Am I allergic to Zoloft?

Switching my anti-depressants!!! Generic Celexa to generic zoloft! Help!?

• Hey guys, I'm a 20 year old female... So I've been on generic celexa (citalopram) for about 7 months or so for panic disorder (panic attacks, extreme anxiety) and depression. I've been on other ad's in the past (zoloft:2001-2003, and more recently effexor xr:2004-2008) and have worked well, but due to being broke, I quit effexor cold turkey in April 2008(was paying $140 for meds every month). Okay so anyway, after being "okay" without meds for a little over a year, my panic attacks returned with a vengeance, along with my depression. I knew I needed to get on meds again, so I started seeing a psychiatrist once a week, and he started me on celexa(generic/citalopram). This med hasn't worked vey well for me from the beginning. The start up period was AWFUL, my anxiety was so bad I was barely sleeping, eating, and was vomiting from anxiety. After a few weeks on the 10 mgs, o worked my way up to 20mgs(which was difficult). He then decided that I needed more in my system, so after about a month, he doubled me from 20mgs to 40mgs, and I absolutely lost it! I was back to severe panic attacks, throwing up, barely eating, not sleeping... I had the shakes, I was crawling out of my skin, heart palpitations, suicidal thoughts... Etc etc etc. I needed to do something about it cause I was losing my mind, so I went back down to 20mgs and stayed there for a few months, then went up to 30mgs(adjustment wasn't as hard, I think my body was more used to the med) in October 2009, and I've been there ever since. I've been pretty stable since then, still a panic attack here n there, However, all along my celexa journey, I've had a lot of side effects. I've always and currently feel confusion- like I don't know what's going on, spacey, or like I'm high ( in a bad way, like my brain doesn't work), I can't remember anything!!!! Short term memory loss for sure! And I feel all over kind of numb. Oh, and I get really bad ringing in my ears over a dozen times a day. That said, getting to the point, I promise, my psych finally gave me the green light to make the switch to another ssri. I've been putting it off for a few weeks cause I'm extremely scared of the inital start up effects of a new med(this whole celexa ordeal-specifically when I went from 20-40mgs- scarred me,) but I'm gonna do it. I've prepared myself, and I'm hoping fort he best, yet preparing for the worst. I'm actually kind of excited to get back on zoloft, hopefully I'll have no se's, and it will work better than celexa(note: my moms on zoloft and she's doing well, she has tried celexa in the past which made her go apesh*t, kinda like I did, so I'm hoping zoloft will help again since our body chemistry is similar). But here's my problem: my psychiatrist told me to switch straight over from 30mgs of generic celexa, to 100mgs of generc zoloft. I am very scared of switching straight over! I have voiced my concerns to him, but he has assured me that the dosages are around equal, and that it is safe to do because they are both ssris. But STILL, Im afraid that I will once again shock my body! Too much too soon??? I also think he wants me to do a straight switch, and not work my way up because of my past habits of procrastiating dosage increases. I am just so scared! I'm not panicking, I've been doing well on celexa lately, and have had minimal anxiety as of late, but I do need to switch in order to fully recover. I just hate the process of starting/increasing ad's cause it worsens my anxiety and depression for a week or two. So as of right now, I did not take my 30mgs of celexa at 3:30pm as I usually do, and plan on taking my new 100mgs of celexa before bed. I've prepared myself for a hard week, but I'm just so petrified of the unknown- how is my body gonna adjust to this? So my question is, do you think I'll be okay switching straight from 30mgs of celexa to 100 mgs of zoloft!???? or should I gradually decrease my celexa, while increasing my zoloft? Has anyone out there made the straight switch!???? Please share your experiences. Any advice or words of encouragement would truly mean a lot to me. Thanks for your time. -Paulina Btw, I'm sorry i've been rambling and using bad grammar&spelling.. I'm just trying to spit out all of this history and information as fast as possible, from my iPhone at that.

• Answer:

  It doesn't sound like your doc is doing a very good job of listening to you. On the other hand, he or she probably has a lot of experience with SSRI-switching, so maybe he/she has done this switch before with good results. I can tell you that 100mg Zoloft is a pretty high dose. Most people ramp up from 25 or 50 mgs. If you are that sensitive to the Celexa, I'd be cautious about switching over to such a high dose of Zoloft. It may be fine, or you may have side effects from the switch. From my perspective, the only real thing you have to worry about is serotonin syndrome. Serotonin syndrome occurs when there is too much serotonin available, and it causes anxiety / panic attacks, which you don't need!