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Hi! Glad to have found this community. I was out on 25mg Sertraline after a stressful life phase caused burnout that ended with me at the hospital. The psychiatrist raised the dose to 50mg within two weeks of starting. After a couple of weeks of extremely weird new ‘electric’ sensations in my body that the doc assured was just my anxiety, I slowly over three months or so got used to the medication and started to feel better mentally. The life trigger that resulted in the burnout ceased being there around month 6 on Sertraline, and I worked with the psychiatrist to begin tapering as I believed then I had developed other coping strategies through therapy, exercise and mindfulness practices. I was advised to taper to 0 within two weeks, but I intuitively felt that something that took 3 months to make the effect felt is likely not going to leave my system to pre-medication days in just two weeks, and decided on what I then thought was a slow and effective taper (I unfortunately did not come across this site before my taper attempt started 😕). Tapering to 25 mg from 50 and then to 12.5 and finally 0 all happened within a span of four months, with no symptoms whatsoever during the taper. It was about three weeks after the last dose that I started feeling funny physical symptoms— brain zaps, vertigo. These slowly faded away and mental ones took over along with new physical ones— irritability, low bandwidth for stress, thoughts that get stuck on a loop. Through therapy and mindfulness practices I learnt during my time on Sertraline, I am able to cope with the mental symptoms as of now. It’s the physical ones that are bothering me and reigniting my health anxiety— would appreciate input on these— chest pains, pain along nerves in limbs and torso, getting fatigued more easily from workouts. Docs have dismissed this as anxiety related, but I was pain-free before the meds. Ugh. I read about reinstating on the site but feel like my nervous system is overreacting to everything right now, and the mental symptoms I am able to cope with so far. What worked for you to survive the physical symptoms of withdrawal? Help!

Hello, just a little history about me I’m a 39 year old female who’s always had a bit of OCD/anxiety but never medicated. Around 6 years ago in 2018 my daughter was battling an illness that required my full attention/support so in order to cope with all the worry, anxiety I was prescribed 50mg of Setraline. I was on and off it over the years with no issues to deal with my daughter’s illness. Then in December 2020 I Cold Turkeyd Setraline and did fine for 4 months til I started having intrusive thoughts( which I didn’t know what these were) enough to freak me out and reinstated 50 mg of Zoloft in May 2021 just fine with no side effects. I stayed on this dose for over 2 years straight with no skipping. Fast forward to August 2023 I was in a better place mentally and my daughters illness was better so I decided to tapper on my doctors order to take 25mg of Setraline instead of 50mg for a few weeks. So I began to tapper in August breaking my 50mg pill in half. I never dealt with major withdraw symptoms or new what they were til these past few months have been hell. I started the crying non stop, lashing out, constipation, acid reflux, loss of appetite, urine issues as if I had a UTI, food sensitivity, AND WORST OF ALL A FULL BLOWN PANIC ATTACK. I called my dr and asked her what this was as I never experienced this before. It had been roughly 11 weeks of tapering from August to October so she advised me to go back to the original dose of 50mg ON OCTOBER 21, 2023. And that’s when I became worse. Two days later after updosing my Setraline to 50mg I was nauseous all day/vomiting , no appetite, trouble sleeping. This continued for 6 weeks when I was so dehydrated and my brain was not functioning correctly I went to the ER November 23 and told them what happened with the increase they said withdraw symptoms don’t last this long and it’s probably gastritis. So my husband told me to stop the increase and stay on 25mg of Sertraline since my dr was on Thanksgiving break. It’s been 45 days since I last changed my dosage back to 25mg of Setraline and have been feeling pretty awful: wake up with the cortisol spike/ anxiety in the morning running through my arms, Insomnia/broken sleep( wake up few times in the night), no appetite, depressed, OCD intrusive thoughts, panicky, nausea, sad/crying non stop, thoughts of death, tremors and back pain issues. I did cut out processed meats, fast food, caffeine, dairy and eating clean. What’s scaring me the most is this dark/doom symptom I’m having like there’s no point to live and I’m never been suicidal in the past just anxious person who worries a lot, but recently been feeling depressed. I truly want off this drug but want to know if what I’m doing in terms of dosage was the correct choice or should I have stayed on 50mg back in November and stabilized. PLEASE HELP ME Started my menstrual cycle 3 days early this month, today being day #1 and feeling depressed and down like I have no reason to live. I hate feeling like this I have 4 little kids who need their mother. Current medication: 25mg of Setraline magnesium citrate vitamin D 50 thousand( dangerously low) 2mg of melatonin My history *November 2018-2020 on and off 50 mg of Setraline (never experienced severe withdrawal) Cold Turkey Setraline December 2020 did fine for 4 months til I started having intrusive thought freaked out and started 50 mg of Setraline in May 2021 *May2021- August 2023 50 mg of Setraline *August 2023 25 mg of Setraline Didn’t know there was a such thing as severe withdrawal symptoms *First Noticed severe withdraw symptoms late October Loss of Appetite, anxiety attacks (never had these ) freaked out tried to reinstate at 50 mg for 6 weeks had more nausea, acid reflux vomiting, and insomnia throughout the 6 weeks so I went back to 25mg Sertraline . *Late December 2023 intrusive thoughts emerged.

Hi people, I am kind of desperate as I feel really weird for the last week or so and it is not the anxiety or the depression that I started the antidepressants for (at least this is how I perceive it). As you can see in the signature, there were a lot of changes and adjustments since I started the antidepressants. My current doc (will have a meeting with her on Wednesday) recommended to go up to 150mg of zoloft and so I did, in December. But by the end of December I started to feel super anxious again and upon google research (doc not available during the holidays), I decided by myself to drop back to 125. A week after that I started to feel really good, maybe best I've been since I started the medication. It lasted about until around 20th of January when I started to feel another increase in anxiety. Contacted the doc and she recommended another drop, to 100 mg. About 5 days later I started to feel a bit better, but only for 2-3 days. Then the weirdness started. I now have a feeling that I haven't had before (of course, I might perceive it like that since the mix of depression and anxiety with OCD and health anxiety on top is a BOMB cocktail), like I am not the same anymore, a dreamlike feeling, a bit dissociative, a bit emotionally numb, a bit of confusion, ability to focus on something dropped a bit etc. Feels a bit like the derealization I had when I felt into depression, back in summer 2023, but without that severe depression. I fear that my brain got permanently "damaged" (a bit illogical, I know, but the fear is there) from all these meds and adjustments. I feel this new state to be even scarier than the anxiety attacks I was having in Autumn (at least I was feeling better after an attack, for the rest of the day, optimistic and hopeful) because I am in it the whole day, with minor ups and downs. Can I actually feel this way because of the last drop in dosage? If so, why I haven't feel this way when I dropped from 150 to 125? Lately I was thinking that upping the escitalopram dosage from 10 to 20 mg, back in September (I had a rough week right after I returned from holiday, anxiety was through the roof the week before I went up on 20 mg) was a mistake and maybe I just had to push through and stay on 10mg. I have the feeling that I have been overmedicated since then. I actually dropped back to 10mg mid Novemeber (and then switched to zoloft) after I complained several times to my doc that I started to feel a bit weird, mood shifts during the day, like feeling great in the first half and like **** in the afternoon. Also, I am seriously thinking in the last few days to start weaning off the poison, because I started to believe these meds are actually doing more wrong than good (of course, these words may come out just because I feel super off lately) I appreciate your thoughts and advice. Thanks!

Hello all, long time reader first time poster. Firstly I just wanted to say how awesome it is to have such a place to go and receive help for what can only be described as a nightmare that thousands of people seem to go through. So here is my story which I will end with a few questions I have. As you can see from my signature, I was placed on 50mg of Sertraline (Zoloft) in September 2009. This is when my life was turned upside down. I was originally placed on this drug because I visited my local doctor comlaining about some anxiety that I was getting after I drank alcohol. I must say that for a period of about 8 years I was a heavy binge drinker. I was a typical 18 year old who went out every weekend and got blind drunk with his mates. This was obviously starting to take its toll on me once I hit 25 years of age and that is why I visited my doctor. Well I was in there for a total of about 10 minutes before he prescribed me 50mg of Zoloft telling me this would help with taking the edge off of my anxiety. I did what he suggested and this was the worst mistake of my life. I returned to the doctor within 10 days of starting 50mg complaining of the worst symptoms (severe agitation, anxiety and now depression). Unfortunatley I could not see the original doctor so I saw another doctor there at the time. He said I must need a higher dose and that 100mg was the normal dose he puts his patients on. He also prescribed valium to me (which I took a couple of times). The next 3 months of my life was like a horror film. I became suicidal with severe symptoms that I had never experienced before going on the drug. I seem to settle after about 3 months, but it must be said I never was without symptoms, but they were less severe. Around 12 months after starting the drug, I began to get more severe symtoms. I returned to the doctor and he once again up'd my dosage to 150mg. The next 3 months were a nightmare again, severe agitation etc. For the next 6 years I floated between 100mg and 150mg. I spent thousands of dollars on therapy to treat an apparent panic disorder; although I didn't mind the therapist, the information we went through just didn't seem to apply to me i.e. I wasn't thinking any of the ways he was suggesting was causing my symptoms. It wasn't until I started looking into more natural ways and researching antidepressants that I realised that maybe the drug could be the problem! Lightbulb moment! I have read a lot of books from authors like Peter Breggin, Joseph Glenmullen, etc. which I am sure most of you have read. I also have been doing a lot of work with a nutritionist. I had a 23andme test done and found out a couple of interesting points. I have a COMT gene mutation which means I break down adrenaline and dopamine slower and I also have a mutation in another gene which I can't remember the name of which means I break down serotonin slower. What this actually suggests to me and my nutritionist agrees is that I may have been quite toxic with levels of serotonin which was causing serotonin syndrome. Alot of my symptoms were a mirror image of serotonin syndrome (agitation etc.). So as you can see from my signature, I began tapering in February 2016. My problem now is that I seem to have hit a huge brick wall. I may have tapered a little fast and was hit with severe withdrawal symptoms which have not gone away. I have been holding at my current dose of 60mg for almost 4 months now. This past 4 months has been the worst 4 months of my life. It started with severe symptoms like pounding headaches, vomitting, insomnia, not being able to sit still (severe agitation) as well as some depression. It has progressed from there to now being just severe depression. I am not depressed about anything in particular other than the way I feel. It is like I am completely numb with emotions aside from being really upset. I have no appetite and really struggle to get through each day. I am very fatigued and lack motivation to do the most basic of things. I am pushing through it as best I can still working fulltime and excercising a couple of times a week plus playing golf on the weekend. I must say that I have a great life. I love my job, I have a beautiful wife and young son (8 months) and honestly have everything to live for. It is just these horrendous symptoms are ruining it all. So finally to my questions and looking for advice from some veterans on here. What should I do next? Should I continue to hold at 60mg until things get better, or should I continue at a 10% taper and see if things get worse or perhaps better? From previous drops, I seem to have a period of improvement on symptoms for about 2-4 weeks, and then it begins to decline until I drop again. I am not sure whether that means I should keep reducing or slow down. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

I am going through withdrawal from setraline zoloft used for 22 years, have tried to quit but failed, hope to find help here and help others Haven't drank alcohol in 2 years, haven't had a problem with alcohol like that but drank too much when I did. Going to a psychologist Have not used other drugs only zoloft. When I took zoloft my highest dose was 100mg, withdrawal was if I remember 6 weeks 50mg and 25mg 4 weeks if I remember correctly I have made a suspension of 2.5 months with the end of the last tablet of 25mg 2023-11-06 But now I have severe anxiety and compulsive behavior. Have I made too short a delay? Anyone have any tips on how I should do it? Thanks have nice day

Long story short, I went to see my GP when I was in my early 20s with a list of printed off depression symptoms and without offering any other suggestions, I was prescribed Sertraline (I'm the UK, I believe it's commonly called Zoloft in the US?) Anyway, about 4 years ago I began a long journey of intensive therapy and healing after a traumatic childhood experience came to light, and on this journey, I carefully tapered my Sertraline down to 50mg; and then this year down to 25mg. My problem is where next. I have read these forums in great depth; trouble is my GP has told me they cannot prescribe liquid; and the 25mg sertraline tablets I take are smooth round ones that crumble horribly when I try cutting them. My GP said I can just stop now I'm at 25mg, but experience from reading people's accounts suggests it just won't be that simple. I want to do this properly - I don't want to be medicated for the rest of my life and I'm in very much a different place than I was back then. As I near 40, my coping strategies are solid and I have a wonderful network of support. Maybe I'm overthinking it and I can just drop to alternative days from 25mg then stop after a settlement period? Unfortunately my Doctor hasn't been much help at all, so I'm hoping someone here can perhaps give me an insight. I once tried their recommended taper of 50mg every other day (I think it was last year) but the brain zaps were too much for me (I have an 8 year old child and while my husband is around too, being debilitated for most of the day isn't really an option for me). I can appreciate and tolerate a certain level of discomfort, I know this isn't an easy journey by any means, but it was absolutely too much and I don't want to fall into that trap again and become disheartened. Really humbly grateful for any guidance, thank you for reading.

Hi, this will take a while to write down as i’m suffering to remembering things clearly. When I was 16(2013) I got diagnosed with ADD, social anxiety and a learning disability. I was put on Atomoxetin and Sertraline where I refused to take them most of the time as I just didn’t want to be different from the other kids. Didn’t experience any side effects at all and I quit taking the pills CT a year after without any WD. In mid 2018 I was put on citalopram 20mg and seroquel(25mg but told me I could take up to max 75mg a day and switch between doses if I felt like I needed it) for sleep, after I developed an ED and a depression due to a past abusive relationship. had severe side effects at first, but wanted to feel better desperatly so I held out. In 2019 my anxiety got worse and my doctor increased my dose to 40mg of citalopram and lastly to 60mg. In start 2021 I began feeling almost sicker, having severe headaches, extreme irritability, stomach aches, bloating and numbness. decided I didn’t want to live like this, I educated myself on the medications I was taking and I was shocked to say the least. I contacted my doctor and we started started tapering down from 60mg citalopram in 2021 in May to 30mg, with no problems but experienced extreme withdrawal when i tapered down too fast from 30 to 12mg after a month. on a steady dose of 15mg of citalopram from July up to now. Been Tapering down on quetiapine from august 16th 2021 to (75mg, 50mg, 25mg, 12mg and been on 6mg for my last dose in April 2022. I wanna keep updating my progress here since i’ve had horrible withdrawals from the quetiapine tapering for the past 4 months, with very little windows.

I have had long covid for two years. Struggled with neurological issues such as severe racing thoughts with Songs in my head and migraines daily with feeling like I'm concussied all the time visual snow syndrome and tons of visual issues plus much more. started Zoloft in February 2022 to see if it would help with racing thoughts. I tried to push through the initial side effects and give it time because everyone said it takes time.. I started to get tons of symptoms on this drug such as worse ocd and racing thoughts and tics and Anhedonia. I started tapering and tried to cut in half and had a severe reaction. I felt like I was going insane for a week whole body burning I could not stop thinking about it. I've had body burning with long covid but this is much worse like my whole body and mind felt insane and on fire. I finally got the liquid and started coming down. A few times I think I've definitely gone too quickly. I'm now at 7.4mg and struggling so bad I just want this drug out of me. Everytime I go down it's awful and now I'm scared it's forever cause I stopped tapering for a month and still had the symptoms. Tapering symptoms that are the worst consist of anhedonia and feeling like I don't love my cats or daughter even tho I know I do. Insane racing thoughts and ruminating. I think about every action I do like oh the way I talked to that person was weird or the way I'm driving is weird. I also get those days where I almost take myself to the hospital as I feel I wanna jump out of my skin. The ruminating thoughts are so bad and so are the insane feeling. I think about my symptoms 24/7 because they are there constantly. I feel like I'm going psychotic and no doctor will help me or even understands. I think long covid made my nervous system sensitized and I may have done it way worse with Zoloft. Please tell me what I can do to help or if anybody has experienced anything similar. I'm feeling suicidal

I am a 70 year old man who has been on Zoloft for about 25 years and wants out . I take 100mg daily and I do not trust my current medical practioner to help me to finally get clean.

Hi, everyone, I'm new to this site. 15 years ago my mother died and I was placed onto Seroquel, Lithium Carbonate, and Zoloft. At one point I was also on Buspar. I started to taper my medication in August of 2021. I was able to quit Buspar in six weeks, and quit Lithium in four weeks by switching to Lithium Orotate. I was also able to decrease my Zoloft from 175mg to just 37.5mg over the course of about a year, which was very easy until I got down to the last 50mg. By far the hardest medication to cut is Seroquel. It will probably be another two years before I am off that drug. I'll talk about that more in a later post.

Hello all, I have been reading this site for awhile but recently decided to join. Please forgive me for any misspellings or anything poorly written as my brain is not what it once was as a result of these drugs. Even finding the motivation to write this post took me multiple days. My parents were very pro-medication at a young age, I developed OCD around age 10 and took Zoloft for approximately 2 years as I was told I needed it to get better. I was also on Ritalin from age 5-13. I went through most of high school and college unmedicated, until the end of college around age 21 deciding to seek out adderall again as my grades were starting to take a hit. I also had a breakup at the time and a doctor put me on 40mg fluoxetine (prozac). I wasn't even that sad but he said it would help take the edge off. I didn't think twice about this drug after taking it, and somehow ended up taking it for the following 10 years. Fast forward to age 31 (about 1.5 years ago) Things were going incredibly well in my life, recently married, job going well, driven and enjoying life, and I looked at my pill one day and thought, Why am I still taking this? I learned about the long half life of this drug and since I was told 10mg was the lowest dose, I asked my doc to change to 10mg which he did without a real question. I went from 40 to 20 to 10 in about a month, and then started taking the 10 every other day, every third day, every 4 days, and so on, until I got to one pill every two weeks. Since this was the minimum dose, I figured this was the most drawn out "taper" possible. I took my last pill somewhere around October of 2022 and oddly enough, the 2-3 weeks that followed were incredible. Life was brighter than it had ever been, I was happy and motivated to take my life to even another level i had not yet experienced. About one month off the drug, I started to notice some very strange effects. My body and mind did not feel right. I had extreme mood swings and fatigue, complete loss of libido that has never returned, and other symptoms. I got my testosterone tested and it was very low, in the first percentile for my age. Health is my biggest passion and I had done nothing to cause this, I had continued my extremely healthy eating, active lifestyle, great sleep etc so I found this very odd. I eventually went back on the drug for approximately 1.5 months to see if it helped with my issues and libido (and I had genital numbness), but it didn't seem to make any meaningful difference (I also dont think I tried it long enough) so I did the same "taper" again around Feb of 2023. Looking back my taper was probably more of a cold turkey than a taper, given my last dose was still a full dose (10mg). My testosterone level started to improve, but not without a ton of other symptoms coming and going over time. Whole body pains, cognitive issues, weird mental issues like extreme difficulty making decisions among other things. This has been an ever evolving range of symptoms, with some things sticking around changing in severity and others coming and going. My current symptoms which have been around for quite some time are an extreme lack of motivation and a strong sense of apathy. This is also accompanied by severe anhedonia. Every simple task has become difficult, and I often feel like I am stuck in the mud with the way I interact with the world in my new state. I struggle to work my job in whhich I have been a high performer for many years, and I require a lot of daily assistance from my wife and father. I feel like a burden on those around me, I am no longer the same person and I keep desperately searching and trying to find that person again. I have considered a reinstatement, but do not want to slow down my recovery - but at this point I am getting kind of desperate for some relief. It is hard to say if I have experienced any real windows, but I guess things are changing, even if not for the better, which signals something is going on in my body. I continue to care for my body in every way imaginable from a great diet, sleep, exercise. However I am sure there are other things I could be focusing on to heal more quickly. Open to any and all suggestions or advice. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this.

May 2024 be a year of healing! At the end of April 2023 I had a total knee replacement. 10 weeks later out of the blue came adrenaline surges. I did not understand what was happening to me. My stomach shut down and I couldn't sleep from all the surges. When I reflect I think I was in a very sensitive state from being on an antibiotic and aspirin and nsaids for 10 weeks. I have always had a difficult time with meds. I went to my doctor and she put me on Zoloft to increase my serotonin. I was reluctant but trusted the doctor. After 13 days I was lying on my couch a human zombie. I didn't want to die but if I did I was ok with it. I had so many side effects. My doctor wanted me to push through but I said no. I did not know anything about tapering so in 5 more days I was in WD. Though I didn't know it. I had some ok days then the adrenaline surges and insomnia and intrusive thoughts hit me. I ended up in a facility because I was scared and thought I needed a new med. They put me on effexor. Then I descended into the darkest pit. After 19 days I got out and my new doctor had me do a quick 8 day taper. During the taper/ CT I found myself in the worst mental state of my life. I was scared of everything but knew I would not go on another med. I found SA and the success stories have been a life line. I knew nothing about this only that a friend had been through something similar and made it through. I cannot believe what my body and mind have endured the last 4 months. I came here because I need some peer support. My husband has been a rock telling me I will heal everytime the depression crashes over me and I have a hard time believing this is my life. Which is almost every day. I have had a few days where who I am is stronger than the symptoms and I can feel a little hope. Usually in the evenings there is a break. Only had a few minutes/ hours where I felt almost myself. I'm looking for positive support where we can commiserate but ultimately there is a building up of each other. I am trying to accept this healing and would like to make a friend or two that gets it. I still have some very debilitating days. My belief in God and my husband have held me when I wanted to let go. I will add a signature but I need to go through my journals which triggers. Wishing and wanting for everyone peace and love and healing!

Hello, I was prescribed olanzapine 10mg three years ago for postnatal psychosis. I have experienced side effects from this so they kept me on it sometimes upping my dose. I was also put on sertraline two years ago. I am now on 10.7mg of Olanzapine and 100mg of sertraline.I plan to lower my olanzapine 5% every two weeks until I get to a lower dose of 2.5mg then I will lower my sertraline before coming fully off the olanzapine. I have not yet discussed this with my doctor I will ask him to prescribe me a lower dose every three months when I see him as he does not agree with me coming off of it completely.

I am 47 years old have been on anti-depressions for 11 years. I was on venlafaxine for the first few months early 2012. While it helped, nausea was unbearable so I switched to Cymbalta. I was on cymbalta until Early 2017. When it started to lose its efficacy, I switched to Zoloft (sertraline) quickly. I was up to 200mg per day through the end (2022 summer) and I wanted to sleep 24/7. With my doctor's approval, I weaned off in 30 days. (Looking back - this was definitely too fast) I have been chemical free for the past 30 days. While the withdrawal symptoms are still there, they are definitely getting better every day. Reading a few comments here helped me a lot already. I feel very hopeful now. One final note - It is amazing to me how doctors take this so lightly. They prescribe these drugs like they are m&ms and they switch your medication like changing your bed-sheets. And when it is time to wean off, they treat like it is nothing. Shame to the medical system!

Hi- M27, drug history is in my signature. Most of my AD journey has been pleasant. I am jointing this community to understand why I had such a terrible experience tapering, so I can avoid these issues in the future, if possible. As well as tips to stabilize. Got on for low level anx/dep in college when parents going through divorce. Recently, I’ve experienced difficulties when trying to taper off. Most recently was on Zoloft 150-200mg for ~2 years. Worked with my dr to taper down to zero over the course of 2-3 months. Hindsight being 20/20, it’s clear that this was too fast. Severe w/d for 4 months, mixed in with some Prozac introduced to “ease withdrawal” Most recently took the advice of a new psychiatrist to go back on Zoloft, as that’s the only way to make WD go away. To varying degrees- most every day for 7 months has had intense brain zaps, dizziness, whooshing when I move my eyes, trouble with balance, anxiety, nausea. I can clearly tell a difference between “withdrawal” and “onboarding” symptoms. It’s drastically changed what I can do in my day to day life, unable to do simple tasks due to disorientation and anxiety that follows the physical instability. Luckily I work remotely. Right now I am staying on Zoloft 50mg for at least 3-6 months to “stabilize”. I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, where the physical symptoms are worse than anxiety and depression ever was before or during the meds. Again- I am jointing this community to understand why I had such a terrible experience tapering, so I can avoid these issues in the future, if possible. Thank you for your help and encouragement.

Hi. I'm new here. Here are the basics of my story. I had been on 150mg of Zoloft for 17 years for dysthymia and generalized anxiety disorder. I decided to taper off, with the blessing of my pdoc. My depression and anxiety returned, and I had to not only increase the Zoloft to 200mg but add 1mg of Abilify (plus Konopin as needed). It's been a year and a half since the episode began and a year since starting Abilify. I'm feeling quite a bit better--I hardly ever take the Klonopin, and my pdoc said I can try doing without the Abilify. I just went 16 days at only 0.5mg of Abilify, but I'm feeling anxious and depressed again and bumped back up to 1mg. I'm so frustrated with the whole situation. I'm working hard to recover: I'm in weekly therapy, I run just about every day (3-6 miles), and I meditate almost daily. I don't want to come off the Zoloft, just the Abilify. Maybe I won't be able to, in which case I need to come to terms with that. Any comments or questions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi 🙂 I'm still figuring out how this site works and I hope I'm at the right place to introduce myself. After some very stressful family event I had some sort of nervous breakdown. I was put on celexa and took that for 3 days horrible reaction they switched me to Zoloft took that for 3 days, horrible reaction as well. Went to group therapy for 5 weeks and felt a bit better and was kind of able to function. Did genetic testing and found out I'm a poor metabolizer for most SSRI/SNRI about 2 months after I started have severe anxiety and intrusive thoughts, went back to Nurse Practitioner and she put me on a baby dose of Zoloft 12.5 mg and Klonopin as needed. (I took it maybe 10 times in total) I moved up to 25mg after 2 weeks but was tearful and had suicidal ideation the entire 5 weeks I was on zoloft. After 4 weeks my doc told me to taper for 4 days to 12.5 mg and then stop. I had heavy withdrawal right away. I'm off the drug for 6 weeks not and I'm still feeling terrible. Barely able to function, I'm not working for the moment (impossible) Suicidal thoughts (I'm not suicidal) insane anxiety, insomnia, derealization, restlessness. My withdrawal is getting a tiny bit better (i think) I'm really curious to hear if other people that have been on SSRI for such a short period of time (5 weeks) have had long withdrawal symptoms.

Hi Everyone, My journey with Sertraline started at the ripe old age of 10-12 years old (I’m 31 now-my mom and I can’t seem to agree on when exactly I started taking meds). I was also on adderal or vyvanse at this age as well. In 2018 I decided I wanted to try to get off of meds. I started with the vyvanse. I went from 60mg to 50, and dropped 10mg a month until I was at nothing. Really didn’t experience any issues. Then I went to the Sertraline. I dropped from 200mg to 150mg and really only had a few brain zaps that went away after a few days. Six months later I dropped from 150mg to 100mg, again with only brain zaps and some irritability. During this time I moved to France to be with my husband (summer 2020 mid lockdown) and after 6 months there I decided I wanted to continue to go down because we knew in the next year or so we wanted to try for a baby. I had read a few forums so decided to take it a little slower this time. 100mg to 87.5mg. For the first time I experienced a decent amount of withdrawal symptoms. Mostly flu like, palpitations, but nothing I couldn’t get thru. After two weeks they dissipated. I then went directly from 87.5 to 75mg. Same thing with this cut but after a couple weeks, mostly dissipated with the exception of extreme anxiety and random weird intense pains throughout my body. Fast forward to a month later and all hell broke loose. The worst panic of my life (never suffered from panic attacks before besides ONE in late 2020 after moving) horrible horrible DP/DR (mostly DR) to the point that I really thought I was going crazy. I would begin each morning with a good barf and have diarrhea throughout the days. I ended up losing about 12lbs in a few weeks. No appetite. Everything made me feel weird and I cried nonstop. My doctor told me to take a low dose of Xanax three times a day for two weeks and honestly it helped. I stopped the Xanax after three weeks (I decided to continue a little longer) with no issues. Or no immediate issues that I know of. About five months after this in mid 2021 I decided to do a SLOW taper, 2.5-5% every two weeks. I ended up stopping around the 61mg mark because my panic was getting so bad, I had an EIGHT WEEK MIGRAINE and I just couldn’t keep it together. At this point I also had my first intro to inner restlessness, or mild akathisia, located in my chest and under my armpits. This only lasted about a week but really freaked me out. After two and a half months of staying at 61mg I decided to continue to go down, this time no more than 2.5% decreases. It seemed to go ok at this rate. I was still suffering from bad OCD and anxiety but there were no physical symptoms. My last cut was when we moved back to California in Feb 2022, a few months ago. I experienced another bout of weeklong mild inner restlessness at this point but again I ignored it and it went away. Had two weeks of dizziness but was told it was a vestibular migraine. I ended up spot taking bromazepam at a low dose for a couple of weeks because it helped suppress the dizziness. Now two weeks ago, Late April 2022, I was sitting at my desk at work and like a switch I felt the internal restlessness start again. This time more intense than before. It continued at the same intensity and ramped up this weekend. I have such a ball of energy/tickling in my chest and throat that I start each morning dry heaving. I have no appetite. Lost 5lbs in 3 days. This weekend I’ve also had full body tremors and complete panic crying spells and dread because of it and my fear of akathisia being permanent. I don’t know if this had something to do with the bromazepam, late hitting withdrawals from earlier extreme cuts, huge life stressor of moving countries, new job which is very stressful or what. I feel like my CNS is shot and I don’t know what to do. I have to function and work to help provide for my family, being disabled in bed is just not an option but it’s where I’m at today. I caved and took a bromazepam because it calms the akathisia and I couldn’t just lay in bed and roll around in a panic any longer. I really need some help.

Hello everyone , Thank you for this website and forum. I can't believe I have only recently found you,(since viewing the Four Corners show in ABC TV in Australia. I shed many tears watching the show. I was started on 25 mg sertraline by a young GP back in 2006 after I was burnt out from a stressful job (and a prior 4 years full time study to be a naturopath), subsequently had lost some purpose/direction in life. I was not diagnosed with a mental health condition just given a referral to a psychologist. I did start to feel a little better, then she said to go to 50mg. Went along like this for maybe 12 months, they put me up to 100mg (can't remember why). No big crises, maybe I was still burnt out. It did give me a bit more energy and I felt more confident and I seemed to be able to do more. It took away my bodies internal barometer I always thought. I am by nature an introvert with less energy. Or more passive energy I could say. I felt very ashamed that I had to take such a drug, given I was a naturopath. Alongside my drug, I ate well, exercised, took herbs and some vitamins/minerals, etc etc. I tried twice to come off in those early days (say 18months post starting), however got a few days in to 0mg and restarted with an instant relief from symptoms (brain zaps, irritability, worry). Jump ahead to 2019 and I reduced (25mg drops) from 100mg to 25mg over a few months. Started to get irritable , brain zaps, not feeling myself, so went back to 50mg with all settled again within a few days. I was so un happy about being on the drug for so long I wanted to have another attempt, more slowly this time with the help of another experienced naturopath/herbalist. I started reducing from 100mg then to 75mg, no symptoms of withdrawal. Then 2 months later I went down to 50mg, still smooth sailing with no symptoms. A few months later I went down to 25mg (i thought this was slowly!!) and this is when some symptoms started. Brain zaps, crying, sleep not so good. At this time I also had three major life stressors happen (financial, relationship, aged parents). I thought I was having an extended grief period. About 6 months on 25mg I suddenly had a week where I felt good for the entire week or so. So I thought I would go to 0mg! Here the trouble started. I cried for days in a row, which felt like an out pouring of years of not being able to cry or grieve "properly" while on sertraline. I continued to cry frequently. I kept pushing on. Brain zaps which finally stopped after 2 months. The neuro emotions were becoming worse, however. A black cloud would descend over me which were a frightening blend of fear, disconnection, anxiety, depression, doom, fear of dying, fear my animals would die. I had a day of violent nausea and gut cramping and crying at about 4 months on 0mg. Appetite had been waning for awhile. Sleep more disturbed. End of February 2023 I had to arrange for my old horse and goat to put to sleep. Leading up to this I had shocking anxiety and fear. I had an episode of panic/anxiety/fear that lasted 12 hours non stop. I couldn't stop the thoughts, chest pain, gut pain, numb lips. I couldn;t function until it stopped the next morning. 1 or 2 weeks later after the vet had been to euthanise my animals I had a worse episode (12 hours after starting back on 25mg sertarline)where I felt the needed to call ambulance. I went to emergency (they thought I was having a heart attack on my journey, so did several ECG's en route ) they kept me in for a few hours , I settled so they let me go home. I had to arrange someone to come and help me at home as I couldn't function to look after myself and my animals. They gave me 2.5mg on valium in hospital which settled me for a an hour and yet again I was back into extreme inner restlessness , where I wanted to die as I felt so dreadful as if I was coming off some illegal highly addictive drug. Luckily I wasn't shipped off to a psych unit, although I did feel I was having a "nervous breakdown'. It was living hell and I thought I was going mad. I have never in my life experienced such horror. I still had no idea it was protracted withdrawal. Other symptoms were diarrhoea, low sodium, weakness, nausea, early morning waking with panic/dread, anxiety, agitation, disconnected. It took my weeks/months to stabilise. I had sensitised myself to the sertraline. After taking each dose in the morning I would get worse anxiety, heart palpitations/pain, polyuria and other things I forget now. Brain way too active at night, sleep still bad. They wanted back to 100mg more quickly than I new I could tolerate, so I did my own thing and took longer between 25mg increases. Back to 100mg for a month or so. Felt too stimulated, so I went back to 75mg. No symptoms of withdrawal. During this very traumatic time I took maybe 12 doses of 5mg valium. I was so measured with it as I knew it would make things more complicated. I hated taking it except for the first few doses when it was the only thing that gave me a break from the relentless mental torture. Emotions/mood fairly stable on 75mg, found this group, plan is to taper (as per your guidelines) starting in a month or two. Plan to make my own liquid as compounding pharmacist too expensive here in Australia. Sorry for my long story!! Thanks for all your supportive posts I have been reading and other helpful information. I feel being on this drug so long, it has affected my unconscious mind and my psycho spirituality. I am grateful I am still alive and have not suffered as much as some of you have. I feel for you. Thanks for reading if you made it to the end.

Hello there. I am a totally blind, partially deaf, autistic man aged 47 with childhood and recent Trauma I have experienced frequent gaslighting, and extreme mental bullying over the years. I left school at the end of 1994, and lived with my parents until I was 42 years old. Just before turning 21, I had reached a stage, where I had been on no medication for 6 years after coming off beta blockers in 1991. Well 1997 came along, and we were in the middle of a long lasting heatwave, which didn't help. I was even doing regular workouts at the Gym. I suddenly started developing this irrational fear of the unknown and became very clingy, bombarded with negative thoughts, such as people close to me dying, time accelerating, wishing I could go back to when I was little and things were more sure and safe, feeling like things were unstable and out of control ETC. The feelings became worse over the next month or so, and my local doctor put me on Diazepam, with instructions to take it at night, but not to take it for more than 2 weeks. He referred me to a psychologist, who I thought was a godsend.... at first. After a month of talk therapy, he put me on 50 mg of Zoloft. The first day I took it, it gave me insomnia and I developed tremors in my arms and legs for a couple of days. I could feel my brain being rewired, and I began to feel better by the second or 3rd week, and i also started to sleep better. Fast forward to 6 months later and the shrink tells me I can stop taking it, this is around October of 1997, he said nothing about tapering off. Well, within 3 months, come mid January 1998, I began to get the jitters again and before I knew it, I'd hit rock bottom. I was put back on Zoloft again, 50MG, but was told to stay on it for 12 months. New year's eve arrives, and I stop the medication as per his instructions, and wouldn't you know it? there came another relapse. I crashed hard, and my parents could only watch as I became a quivering, crying mess, so I saw the shrink for the last time, and he told me to get back on it, but the dosage had to be increased to 75mg, because it had stopped working at the old dosage. I was extremely angry that he had put me through 2 relapses, I felt like a lab rat that had been experimented on! 24 years later, I've now started learning about natural treatments such as herbs and vitamins and nutrition and am all too aware of the powers that be wanting us to stay sick and addicted to their poisonous chemicals, I am still, however, stuck on my 75MG regimen and I am too scared to even begin a slow withdrawal after what happened last time. If I want to taper off, I will have to do it over a period of years. I would like to take some pointers on here as to how I should go about it. I'm thinking of alternating between one day on 75MG and one day on 50mg for a month, then 2 days on 50mg for a month, then 3 days, 4 days, ETC, until I am back taking my old dose of 50mg. Then slowly work my way down to 25 MG, and eventually nothing. Do you think that would work?

Hi My name is trina I was CT off two medications 11 months ago. Wellbutrin 300 mg and Zoloft 25 mg I am totally buggered up. Severe withdrawals most of the time. Crazy psychiatrist, thinks I have medical problems Is there anything I can take to help? Will restarting these drugs again help? My friends keep telling me to restart them but it they caused this much sickness why would I want to take them. One know it all friend said I would feel better. Like how would he know? Any help would be great I know this is not medical advice, just asking other sufferers Thanks Trina

I have been successfully tapering off of 50mg Zoloft for 6 months now. Managed to go down by 20% every couple of months without side-effects and am now down to 20.5 mg. However, this is the second time now I have tried to go down to my next step 16.4 and both times I've had to go back up because of the side-effects. I seem to have gotten stuck; I've been on the 20.5 dose twice as long as any previous level. Has anyone else experienced this? Do I just need to wait longer, do I need to try going down a smaller percentage?

Hello, first, I want to emphasize that English is not my native language. A brief overview of my medical history: Since the age of 21, I have had depressive episodes treated with Seroxat and Zoloft. Between these episodes, several years could pass. I easily stopped taking the antidepressants, even though I didn't gradually reduce the doses. Due to mild depression, in September 2021, I asked my psychiatrist to prescribe me an antidepressant again. After just two weeks, I felt better, my energy returned, and the depressive thoughts disappeared. I wasn't aware that the antidepressant had actually triggered hypomania. In March 2023, I stopped taking the antidepressant again. In May, the depression returned with full force. I went back to the psychiatrist and told them about the hypomania. She prescribed Zoloft (50mg), lamotrigine (50mg), and olanzapine (5mg) for sleep, even though I didn't have sleep problems at that time. My condition didn't improve; in fact, I felt like I had lost myself, my emotions, and the will to live. I also experienced a rapid heart rate. The diagnosis of bipolar 2 was not confirmed. My psychiatrist even claims that I don't have bipolar disorder. I suspect that olanzapine is the main "culprit," which is why I tried to stop taking it CT. Immediately, insomnia appeared, and I had to restart taking it. That's when I started researching how to safely taper off this drug and found this website. Since September, I have been gradually reducing the dose of the medication every 3 weeks. At first, it was more than 10%, so now I'm at a dose of 1.125mg since January 10th. I usually notice withdrawal symptoms after about 6-7 days. Initially, I had nausea, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, anhedonia, and depression. The nausea and diarrhea are now tolerable, and I think kefir has helped me the most. My sleep is between 4 and 8 hours. It's hard for me that my emotions have dulled. For a while, I couldn't even cry. I have managed to do so twice in the meantime. As contradictory as it may sound, I was happy that I could cry. I live in constant fear of how intense the withdrawal symptoms will be. On this difficult path of getting off olanzapine, I would like to hear about experiences. With a reduction in dose, under the condition that the dose is reduced by 10% from the last dose, do the symptoms become milder? Will my emotions at least return a little during the reduction? Will I be a little happier? Is it possible that Zoloft is not working because I'm taking olanzapine? Regarding a potential bipolar disorder, I am going through real agony. I constantly question the last 27 years - have I ever been hypomanic without realizing it? Was the hypomania caused by Seroxat really bipolar disorder? Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life? I have lost trust in psychiatrists. I feel lonely, ashamed, and I'm not even able to talk to my husband, sister, or mom about what I'm currently going through. My husband doesn't even know how olanzapine affects me or that I'm trying to get off it. By the way, as I write this, I'm crying, which I suppose is good. I wonder what I have done so wrong to go through what I'm going now and if I will ever be the way I used to be.

Hi, I'm currently 4 months off sertraline 200mg and elvanse 70mg. I'm currently struggling with brain pressure and cognitive problems. I can't complete simple tasks and struggle with my speech. It gets worse everytime I have this head pressure. I've read a few posts about people having similar symptoms but I want to know if anyone has recovered from these symptoms if you did how long was it until you improved. Thanks

Hi, I’m new here. 👋 I’m surprised of having such strong withdrawal symptoms going down just 1% from 57,5 mg to 57 mg of Zoloft, starting yesterday. High anxiety, agitation and headache. Could stopping Lamictal 4 weeks ago affect the Zoloft withdrawal (I only took 25 mg of Lamictal for 19 days)? I’ve been on Zoloft for more than 20 years. I made a MRI and it showed I’ve had minor strokes effecting parts of the prefrontal cortex which my psychiatrist says can explain my sensitivity. Any thoughts are welcomed!