Anyone ever taper off any SSRI and NOT have horrible side effects?

Just curious because I am currently working on getting off the zoloft I have been on for almost 11 years (concerns about long-term effects, the fact that it doesn't seem to be doing quite the same thing it did in the past, weight gain, etc.) and even among those who carefully taper it still seems thee are tons of withdrawal symptoms. Of course, everything I have read has been on the internet and usually people will not post an anecdote if they did not have issues. But it still seems like an enormous number of people have had problems, even if they carefully taper.

I've been on 200mg for all these years so i wouldn't be surprised if i had some issues. But i'm still wondering if anyone has been able to get off the stuff at any point without horrible withdrawal symptoms. I read some of "The Anti-Depressant Solution" which I found interesting and suggests reducing he dose by 50mg every 3-5 weeks to give the body sufficient time to adjust and get through any withdrawal before going to the next dose. I've been on 150mg now for about 4-5 days and doing ok. Thanks!

Great answer Tootie.  I agree with you completely.  Every person is different and their reaction to meds and withdrawal sx will be individual.

I wish you a successful weaning with little to no issues. :)
KItt

I did well getting off of Paxil too.  I took the taper slow though.  A year to get off 30mg.  What freedom to be off that crap!!!  It actually made me more depressed when I was on it......  Take the taper slow, and hopefully you'll do fine too!  Good luck!

 

Ginny

Smitty, sounds like you are doing things the right way. I wish you all great success in this.  I've been on quite a few (ok understatement!!) SSRI's over the years and I've found that yes, they do have side effects, but not so much as anti-anxiety meds.  If you are sensible (which you are!!) then it should run fairly smoothly...if not you can vent to us anytime !!!

thanks very much everyone. i just wanted to find out if there was even a single person (and i knew there would be) who got off zoloft and did not have nightmarish withdrawal symptoms. so far so good for me. it's been about 5 or 6 days now only since going from 200 to 150. i'll wait a good 2 or 3 more weeks until i drop from the 150 to 100. and then another 3 or 4 weeks to drop again. the book i referenced said that based on the half-life of zoloft the body should begin to notice the difference within 3-5 days and then withdrawal symptoms, if any, would occur at that time and possibly persist for a week or two. if you do it slow enough any withdrawal (Which in reality there is always some sort of withdrawal because your brain is re-adjusting to having less of something it's been getting regularly for a long time) will be so minor you won't notice it. but the extra sensitive people (and there is no way to predict who will fall into this group - and by the sounds of it it's even possible that one person might become sensitive when in the past they didn't have issues) will need to go much more slowly and will still have some problems. but hopefully if they go slow enough they will be able to tolerate the side-effects. i guess the idea is that when you start medication your brain "down-regulates" to some degree your production of serotonin to adjust to the sudden introduction of the meds and their effects. after several weeks of a certain dose your brain settles into a comfortable place where it factors in the meds with its regular production. so when you go off your brain needs time to "up-regulate" again to similarly adjust for the sudden decrease. as long as it is done slowly enough there shouldn't be too many dramatic side-effects. but your brain is making changes regardless. of course, this brings up the question of whether or not the meds are actually doing anything to make your brain chemistry different and brings up all the arguments that there has never been any definitive proof that a deficiency of any chemical in the brain is a cause for any mental disorder (with the exception of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders perhaps). but ultimately no one really knows for sure yet what is going on and i definitely seemed to have positive results for many years.

thankfully it seems that the brain does re-adjust when you decrease and eliminate the meds, though sometimes it can take a long time to get back to 'normal.' i guess my concern (and the concern of probably anyone who takes meds) is about permanent changes after long-term use. it's been a long time since i started (11 years) and i think it's time to try and do without them. i did have some changes in sexual desire and weight gain andi feel like in other subtle ways i am a bit different than i was when i was not on the meds. it definitely improved my OCD and social anxiety as far as I can tell (though both still exist to some degree). but with some huge changes in my life over the last couple years i have had some big issues and the medication just hasn't done enough to help. i am more stable now and have learned a lot about anxiety and depression and ADD and other things and have gotten the feeling that though the meds had their place, i may be able to do just as well with some extra willpower, exercise, proper diet and herbal supplements. and at the same time get rid of the side effects. there have been some studies that suggest the SSRIs and other meds may be helpful but only in a minor way, some even saying only as a placebo. and of course there are always alarmists who say they are pure evil and cause permanent brain damage and make people do harm to themselves and others. i definitely don't believe the latter (though i do recognize there are exceptions and some people can't handle them in the same way or perhaps combine them dangerously with other meds or try and get off them and don't do it properly) but they need to be taken with knowledge of all the complicated facts. even the person who wrote the book i referenced prescribes SSRIs. he just does it with great care and supervision.

anyway, thanks again for your responses. i'll keep you posted on my progress.

i went off lexapro cold turkey and suffered no side effects or withdrawl.

my own decision

thanks so much :) i couldnt have done it without you guys

just an update. down to 100mg per day and still feeling fine. next stop - 50mg, probably in a week or two. no ill effects so far, at least not that i've noticed. not weight loss yet, either. but i think that won't happen until i'm off the meds completely for a few months at least.

by the way, is it just me or does this site have the worst search funtion ever? just doesn't seem to work at all, which is a very bad thing for people looking for help on specific topics.

Smitty,

That's good news. I'm glad it's working so well for you.

percycat