EvolutionHealth.care

Home
Main Forum
Managing Drinking
Introduce Yourself
New to this site

Advanced Search Form

New to this site

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 409

BP, I looked this up online: It looks like citalopram is one of the most difficult antidepressants to quit, because the withdrawals are so bad, including all the symptoms you've described. It's essential to go off this antidepressant gradually with decreasing doses. One thing that several websites say can help is asking your doctor to prescribe a very low dose of Prozac to help you get through the withdrawals. Not a "therapeutic" dose, but a tiny dose specifically for citalopram withdrawals. If your symptoms are horrible, you might talk to your doctor about doing this. Also, on the sites I saw, everyone agreed that the withdrawals were horrendous, but they WILL get better and go away.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 409

Thanks Sonia -- you and Vicenza and Ashley and the other health educators are great for moderating this site. It has quickly become a regular and important part of my day. I am trying very hard to be realistic about moderation vs. abstaining. I view this as a big experiment. I don't know for sure that I can be a moderate drinker, but I do know that I've never had such an extensive "toolbox" as I have here on this site. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted...

Camiol, I'm glad that your first reunion with your best friend didn't drive her away. Thanks for sharing that story -- as painful as it is, it's nice to know we aren't alone in this.

BP, so good to hear that you are hanging in here. Sounds like the next couple of weeks will be tough, but remember that you are over the biggest withdrawal part of your brandy!! I started getting really emotional and weepy at about 19 days sober, but that part has gotten much better. Since you seem interested in natural therapies, you probably know about these, but here are a couple to think about adding to your kudzu: Black cohosh is supposed to help with night sweats and depression, and motherwort is also supposed to help with night sweats, as well as help with insomnia and anxiety.

Speaking of insomnia, I need to go to sleep. Sweet dreams back to you all.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 270

Turquoise,

Thanks for sharing the Harvard Mental Health article excerpt. It sure does provide some interesting thinking points.

I look forward to hearing your updates about your experience with moderate drinking as opposed to abstinence. Please keep us posted!

Sonia

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 270

Black Pearl,

Thanks so much for sharing your recent experience with us. I'm so sorry to hear that you've been having a challenging time today.

Happy to hear you've been successful in cutting down though. Please keep us posted about how your day goes tomorrow. I hope you have a lovely day!

Sonia

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 80

Hi, To all the Ladies,

I am here to thank you all for the concern about my situation.

These days are really tough for me. My family doctor referred me to see the the psychiatrist regarding to my depression and finally I had the appointment to see the psychiatrist last week. The psychiatrist suggested me to change to another antidepressant but I have to stop the previous medication first. I used to take 30 mg citalopram daily. He cut down my daily dose to 20mg for a week and to 10 for another week and totally stop to take any antidepressant for 3 days, then start a new drug. I don't know the logic why it has to do like this. The psychiatrist already told me that I will have the withdrawal symptom and now I am suffering from it. I am already feeling very frustrated and restless, and night sweat at night, but anyway I have to listen to his advise. Next week I have to cut down to 10mg...don't want to think about what will happen.

Another frustration was my computer crashed for days and I didn't want to communciate to the forum via my company server. See, every bad things came at once!

But good news is that today is my 19 days without brandy. I also cut down my red wine too, I take cooler instead, only 7% alcohol. I don't like to drink beer, it will make me gain weight.

Hope, try to go to the website and look for a Chinese remedy 'Kudzu', it helps to subside the craving of alcohol. You can even find the kudzu root in the Chinese supermarket and just boil it as a soup and take it like tea. It helps.

I think I have to sleep now. Have to get up at 6:30 to work.

To all Ladies, sleep tight and have a sweet dream.

Will check in again

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 409

Thank you foxman for your advice. You sound wonderfully sincere, and I'm glad that Alcoholics Anonymous has helped you so much. I come regularly to this "moderate drinking" website because I think it's important to have different forums to work through the issue of alcohol control. While I appreciate everything that AA has done for the people who have found their solution there, it's also important to know there are other options. I am currently trying to discover if moderate drinking is possible for me, and I think it is. If it's truly not possible for me, I need to discover that for myself. This explains it well:

Conventional wisdom has insisted on complete abstinence for people who have drinking problems, but moderation may be better advice. The current issue of the Harvard Mental Health Newsletter reports that it may be best to recommend to problem drinkers that men have up to two drinks per day and women, one drink per day. Alcoholics who do choose abstinence have conventionally done so because of some serious consequence of their drinking. No one can say what will convince any particular person to quit drinking, but advice to abstain is rarely a strong motivation. This advice of moderate drinking allows a problem drinker to gradually learn for themselves if moderation is possible for them. Discovering this for oneself, without feeling like a failure while going through this learning process, is generally the only real motivation (besides a personal serious consequence) for an individual who is unable to drink moderately.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 616

See Hope, you have many reasons to be very proud of yourself and your accomplishments. We have all had our "moments" where we had more to drink than we intended. We can choose to let it destroy our successes and put us back to our dark place, or pick up the pieces and fight for survival. I choose to fight for survival, as I'm sure you, Turquoise and our other friends do.

Turquoise you are so right about denial. I am famous for denial. From the time I was a small child being neglected and raised by an alcoholic/drug induced mother, to my husbands addiction to OxyContin, to my own addiction to alcohol. To deny means it doesn't exist right? Boy was I wrong.

If I took a step back to when my drinking became a problem, there are so many blackouts that I'm ashamed of myself. Here's a great story that is humiliating. I've mentioned my best friend several times. Well we went to school together from grade 4-7. After I moved for the umpteenth time, I lost all contact with her until we hooked up on Facebook. Well I invited her and her boyfriend over for a visit to reconnect. When she got here, I was bombed. My husband had never met either of them. Not long after they got here I had to get my daughter off to bed and I ended up passing out. My husband tried to wake me but I was so drunk he couldn't wake me up. Needless to say I was humiliated the next day and my husband was NOT pleased with me. In the end it turned out ok, I reconnected with an awesome woman and we are very close now, but I was so embarrassed at the time. You'd think something like that would be a huge eye opener.

The denial part seems to have faded, but to accept that my problem is controlling my life is another challenge. Intellectually I know I have a problem, in the deepest pit of my soul, I dont want to accept it. Time to make more changes in my life.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1562

Why cant I stop like normal people after havin 1 or 2 beers after work just for relaxing..

Have you ever read the book called Alcoholics Anonymous? If not, you may want to. There are men and women who belong to that category who, once they put one drink in their body, something happens physically that forces them to have more. They loose the control over the amount they consume. We call it the phenomenon of carving. Normal drinkers never experience this. So they cannot really understand this condition.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 51

:) this is so inspiring Turquoise..thanks for sharing and being here. My day is finished, I have a business trip to the City my brother lives, will check in from the AirPort in the morning..have a great evening.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1853

Hi Hope,

Camiol made a really good point - we tend to focus on the negatives and 'failures' and yet we rarely acknowledge the successes and positive aspects when reaching for our goals.

I'm glad to hear you do recognize how are you've come since the winter months.

Try not to look back on the past but keep moving forward in the direction you want to go - towards a healthier you. You CAN do this!

Vincenza, Health Educator

Reading this thread:

today's top discussions:

This Month’s Leaders:

Most Supportive

Most Active

Most Loved

New to this site