I am finally Zoloft free after being on 200mg for about
3 years and wanted to share how I did it with others. I was on it for anxiety only. I had a lot of side effects building up and was not side effect free tapering off, but the way I did it was on my terms and for max comfort.
Obviously you should not do this without your doctor, but that does not mean you have to stick to your doctor's program IF and only if you make it more restrictive and do it slower. The problem I see with these docs is they try to rush a schedule and drop too much at once.
So I did not let my doc do that, don't let yours either if you are not comfortable! Everyone reacts differently to weaning off SSRI's. Taper to YOUR schedule. You will need your docs help with giving you 25mg tablets to help wean in small amounts.
Here's is how I did it.... I did not taper to a schedule, I did it according to how I felt. I would feel some weaning symptoms for a while when tapering down, once they leveled out I would let myself stay at that dosage for a week or two then go down again. No reason to rush it, take your time!
I went down in 12.5mg increments. I simply started by taking a 100mg tab + 50mg (broke 100mg in half) + 25mg tab + 12.5mg (broke a 25mg in half). This equaled 187.5mg, a reduction of 12.5mg. Sounds like a pain but not really a big deal. Next you would only need to take a 100mg, 1/2 of another 100mg, and a 25mg, and so on reducing 12.5mg at a time as you are ready to.
Depending on how you feel this can take a long time, took me nearly a year! But you know what? I did it and am Zoloft free! No brain zaps but I did have some bouts of dizziness and overall tension. Most importantly I can FEEL again.
Zoloft was an absolutely wonderful drug for me, it really helped me a ton when I needed it. I suffered from PTSD and felt ready to give it a shot on my own again. If I have to go back on it I will. I have nothing bad to say about
the drug, but the way it helps us requires a slow tapering in order to allow our brain to compensate for the change. There is nothing negative about
it, just take your time and do what works for you and you should be fine. Don't let the docs bully you into their schedules. Once again you should only wean with the approval of a doc, not saying otherwise. I am just saying you can go slower and with less of a reduction in dosage than the typical 200mg to 150 to 100 to 50mg then 0. That would have made my life hell for that time period. Why rush?
Post Edited (Reaper7891) : 10/24/2018 11:20:56 AM (GMT-6)