Help!! !.....I think Citalopram has made me manic!! !

Post Reply New Topic

I have been taking Citalopram/Celexa (for major depression) now for about seven months. It is has done WONDERS for me in terms of my depression and I would sell my soul to Mephistopheles to avoid being as depressed as I was roughly a year ago. I feel absolutely wonderful now and "exaggerated feelings of well being" ARE one of the possible side effects of Celexa. Other sides include "bizarre behavior". What the devil does that mean for a person diagnosed with NLD/AS and depending on my particular neuropsychological evaluation, schizotypal or schizoid personality disorders? After all.....AS/NLD aside....those two PD's are classified as the cluster A "odd or eccentric" personality disorders.

Other sides include new or worsening agitation, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, irritability, hostility, restlessness, inability to sit still, persistent anxiety and trouble sleeping. I am experiencing ALL these symptoms and my tremors (which i've always had to one degree or another and most likely due to AS/NLD) have POSSIBLY increased (even my worthless psychiatrist claims he doesn't know if they have ) as well. Also....I think i've had at least one and maybe two, incidents of unusual bruising. That is also a possible side effect of Celexa, but I always have had small cuts, scrapes, etc... (but not so much BRUISES per se) and often don't remember how I got them.

I have never been dx-ed with bipolar disorder. I go to weekly psych therapy at a local university and my current therapist is wonderful and beautiful psychology grad student (all the therapists there are grad students and much like many universities, this one offers reasonably-priced therapy with their grad students for low/no income people like me) who really SEEMS genuinely concerned with my well-being.

Well......after being honest with her (and what's the point of going to therapy if you're not going to be 100% honest with your therapist) about the anger, hostility, violent ideations, aggressiveness, etc....i've been exhibiting...she decided to call in one of the liscensed psychologists to determine if I was a threat to myself and/or others. We all know what happens if psychologists believe you're a threat to yourself and/or others. For those who may not know.....basically you are forced to go the psych ward for evaluation. I have only been in a psych ward once in my life (decades ago....I punched through a car window when I was REALLY drunk....a cop saw me, arrested me and they took me to the psych ward for a few days because they felt I was a threat) and i'd do anything in my power never to go back to one.

Anyway....the liscensed psychologist finally determined that I AM NOT a threat to myself/others....so no forced hospitalization for me Still....i've been feeling a tremendous amount of anger, rage, misanthropy, hate (generally towards the human species/condition and specific towards people who mess with me) lately and likely more so than I ever have in my life. I have always been an angry and misanthropic person to at least some goodly extent though. The way I see it.....it's next-to impossible not to be in an unspeakably absurd and sick society such as our own and even more impossible when you're a non-neurotypical who has been treated like crap all your life



I admit that I have alot of violent ideations......but i've never acted upon them TOWARDS ANOTHER LIVING BEING. I'm 41 y/o and the only times i've been physically violent is in blatant cases of self-defense. My preferred method for canalizing these negative emotions and frankly homocidal thoughts mostly involes listening to alot of death/black/speed/thrash/classic heavy metal music and also playing said music on guitar. Many people have a low opinion of such music and think it inspires violence. It has been a "godsend" (i'm an atheist and a rabid anti-theist so I don't even like using the word "god") to me however and maybe I would've been violent without this catharsis in my life.


Ok....back to the practical matters at hand. I have no current access to my psychiatrist as they could not schedule me an appt. until March 14th. I go to a state-subsidized clinic (again....for poor folks like me) and without going into alot details, this clinic (Bayview Center for Mental Health, Inc in Broward county Florida) is EXTREMELY irresponsible and negligent. I'd be shocked if they haven't been sued at least (with/without being found liable) once and they should be shut down. I CANNOT afford private psychiatrists and my insurance (which I have no say-so in since my family pays for it) does not cover psychiatric care. I need to see a decent psychiatrist (if I can actually find one ) which I can afford ASAP. My therapist gave me the contact info for another clinic and she seems to think it's much better than the one I have been going to.

I won't be able to go there until next week however as they are closed on weekends. Furthermore.....I probably won't be able to go until next Friday since i'm working full time for Verizon Wireless now as tech support and I have some overtime coming up next week. I will be working Mon through Thursday from 11am-12am and that gives me little time to go to this new clinic until Friday, March 4th. Also....you are simply evaluated on your first visit and I don't even think you get to see an actual MD/psychiatrist.


Now my nursing student friend in North Carolina told me I should be taking a "mood stabilizer" like Lamictal or "better yet", Lexapro along with my 40mg of Celexa/Citalopram per day. Her reasoning for this is because Lexapro has the same S enantiomer as Celexa/Citalopram.

Unless i'm missing something here...she is mistaken however:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealt ... recautions



Anyway.....i'm just hoping some of you have some further insights about all this for me. I am very worried about this med and how it is affecting me. Again....I have NO access to a psychiatrist until next Friday at the earliest and my primary care physician (via my insurance) is utterly worthless.

Have you thought about calling a pharmacist? Years ago a psychiatrist put me on a combination of Wellbutrin and Prozac for ADD symptoms. My reaction to it was manic rage but not to the degree I think you speak of here. The psychiatrist had gone on vacation so was not available for help and I even asked an expert on line who said he didn't know. So then I called a pharmacists who told me why I was getting that reaction. I wonder why it's taken 7 months for this to show up, though.

Interesting, the reason I sought help and was given Citalopram was because of violent ideation and depression, I was bouncing between despair and rage. the Citalopram stabilized my mood and after about a year. I've been a bit "bleedy" and avoid anything NSAID like asprin motrin or naproxin. Grapefruit will screw up the elimination of a lot of drugs from the system, citalopram is one of them, that's a no-go too. The Citalopram has gotten me to be pretty normal now, but I've also found that vitamin D is very beneficial too. I'm taking 2000 IU Vitamin D in the winter and plan to cut back to 1000 in the summer.

I've had similar experiences with Ciprralex and an overdose of light therapy. I simply stopped using whatever made me manic, angry, restless and turned dreams and nightmares into a combination of Alice in Wonderland and a high dose of LSD. In some sense, I'd much rather be depressed than manic and aggressive since this completely seperates me greatly from reality and literally obliterates relationships with other people.
It's always possible for you to change medicine even though you'd probably experience some time with increased depression and overall mental instability, but violent and suicidal ideations and not knowing whether to feel depressed, manic or angry isn't really fun at all.
This could of course all be due to a temporary increased amount of stress, and perhaps being patient and simply wait for things to get slightly better might be the solution, although I'm aware that times passes overwhelmingly slowly when you're having a tough time.
As for the practical issues, I wish you the best of luck. Unfortunately, I cannot quite relate since this kind of healthcare is 100% free in Denmark.

Interesting enough I do feel a lot more of rage and misanthropy, raising up since I take citalopram, I never made the link though. Anyway, because of weight gain my GP decided to cut by half citalopram and give me with it another half of antidepressant; It should begin in a little less that a week, I gonna see how it turn out.

You could ask your doc for escitalopram instead, it has usually less side effects. In my experience, many side effects go away after a while. I've been on cipralex for 4 years and I remember that I was extremely manic the first weeks of treatment, but it got better eventually. I stil get manic episodes sometimes, but it's not very often.

Well Aimless....I have spoken to several pharms, but they haven't been able to tell me anything I didn't know already. I need tp see an MD/psychiatrist who throrougly assesss the situation with the "tools" they have at their disposal. I need them to look at my recent lab results for one thing and tell me if they believe ANY of the somewhat negative results (blood glucose, high LDL and Triglycerides, etc.....) have ANYTHING to do with the meds. Also....I want to know what my options are just I/the doctor does believe i'd benefit from a mood stabilizer like Lamictal or something. Again....I am as poor as a church mouse even though i'm working now full time (and have been since Dec 27th) and I even receive alot of overtime. I have alot of unavoidable living expenses and bills (including driving 60 miles to/fro everyday coupled with the fact that we're once again being hosed by the oil companies, their parasite shareholders and the government who loves them both ) four days a week.

IOW.....I simply cannot afford anything at this time. Even a nurse practioner at Walgreens. So I suppose I must wait until i'm able to see a psych at this clinic my new therapist told me about.

I should be able to see one within two weeks and hopefully sooner. They are open at nine on weekdays, so I MIGHT be able to get there one day this coming week, (preferably Monday...the sooner, the better) but I seriously doubt it as I must be at work by 11:00am this coming Mon thru Thurs. I normally start at 1:00pm....but I opted for two hours overtime (at $18.00 per hour week and can't get out of it now. I did not foresee this ridiculous situation with the clinic that I currently go to for psychiatrist appts/RX-es. So until I can see a psych at this other clinic, I guess i'll just have to hope for the best.


Thanks for your suggestions though Aimless and I hope this finds you well.

Hey guys.....I want to thank each one of you for your advice and comments. They were all well-thought out and brilliant as usual. I have come to expect nothing less from WP posters


Much to my chagrin however....I simply don't have the time to respond to each one of you individually and have no idea when I will have such time.

Nonetheless....everything stated IS being read, comprehended, considered and quite possibly implemented in the very near future.

Thanks again folks....you guys are the BEST!! ! As well as the Citalopram....I credit WP members/posts for helping me to emerge from the unspeakable psychic hell of severe depression.


All that aside....I suppose I should mention what appears to be an INCONGROUS affect of Citalopram. That is....my sex drive has SKYROCKETED and i'm starting to feel like a sex addict Now i'm not doing anything illegal/unethical of course, but this is still hardly an entirely positive thing.

If anything.....SSRI's are supposed to reduce one's libido and increase *performance* difficulties in males.

So i'm 100% sure what to make of this.....perhaps I should counteract the out-of-control sexuality with a little depo-provera....lol....j/k

Yeah, hypersexuality is another symptom of mania...

You probably should see a doctor or at least call a health hotline--most doctors' offices let you talk to a nurse or something to know whether it makes sense to come in. You really, really don't want to end up doing something utterly stupid because you're manic and not thinking clearly enough to know it's stupid. People have embarrassed themselves pretty badly that way.

Can't add much to the advice already here, but for some people Citalopram does produce emotional instability with an emphasis on rage/anger. On a previous thread I said that 'it's not a kind drug, I found it the hardest one to stop due to side effects turning me into a nightmare angry parody of myself.' That was worst when coming off it though.

I read in a Citalopram withdrawal forum of one guy who'd got into trouble with the law because he'd been pushed too far over the edge of acceptable behaviour by the side effects, it doesn't take away his responsibility but it's scary that it takes away your normal inhibitions - so stay safe & now's the time to do the 'don't react for 30 seconds' sort of routine.

I'd seriously consider changing meds or finding something to balance the side effects, but everything always has some side effects. Depression is hard to deal with, but sometimes it's worth testing if you still need to be on meds.

Hope you find a better balance in future.

I haven't read the entire thread very carefully, but in case no one else has mentioned it - taking an SSRI is a (horrible) way to discover that you are actually bipolar and not unipolar MDD. It sounds possible that if you've never had this level of dysphoric mania that the SSRI might have something to do with it.

Anyway if that turns out to be the case you might end up with a different med or an addition of an antipsychotic and/or a mood stabilizer.

Definitely call a hotline or find a walk-in clinic with a pdoc/therapist ASAP. I have MDD and GAD myself, but have a number of friends with bipolar, and trust me... If you leave it alone you will probably end up doing something really stupid you'll later regret.

Take care!

I know exactly what you mean. Apart from the first few weeks when I started Citialopram (when I did have some difficulties) I also experienced very high sex drive, such as I've never known in my life before.

However, it is only when coming off the medication (I'm still in slow withdrawal now) that I started to feel more angry, anxious and aggressive. Have you started reducing or changing your dosage? I have to say, 40mg sounds like a lot. I was on only 20mg daily at my peak.

For my part I would say that Citalopram did nothing for my depression, except perhaps numb me for awhile. The side effects have been unpleasant, inconvenient and just as much an issue in themselves as my depression was. I cannot understand why they are still being prescribed given the number of negative reactions that are recorded.

^^Please take this advice ^^
Celexa can make you do really bad things.
I ended up in the hospital because it made me suicidal and I hurt myself very badly. I had to stop taking it without tapering it and it was not pleasant (but i also take other meds, so that could be the combination for that), but regardless of the other meds it was the celexa that got me put in the hospital.

I am not completely against celexa, it can work really well for some people. but if you have any of those side effects such as feeling like hurting someone else or yourself, even if you are not acting on these thoughts please call a hotline or therapist or clinic ASAP. those thoughts can change to actions very quickly if you stay on it. I would never tell anyone not to take celexa or try it, but you sound like you have gotten some relief of your depression from it, but the side effects you are talking about are not worth it. there are other antidepressants that can work better for you if the celexa is not.

Please dont just wait and hope that it goes away or even waiting for your appointment. I was waiting I had about 5 days till I was going to see a psychiatrist when I ended up in the hospital instead.

if you have any questions feel free to ask me. I dont want to anyone to go through what I had to go through.