Positive Experience Quitting Zoloft Part 2 of 2

Thanks Kitt: I have a problem whien I miss sleep that I become depressed and the cycle begins. iIt's so frustrating as I was fine three days ago. I feel it's coming off the Z but it doesn't make it any easier when you focus on it! In the past I've tried melatonin but found it depressed me. I maybe was taking too much I don't know. I just have to try and relax and " go with the flow" but when you miss sleep everything is magnified.

I'm not too computer lieterate. How do I download these off You tube? Thanks so much for your assistance.

Thanks Scaredy cat. I took a couple mellodyn( I buy them on line) last night and got about 5 hours. I can't seem to get into a deep sleep. I know it's withdrawl affects. I just hope it doesn't last much longer as I feel wiped!

Thanks again for your help ~ appreciate.

I've been on Sertraline (generic for Zoloft) for about 5 years. Started with 50mg and about 6 months ago Dr. increased it to 100mg. I was taking it for mood swings brought on by menopause. Well I'm basically done with menopause and thought about stopping this medicine. Found this forum and it gave me the confidence I needed to give it a try. So I cut back to 75mg for 1 week, no problems. Starting last Friday I'm now on 50mg; have noticed that my patience is a little thin now. While on the 100mg nothing bothered me. I thought well, I can't be happy every minute of every day. I am not having mood swings. So as of this Friday will cut it back to 25mg for another week.
What made me decide to stop? Well, I too was noticing little things that I didn't like: my hands started shaking ( I love to paint so this won't do ), I had a hard time remembering things, used post-it notes all the time. Was getting headaches behind my right eye, but only first thing in the morning. My eyes were extremely dry and I was quite sleepy.
once I started to cut back the first thing I noticed was my brain didn't feel foggy, my eyes aren't nearly as dry, not headaches in over a week; and not sleepy. I am not having any trouble sleeping at night either. The shaking in my hands has diminished and I hope will go away when I'm done with this medicine. I did not call my Dr to let him know I was doing this, but I did tell my hubby to please let me know if he notices any changes in my personality that I don't see. ( I might have left myself open for some teasing with this request ).Again I wasn't taking it for anxiety, just mood swings so maybe that is why I seem to be doing well with taking less.

approaching the end of 2 weeks of decreasing from 100mg to 75mg. I have been itchy and sleepy, and have experienced some nausea in the past couple of days. my brain does seem to be more clear, but I'm still stammering for words. I visited my chiropractor yesterday (which I do every 2 wks) and he said it felt like he was trying to adjust a piece of wood! I've been exercising 3 times a week and I thought that would help with my muscle tension and my weight, but I think I've actually gained weight too! :( I'm still eating like a hog....I was hoping my appetite would decrease, but unfortunately, eating sweets is comfort to me. anyway, I'm not quitting. I will press on!

thanks for the encouragement!

thank you so much for the advice and understanding! i am feeling a bit more positive, and like you said, cutting myself some slack! i haven't had to take benadryl to sleep the last couple of nights, and i also haven't had the nausea for a couple of days. yesterday was the beginning of 50mg (50%). my mood seems to be good considering my cat woke me up early this morning by peeing on me in my bed and i didn't freak out or kill him! (he is an outdoor cat, but has an injury and i felt sorry for him for having to sleep in the cold. i don't feel sorry for him anymore :)). seriously, i'm glad i can actually joke about it! thankfully, weaning is not on my mind constantly any more, which is why i haven't been posting daily, but i will continue to post as i go along.

Getting well, and getting back to your routine and getting out to exercise will help...hang in there!

Great job on continuing the weaning process. You are doing great in spite of the challenges!

Don't forget about our coping skills for decompressing in our Resources...they work!

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=9&m=104206

Peace and progress.

S.C.

I am SO happy I found this forum. I was on the verge of giving up and just going back to my normal dosage of Zoloft until I read all of your stories.

I had my first child in November 2012 via C-Section. I went back to work Mid-January 2013 and was feeling worse and worse by the day. I had no feeling of harming my daughter and or anything to do with her. She is perfect and brought me so much joy. But I was feeling like I did not like my husband anymore. Waking up and getting ready for work was one of the hardest parts of my day. We were struggling every morning to be on time and I was so irritable that anything my husband did would put me on edge. It wasn't until a few months later when we had a bad morning that I was about to tell him that I no longer liked him and thought we had nothing in common, that I stopped and told myself how ridiculous I was being. My husband is an amazing man and father. He was doing everything possible to not only provide for us but to also help me deal with my struggles. I knew at that moment that the issue was me and I needed help. I saw my doctor for postpartum depression and was put on Zoloft 25mg for the first 2 weeks, then up to 50mg. I could tell within weeks that I was feeling better. I was humming to music again. I was able to control my anger and not get so irritated at my husband. I was playing more with my daughter. After a few months I went back into a lull and my prescription was moved up to 100mg a day and that is what I have been taking everyday until 2 weeks ago.

I have been struggling with my weight since having my daughter. I initially lost 30 something pounds after her birth and was able to stay at that weight until I started on Zoloft. I breastfed my daughter until this past November when she turned a year old. I convinced myself that the weight I had put on since starting zoloft was just my body storing what it needed to keep breastfeeding my baby. But I slowly put back on all my weight and was back up to my highest weight ever which was the day I went into have my C-Section. I thought that when I was finished breastfeeding my girl I would loose the weight. I did loose my appetite but I didn't loose a single pound. I have stayed active, work out and eat healthy but have had ZERO results.

So a little over two weeks ago I decided to email my doctor about my Zoloft prescription making me gain weight. She said that I am doing well and could slowly ween myself off the pills. So for two weeks I took half a pill and now during my third week and for one more week I am taking half a pill every other day. The first two weeks were normal. But the past 3 or 4 days have been horrible. Yesterday I had full blown anxiety attack and feel like I have a knot in my chest that wont go away. I was thinking these symptoms meant I was not ready to get off the zoloft but after reading this forum I feel like maybe it is just my body starting the withdraw process. I want so badly to feel better on my own and lose weight and I know in my gut I can do both things but I think zoloft is holding me back.

Thank you all for the great information. I am going to keep up with my plan of weening and eventually getting off zoloft and I just have to figure out how I will get through these next few weeks.

Thank you to everyone for posting. I have been on Z for almost four years. I started it because of post partum. I notice a few things being on it that I don't like, however am afraid of the other side.

I have night sweats, lack of emotion toward my husband, have a hard time finding my words, and a lack of memory. The last two make it hard on me because I am a teacher and the lack of emotion towards my husband has been a huge problem for the last year and a half.

I am going to try and get off this medication, which I have tried before but started feeling angry and snapping at people and figured that it was because of needing the medication, but realize from this blog that others feel the same. I currently take 50mg a day and going to start tomorrow on 25mg a day for a couple of weeks.

I will post in a week how I feel or if I start feeling anything different I will do it sooner. Good luck to all who are going through the effects of this drug.

Will see the doc in a week, thanks for the tips.

while i've got a moment, i'm going to go ahead and post here! (before i forget! lol)

so i haven't posted in almost 2 weeks....that's because we got somewhat of a surprise visit from the in-laws that live half-way across the country, and they stayed for 8 days! and 30 minutes after they left, i came down with a stomach virus that i'm still recovering from. fun times. anyway, i continued with my weaning schedule, which meant i started 1/3 dosage last friday. but after a week of pent-up anxiety and this virus totally exhausting me physically, i have gone back up to 50% for the rest of this week and possibly another until i feel like i've got a handle on my emotions again, then i'll move on down to the next level. i've just been blowing up at ridiculous things, which i believe is a result of not only the recent stress, but being able to feel the emotional highs and lows again....which is not always bad! i am able to laugh at life again and feel like i'm kinda being immature sometimes because of my silliness! but that's ME....glad to have ME back. :)

just want to say welcome to lifeonatilt. i can totally relate!! the weight gain and breastfeeding, not liking your husband, etc., been there done that! still living with the extra weight and hoping that i can tackle that issue full-on when i wean completely. i am, however, trying to add in some exercise as i wean as a way to reduce stress. but i'm not putting any goals out there yet, and i'm not beating myself up if i don't make it to the gym. just don't blame your body for being human. hey, if you've stayed active and have been eating healthy, you're doing a whole lot better than i've done! i'm looking forward to hearing more about your journey!

I am only a few days in taking a half pill, but know what you are feeling because of a previous attempt. I hope that I can hang in there when I get to where you are because I may start thinking that it is not worth it and start back on the pills.

My only real reason for wanting to get off the pills is to see if I really am annoyed and don't care about my marriage anymore. Other than that I am a happy person and I love my daughter, I never feel numb or spaced out, I enjoy my job, the only complaint is my husband. I realize that this could be other issues in our relationship but after reading what some people wrote I want to get off the pills and see how things go.

I found this forum searching for information on stopping zoloft. This is my first time posting here although I have read a lot of other users posts. Thanks to everyone who has posted so much useful information.

Here is my crazy panic / zoloft story.

Starting in early 2012, I started having anxiety type symptoms that mostly showed up at night when I was trying to go to sleep. They consisted of a tight throat and feeling like my breathing was not on automatic. Once I realized it was all anxiety / stress related, I just ignored it and just kept working crazy 7 day 80 hour weeks. I didn't feel stressed at all is an interesting factor.

I'm a 38 year old male and have only been to an ER once as a teenager. That was until I went to the ER in December of 2012 feeling like I was having a heart attack. The ER confirmed my heart was good and sent me home with no diagnosis. I didn't even realize this was panic / anxiety at the time.

I managed another ER visit in July 2013 with my right leg numb, short of breath, and chest pains. Once again, the ER confirmed it wasn't life threatening and sent me home.

By this time, I realized the two ER visits were a result of panic / anxiety. I researched for a natural treatment and after reading the reviews for Lemon Balm on Amazon, I ordered it and started taking it.

I continued having anxiety while taking the Lemon Balm, but it was very manageable and only consisted of the night time anxiety 2 - 3 nights a week. At some point, I was questioning if the Lemon Balm was doing anything since I was still having these issue.

I stopped taking the Lemon Balm in late October and on October 29th, the bottom fell completely out. I was driving to lunch and my legs went numb and my vision went very blurry. I felt like I was going to black out and pulled over on the side of the road. At some point, I felt a reset and looking around trying to figure out where I was so I most likely did black out. My heart was racing, my chest was hurting, and I couldn't breath.

My life has not been the same since. The tension would not leave my body. Every time I got in the car, no matter if I was driving or not, the entire event would just replay. I was convinced there was something very bad wrong with me that the doctors had missed.

My General Practitioner just didn't get it. He gave me some Busiprone and told me to take it as needed. It did nothing for me. Three days later, my wife called him to explain I hadn't worked in the last three days and how unusual that was. She did a better job of explaining how severe the issue had grown.

The doctor called me in .5mg of Ativan. After taking it, I got the first 2 hours of solid sleep I had over three days. Once I realized the Ativan could make the symptoms stop, I could drive my car again. I didn't even need to take it. I just needed to know it was in my car and available.

Since then, I've been to two other doctors, a therapist, and a psychiatrist. It took me a while to believe my heart was fine, I didn't have a brain tumor, and this was all anxiety.

The guy who never missed work and gave my company 80 hours a week, missed 3 months of work on medical leave. Once I got away, I realized how stressed I was. The therapist explained that I had become so used to the stress was the reason I didn't believe I was stressed in the beginning.

I also learned I had a family history of severe anxiety. Over those three months, I reconnected to family I haven't seen in 10+ years. They were wonderful guides to help me understand this would pass. I also learned how sensitive my family was to anti-depressants. One family member has taken 5mg of Prozac for the last 10 years and it has been successful treatment for her.

I clearly have the same sensitivity. I have been taking 12.5 mg of Zoloft for the past 2 months. It seems to work reasonably well for the anxiety. I haven't used any Ativan for over a month. I settled on 12.5 mg because at 25mg, my vision was so blurry and eyes so light sensitive, I couldn't see well enough to do anything.

At 12.5 mg, I still deal with dry eyes, but eye drops help tremendously.

The two biggest "keys" for dealing with my anxiety has been:

1. To finally believe it is just anxiety and not a heart attack.

2. To stop trying to make it stop. I realized trying to stop it only makes it worse. When I dismiss the panic as, "oh well", or "i don't care", or "this wont last long", it goes away quickly. I've had two panic attacks over the last two months and when I changed my thinking to, "so what" and didn't seek to stop it, the panic lasted less than a minute and was completely gone. It felt good to do that!

I'm here because I really feel like I have a handle on the anxiety and want to get off the Zoloft. I have daily vision trouble, aching pain in my chest, and my thinking is foggy. I'm also a wrestler and have to watch my weight very closely. This med has been not been helpful in that respect. I want to eat everything.

I'm already cutting a 25mg pill in half to get to 12.5mg. I'm not sure if I can cut it any further. I plan to meet with my doctor in the next week or so and hope he will support me coming off this drug.