One of the things I rarely discuss is my relationship with the anti-depressant Citalopram. I have (now had) been on the drug since the beginning of 2015 and very recently weaned myself off this highly addictive drug. Although it has helped me tremendously deal with the depression I suffered throughout my teenage years and early adulthood, for over a year now I have had a “feeling” that I no longer needed the drug.
Hey guys basically i’m going to give you a bit of a story time and it’s about sittler brown i was on set of prime i don’t know if that’s the right way to pronounce it by the way that’s just how i’ve been pronouncing out i’ve heard over people on the internet pronounced in different ways i don’t really know the correct pronunciation but i’m going to talk about the
Drug set the pram and my relationship with it until quite recently i’ve been on the antidepressant silla pram i was on 20 milligrams and that’s pretty much what i have been taking for every day for about five years so recently i weaned myself off of the drug and i’m going to tell you the withdrawal symptoms that i have been experiencing so i’m gonna get straight
Into it before i talk about my relationship with it my story i’m just going to tell you my withdrawal symptoms okay so one of the things that i’ve been experiencing has been irritability so i’ve been very irritable and i’ve had a very short fuse as well i also noticed that so it hasn’t taken me much to become angry it hasn’t taken too much for me to get annoyed and
Frustrated and irritated where before when i was on the drug i was okay obviously i’ve still got irritated and frustrated but not as strongly as i have been with these withdrawal symptoms okay so another thing is that i’ve sometimes been quite teary quite emotional i’ve been having more of a negative sort of outlook in a way so those are the withdrawal symptoms that
I have been experiencing so now i want to talk to you about why i felt like i could come off sylla pram okay so when i first starts taking it i had zero coping mechanisms when it came to dealing with difficult situations and things that weren’t good that happened in my life so it could be just so to give you like a an example i remember once a it was sister-in-laws
Birthday and we were gonna go out and have a drink at a pub now for whatever reason i didn’t bring my id and basically because i didn’t bring my id even though i was 25 we want allowed to go and drink or have anything to drink in the pub even though we were just ordering coca cola’s that made me feel really bad and i was saying horrible horrible horrible things about
Myself and things that i should do to harm myself in some way and all that kind of horrible things i was saying to myself sometimes i would actually say them out loud as well but i don’t even know where it came from it just came out like oh why should you know i don’t want to say it directly because i hopefully people who have dealing with depression around say
They probably know of the kind of things that i’m talking about but i don’t want to just blurt them out in case someone younger finds this and stuff like that i’m just trying to be a bit sensitive so so are saying these horrible things about myself and it’s ridiculous really i mean sure yeah you know i would probably feel bad if something like that happened i feel
Bummed out but i wouldn’t be experienced i wouldn’t have i would have coped with it much better but i couldn’t cope with it i couldn’t cope with that emotion and there was a series of things that happened like that in my teenage years obviously not the same situation but stuff you know similar to those things where i it was something was my fault and we couldn’t
Do something and i would just blame myself for feeling like i’m a burden and all this kind of stuff and also when it came to my relationships as well you know i got cheated on in a past relationship a long time ago you know and it was these situations that i just couldn’t cope with i just felt terrible and i knew that i needed some help so of course i went to my
Gp and i was prescribed antidepressants and the entity that person drugged was of course syllabi when i started taking them i definitely needed them i definitely needed something to help boost my mood and it was during that time during those five years that i really started to study self-development self-help and a pro and a therapy which i believed has helped
Me tremendously through getting better and not being depressed anymore and that was an lp neuro-linguistic programming that was the best way that personally helped me the best therapy or therapy for me now i’m not a medical professional okay so i’m not gonna say that you should be doing one thing i’m not doing something else you know this is something that just
Help me okay i’m not a medical professional so just because it worked for me doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for you because i believe that all therapies have their place all therapies work to a degree you know all therapies work in some form of way but the therapy that helped me was nlp okay so flash forward five years and it’s been a while since you know
It’s been i would say about a year ago i decided that i probably didn’t need antidepressants anymore like that’s when it’s all dawned on me that do i really need these i’m taking them every day but do i actually need them now and it was only until like a few months ago when i decided that i was going to start that process of weaning myself off the medication and
I why should have done really as i should have told my gp about it and they made a plan for me but i didn’t do that you know i please do please do an actual plan with your gp but anyway basically why did was i had i was okay right time from monday i’m going to have 10 milligrams and 20 milligrams the next day 10 milligrams then 20 milligram you know it was kind of
Like that it was like monday 20 milligrams true say 10 milligrams wednesday 20 milligrams tuesday thursday 10 milligrams etc etc and that’s what i did for a week then the week after that i went ten milligrams five milligrams 10 5 10 5 and then after that i had a whole week where i was on just five milligrams just pure 5 milligrams to see how well i go and during
That time i didn’t notice any negative differences but i did actually notice positive differences i actually felt much better i felt less i mean i felt more in tune with stuff i felt more passionate i felt more inspired you know there was a lot of positive things they were coming with with weaning myself onto lower and lower doses and i really like the results
Everything was going fine in those you know in those weeks where i was winning myself off not knowing the drug knowing the drug didn’t cause any negative side effects that i found it was only until i started actually not having any in my system that i started to notice those withdrawal symptoms they spoke about at the beginning of this video so at this point
And the withdrawal symptoms have lessened like that it’s not as bad as it was when my body was in like had gone completely cold turkey from the drug so now i feel much better i feel like i did while i was in the drug so now i know that i probably don’t need the drug anymore i’m not gonna say anything i’m not gonna say any definite things because you don’t know
What tomorrow’s gonna bring on the next day but i know right now that i don’t need the drug i feel like i did while i was on the drug and while i was winning myself off the drug as well i felt no difference today then i was when i was on the drug basically but what helped me was being aware that there were draw symptoms were exactly that there were just my body
Reacting to not having the drug it was nothing to do with me or my personality it was just all my soul it was just the drug it was just it was just my body’s reaction to having the drug in my system anymore and being aware of that made it much more easier to get through some of those emotions because sometimes when you’re experiencing these withdrawal symptoms you
Kind of just have to take it moment by moment and being aware that hey this is just a signal from my body to let me know that something’s up it’s just a signal it’s nothing to do with me i don’t need to take the drug one i start having withdrawal symptoms and made me think maybe i you need these underneath depressants maybe i do need to go back on the drug and i
Would think about taking the drug again you know but i’m glad i didn’t because now i know that they are literally just my body’s reaction to not having the drug and i’m not going to say that i’m not gonna have anymore withdrawal symptoms because i don’t like i said i don’t know what tomorrow is gonna bring i don’t even know what the next hour is going to bring me
But i feel really bad in an hour or so you know but right now i’m okay and i feel like this is where it’s eventually going to lead to where i have no move draw symptoms and this is just my default now if you obviously if you’re watching this video then perhaps you’re on set to prime yourself and you’re hoping to win yourself off or you’re just trying to you know
Make more understanding of the symptoms that you have or to find out if you’re not alone in your symptoms or your withdrawal symptoms or whatever you’re not alone i feel like this is a thing that most people experience when they don’t take the drug anymore but the only thing that i would recommend is to make sure that you get a proper plan with your gp if you’re
Trying to win yourself off don’t go cold turkey on them because i remember once when i did do that during that five years where i was on them they’ll be like a time where i forget to take them i’d be like a few days old i wouldn’t take them and i would have really really bad symptoms so don’t they really bad withdrawal symptoms like heavily dizzy really feeling
Really really really down please make sure that you wean yourself off slowly but you need to discuss this with your gp so that’s my experience with the drug this is what i am at the moment i’m okay i probably will still have some symptoms as the week’s progress but i’m hopeful that they will eventually go away and it’s thanks to neuro linguistic programming that
Has really helped me and my own sort of learning of self-help personal development which is why i’m now a life coach as well like i help other people learn these techniques and i coach people on how to be reliant on themselves and not other things like other people and other things that you can have us like crutches that can help you get through life but being
Reliant on yourself is the most important thing and that’s why teach people i teach people to be reliant on themselves to learn things to grow as a person to understand your mind your emotions and that you are in control and that’s why i coach people on that’s how much i was so dived into self development and stuff and nlp and it’s just it’s just transformed my
Life basically but like i said all therapies work to a degree and definitely don’t negate things that work for you just because i said so so anyway like i said i’m not a i’m not a medical professional but this was my experience anyway guys i hope that you found this video informative and helpful in some way please leave a like if you’ve if it’s helped you in some
Way if you’ve enjoyed it and i shall talk to you again very soon good bye guys
Transcribed from video
My Withdrawal Symptoms of Citalopram By Christine Loveridge
