maybe I just needed an antidepressant because I have an underlying illness, and that maybe (again) I might be best going back to Citalopram which seemed to be better tolerated. But then I’m worried that this is just the trap and they’re looking for relapse… Its so hard to know what to do.

There are so many red flags in there. Non of that is true. They are 100% not clued up on drug harm and are just seeing relapse.

51 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I have never felt completely right since switching so it feels like what he’s saying could make sense and I’m fed up of feeling rubbish for over a year now.

The switch as I said would have not been kind to your nervous system. I wouldn’t blame the drug per sa. If you are having any adverse reactions these should ease as you taper. Even if you are, stopping it and going to another drug or back to your old drug I wouldn’t suggest.

The fact things have improved for you is really positive. I’d be looking to get to a better baseline by holding this dose for a while now, then resume your taper just more carefully.

I’ve sent you Dr H booking details. If you speak with him let us know his thoughts.

55 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

These symptoms have all been there since I switched to Sertaline last year.

I just saw a psychiatrist who is apparently clued up on the latest information, but I genuinely don’t know who to trust anymore. He said that maybe when I switched I wasn’t on a large enough dose equivalence which has meant I never fully stabilised. He also mentioned that maybe I just needed an antidepressant because I have an underlying illness, and that maybe (again) I might be best going back to Citalopram which seemed to be better tolerated. But then I’m worried that this is just the trap and they’re looking for relapse… Its so hard to know what to do.

I have never felt completely right since switching so it feels like what he’s saying could make sense and I’m fed up of feeling rubbish for over a year now.

@VelvetBreeze unfortunately very, very few psychiatrists know anything about withdrawal, and this psychiatrist seems no different. I agree with Chippy that the reason you have never felt right since switching to sertraline is because you were in withdrawal from the citalopram and your nervous system never had time to fully stabilize. Your psychiatrist has only been trained to recognize relapse, not withdrawal or other harms from these meds, and that is all he will see.

I know this is a long slog and we all want something that will make us feel better quickly, but you can't assume that switching back to citalopram will get you back to where you were on that drug. I switched back to cymbalta thinking that I could go back to how I was, and it didn't help at all. Don't fall into the trap of looking for the "right" drug. This is withdrawal, not your "underlying condition".

It’s so difficult to know what to do. Thank you for your guidance though. He was adamant that another direct switch back to Citalopram should be well tolerated. It’s such a seductive option.

If I hold long enough at this dose should all these symptoms go away then as my brain adjusts and CNS recovers? Is that proven? I will hold for as long as needed if I have to, I just can’t go on feeling like this much more.

3 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

It’s so difficult to know what to do. Thank you for your guidance though. He was adamant that another direct switch back to Citalopram should be well tolerated. It’s such a seductive option

I understand. They don’t think twice about switching things around unfortunately. When the nervous system gets injured there are no quick fixes unfortunately.

4 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

If I hold long enough at this dose should all these symptoms go away then as my brain adjusts and CNS recovers? Is that proven? I will hold for as long as needed if I have to, I just can’t go on feeling like this much more.

We would be looking for your nervous system to stabilise. We would define this as a long period of symptoms you rate as 1-3/10. This is called wd normal.

From here you can start to taper carefully pausing if you see an increase of symptoms.

Unfortunately things can be worse then they are now for you, by holding stabilising and not moving things around you are reducing the harm rather than adding to it.

You are much stronger than you realise. Take a look at our symptoms and coping skills section. Acceptance is a big one. Also have a good listen to some of the wd you tube channels. Mark Horowitz, Angie Peacock, Nicole Lamberson just to name a few. It’s good to start to understand this journey and break some of the fear. Knowledge is power.

Thank you. And by symptoms does that include the ones I described above: depersonalisation, Spaced out, Anhedonia, decreased motivation, general low mood, brain fog/dead? Or does it just mean the physical WD symptoms?

I’m worried that these symptoms will never subside. It’s been so long.

18 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

Thank you. And by symptoms does that include the ones I described above: depersonalisation, Spaced out, Anhedonia, decreased motivation, general low mood, brain fog/dead? Or does it just mean the physical WD symptoms?

I’m worried that these symptoms will never subside. It’s been so long.

Wd is a personal one to define. I would like to see all symptoms more tolerable although for some their baseline is higher than others as they are keen to taper or don’t seem to improve in what they consider to be a sensible timeline. Others try very long holds without changes to gain a better baseline and have an easier taper imo.

I know mental health is a complex issue, but do you think there is any weight in what the psychiatrist said? That it could just be my ‘illness’ creeping back in.

I want to get off these drugs, but if there’s a medical need for them to support my mental health isn’t it better to stay on? The symptoms I’m experiencing now (as mentioned above) are similar to why I went on the citalopram to start with so maybe there is just something off and I need the drug support long term? I understand the physical WD symptoms are withdrawal.

It’s very confusing.

I understand that holding longer (which I’m planning on doing anyway, at least until Feb) should help settle things but what makes it so likely that this is the best option and my brain will adapt to it if I actually do need the drug?

Edited August 20Aug 20 by VelvetBreeze

28 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I know mental health is a complex issue, but do you think there is any weight in what the psychiatrist said? That it could just be my ‘illness’ creeping back in.

100% no

29 minutes ago, VelvetBreeze said:

understand that holding longer (which I’m planning on doing anyway, at least until Feb) should help settle things but what makes it so likely that this is the best option and my brain will adapt to it if I actually do need the drug?

You don’t need the drug no one does. There no illness or chemical imbalance or anything to fix. Your brain just needs no changes and time to recover and stabilize.

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I know mental health is a complex issue, but do you think there is any weight in what the psychiatrist said? That it could just be my ‘illness’ creeping back in.

I want to get off these drugs, but if there’s a medical need for them to support my mental health isn’t it better to stay on? The symptoms I’m experiencing now (as mentioned above) are similar to why I went on the citalopram to start with so maybe there is just something off and I need the drug support long term? I understand the physical WD symptoms are withdrawal.

@VelvetBreeze no drug companies or researchers have ever been able to identify a chemical or biological cause of depression or anxiety. You do not need these drugs, no one does -- they are not correcting any imbalance in your brain.

I made the mistake of thinking that my initial WD symptoms were actually "relapse" because they were mostly anxiety, which is the reason I started taking the drugs in the first place. I ignored the fact that the anxiety felt different, and would come and go at random, and that I also had some minor physical symptoms. So I started looking for the "right" drug to fix me and it made me worse.

I think it is much, much more likely that all of your symptoms are due to withdrawal rather than that you have withdrawal AND some sort of "relapse" at the same time. Occam's razor, right? The simplest explanation is usually the best one. Don't make this more complicated than it is.