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Celexa Discontinuation

I went to a psychiatrist because I was occasionally having stage fright during musical performances.  Instead of giving me beta blocker to take before performances, which is what I expected (and should have gotten), she diagnosed me as having generalized anxiety disorder and put me on low-dose Celexa (10 mg/day).  I had horrible side effects (mostly gastrointestinal and sleep disturbances) but I kept with it as she indicated, for 6 months. It made no difference in my performance nerves so I went to a neurologist who gave me propanolol to take before performing - this was exactly what I needed and does the trick with zero side-effects, addictions or long-term damage.

On the contrary, I asked my psychiatrist to help me taper off of Celexa.  She said to break the pills in half and take one every-other-day for a week and then half of that every-other-day for a second week.  I asked if there would be discontinuation problems and she said not if I did it this way.

Boy was she entirely wrong, and I'm wondering if the medical community is being correctly informed about these medicines or whether she is a total quack.  She neither warned me of the side-effects nor of the discontinuation syndrome.  Nor of the purpose of this drug in the first place, which I understand is helpful to some people but in no way would I fall in that category (have never had serious depression or anxiety).  

Now, a week after cessation of my 2.5 mg/day treatment, I am experiencing the "brain zaps" (the name alone suggests the medical community has no clue about this), horrible abdominal cramps, limited attention span/fuzziness of thought and a 2-week early period. As the drug had no benefit to me, I see this as a huge detriment to my health about which I was not forewarned (yes, the drug label told me about side-effects but nothing of discontinuation syndrome).  I should have read about it, but even what I find on-line is not medical advice but instead mostly people like me who are shocked by the discontinuation syndrome (the best seems to be on wikipedia- a sure sign of negligence by the medical community!).  

This is extremely frightening that people are going through this in mass numbers along-side a medical and pharmecutical community that is either clueless or misleading.  

My question:  How long will these withdrawal symptoms last?  I would like a medical answer to that question, as well as an explanation of their cause (especially the brain zaps, but also why abdominal cramping is so common).  

Thank you.
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Avatar universal
Thank you m4
Helpful - 0
1042487 tn?1275279899
Yeah indeed beta-blockers are what you needed.

The brain zaps are kinda like why there is a delay before an antidepressant becomes effective (usually 2 to 4 weeks). When starting antidepressant you are creating electrophysiological changes regarding your neurobiology so yeah that indeed causes some adverse effects when starting such as nausea and some other, the intensity or duration may vary. It is believed that adaptation of the receptors is what causing the lag of therapeutic effects and withdrawal symptoms (in your case particularly the 5-HT1A and 5-HT6). The specific cause of brain zaps remains unknown but it may be due to your reuptake pumps having to go back to work basically.

Those drugs are often inducing changes in your metabolism. These carious changes can also have an impact related to abdominal camps. It can also be stress perceived by brain.

Stopped cold turkey it can last for last to 1 month more or less, everyone is different. While tapered on and off it can be longer.

M4
Helpful - 0
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