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From: Johnny
Date: 14/08/03
Time: 23:52:07
Remote Name: 129.171.130.126
BRAIN SHOCKS FROM DISCONTINUING CELEXA Keywords: Celexa, discontinuation, shocks, brain shocks, jolt, paraesthesia.
I am writing this to share with others the method that I used to make my discontinuation of Celexa as shock-free as possible. First off, I would like to thank the inventors of Citalopram HBr a.k.a. Celexa. Celexa worked really well at curing my depression. Secondly, although not relevant to this discussion, I think it might be helpful for me to mention the cause of my depression so that others may think twice about abusing the drug MDMA a.k.a Ecstasy (a synthetic amphetamine analogue C11H15NO2 used for its mood-enhancing and hallucinogenic properties). Just about every weekend, for five years, I took Ecstasy. On many of those occasions, I would take several doses over the course of the night (at clubs playing house music) to maintain my high. Obviously, this was a rather self-destructive behavior that I needed to stop or else have it stop me. I abruptly stopped my Ecstasy use and found myself suffering from a massive depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin. I fell into a horrible depression within two weeks and had ALL of the classic symptoms of clinical depression. Feeling awful, I knew that I needed both psychiatric and psychological intervention. The doctor recognized the cause and prescribed Celexa at 20 milligrams a day for me. At first, the Celexa gave me the worst migraine headaches that I’ve ever experienced. Excedrin PM cured that nicely. After four or five days, I began to feel some relief from the depression. Basically, this meant that I stopped looking in the mirror and sobbing. I used to cry because of the awful guilt I had for bringing this syndrome upon myself. Although the 20 mg/day helped, it didn’t remove the feelings of worthlessness and the lead-like dragging in my feet. Upon the doctor’s direction, I increased my dosage to 40 mg/day. This helped quite a bit and after another two weeks, I noticed that I was not thinking as negatively as before- yet I still didn’t feel complete relief. The doctor said it was o.k. to increase my dosage to the high end of 60 mg/day. Finally, I felt like my normal self again. The doctor would have me at this dosage for a full year before we would attempt to get off the Celexa. He felt that my neurons needed time to repair from the damage that I caused through years of drug abuse. Some of the side effects that I experienced were: yawning, weight gain and libido decrease. One lesson that became clear when taking Celexa- don’t miss a dose! If I ever forgot to take a dose- by three in the afternoon, I would feel brain shocks. I switched to taking my Celexa in the morning after I brush my teeth to keep it as routine as possible. Brain shocks are horrible. At first, you are not sure of what you just experienced. These jolts have a subtle beginning. When you first experience it, you might think “Huh?”, “Eww. What was that?” Shocks are very disconcerting. One of the official side-effects of Celexa is known as paraesthesia which is an abnormal, prickling feeling. I’m not sure if that adequately or accurately describes “shocks”. Here’s an attempt at an explanation. Please try to be imaginative…After all, how would one explain color to a person born without eyes? Here I go. If you shake your head (like you are saying “no”) back and forth very quickly, you may feel your brain rattling around in your skull as if it were having a delayed response due to its inertia. Ok, take that uncomfortable feeling and add it to the feeling your eyes experience when you suddenly view a bright source of light. Next, add in a strange sense of confusion as if your reset button is being pressed involuntarily. Finally, add in some paraesthesia of the brain. This amalgam of experiences all happen like a click, a jolt, or a shock. Unfortunately, if you don’t do anything to treat the shocks i.e. take Celexa, the shocks come more frequently and with greater strength. One time, I experienced shocks on the order of five per minute. This occurred on the third day of zero dosage after originally trying to discontinue Celexa. What a horrible experience that was. Coupled with the shocks was an increasing feeling of anxiety. I also became more and more moody and difficult. For me to get off Celexa, the doctor directed me to reduce my intake from 60 mg/day to 50 mg/day and stay at this level for two weeks. Then I would take 40 mg/day for two weeks. Then 30, then 20, then 10 for two weeks each. The doctor told me that if I experienced depression or shocks again- I should go back up to the dose that was last effective. Stay there for two weeks then resume my dosage reduction. On the fourteenth day of the 10 mg/day level I wondered if I should go to zero the next day. Knowing how much of a fan I wasn’t of the “shocks”, I decided to use a razor blade and cut pills to create 8 mg, 6 mg, 5 mg, and 2 mg doses. These were, of course, estimations. Over the next week, I took two days of 8, two days of 6, two days of 5, and a day of 2 mg. Then I took nothing. After three days, I began to feel shocks. Over the course of the next two days, the shocks became progressively worse. I went back up to 10 mg/day. The next day, I went in to see my doctor with an Excel chart diagrammatically explaining my drug tapering experience. We came up with a strategy that did the trick. I was happy to get from 60 mg/day to 10 mg/day without a problem. Somewhere between 10 mg/day and zero created the problem. Celexa has a 37 hour elimination half-life in your body. Basically, that means that if you take a dose now, 37 hours later you’ll have half of that dose in your body. After another 37 hours, you’ll have a quarter of that dose and so on. Because I went from 10 to 8 to 6 to 5 to 2 to zero all in the course of seven days, I didn’t know which dose would keep me shock-free due to the 37 hour half-life effect. So, the strategy was as follows: take 10 mg/day for two weeks, then 5 mg/day for two weeks, then 2.5 mg/day for two weeks, then zero. This took some skill with the razor blade on 20 mg pills. The 20 mg pink pill is easy to divide. It has a detent in the middle that allows you to break it in half to yield 10 mg. Cutting the 10 mg in half yielded the 5 mg. Cutting the 5 in half yielded the 2.5mg dose. After a few days at zero mg, I began to feel very infrequent and very mild shocks. Maybe 2 or three very mild ones a day for the first 4 days. Then over the next week, I felt one every other day or so. After another week, the shocks were gone completely! I found on the internet that it is suggested that you can taper off over a two week period from 60 to zero. Definitely not for me! It took almost five months to taper off, but I have successfully completed the course. Just do it comfortably and gradually. Shocks, unfortunately, may be inevitable. What seems to be controllable is their frequency and severity. Good luck! And know that you are not alone.