Celexa, and where to find info on "legit" drugs?

[Denial]

Well, I finally got in to see the shrink and got a prescription to help me deal with my depression and anxiety....
Celexa 20mg once daily.
Thing is, the doc really didnt explain to me why she chose this over other SSRI's, and I'm having a hell of a time finding any decent source of information about it online... even the manufacturer's site says "for the treatment of depression".... well no shit.
Anyone got an idea where I can find like what benefits and advantages particular SSRI's have over others?
I mean shit... I can find information of ever fucking possible intoxicant and illegal mind altering substance known to man... but I can't find jack shit about something totally legal.
Just kinda baffled, need some places to look..
Thanks for advice guys,
peace.

 

[manson]

LOL i use to have to take that but now i take prozac. i needed a more potent anti-depressent LOL but ne ways just crush up a whole bunch of those pills and then snort them! its fun and it gives youa a buzz!!

 

[Denial]

er... dont think ill be railing SSRIs anytime soon...
but really, webmd.com and rxlist.com were worthless in my quest for knowledge...
hell, right now I'd settle for just some anecdotal evidence and reports of how the SSRI's differ specifically...
peace

 

[SovietContin]

All I know is that my diagnosis was changed from "depression" to "bipolar disorder" when Celexa gave me sertonin syndrome within days.
Apparently it does that with bipolars, but works fine if you just have depression.
Couldn't tell you a lot about it other than that, though. Obviously I had to discontinue it VERY quickly.

 

[luv rolling]

ill tell you that shit sucks ass, go back to the doc and get some prozac

 

[cascadia]

I know someone who takes it and says it works very well. The mentioned sites are the ones that I know of.
Advising people to snort their antidepressant medication is lame and pathetic.

 

[fairnymph]

Do a search in Medical Q & A -- there's been some good discussion over the past month about the pros and cons of SSRIs. I'll try and dig up some links for you later.

 

[Denial]

thanks nymph.... i head over there to check it out...
and corruption, what are the symptoms of serotonin syndrome?
(i mean, i know that id KNOW something's seriously wrong...so far this stuff just makes my stomach feel icky, im sleepy, i yawn alot, and i feel 'odd')

 

[Wink Jr]

I've never been diagnosed and prescribed SSRIs but I have taken Celexa once for about a week just to see what it was about, and I've got at over a dozen friends who've been on various SSRIs. So this is all anecdotal evidence, take it with many grains of salt.
Listed from weakest/slowest acting/perhaps longest half-life:
Prozac: the standard. Takes a number of weeks to kick in. A friend started it three weeks ago and she finally feels the effects. Some feel it effects sex drive negatively but she and another friend have said "no problem". Doesn't seem to react badly with alcohol.
Zoloft: Prozac's twin. Slow acting. Everyone reports negative impact on sex drive. Bad to mix with alcohol too, lowers resistance to approx. 50%.
Paxil: Faster acting, stronger. Most report negative impact on sex drive. Often prescribed with Wellbutrin. Dunno about alcohol reaction.
Celexa: Fastest acting, even at 20mg or even 10mg (max. dose is 40mg). Most report no impact on sex drive. Reacts VERY BADLY with alcohol. I can drink quite a bit and one pint of beer on the third day I was on Celexa completely fucked me up. We're talking no inhibition, weird-out. I know of at least two people who've completely freaked out after drinking normally while on Celexa. Their web site recommends against any alcohol but having seen the effects myself I can't state strongly enough to be very, very careful combining the two.
The people I know who've stayed on SSRIs stick with Prozac and Paxil. Zoloft has never worked for anyone I know in ways they could deal with, and while I know one person who doesn't drink and uses Celexa, there's at least three who won't ever touch the stuff again due to really bad freakouts (that includes me.)
Never mix MAOIs with SSRIs!
I wish I could offer web sites or info about Celexa but I ran into the same problem - there's scant little info out there about it, which is strange considering it seems by far the strongest and quickest acting SSRI. I can definitely feel it an hour after I take it and three days into it, it's very strong.
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"Nature isn't stable. Life isn't stable. Stability is unnatural. The only stable society is the police state. You can have a free society or a stable society. You can't have both. Take your choice. As for me, I'll choose a free, organic society over a rigid, artificial society any day."
-- Plucky Purcell

 

[SovietContin]

Here is what happened when I took Celexa:
The first two days, nothing noticable other than bizarre dreams, somewhat disturbed sleep.
On the third day I started feeling as if I was in the midst of horrible depression, well, I had symptoms like that, but on the other hand I was manic at the same time. Everything became very dream-like. I felt very disconnected. Everything looked different. Actually it was very similar to the visual changes you get from high doses of meth or 4-methylaminorex. I had this constant background noise and off and on through the day I would hear laughing.
On the fourth day I became increasingly paranoid. I could hear laughter. My ears had this tone.. like when the computer is off but the monitor is still on.. very high pitch and noticeable, but at the same time you almost can't hear it. There were lots of visual shifts. I felt completely wrong. I had an argument with my parents because I was acting really eratic and I remember yelling something like "I hate this, I don't know what's wrong me, I feel like I'm caught in a bad acid trip that won't go away".
Called my doctor on the fifth day, because I really hadn't been sure if this was just an extreme manic episode or the medication. I hadn't taken the Celexa on this day, though.
The high frequency tone/buzz I kept hearing was unbearable. I heard lots of laughter. All my senses were just WRONG. That's the only way to explain it. Incredible paranoia. My emotions seemed like they had been all mixed together into one intense feeling. I felt physically ill, but not nauseas for whatever reason. I had a fever.
The symptoms subsided after a few days.
If you have serotonin syndrome, you WILL know it. It's very extreme and you will not mistake it as a simple bad reaction to your medication. I've tried numerous SSRI's and Desipramine and Welbutrin. Suprisingly, Welbutrin never gave me any bad side effects, but everything else did. None of them even came close to the level or severity of serotonin syndrome, though. It has a lot of features reminiscent of a psychedelic experience.. all BAD.
I can't recall the dosage I was on, but my doctor always starts me out with the lowest dose when it comes to anti-d's and mood stabilizers. Someone else said 10mg was the lowest dose pill they come in, so that's probably what it was.

 

[melissa32]

My husband is taking celexa right now.
he has been on it a week. I have never heard the fastest acting thing, the docs tell him three or four weeks.
So far, he is eating a lot less and we are not having sex.
I have not seen any improvment in mood, but again, we were told weeks.
He took prozac before and I hated the way he was on that. He was like a fucking ZOMBIE. Nothing got in, nothing came out.
I don't fully understand the why of it all, but you have to keep moving to a new SSRI until you find the one that works for you.
That is all I know, so goodnight.

 

[Homeboy]

I mean shit... I can find information of ever fucking possible intoxicant and illegal mind altering substance known to man... but I can't find jack shit about something totally legal.

If I were you, I'd speak with my shrink/doc. They tend to know a thing or two about the drugs they're prescribin' ya.
Peace
--CH
side note : I was on Celexa for about a year, and Wink a'int fuckin' around when he said it doesn't mix well with alcohol. I drank a sixer (I can usually handle a half rack without being "drunk") and I was absolutely balls to the wall smashed. It was terrible. Worst, sloppiest feeling drunk I've ever been.
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://the.select.few #od
[This message has been edited by Homeboy (edited 11 November 2001).]