Can I become dependent on Celexia and how is it supposed to help me?

Question

Hi. I'm so confused! My doctor is prescribing me celexia to help cope with my depression and anxiety. I'm generally against medication; I don't even take advil! Can I become dependent on this medication? Is it hard to get off of it (I've seen my mom without her meds and that lead to some serious drama!).

Also how is this supposed to help me? Am I supposed to feel uplifted after taking this? The doctor I saw wasn't very helpful.

Answer 1

No, it is not addictive.  It is an SSRI anti-depressant and it balances the chemical serotonin in your brain, which in turn relieves depression and anxiety.  It is not hard to go off the medicine as long as you do it with a doctor's supervision and go off slowly and not all at once.

This does not mean you will not have initial side effects as you take the medicine, but they should be mild and go away after a few days.  It may take three to six weeks for you to feel real relief from your depression and anxiety symptoms.

For many of us, taking medicine for depression and anxiety helps to relieve the symptoms so that we can work on our issues and learning better means of working through the depression and anxiety.  Sometimes though, we have to try several medications before we find one that works well for us and each of us reacts differently to them.

I would strongly suggest you see a psychiatrist who will spend more time explaining the medication to you and the reason they give it, how it works and what kind of things to expect.  I also would suggest a book that we use extensively in our support group.  It's called The Anxiety and Phobia workbook, by Dr. Edmund Bourne and is inexpensive and available online.  It has been an invaluable resource for me.