Gibberings CXLIII: Stylish Dictator T-Shirts

[Pagey]

A few years ago I txt'd my manager telling him I was full of ket so not coming in :D - got to work on the Wednesday and shit hit the fan.

Awesome

Woah, thanks for the reminder.

Indeed!

 

[Sammy G]

Morning all. I've been wearing flipflops all summer, hate the thought of getting back into socks and shoes.

If I had any respect for you, it'd all be draining away right at this very minute, y'know?

I'm trying to think of ways to help a friend who's coming off citalopram, she's having a really rough time. I don't think she's up to much though so I may just do a grocery shop and take it round. It angers me people aren't warned about this, I just read 40% of doctors have a lack of knowledge & awareness of these w/ds. Any suggestions on what helps (if anything) would be gratefully received, I don't know what dose she was on but she's been tapering for about a month and was on them for about 2 years.

Slow, slow tapering is a must. I've seen a couple of people come off that stuff and it's really not pretty. Though on the positive side, they were back to 'normal' a month or two down the line and have done fine since they finished the taper.

You're right - a lot of doctors really don't have a clue about antidepressant withdrawal. Doesn't stop them handing the offending drugs out casually, mind.

 

[maxalfie]

I was taking Citalopram a few years back prescribed by my doctor for depression and I couldn't get on with them at all.
The first few weeks they made me yawn a lot and gave me a constant feeling of nausea.
I took them for a few months then I just decided to stop taking them. I can remember getting quite a few of the brain zaps where it felt like electricity was shooting through my brain but thankfully they didn't last long.
Decided to leave the anti depressants alone since then although could probably do with taking them if I thought they would actually work.

 

[Bearlove]

I used to go to work in some seriously fucked up states :D

My mate once got so fucked he just lay on the floor and went to sleep in the middle of the office - It was really funny as we were expecting customers so we pushed/pulled him under his desk out of the way - Sounds like bullshit I know. Was so much fun :D

 

[Sammy G]

One of my mates gave me one of his citalopram because I was a little bit drunk and curious about how much he hated it. I was vomiting for nearly two hours.

 

[Allein]

SSRI and other AD Withdrawal or 'discontinuation syndrome' as they like to call it can be horrible if you've been on them a while, I came off Venlafaxine last year and it was far from pleasant.

Tapering off is clearly going to help, I'm not sure of the half life of Citalopram, I was only on it briefly but it must be longer than Venlafaxine which seems like the crack of ADs.

I assume she is still taking some, IME there is no easy way off them but tapering softens the blow a bit, my symptoms went on for a good 8 weeks for the first 4-5 I had a brain zap every 3-4 minutes as well as a lot of audible disturbances echo and white noise as well as much increased fatigue.

I'm sorry I can't offer much in the way of advice other than to try and find time to quietly relax, it can seem like the symptoms will never end but they will.

 

[Pagey]

I used to go to work in some seriously fucked up states :D

My mate once got so fucked he just lay on the floor and went to sleep in the middle of the office - It was really funny as we were expecting customers so we pushed/pulled him under his desk out of the way - Sounds like bullshit I know. Was so fckn funny though.

More stories please, these are awesome :D

Best (or worst) I've done was go to my internship on aMT about 5 times. They probably got a bit suspicious when I stared at the wall for 20mn straight regularly but they never said anything so hey

 

[ColtDan]

anyone here like Doug Stanhope? what a legend

 

[lurching]

I was taking Citalopram a few years back prescribed by my doctor for depression and I couldn't get on with them at all.
The first few weeks they made me yawn a lot and gave me a constant feeling of nausea.
I took them for a few months then I just decided to stop taking them. I can remember getting quite a few of the brain zaps where it felt like electricity was shooting through my brain but thankfully they didn't last long.
Decided to leave the anti depressants alone since then although could probably do with taking them if I thought they would actually work.

I recently (about 4 months ago) tried citalopram, not expecting much because I never got much out of SSRI's. 20mg per dag. I got fierce agitation! I mean waking up with gross palpitations, heart beating in throat, rate of 120+ BPM at rest. Yawning and nausea were bad, like a pill comeup or early stages of psilocybin, right from the first day. I got an enormous surge of self-confidence and a sort of empathic awareness, I felt very alive. At the same time I felt like I was poisoned. 20mg was WAY too much for me, although strangely I have had tried citalopram at the exact same dose in the past without any effects at all!
After four days I stopped (my GP agreed that the side effects were getting dangerous and sent me home with a pack of Valium cos my blood pressure was high and I was a mess). I continued battling with this serotonin sickness for three more weeks or as most of it slowly went away, the cardio problems lasted longer. Still have some weird anxiety in the morning. I'm still curious if there isn't a SSRI that fits me better, but am also very suspicious of getting a bad overreaction such as that again.

 

[Allein]

I used to go to work in some seriously fucked up states :D

I still marvel at how I've got away with this in the past, doing the ground work of always being a bit on the odd side helps.

I often used to do stimulants at work in a very straight office, did a great customer presentation once just after vaping a load of PV in the toilets, fuck knows what I thought I was doing

 

[Albion]

anyone here like Doug Stanhope? what a legend

Yes. One of my favourite comedians/social commentators.

Doug Stanhope - Good Drugs

 

[Bearlove]

More stories please, these are awesome :D

Pagey I have worked in some proper crazy places with some proper nutcases :D. Most of it would sound like Im lying (mate handcuffed to the toilet after taking a trick to work, running the rep over, crashing through the wall on a forklift. I was working for one company and me and my friend (this is random but the guy who was asleep on the floor - it was his wife) got an oz of base delivered (which turned up in a stolen car with the police helicopter chasing it - guy dropped it off and said, sorry I can't stop :D) we got so fucked that we were doing 'overtime' and we just decided to rearrange the office :D. Got to work the following day and nobody knew where they were sitting or what had happened :D

My mate (the wife in this scenario) used to have so much fun - proper piss taking, fucked up fun. (don't get me wrong we were both raking in thousands and thousands of pounds [stupid money]) - how we even functioned is beyond me though :D.

 

[badandwicked]

ple of people come off that stuff and it's really not pretty. Though on the positive side, they were back to 'normal' a month or two down the line and have done fine since they finished the taper.

I took them for a few months then I just decided to stop taking them. I can remember getting quite a few of the brain zaps where it felt like electricity was shooting through my brain but thankfully they didn't last long.
Decided to leave the anti depressants alone since then although could probably do with taking them if I thought they would actually work.

SSRI and other AD Withdrawal or 'discontinuation syndrome' as they like to call it can be horrible if you've been on them a while, I came off Venlafaxine last year and it was far from pleasant.

Tapering off is clearly going to help, I'm not sure of the half life of Citalopram, I was only on it briefly but it must be longer than Venlafaxine which seems like the crack of ADs.

I assume she is still taking some, IME there is no easy way off them but tapering softens the blow a bit

Thanks guys. She's not one for research so I figured I'd look into it for her, she's off off them now, as of last week. She seems to have every shitty symptom going and is suffering badly, I honestly think opiate WDs would be easier than this. I think I can fairly tell her to expect another couple of weeks till she starts to feel better, she's pretty much incapacitated. I can see why so many people go back on even a small dose, the temptation must be huge but she's determined, she's a trooper.

 

[Albion]

I've manned the till at Costa fucked on 6-apb a few times...Really unpleasant thing to do I have to say. My supervisor only ever clocked that I was fucked once, but she thought it was hilarious.

Also done shifts dopesick a few times...That's not nice...My first ever o-dt experience was 200mg plugged just before an afternoon shift at costa, manning the stall solo and having to make dashes to the bathroom/sink on quiet spells to projectile vomit.

 

[Mendo_K]

Told my manager id was very ketted and not ready for public face to face and he made me a brew and told me to go lay down in the staff room for half an hour, only after a while of trying to communicate with customers with huge poos, ket and work just dont... work.

Man after waking up at 9am for some reason just had a very nice snooze, very vivid dream of eating some fucking really tasty banofee desert (think thats whats its called, where the banana is all cut up and creamy and there is some harsh ice cream), and I woke up full. m

 

[masaz]

Thanks guys. She's not one for research so I figured I'd look into it for her, she's off off them now, as of last week. She seems to have every shitty symptom going and is suffering badly, I honestly think opiate WDs would be easier than this. I think I can fairly tell her to expect another couple of weeks till she starts to feel better, she's pretty much incapacitated. I can see why so many people go back on even a small dose, the temptation must be huge but she's determined, she's a trooper.

From my experience, Citalopram withdrawals kick in about two days after the last dose, and wreck your shit up increasingly for about a week or so, before tapering off to just general unpleasantness. Gone in about a month. I wouldn't have wished it on anyone but it's manageable with a bit of Nytol for the sweats, anxiety and mild SNRI (is it?) action, sleep, food, and water. I swear at times I've had more of a rush picking up my Citalopram script than I have getting any other drug when I've been withdrawing.

Having said all that though, I was praying for Citalopram withdrawal when I was coming off Etizolam even though that only lasted a few days.

SPEAKING OF, I am shocked and proud that, having spent the past few days on the stuff, I (appear to) have made no massively incoherent embarrassing posts, offended anyone, or acquired any injuries. Fuck that stuff and its 'well I'll just have one more' effect and then forgetting and taking one more and one more and now they're all gone.

Decided to kick em in the head til I get moved into my own place and I can stomp around looking for my e-cig and shoving drugs up my arse at ungodly hours without waking up/disturbing anyone.

 

[Allein]

Coming off Venlafaxine lived up to it's reputation, the brain zapa were brutal, literally every 3-4 minutes for weeks. I got a lot of audible disturbances which came on suddenly and could last for 10mins or more, echo and excessive reverb, someone who wasn't used to such changes in perceptions would have faired much worse I suspect.

With Venlafaxine you can't really taper, I dropped to the lowest XR tabs for a few weeks and then just bit the bullet, I can't really comment on my state of mind ( this is a general statement which almost always hold true in my case )

I've switched between different types of AD before with little problem, but never been on a pure SSRI for very long.

My symptoms went on for about 8 weeks with little sign of improvement and then totally disappeared in a few days, annoyingly I've had to go back on them but it was still a useful exercise.

 

[masaz]

My sympathies, Venlafaxine seems rough as fuck. Mrs Snolls was on it for a while and came off it thinking she could do it cold turkey and have roughly the same effects I was having discontinuing Citalopram at the same time.

Holy shit was she wrong. I advised her to taper but she wasn't having it. Completely ruined her for quite some time.

 

[Allein]

You can't effectively taper off Venlafaxine IME, I didn't get on with the standard tablets so take the XR version, I think most do these days.

It has a short half life so tapering on the standard tablets would be very hard and probably not very effective, the smallest dose XRs are 75mgs.

You do just have to bite the bullet and jump off, even dropping to the 75mgs started withdrawal for me anyway, my doctor had been upfront about this all along but I bet many arent

 

[masaz]

I stand corrected, and now feel even more sorry for people coming off it

I'm debating not going back on SSRIs. I tapered off using Fluoexetine (fuck off spell check) two months ago and felt absolutely fine, bar a bit of depersonalisation and wobbliness a day or two after my last dose. The Citalopram was for anxiety and OCD but, being off it now, I feel fine. Or at least, I feel. Always made me feel numb. I think with continuing CBT, being slightly more mature than I was when I started them (17 or 18 ) and being better at analytical thinking, that I'll be ok just continuing with therapy and keeping a close eye on things that used to trigger - I hate that term - me. Obviously though, it's not for everyone.

And on a completely different note, I just checked my emails to find several alerts about paedophiles moving into MY AREA. I don't give a shit aside from thinking they're scum but I'm considering forwarding them to my neighbours so they keep their annoying little shits indoors instead of playing football and screaming outside my window until gone 10pm