For some people (people like me), taking a drug like Celexa is a no-win situation. It numbs my emotional responses, so that while I don't feel as bad when I feel bad, I also don't feel as good when I feel good. Not what I want out of my psychotropics.
Worse than that, all SSRIs, just like the older tricyclic antidepressants, have the far too common side effect of reducing sex drive and sexual ability. That may not seem bad when you hear about it, but trust me: having a healthy sex life is important to physical and mental health. Would you rather be depressed because you're not taking a drug to fix it, or because you want to have sex and can't get anywhere with it?
But worst of all: I recommend 100% against taking any SSRI if you believe it's not going to be long term. See, for many of us, SSRIs induce a mild chemical dependency (I think it primarily has to do with dependence on increased serotonin levels). So when you stop taking it, you have withdrawal.
I'm in the middle of weathering a withdrawal right now. Hopefully, this will be the last time, but I can't say for certain. Every time I've gone off an SSRI, I've told myself that I'm not putting myself through that again. This is now the third time I've been on and then off of one (Lexapro this time).
So, you may be asking, what's SSRI/serotonin withdrawal like? Ick. The first few days are easy, because your body takes a few days to flush out all of the drug. Somewhere around the fifth or sixth day after you stop taking it, the symptoms start. Withdrawal symptoms may vary, but for me, it's like continual motion sickness that lasts for days, mixed with a mild migraine headache. It generally doesn't reach the point of actually vomiting, but the combination of headache, dizziness, and nausea makes me wish I could vomit it out so I could feel better. I can't, of course, because the problem isn't the presence of a toxin but rather the absence of one my body had gotten used to.
What I do to try to relieve the symptoms is pretty simple. I've found that, for me, Dramamine and Tylenol help take the edge off the dizziness and headache. Treating it like a migraine in terms of my behavior helps also (that's just behavior...migraine medications won't help this). And since part of the problem is the reduced serotonin levels after stopping the drug that kept them elevated, and some studies suggest that serotonin and blood sugar are linked, I've also found that keeping my blood sugar up and plenty of food in my stomach helps the nausea. That is, if I can get past the nausea long enough to feel like eating something.
But in the end, none of this stuff helps much during the peak of the symptoms, which is generally days seven through ten after the last dose. (Today is day ten for me this round.) During that stretch, all I can stomach doing is laying on the couch. Which is about all I've done for the last few days.
One thing seems to help during the peak period: adrenaline. I had a minor panic attack on Saturday morning, and so most of the day Saturday I felt okay with the withdrawal symptoms. I thought maybe the withdrawal was going to be shorter this time. But the respite was illusory. I made the mistake of going out on a preplanned excursion with a group of friends to the dollar theater for a re-viewing of The Two Towers. We were planning to MSTify it, so we all sat in the front row to avoid bothering other patrons. (We try to be polite when we're being rude.)
Ugh. BIG mistake. The jerky hand-held camera movements through many sequences made me as nauseated as I got when I first watched The Blair Witch Project. I kept having to close my eyes every few minutes to quell the nausea. Good thing I had seen the movie before.
And then, when the movie was over, the scrolling credits made me even queasier. I had to quickly urge our merry band of mischief makers out to the parking lot so I didn't pass out on the spot.
I'm hoping that since this is day ten, tomorrow will be better. But at this point, I'm not holding my breath for it. I suspect that tomorrow will find me exactly where today did: flat on my back on the couch with my laptop next to me. Not where I want to be. (As nice as it would seem to be to be able to lay on the couch all day and websurf, it's not much fun when the heat from the laptop is making you more nauseated. And, even though I hate my employer, at this point I would still much rather be at work than be feeling the way I do right now.)
So keep all that in mind when your doctor recommends an SSRI. You might consider trying Wellbutrin instead; it doesn't have the sexual or numbing side effects, and I've never experienced any withdrawal effects from it.
[Follow-up note: this was written two days ago, at the peak of my withdrawal. Today, I only notice the symptoms at all if I stand up for too long or move too suddenly. I did spend day eleven at home, but I didn't have to stay flat on my back. So, even though the withdrawal is nasty, it does have an end to it.]
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