Celexa side effects

[Joan]

I have been on celexa for a couple of years. I think all antideppressants are scary and should be avoided. My friend had the same thing happen to her with the scary thoughts, which are typical of anxiety. I think the celexa is causing it. I would stop using it and try cognitive therapy. There's a great programm called attacking anxiety and depression by Lucinda bassett. You can find it at stresscenter.com . good luck

[Joan]

I would stop the celexa and try cognotive therapy. The best programm I have found is at stresscenter.com
It's called Attacking Anxiety and Deppression.

[pantherinthefore st]

Celexa made me feel really doped up, and since all the SSRI's I've ever taken make me feel that way, I figured it would stay that way, so I stopped taking it - with my doctor's permission - and stayed on the Wellbutrin, which has given me my energy and motivation back. If you aren't particularly depressed, but you can't seem to get going, and aren't motivated to do stuff, maybe a medication that affects dopamine would be good for you - Wellbutrin is one of the few that does.

I have panic disorder on top of depression, so I take Buspar at night for the anxiety, and Wellbutrin in the morning. I've felt better than I have for 13 years, since I took my first psych med, after 23 years of talk therapy only!

[libby]

jon wrote:

i have been advised to take this medicine. I got home without buyin the medicine, sat down and thought for a while.
Am i depressed? Why am i anxious? Man, there is no reason for me to be sad or mad or whatever. If i get tensed, am gonna die anyway :-)
Am not buying any anti-anxious, anti-depressants !
God says "be anxious about nothing, but leave all our worries upon him, for HE cares "
Am gonna try God, n not this tablet..

This is good advice. I feel the same regarding this matter. Have held onto the prescription and wondered why I should be taking this if the side effects could worsen my overall health and/or mood? I will give my cares to God and ask that He lift my spirits and mood - not to offer my well-being up for such a drug! Thanks for the reminder message, Jon!

[pantherinthefore st]

If God didn't want us to have medications he wouldn't have given us doctors and scientists! I don't ask God for anything - I just want to do His will. I don't ask to be relieved of my anxiety etc.- I find the solution myself, with doctors and help groups. If you don't think the doctor is right, get a second opinion - you aren't a doctor, and you aren't God either, but you can make the effort to discover your own truth - with the help of others!

I think people who fall back on God when they have difficulties are hiding from facing their emotional truths. Don't hide, talk about it with God AND another human being, and find the solution! Be reasonably content, and do God's will.

[mikel]

pantherintheforest wrote:

Celexa made me feel really doped up, and since all the SSRI's I've ever taken make me feel that way, I figured it would stay that way, so I stopped taking it - with my doctor's permission - and stayed on the Wellbutrin, which has given me my energy and motivation back. If you aren't particularly depressed, but you can't seem to get going, and aren't motivated to do stuff, maybe a medication that affects dopamine would be good for you - Wellbutrin is one of the few that does.
I have panic disorder on top of depression, so I take Buspar at night for the anxiety, and Wellbutrin in the morning. I've felt better than I have for 13 years, since I took my first psych med, after 23 years of talk therapy only!

Hi my name is Mike and my doctor wants to put me on Welbrutin for my a.d.d. and major depression.You said if your not particularly depressed it would be a good one to take.In your opinion do you think it would help my major depressive disorder?I am going to an addictions counsellor to help in abstaining from alcohol and through this program I'm being set up to see a therapist/psychologist.They said that if it's a chemical imbalance they wouldn't be able to change that with therapy ,just help me adapt and cope.You said you were in therapy for 23 years.Did you find that the therapy,although necessary for the pschological part of the depression,wasn't enough to click your brain into drive so to speak? I'm about to embark once on both fronts again.I haven't had very pleasurable experiences on the ssri's in the past.But I guess welbrutin is different chemically.The last psychologist said that he couldn't help me unless I was treated by a psychiatrist and put on meds because in his opinion I wasn't well enough to do therapy.
Good luck to you.I wish you the best. Mike

[pantherinthefore st]

In response to mike1, who asked about sobriety, therapy, and Wellbutrin:

I got sober in 1984, at age 32, after decades of anxiety and depression - which I'd been "treating" with alcohol. I started talk therapy in 1972, but the shrinks didn't know about my drinking, so any insights I got in a shrink session got "drowned" at night - and I drank pretty much every night. I started therapy again after 6 years of sobriety in AA - the AA program is essential, I think, to keeping me straight about life. My main thing is to always be aware that "my ego is out to get my ass."
If you have major depressive disorder, which I do also, it's like a chemical malfunction in your brain. I can accept the fact that my brain chemistry may never "get right" again and I'll have to take meds - replacement chemicals - forever. I'm just grateful that I finally found a combination that helps me function "normally", whatever that is - I have a job, and I'm starting to interact with other humans (I go bowling in a league). I've been very isolated socially because my anxiety makes me distrust just about everybody, so I panic when people want to get close to me.
My advice - and I'm not a doctor, but I've "been there, done that", is to try the meds your doctor suggested. I hope your doctor is a psychiatrist, medical doctors really don't have a clue - it's not their field - and they certainly don't know how to combine meds to get a better result.
Go to AA, do the steps in AA - it's not hard, just don't believe anything your ego tells you, and be of service to others. Be grateful, don't justify anger, resentments or good fortune - that's all ego.
My panic was caused by being neglected as an infant and young child. My parents never made me feel safe, so my Fight/Flight part of the brain gets scared when people want to like me - my brain's got it backwards. I think this is probably the case with most of us who were abused or neglected - my parents didn't like to touch me, treated me like a piece of furniture that was quiet and didn't make a fuss.
Maybe your brain chemistry will "get right" and maybe not - it doesn't really matter, because we're just a bunch of chemicals and neurons anyway. It took me until this year - and I'm 57 - to finally feel balanced, reasonably content, calm with friends (instead of getting panicky because they're "getting too close"). I'm sad that it took 57 years, but I hope to have a few more decades of quality life. Don't wait to get your quality life, there's always a solution.