Zoloft Withdrawal

Hi Squeeker10,

It sounds like you are doing okay weaning off of zoloft. There are other meds that don't cause weight gain, but if you want to go natural that is cool too. There is dephlin, 5htp, and others that are natural. I hope that you find what works for you.

Welcome to the forum...

PS This is a very old thread, you might want to start a new one about your issues with zoloft. You will probably get more responses that way.

Hugs, Karen

Hello,

I just stumbled across this forum and I hope I can get some support here. I was on 25mg of Zoloft for about 7 weeks, after having a c-section to help deal with mild anxiety. After 7 weeks I went to one pill every other day for about two weeks and the one pill every third day, per doctors orders. The only symptom I had was vertigo. One night I came home went to bed and suddenly my heart started having heart palvitations, became dizzy, and my throat felt tight. I wound up going to the ER ( blood pressure was 168/101, usually mine is 120/80 )they had no answers. Next night same symptoms, but this time I felt like my face, chest, and arms were on fire. I went back to the ER. They thought I was having an allergic reaction. Long story short I spent 2 days in the hospital and finally spoke to a psychiatrist who said I was having an over dramatized seritonin withdrawal syndrom and I could just stop taking zoloft all together. I have been off of it completely for 17 days. The burning and high blood pressure spikes happen every few days and do not last as long, the brain shivers aren't as often, I can finally sleep and eat, but the headaches are almost everyday. Things are improving, but how long before I am 100%? I never have felt like this and would have been better off if I never had taken zoloft to begin with.

Thank you

I had a beautiful baby girl!! My obgyn put me on it because I had anxiety over healing from the c-section. She explained I could take it for the six weeks to get me over the hump. I think she chose zoloft because I am breastfeeding. Like I said most of the symptoms have gone down and I am feeling 75% better than I was, but wondering if the rest of these symptoms are going to be life long. I took Paxil about 11 years ago for about 10 months and have not been on anything since. When I came off Paxil I had zero withdrawal symptoms. I will continue to be apart of this forum; already I have gotten a lot of info from other peoples posts an it is nice to know there are other people who are going through the same thing as me.

I am also tapering off Zoloft. I want to go off because I am completely numb. I was misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia 10 yrs. ago and put on Effexor. I didn't see any improvement in how I felt but noticed I became numb. The next time I went back to the doctor they put me on the maximum dose. about 5 yrs later I decided to go off the drug so I could have emotions again and I was so ill I couldn't get out of bed so i went back on it.
I tried weaning eventhough my doctor said I should stay on it. That didn't work either, still got very ill.
So I got a new doctor and he changed me from Effexor to Zoloft. I was experiencing depression but I think it was because I was perimenopausal. Each time I went to the doctor he said is it helping? I said "nope", he increased it each time I went in until I was on 150 mg. Now I was sick, depressed, and going through menopause. But by far the worst part was being numb. I could care less about anything. When my friends and loved ones went through grief or sadness I could not cry with them. So they all probably think I am heartless.
Anyway I have began tapering and started in April by chipping away a little of my pills a little at a time because I've tried and failed so many times. I got down to 50mg and stayed 0n that for 1 month. Now I am shaving a little off that for a week until I'm down to 25mg, and I'll stay on that until I can cut that in half. When I get to my last week I plan on starting on the supplement 5htp to reduce the brain zaps. I also take a supplemnet called "Omega - 3 DHA. it is in healthfood stores and is a high dose high quality fish oil and this is what has kept me from getting the zaps so far. I get a wee bit nausious late in the afternoon from the withdrawl but no zaps or headaches.
So from 10 years experience and trying to get off antidepressants, I know you should definately taper slowly over a couple of months. I too want to be off this crap in a hurry but I also have to function every day. Please feel free to contact me. Good luck.

Hi all-
I'm new on the forum, I just found it after searching for some help with Zoloft withdrawl. I have been on zoloft for almost 4 years exactly, and I finally feel like I'm in a good place and can start to taper off. I started it in the fall semester of my freshman year of college for anxiety and have been on it ever since. I've been taking 50 mg a day, at one point during the 4 years I decreased to 25 mg but had to increase again due to stressful situations. I just graduated college in May and am about a month into my first real job. I finally feel like my situation is stable enough to start tapering down. I want to go off of it because 1) i never intended it to be a long term solution and 2) I'm sick of sleeping terribly. I have vivid dreams (often nightmares) every night and never feel rested and it affects my energy levels and day to day life.

So 2 nights ago, I started taking 3/4 of a pill (37 mg?). I've been reading a book called the Anti-depresant solutuion by Joseph Glenmullen, and it details the steps to tapering off an SSRI. I also talked to my doc when I went down to 25 mg in the past, so I know generally how it works. Unfortunately, even going down to just 37 mg, I am having bad withdrawl symptoms. The past 2 mornings I have had awful nausea and diarrhea. Pepto bismal seems to help a bit, but it's still hours before I am able to get any food in my stomach. i had these same symptoms when i changed my dosage in the past, but it doesn't make it suck any less :/ When the waves of nausea and diarrhea finally pass for the morning, I just feel so exhausted. Like ready to curl up in my cubicle exhausted. And I've already started to get the crying spells that I had last time I changed my dosage. I hate it. I hate feeling so helpless and weak. I don't think I can taper any slower because i don't think I can split the pill any more than into 4ths. The thing I don't understand, is in the past if I accidentally forgot to take the zoloft one day, the only symptoms I would have were mild brain zaps and then I would remember to take it again. But within 12 hours of taking a 3/4 dose, I started to get these digestive/intestinal problems. i guess I'm not looking for any specfic advice, I just needed somewhere to put my feelings out there in a community that understands.

Maybe if anyone has any natural remedies to combat withdrawl, specifically the nausea and diarrhea? I'd rather not live on pepto for the next 3 months while I taper, I'm sure that can't be good for you. Thanks for having this forum guys, it really helps to have people who can relate to what i'm going through.

I’m thinking running across this forum might just be a God send. I am now wondering if going off Zoloft in October is the reason for my mental state now.

I went on 100 mg of Zoloft after a major heart break in October of 2010. I read an Oprah piece that said being let down when having such high hopes for so long can actually change the structure of your brain so it made sense why I was having the depression I was. I could not quit crying. I’d waited for him for months and gotten a lot of promises only to learn they were all lies and this was from someone I considered a friend first.

Fast forward 2 years and at the end September of 2012 I started having issues again. I’d be out with friends and end the night crying on the drive home …..I guess out of loneliness and lost hope of anything more out of life. I didn’t see the point in even going out anymore and decided I was done. I had also noticed over the previous couple of months that I was no longer seeming to have any joy or excitement out of the simple things in life at all. I was pretty sure I didn’t need the Zoloft for my depression anymore but had kept on it because of how it really made me have no anxiety at all. At that point I planned on talking to my doctor at my next checkup.

The next weekend though, in what I was going to make my last endeavor out for a while, I ended up meeting a guy who over the course of a month seemed to be the guy of my dreams. Mind you I’m a very successful, do it on my own, straight head on my shoulders, type of girl. I don’t believe or fall for BS, especially from a guy I just met but this guy was different. He put his feelings on the line like no one ever had with me before and did so on a consistent basis. To finally find someone I clicked with so well felt so great and I loved the feeling of comfort I had. My only issue was my butterflies weren’t there like his were and there is no reason they shouldn’t have been with me, except for Zoloft probably cancelling them out. I had no bad anxiety but no happy anxiety either.

I ended up going to the doctor before my checkup because of illness and told her my issue. She told me to start phasing out my Zoloft a bit at a time and also gave me Wellbutrin to help get my butterflies, sex drive and general zest for life back. I reduced my dosage of Zoloft at about a rate of 25 mg every 2 weeks and am no longer on it….pretty much stopping it in one month’s time in October.

In the midst of this, after really falling for my new guy through the month of October and making plans for the upcoming holidays, next summer and talking about the future of us, he completely vanished after a month of being in a relationship. Yes, this seems like a very short time but when you click with someone and they seem just as crazy about you, you start to think it might just finally be your turn. He stopped calling, texting and responding to any form of communication I tried. We talked on a daily basis since we’d met and he didn’t show when we had plans for Halloween ….yet he had even texted me even the night before about letting me know when he’d be off work. Through a lot of worry, anxiety, tears, weight loss and every other emotion one could imagine I found out he probably tested positive for HIV and took the cowards way out not saying or explaining nothing to me and also turning to drugs. Through my fact finding I got to see the shell he became when I decided to follow him at the end of November, tired of waiting for him to come around. I have no fears about my safety because I was smart but that doesn’t help the heartache and what I’m going through now that I can’t seem to shake. I’m sad for me and still worry about him and how he has to be dealing with so much alone.

I sit here bawling as I type this and these cry fests creep up here and there all the time. I go through the days just going through the motions. I have no hope or direction and feel like a total mess putting on an act just to get through work and interactions with others every single day. I have no desire to partake in any holiday stuff whatsoever and am trying to avoid it at all costs since the act gets so old. My logic says no guy should ever treat someone like he did me but again that doesn’t help the hurt and sadness over any part of the situation. I’m not suicidal by any means but with the recent shootings, as bad as it sounds I have thought to myself it would have been okay if I was one of them. I know this awful and not right but that's my mindset at the moment. Over the last few weeks my doctor has said I went through something no one would easily get through and my sadness is normal but I’m not thinking it is.

I read on here that being on the Zoloft for the 2 years I was might have changed my brain structure? I’m curious as to how? I also wonder if what I’m going through now are considered the severe withdrawal symptoms. Should I try to get back on the Zoloft and ween off of it more slowly? I know medical advice isn’t proper in a forum like this but any personal experiences or advice from one’s own experience would be much appreciated and sure would help. If some have taken up to a year to get off of it maybe this is the answer as to why I feel so hopeless and sad now I can only hope!

Thank you so much for having something like this. As I said this might just be a God send for me.