Hi, I have been on celexa for MAV for a few years now. It has been amazing and has helped so much. For a long time I had constant dizziness and anxiety/panic attacks. I finally decided to try celexa and I would say I have been at 95 percent. Now I am thinking about stopping it. I don’t want to be on this the rest of my life and my husband and I want to have kids pretty soon. I am on 20 mg right now. I talked to my doctor and she said to go to 10 mg for a month and then to stop taking it completely after that. I am worried about withdrawal symptoms. Has any had any experience with this?? Also I am worried once I stop taking it the dizziness and anxiety will come back. Has anyone ever had there mav under control with meds and stopped taking it?
I’m glad you are feeling so well! I can’t help you with the second part of your question since I am still on meds (not Celexa), but my advice to you about weaning off Celexa would be to go very slowly. My understanding is that going down very slowly can’t hurt but doing otherwise certainly can. So go down to 15 or so, ten to 10, then to 5. I also read that getting off the last bit is the hardest on the brain, so you might get off the last 5 mg eve more gradually. If it is a tablet, break it up in even smaller pieces or if a capsule, go to sprinkling it on food etc. I’m sorry I don’t know how and in what doses Celexa comes so I can’t be specific.
Someone who has direct experience answers soon, I hope. But definitely go slower than what the dr said.
Thanks for the reply! I do think I should go slower than what the doctor suggested. Celexa is a tablet and it’s really small so it might be hard to cut it up. But I think I am going to do 15 mg for a month, then 10 for a month, and then 5 for a month, and maybe do 5 every other day for a couple weeks? I am scared to try this but want to see if I will be okay on my own without the medicine. It probably won’t help if I am anxious getting off of it so I am going to try and not worry about it. I know I can always go back on if I need to.
yes, that sounds great. The slower the better. Someone wrote here once that they got off a small dose of Nortriptyline over the course of a year! So nothing is too slow.
Don’t be anxious - like you said you can always go back to what works.
You can’t guarantee you will or will not get dizzy again but what can you guarantee in life? I am just saying, rationally speaking, anything can happen in life and as my neuro said once, we don’t worry about things that haven’t happened (b/c anything can happen to anyone - and maybe they won’t - no one knows) Best wishes to you!
Hi!
I went straight from 20 mg to 10 mg. For the most part it has been fine! For two days I did feel like I had some trouble concentrating and I had a headache but that could have been a coincidence. I have stayed at 10 mg since I have been busy with going out of town and working extra hours. I have felt a little bit dizzier at times but nothing like before and still manageable. I’m hoping to go down to 5 mg next week. I’ll keep you posted!
thanks for the update. I hope you continue to do well completely off-meds, if you decide to do so. My GP is considering adding a SSRI for the MAV and I am quite fearful to take them. Was it tough to get on it when you first started? Did you have a lot of bad side effects?
Best wishes to you!