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Citalopram - First time - Absolutely amazed

crOOk

crOOk

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
4,047
Location
Germany
So I started a thread about this in OD. Went to the psychiatrist, tried to get some amphetamine cause I'll start studying medicine in two weeks. Instead she gave me citalopram - what a bummer... Or so I thought.

Went out and popped a 20mg pill, I couldn't quite define what was going on, I sure had some elevated mood and lots of side effects. Fast forward 24h and see me popping the recommended 10mg. An hour later I feel the sun rising in my heart, I feel just as if I had a crush on a beautiful summer day. I hear people become tired and apathatic off this stuff, but the exact opposite is the case for me. I have tons of energy, in the past 3 days (I'm on day 4 now) I got an amazing amount of work done. I'm more productive than I've been in my entire life.

I just can't believe what's happening, the relationship to my girlfriend is actually starting to come back to shape (we have a kid of 14months together), so this might actually become a life changing thing.

I didn't even consider myself depressed before this. Sure, I was struggling, sure life was more fun a few years ago, but I doubt anyone would feel different in my circumstances.

Side effects:
-Headaches lasting for about 5 hours starting 2-3h after administration of drug
-Increased sweating, especially at nighttime, causing me to dehydrate and increase the intensity of the headache
-Increased tension in jaw muscles
-Excessive yawning (which has decreased a lot by now, almost gone)
-Motor tics in the legs, seem to be regressive
-Nasty feeling/taste in my throat up to the tongue, very similar to the feeling that psychedelics cause for me
-Decreased appetite, but I'm optimistic it'll be possible to keep my calory intake constant

-Increased libido
-Increased intensity of orgasms
-Achieving orgasms became slightly more difficult

Anyway, this stuff is the fucking bomb!!!!! I have no idea why people say it takes weeks to work, it does not for me. Might have something to do with my excessive use of psychedelics (200-300 trips, last trip 2.5 yrs back).

I never expected this and I am very very curious to what's gonna happen in the next two weeks. That being said, I'm still gonna demand some amphetamine from my psychiatrist! :D


EDIT: Oh and music sounds feckin AMAZING, too! Been a while that I was able to enjoy music like I am doing now. I am constantly whistling when there's no music. I'm not sure, but I think psychiatry would define my current state as manic.
 
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Thanks for sharing, it's not too often people bother to write a report about anti-depressants. Keep us posted on how the effects keep up as time goes on.

While I have never tried them personally, I was always surprised when people said that SSRIs have no acute psychoactive effects. Wouldn't the re-uptake inhibition of serotonin influence mood/cognition in the short term?

I mean, serotonin releasers are considered active, and SSRI's are analogous to dopamine re-uptake inhibitors, so it seems they should have some kind of immediate effect (that is, since both dopamine releasers and dopamine re-uptake inhibitors have very similar effects to one another, why wouldn't serotonin releasers and serotonin re-uptake inhibitors be similar to one another as well?).
 
of course it affects you

when i started on them i got mad gurning, nausea, massive pupils and mild euphoria that went away after three days but came back whenever i mixed alcohol with it.

mixing citalopram and alcohol for me was kinda magical

avoid speed with it as one of my friends ended up abusing the two together and from personal experience it is amazing but very bad for your brain.

why does everyone on this website think prescription amphetamines are the solution to mental health issues-amphetamines are the single worst drug for destroying your personality and causing psychosis in my experience

avoid speed like the plague if you get depressed

wait six months and citalopram will cause apathy and emotional indifference
 
Interesting, I've only tried Fluoxetine and didn't do shit, but then again I had lots of other stuff going on on my life at that point...
 
pofacedhoe said:
wait six months and citalopram will cause apathy and emotional indifference
Click to expand...

This has certainly been the case with Lexapro 10mg, which is essentially the same drug.

T+2 days - Fantastic body buzz (night sweats, which felt awesome for some reason), greatly enjoying the company of others, mild rolling feeling.

T+14 days - Feels like a nice lubricant. Anxiety still arises, but it doesn't bother me. I feel it, and go, hmmm, alright. Still increased enjoyment in socializing. Compulsion to drink alcohol completely gone.

T+6 months - Very tough to get out of bed. Not doing shit all day, and it doesn't bother me. Drinking tons of caffeine and smoking cigs just to motivate / wake me up. Dull.

So I added wellbutrin. LIVESAVER. I'm only at day 4, but so far the amotivation and dullness has vanished. I made a deep deep connection with a new friend. I haven't made such a bond (excluding romantic relationships) since high school. Very comfortable in my own skin. Worry about what's going on or what other people think is radically reduced. If someone is acting like a creep or a jerk, I can happily tell them to go fuck themselves, rather than meekly nod like I might have done before.

Anybody who's a poly drug user trying to medicate themselves into some semblance of normalcy, I can't recommend the anti-depressant route enough. Its so nice to just go to a party or friend's house without a thought to what substances I'll be doing that evening. Compulsion to self medicate is gone. Take a couple pills every day, that's it.
 
Incidentally, wellbutrin is known to be a killer aphrodesiac. More dopamine = greater sex drive. With my lexapro+wellbutrin cocktail, I'm getting

a) lexapro's stamina
b) wellbutrin's "vigor"

Orgasms are still dulled by the lexapro. They're not as explosive as they used to be. But my woman couldn't be happier, and that's well worth it.
 
pofacedhoe said:
of course it affects you

when i started on them i got mad gurning, nausea, massive pupils and mild euphoria that went away after three days but came back whenever i mixed alcohol with it.

mixing citalopram and alcohol for me was kinda magical

avoid speed with it as one of my friends ended up abusing the two together and from personal experience it is amazing but very bad for your brain.

why does everyone on this website think prescription amphetamines are the solution to mental health issues-amphetamines are the single worst drug for destroying your personality and causing psychosis in my experience

avoid speed like the plague if you get depressed

wait six months and citalopram will cause apathy and emotional indifference
Click to expand...

so would mixing amphetamines with an SSRI like Luvox (Fluvoxamine, used to treat OCD) be a bad combo? i love Adderall, and feel good on it while on my Luvox, but I haven't been on amphetamines long-term.

god, i love speedy drugs, boo :( :!
 
pofacedhoe said:
why does everyone on this website think prescription amphetamines are the solution to mental health issues-amphetamines are the single worst drug for destroying your personality and causing psychosis in my experience

avoid speed like the plague if you get depressed
Click to expand...
Dosis facit venenum. I self medicated with amphetamine twice in my life, for 3-4months each time. Mind you I'm not being described the ssri for depression, but for add, since health insurance does not pay for amphetamine/methylphenidate in germany, unless it is prescribed for children.

Amphetamine is absolutely magical when it comes to it's effects on my ability to focus. I would take 10mg in the morning and maybe another 5-10 around noon, by the evening the effects had mostly worn off. I was still ablse to eat just fine, sleep fine and felt no need to increase the dosage throughout those 3-4 month periods.

Compared to this ssri, which does jack for my ability to focus, it still isn't the solution, but it sure the hell is the best thing I've found for purposes of studying and remaining calm in school.

When I ceased to take the amphetamine the only symptoms of withdrawal I've felt was a rebound in the "add symptoms" along with a decrease in energy for about a week. Ridiculous.
 
I don't want to sound like a broken record but Wellbutrin (bupropion) is the go-to anti-depressant for ADD. Its a dopamine and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, and ADD is a dopamine imbalance. Lots of studies showing Wellbutrin's efficacy for ADD.
 
memorytremory said:
so would mixing amphetamines with an SSRI like Luvox (Fluvoxamine, used to treat OCD) be a bad combo? i love Adderall, and feel good on it while on my Luvox, but I haven't been on amphetamines long-term.

god, i love speedy drugs, boo :( :!
Click to expand...

it just masks the damage that amphetamine is doing, by covering it up in a blanket. a couple of years ago i would take citalopram on and off for when i wasn't and was on mdma/mdea. anyway taking speed with citalopram will mask how much the speed is fucking with your head and if you come off both at once it IS agony.

crOOk- maybe your built for speed, but i wasn't and what began as enhanced focus turned into addiction and psychosis. i do however drink coca tea these days and it gives me incredible focus and is cheap plus i'm only under its influence when i need to be cos it wears off quick

citalopram does away with your perception of your own emotions after a while,it cures depression by numbing you to you feelings (often feelings are a reaction to our lives). anyway it never did me any great benefit, tramadol was a much better anti depressant taken once in a small dose in the morning each day
 
This is an older thread but I am interested in hearing from those who have felt that citalopram has caused apathy - e.g. blunting of emotions or even basically eradicating them altogether. My Mom has some various issues that have developed over the past year and a half and she has been opposed to taking any of these types of medications but was finally convinced to take a very low dose of citalopram which was started about six months ago. While there was a small amount of initial apparent benefit, that quickly disappeared. Also, I was just with her for a week and while all of the other problems remain, the thing that struck me most that I had not seen previously was her complete lack of emotion. It was quite shocking to me just how void of emotion she was. As I have been mulling that over, I decided to do a search about this possibility and was interested to find this thread. She is taking such a low dose that I wonder if it could have that much negative effect, but I also have to wonder if there is a correlation. I would be very interested to hear any current feedback from others on this issue as I am considering asking Mom's nurse practitioner to take her off the citalopram, but because Mom is so resistant to medication, I know that if she is taken off that she will never go back on that or probably anything else. It's a huge dilemma, but I honestly don't think it's helping her and I'm beginning to think it's hurting her. Any feedback with your thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
as someone who has taken citalopram for me it dulled my emotion and i got stuck in dead end situations and didn't care. same for a female friend of mine.

one of my friends who is autistic (high functioning), was very aggressive and rude before starting on a year and half long course of citalopram. lately he has come off it and he is happy and pulling lots of women and generally i think it had a positive effect on him as before he was very angry. the only problem he had while on it was no sex drive.

it can make you apathetic and get caught in a dull loop. even a low doses is pretty potent. 10mg a day and mdma wont work on you, that pretty potent in my book...
 
interesting, i have previously been precribed fluoxetine, citalopram, escitalopram and now paroxetine and have never noticed anything like you describe. however, in all cases i was concurrently addicted to various opiates/oids and would no doubt imagine that had something to do with it
 
so did this euphoric citalopram experience last for the remainder of the time you did it? i kindof doubt it did. when i initially started taking it i had the sortof semi-high your experiencing for about 3 days. 2 months later it isnt doing shit and i feel worse than before i took it
 
clb42 said:
This is an older thread but I am interested in hearing from those who have felt that citalopram has caused apathy - e.g. blunting of emotions or even basically eradicating them altogether. My Mom has some various issues that have developed over the past year and a half and she has been opposed to taking any of these types of medications but was finally convinced to take a very low dose of citalopram which was started about six months ago. While there was a small amount of initial apparent benefit, that quickly disappeared. Also, I was just with her for a week and while all of the other problems remain, the thing that struck me most that I had not seen previously was her complete lack of emotion. It was quite shocking to me just how void of emotion she was. As I have been mulling that over, I decided to do a search about this possibility and was interested to find this thread. She is taking such a low dose that I wonder if it could have that much negative effect, but I also have to wonder if there is a correlation. I would be very interested to hear any current feedback from others on this issue as I am considering asking Mom's nurse practitioner to take her off the citalopram, but because Mom is so resistant to medication, I know that if she is taken off that she will never go back on that or probably anything else. It's a huge dilemma, but I honestly don't think it's helping her and I'm beginning to think it's hurting her. Any feedback with your thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I am currently taking 20 mg of citalopram, ive been on it since August. I don't feel like it is working at all. I feel completely unmotivated in doing anything, i sleep 13 + hours a day, i cant even initiate small tasks, i don't have any interest in doing anything, going out, talking to people, i pretty much spend my days laying in bed on the computer. This could be depression, but i think the drug is contributing or causing this. My mind feels foggy, i feel totally apathetic, i cant remember things. I haven't been off medications long enough to know what im really like without them so its hard to say whats causing this. Either way i had taken Escitalopram for two years up until last year and it worked way better, i don't remember having any of these symptoms but i didnt want to take it anymore because it ruined my sex drive. So i think im going to go back onto escitalopram asap. I kind of think all these lack of motivation symptoms have to do with the effect of the ssri lowering the amount of dopamine that gets released. dopamine is the motivation neurotransmitter i believe...
 
One thing to watch out for with SSRI's is the possibility of a missed diagnosis of Bi-Polar - I finally got on Prozac after battling suicidal depression med-free, fast forward three days and I'm off skyward. No sleep, no food, anger, rage, complete and utter psychosis, my mind was like a speeding fucking train with a rocket attached.

If you have any inkling you may be bi-polar, even a slight hypomanic episode a few years back, make your psych aware. immediately.
 
SproutOnSmack said:
One thing to watch out for with SSRI's is the possibility of a missed diagnosis of Bi-Polar - I finally got on Prozac after battling suicidal depression med-free, fast forward three days and I'm off skyward. No sleep, no food, anger, rage, complete and utter psychosis, my mind was like a speeding fucking train with a rocket attached.

If you have any inkling you may be bi-polar, even a slight hypomanic episode a few years back, make your psych aware. immediately.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I second this.
 
SproutOnSmack said:
One thing to watch out for with SSRI's is the possibility of a missed diagnosis of Bi-Polar - I finally got on Prozac after battling suicidal depression med-free, fast forward three days and I'm off skyward. No sleep, no food, anger, rage, complete and utter psychosis, my mind was like a speeding fucking train with a rocket attached.

If you have any inkling you may be bi-polar, even a slight hypomanic episode a few years back, make your psych aware. immediately.
Click to expand...

prozac is particularly bad for that
 
never realy cared for it on its own, but it had a pretty good effect when i smoke spice after taking my 20 mgs
 
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