I am taking Celexa now...

Depression runs in my family, and I have been in a bit of a funk lately. For the first time in my life — I am a bit of a hypochondirac and don’t even like taking aspirin! — I am taking an anti-depressant: Celexa.

Can someone with experience taking this drug, or drugs like it (SSRIs I think is what they are called) post what their experiences have been? I especially would like to hear positive stories — the internet is filled with horror stories, and I already don’t feel great about this…

I have been on it for 2 days. I am takng 10mg, and a standard dose (so I have been told) is 20mg. Thing is…

I already feel funny.

I feel like my thoughts are cloudy, I am more anxious. I am deathly afraid of killing my erections or ability to have an orgasm. I even found one website that says there can be permanent sexual side effects! That is, even after you stop taking the drugs you still can’t shoot your goods. Now that would be depressing!

So, anyone else out there have any experience on drugs like this? I kinda feel like quitting already, but my doctor was pretty adamant I give it a shot for 6 weeks. :(

I talked about my experience with Celexa in these posts:

Ike - PEing and ANTI-DEPPS?
Ike - Meds causing Ejac problems?
Ike - Paxil and SSRI’s delay orgasms

The short story is, from my experience at least: if you have trouble cumming on Celexa, get a prescription for Wellbutrin too.

Thanks Ike.

However, people can disregard this thread. I have decided to quit the meds as of today, with only 2 days of taking them.

Maybe it was in my head. Maybe I read too many bad things about this medication on the internet. But I am quitting!

I felt like my mind was in a fog and this morning I woke up with “dry mouth”. Fuck this.

I am going for a more “natural” approach. Fish oil, vitamins, meditation and maybe some yoga.

Fuck this.

You don’t need that shitt. The reason people are killing themselves from taking that crap is that it robs you of your soul. You’ll be a walking zombie with ZERO sex drive. You don’t want it. I was on all that crap for like 10 years. Then I woke up. I did a liver and bowel cleanse and realized that serotinin is synthesized in the gut. I did all these cleanses, changed my diet, started exercizing. But what works best of all is changing the way you think. That is far superiour to all else. After all, it’s your brain that controlls your body, right? Do you want to be depressed? It’s your right not to be. Make the decision man.

Try St. Johns Wort and try changing your thinking. Your depressed out of fear most likely. Analyze where the fear is coming from and whether your beliefs about this fear are warranted, justified or not. Worrying is bad. Think about it. When your worrying, your releasing chemicals from your brain that are KILLING YOUR BODY. More noxious then booze, cigarettes, junk food. Stress will break the body down far faster than any bad habit. I don’t care what anyone says. Just ask yourself if what your worrying about is really worth killing your body over. Also, see if there is a repeat pattern with the worrying. Chances are your worrying will never materialize into anything.

It’s like bills and money. So many times I’ve been in the negatives with the money. I always come back. Things always work out for the best. No matter what. That is always the way. Things are always going to be ok. Keep that thought in the forefront and all the other BS in the back.

Godspeed.

Kevin

Commander - might want to look at 5-HTP.

I don’t think the side effects are permanent, even after you stop taking the drug. Delay of orgasm could be a good thing, or a real problem, depending on how your stamina is beforehand, and how it effects you.

Depression is not a good thing, and obviously SSRI’s are a lifesaver for some people. My wife takes prozac only for 7-10 days per month for PMS (thank god!), and she notices being tired and doen’t especially like the feeling overall, but it is better than the insanity she would go through without it. Once she stops taking it when she gets her period, she feels normal again within a day or two.

Anti=depresants make fat, limp and gimpy and when you decide to throw yourself off a sky scraper you smiling on the way down to distraction.

Try St Johns Wart.perhaps that will help. Have your thyroid check hypothyroid disease will most certainly cause abundant fear and forboding thoughts of doom. It also attacks the brain making you forgetful, foggy in the head.

You must ask yourself.

Am I forgetful?
Am I unusually cold s/a cold hands and feet?
Am I getting fatter without increasing my caloric intake?
Am I losing my erections or not getting them at all?
Is my sex drive declining?
When I drive at night do I get double vision?
Am I getting night blindness?
Is my skin too dry?
Do I retain too much water?
Am I tired and constantly dosing off?

I was on celexa for a couple months. Probably the best thing I did was start taking them. I felt care free and could just relax. People have different reactions though. I remember the first day I was on them, I just dropped everything. I went to lunch with my mom, and when waiting for the food, when I would usually be freaking out about my ex-girlfriend, I was just thinking about what I might do later that night, or how the food was going to taste. I came alot quicker, and my sex drive wasn’t as high, but thats it. After taking it for a couple months, and doing therapy at the same time, I felt good enough to quit. The only thing that happened in the following days was slight dizziness when getting up from laying down. If celexa didn’t work for you, there are plenty of other meds. Just make sure you feel ok on whichever you go with.

This is a great place where else can we be so honest with other people. I never have taken anything and my old advice to you would have been to suck it up and stop whining but than going through my divorce after 15 years of marriage and that was after catching my wife having an affair. Than not seeing my kids enough but I was still coping until my greatest computer job where I was running a big companies computer department until my department was outsourced and than I hit the skids and went into a depression where I didn’t think I would ever awake from and I was seconds from trying anti depressants. I could hardly get up in the morning and was then the walking dead. I found a computer job right away for half what I was making and I was lucky to get it and than I went through a 6 month period where they laid off someone every Friday until my turn came two days before Christmas after I had maxed out my credit card making sure my kids had a great Christmas. Things were bad but I was ok I started doing my own computer business and I started helping a plumber and I also did some consulting computer work for my friends company. I also just started walking because I couldn’t do anything else it was hard enough getting up so I walked and walked like Forest Gump ran than I started running and soon lost 20 pounds and started going to the gym and sure enough the depression passed and I’m stronger than I ever was. I have other issues but depression isn’t one of them. So hang in there and know it will pass and if you can’t get to the gym than just walk like Dino Gump.

You know, I’ve had this very same conversation ad naseum over the years. I was always very anti antidepressants and often spoke my mind about it. I still don’t have that high of a regard for them, but I’ve learned for some that they can be a God send. I have close friends that are severely bipolar and two who are schizophrenic. Without the drugs there would be no hope for these people. On the drugs they live happy, functional, purposeful lives.

Enough said.

I still believe however that there are far too many people on this crap. As far as I’m concerned and from my own experiences, unless you’re suffering from bonifide clinical depression you don’t need this shit. That’s coming from a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Believe me, I know about depression also. Far too many people would rather wallow in their own shit and look for a softer easier solution that deal with their issues.
And as far as I’m concerned NO ISSUE is too great to deal with. It’s kind of like Dino said; what ever happened to dealing with life’s shit instead of trying to escape it in the first place????

I spent far too much of my life in an attempt to remain numb. Attempting not to care and not to feel anything. It was a liability. I couldn’t continue on a path of self destruction if I cared. Ironically, my undoing was that I cared TOO MUCH and I was never taught how to express that to another.

Life has purpose. One of those purposes IS to go through all the shit that we do. When you’ve managed to achieve enough personal growth that you can recognize existentialist jerk offs the likes of Tom Cruise for the fools that they are, then you may get a glimpse of the why also.

I’ve been on top of the mountain before and I’ve literally been through the gates of hell. That was AFTER I got off the drugs.
Personally I WANT to feel life today. I want the ups and downs. Life is SUPPOSE to be that way. Fuck all this even keel garbage. What fun is that kind of life anyways?

O’ wait I’m wrong, I must be bipolar after all. Or at the very least a manic depressive since I like to swing up and down through life.
Damn, my ADD must be kicking up again, or is it the ODD this time. Maybe I’m just an obsessive compulsive eccentric shithead.
Hell maybe it’s the dyslexia again since I seem to be having difficulty focusing and processing all the bullshit feed to me on a daily basis.
I’ll tell you what. Just hang a label on me and I’ll agree to wear it for awhile. If you agree to try and figure out why I don’t exactly fit into the definitions of your labels. Comedian, Corinthian, and Characature.

You see I like to feel the sadness, the hurt, and the sorrow. I also like the ability to feel the happiness, the joy, and the exhilaration that life offers today. All of these things let me know I’m alive today. The trick is to learn to embrace these emotions and not regard them as just something to be endured. I enjoy being able to express this to others and having an ability to genuinely share in another’s happiness as well as their sorrow. We’re all here together for a reason. If this were not the case, then I think we would all be on our own planets. Probably busying ourselves with devising ways to fuck each others planets up.

Sure I have my periods where nothing seems to go my way, or how I think it should. Those times when I want to crank the suicide music at peak volume and cry the blues. When I’m all done pouring myself a big glass of self pity, I’m often remind myself of a quote of Neitzche’s that I came across many years back while reading “The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse” :

Neitzche was quoted as stating; Work appears natural in that it releases man from the tortures of his soul.

Okay now I got you. You’re think wtf RC? Well I had an old timer tell it to me this way once:
“Get a gimmick or get high again”.

Then I was recently reminded of it while listen to a CD (either self improvement or SS stuff):
“Learn to distract you’re thoughts”.

And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told:
RC what you need is to get out of yourself.

Think about that for awhile and I leave you with this thought:

If I were to take what Dino related to us out of the context of his life, then I would have no choice but to label it a tragedy.
Indeed a tragedy in which I could write it’s ending with the act of Dino taking his own life.
But if we were to take these events WITHIN the context of an entire life span, then surely we would see how Dino overcame these trials.
We would observe how he continued on and (hopefully) became a useful, productive, and positive participant in his own life, the life of his child, and the lives of others that came and went through the course of his life.

Then we would have no choice but to deem it a CATHARIS.
That my friends is POETICS. It’s attributed to some guy named Aristotle.
You’ll find within poetics lies some of the keys that will allow you to make life magical.
But you sure the hell won’t find them in a bottle of Zolof or Paxil.

If you really want go in deep, try PHAEDRUS by Plato.

That would distract your thoughts.

_

My doctor gave me a script for Celexa a couple months ago only because I encouraged him to prescribe it (I could of went with out medication). I only took it for about a week at 10mg I think I experienced reduced libido but that could be psychologic. I stopped taking it cold turkey after I found out there would be withdrawal symptoms after longterm use.

I read on the internet that Celexa withdrawal can be pure hell. Some people have a very difficult time coming off Celexa.

I would just caution to those on it now or those that might take it in the future to be aware of the withdrawal symptoms. My doctor told me there were none.luck for me the pharmacist new better! ;)

I experienced no withdrawal as I only took it for a week. I currently use 5htp herbal supplement for depression

P.S. Once you open the door to pharmacology you may never get out

http://www.aska patient.com/vie … 822&name=CELEXA

Real Celexa users give their review
(CTRL+F) search keyword ”WITHDRAWAL”

Antidepressants do not cause addiction, but instead are "habit-forming" and cause “dependence”.

Some people notice weaker erections while on Celexa not surprising because celexa is an SSRI Antidepressants and Men taking SSRI antidepressants often have erectile dysfunction (ED) so it’s to be expected in the long run

http://www.join … com/celexa.html

Celexa

Thinking about taking celexa for depression or some other problem?

Before celexa (the brand name for citalopram) burst onto the U.S. Drug market in the fall of 1998, hundreds of doctors were paid $500 each to prescribe celexa to their depressed patients.

I wonder if your doctor was paid to promote celexa? You might want to ask.

I’m talking about cold, hard cash, not the mountain of free gifts doctors usually recieve as bribes for prescribing certain medications.

It’s no secret that drug companies spend more on marketing than they do on research and development.

P.S. Once you open the door to pharmacology you may never get out