Zoloft Replapse

Hi everyone,

I was on Zoloft for 4 years when my daughter was a baby for PPD/A and had severe insomnia and anxiety. I went an entire summer with no sleeping. It was awful. I weaned off the Zoloft this past May very slowly tapering from 150 mg and stopped my last dose mid September. My husband thinks I tapered too quickly because I was taking the pills for so long. I am a personal trainer so the weight loss was a major issue for me. I have lost some weight since weaning but also noticed my anxiety and well being started to deteriorate at the time of the weight loss. I have also been so fixated on helping my husband with our mortgage payments and bill payments that I became obsessed with work, was studying at the time as well. I know I over did things. So since stopping my last pill in September all was going well up until a few weeks ago where i was feeling a bit low and then suddenly bam last week I had total insomnia, shaking, constant bowel movements , feeling cold etc. I went to the doctor right away and started on 25 mg last week and am now at 50. I have had some sleep. Like 2 nights ago I slept the whole night and was feeling fine yesterday and today I am a mess because I hardly slept a wink last night. I have also been more worried about family members than usual since this all happened. My parents are both older and I feel so sad as to how bad I would feel then if something were to happen. We all have to die its a natural part of life my mom tells me. I love her so much and my dad and feel so bad that my husband has to see me like this again since my post partum depression and now my daughters too. I take a bit of Ativan .5 mg at night and I found that a bit of passionflower helped me to calm down when i was agitated last night. I have taken passion flower regularly when I was stressed when I was on 150 mg of zoloft with no issues at all. Just not sure about the Ativan now in the picture as well. Sorry for the rambling. I have also taken time off work. No clients until at least the new year. I booked someone in this week and last night I was dwelling on what If I dont sleep and sure enough I didnt. So far I am not shaking like I did last week, and I have slept a little bit and I had a very good cry today. I feel like I am stuck like this forever. Some input from others would be so helpful!! Thanks for reading!

Hi FT and welcome!

I am sorry to hear of your recent increase of anxiety and symptoms.

It is not unusual for a second time around start up to be challenging...even with the same Rx! We have had many members post about just this issue.

I am glad that you are able to see your triggers/stressors, and therefore are paring down your schedule. Hopefully this will allow you to get through the toughest part of your start up.

Have you considered therapy, or used self help techniques previously? I can personally endorse both!

For now...here is the link to our Resources with great material and links for coping skills. Give them a try and see how you feel after practicing daily for a week.

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

If you feel you still need more help in feeling your best, looking into finding a therapist would be a good, healing step.

We are here for understanding, support and sharing, so post with us anytime!

Scaredy Cat

You posted on my thread earlier, so I came over here to see your post. Being male I've never had PPD, but what you are experiencing now is very similar to my experience with paxil. I think that this is complicated by SAD this time of year, too. I have many of the same worries that you express - aging parents, not wanting to let family members down, etc. And the anxiety over when and how I get over this. A medication that seems to work for many people who have sleep issues and anxiety is Trazodone. It is non-addictive and can be taken in addition to the Zoloft. A friend of mine has been helped greatly by this and my internist has mentioned it. Might try it. Maybe it would help you. All the best.

Thank you Wolverine for your kind words. I have heard of Trazodone before but my doc never wanted to prescribe it when I had PPD. I have bad associations with my bedroom for sleep and on bad nights I am walking to a few rooms when I should be reading a book and just letting things be.

super20dan I tried so hard to stay off. I feel I did this to myself. Weaning off then jumping into courses to take as well as work and family and I drive alot in traffic as well just all piled up and contributed to this. Last week I was shaking so bad I couldnt handle it. I will at some point in the futire when I get over this and am confident to wean off try something natural. It is good to hear that you have been off for more than a year. It gives me hope.

I easily do get down on myself. I expect instant results and I guess the same goes with my current situation going back on Zoloft. I got so so scared when my insomnia hit me last week. It brought me back to when I had it really bad 4 summers ago. I am starting to sleep better but still am very scared and nervous about the whole sleep thing. I have had to cancel all my clients and am afraid of rescheduling for fear of not sleeping well the night before and not being able to function properly and creating a whole new bout of insomnia. I am not looking at the positive things and I am very mad at myself about this. I just restarted Zoloft a week ago. I am definitely feeling a bit better but is it normal to go through these feelings that I am currently feeling? One minute I feel ok and the next minute I feel depressed? I am so angry at myself that I let this happen.

I was referred to a psychiatrist but am waiting for an appt. I am in Canada so getting a doctors apprt referral can take long but my family doctor is really good so I see him next week.

SO I have been on the Zoloft for 2 weeks at 50 mg and it seems to be fine. I do get a bit of sadness creeping through from time to time. My sleep has been OK but not super. I tried 75 mg yesterday and I felt it immediately. I want going crazy with anxiety, but it was a bit jolting. Made me a bit dizzy after and of course I got scared and started reading horror stories online. I didn't sleep well last night either perhaps due to the dosage increase. Will taking the 75 one time screw things up? I was starting to wean off the ativan i had and took a full .5 mg dose this morning. The full benefit of the 50 mg would be seen at 4 weeks or is it longer? Getting back on to 25 and then 50 was not so bad maybe starting 75 was too soon since i have only reinstated these 2 weeks ago?

Hi

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time at the moment unfortunately when changing or starting up meds you tend to get worse before you get better I would give it a couple of more weeks and if nothing has improved go back and see your doctor. In the meantime use any coping skills you have or check out our resources page for some tips on managing anxiety. I hope you start to feel better soon keep posting we are here to support you.

Hibee

Fitness, my sister had the exact same experience with PPD and zoloft. Her daughter is 21 now, and she has been on zoloft most of those 21 years. And she's fine. She does see a therapist when needed. Over that time, she has raised her daughter and started two successful businesses.

If you're not getting enough sleep, that can get to you. A friend of mine said that sleep deprivation lowers your threshold for anxiety. A nice insight, I thought. Sure enough, getting 7 hours of sleep every night has lowered my anxiety levels. I take trazodone to get there, but it's pretty benign compared to a lot of other meds.

From where you sit now, things look scary. It is scary when your emotions are overwhelming you. Things will settle down, and you will be healthy again. Count on it.

I'm not sure what dose she takes, but she did try to taper off. Don't know the details, but it didn't go well so she just went back on the zoloft. Apparently, it still helps. She would have been about your age when she started.When you finally see a psychiatrist, you will get answers to your questions. I don't know the protocol for tapering off zoloft, but you may need a slower taper than what you tried initially if you try again. Don't know about 5 years. The on line horror stories are often exceptions, not the rule. I've done pretty well with paxil, yet I've read comments on line that it is poison, never take it. One symptom of depression/anxiety is self doubt. You are unsure of the decisions you make. So ask questions and listen to the doctors and your therapist, if you have one. Your first post here was 12/10 - only a few weeks ago even though I'm sure it seems longer. I felt hopeless like you do, and now I'm much more optimistic as I feel better. You are young and have the strength to beat this.