Celexa

[[AP...]]

      I’m going to finish my taper from klonopin very soon. I’ve asked a question on here before about SSRIs and I got some helpful advice. Unfortunately I have another slightly different question now.

      As you can see in my signature I started celexa at the same time as klonopin. I noticed a major improvement in my anxiety both in response to increasing my dose of celexa from 10mg to 20mg, and also from a bit of time passing at that dose.

      My brain kind of made up a concern recently: What if Celexa actually increases my anxiety but the klonopin masked it originally, and my symptoms aren’t withdrawal symptoms but rather the effects of celexa showing themselves. I don’t think this is true because when I cut my dose, anxiety increases a few days after instead of immediately. Also, when I was first taking klonopin I didn’t notice an increase in anxiety leading up to my next dose, which I likely would if celexa caused anxiety for me because the benzo would be wearing off.

      My question is does this sound reasonable? Also, for people who couldn’t tolerate SSRIs, what made it clear and were you able to tell even while taking a benzo? I’m absolutely going to taper the Celexa one day but I have to recover from klonopin first.

[[Br...]]

It's understandable that you're wondering about the effects of Celexa versus withdrawal symptoms from you Klonopin taper.  It's hard, maybe impossible, to sort it out. 

 

You're probably right that the anxiety you feel a few days after you make a cut is related to Klonopin.  Klonopin is a long-acting benzo and symptoms can show up a couple of days after a cut.

 

One of the symptoms of benzo withdrawal is an escalation of fear, anxiety and worry so it's possible your brain is fixating on this issue because the free floating anxiety created by our benzo brain is always looking for things to pin our fear on. 

 

You're very wise to wait until you've recovered from benzo withdrawal before starting a taper off Celexa.  It may take a while after you're off Klonopin for your system to heal so please give it time. 

 

Wishing you much healing!

[[AP...]]

Thanks for the reply! I think you’re probably right that this concern is just a product of my fear. I also agree that this situation makes it impossible to tell what is caused by what. I’m really concerned that if celexa somehow causes anxiety, it will seem that I never recover from benzos and I won’t be able to know for sure why.