Posted by SC on October 11, 2000, at 19:36:36
In reply to Re: My experience with Celexa, posted by Leigh on October 9, 2000, at 16:51:29
This is more in reply to the thread than the question above. Heres my experience with Celexa. My doctor gave it to me and i did get very sleepy for a number of days. Some headaches and quesy stomach but i felt so much better mentally. I am also disabled with asthma and rheumatoid and osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia, so have to deal with pain and inability to do so much of what I used to, just about everything in fact. Anyway i was feeling much better but I ended up with my eyes hurting a real lot. After about a month I went to the eye doctor and he thought it was allergy and gave me expensive drops which helped but didnt clear it up. I started suspecting it was the Celexa as it does list this in not too common side effects. Anyway after a couple days off of it my eyes would get well. I tried about five different times and sure enough it was the Celexa. By this time i was feeling worse than before or maybe it was that now I was realizing what it was like to feel contented and not angry and depressed all the time and recognizing how bad I was really getting. Then I decided that as low cholesterol is being linked to depression I would stop taking my cholesterol meds and see if that helped. I told my doc I would rather go with a heart attack than live feeling like i was and he said ok, the less meds you can get by with the better. I also at this time decided to quit everything that i didnt know for sure was helping me and wasnt life threatening. This included guaifenisen which is an expectorant being used for Fibromyalgia now. The gaifenisen did stop all the muscle spasms i used to have and helped with asthma. Anyway to the end of the story...it was the combination of guaifenisen and Celexa that was causing the severe eye pain. I have now been on the Celexa at least three weeks and feeling so much better. I have absolutely no side effects that I can tell. Due to my arthritis I have fatigue so hard to tell about that. I am not angry and aggitated all the time anymore. I dont go to sleep and wake up with morose thoughts about death running through my head and not being able to stop them. Also one of the first things i noticed as wrong with me was that I literally saw the world different. My vision and other sences seemed dull and I was very aware of it. Now things look sharp and bright, the wind on my skin feels good again. I dont get as upset and down over my disabilities as I did before altho I dont think I will ever really accept them. I am now taking 40mg a day. I am treated by my regular GP so i end up on the net finding all i can about things and share them with him. He is open to this sort of thing, luckily.
As to someone mentioning getting sick from serotonin overload or whatever it is called, I have read that that can happen, and wish they had answered everyones questions about it. On the rxlist.com I read that Celexa is usually given 8 to 12 weeks and can be stopped for up the 8 months. Has anyone else heard of this?
I was also given Effexor after the first Celexa try and it made my eyes bother to but it also made me feel lousy. Strangely after the first month on Celexa after I went off and would try it again it would only take a day or two to feel much better. It is so wonderful to feel at ease in my mind and dont give up as they say the different meds are all different in who they help or dont. I guess I was lucky that the first one I was given did help even tho its taken months to figure out why I was reacting to it. I just hope it doesnt turn out to have some awful side effects like so many new drugs. I have in past tried St Johns Wort but it wasnt strong enough, I guess, to make much difference.
poster:SC
thread:2790
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000926/msgs/46144.html