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2nd Celexa Update - Feeling Poor, but hopeful
July 15, 2026··
taper update
I feel like I'm slowly coming out of a long, wiggly wave. It's been a difficult few months of stress and anxiety.
It's hard to separate out what is withdrawal and what has been exacerbated by an ongoing stressful situation with a family member living in my house; I have no doubt that this situation, which will hopefully be resolved in a couple of months, has been putting a lot of strain on my already sensitive system.
A lot has happened but I'll try to keep it brief. I seemed ok with 2.5% drops down to 3.4mg, but dropping below that has been rough. I tried a couple of times and my health anxiety and other symptoms were so bad I increased the dose (e.g. heart palpitations and chest pain -- I ended up having an ecg, which was normal, and helped ease some anxiety).
I didn't want to stop tapering, so I began crawling along doing 0.5% reductions every week or so.
(3.38mg, 3.36mg, 3.34mg, 3.32mg, 3.3mg, held for a couple of weeks. Then 3.28mg, 3.26mg)
Physically, this seems to be going well. All of my concerning symptoms have eased up considerably. I do notice mild brain zaps and "whooshes" a day after a reduction, an occasional palpitation, but they are minimal and tolerable and get better in a few days. It feels like the years before my nervous breakdown/nervous system sensitisation, when I'd run out of medication and feel a bit weird after a few days but it wasn't too bothersome.
The anxiety is another story. I'm not sure whether my anxiety is directly withdrawal related or I have developed an anxiety problem partially independent of it. It seems like my anxiety was triggered by withdrawal, and is worsened by being sensitised, and is worse when withdrawal is worse, BUT... I'm wondering if it has grown into a beast of its own.
I did originally have anxiety issues, which is why I started citalopram in the first place. I have a lot of old "stuff" from childhood onwards that I thought I had largely resolved, but I'm realising I haven't. Maybe some of the anxiety is due to not having as much of a blunting effect from the drug now.
The difficulty is it's making it hard to know whether I'm tapering too fast. Because physically, I feel pretty good and am thinking of trying some 1% reductions. But the anxiety issues are impacting my functioning and impacting my family (two young children and husband).
I'm seeking professional support from a somatic therapist (first appointment tomorrow) and am contacting hypnotherapists for help with my old stuff. I'm also working at managing the anxiety -- getting to know the patterns, symptoms, how my brain kicks into gear trying to find things to worry about, etc.
I will see if I can improve my anxiety while continuing to taper. I don't mind doing it slowly as long as I'm doing it.
AJ’s taper progress
Dose (mg)
Mood (/10)
Celexa — 3.6mg — 15+ years — actively tapering | without clinician
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