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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.

I would be incredibly grateful for some advice about antidepressant withdrawal. I don't trust my doctors or psychiatrists anymore. I am 40 years old with no history of mental illness until about 11 months ago, when I began overreacting to a number of problems in my life like skin issues and threats of lawsuits, and this led to a two-month period of psychosis that gave rise to severe depression (according to the doctors here). It was very intense. I live in Frankfurt, Germany. Once I began to calm down and realize that these fears were unjustified (around February), the depression symptoms seemed to get worse, and I began to have physical problems like dizziness, vertigo, and derealization. This led me to think there was some neurological damage, and so I had an MRI and EEG done but with no findings. I began seeing a psychiatrist around this time, who gave me a prescription for Olanzapine, but I didn’t take it due to my strong aversion to pharmaceutical medication. However, by mid-March I was feeling so awful and had starting having difficulty sleeping. I could fall asleep, but I would wake up after three or four hours and couldn’t fall back asleep. I didn’t see any other option but to check into an inpatient clinic, where the doctors started me on 5mg Olanzapine and 50mg Sertraline. The Olanzapine helped me sleep, and I was hopeful that the antidepressant would begin working quickly. After a few days, the dizziness and derealization subsided. However, after about seven weeks (and increases to 100mg and 150mg), I was still feeling depressed, and the doctors switched me to Venlafaxine in late May, initially 75mg but quickly increased to 225mg. It was at this time that I left the inpatient clinic with the intent of continuing Venlafaxine at home. Occasionally I tried skipping the Olanzapine, but whenever I did I couldn’t stay asleep. And after six weeks of Venlafaxine, I felt no better and decided to discontinue (against the advice of my psychiatrist). I tapered down to 150mg to 75mg to 37.5mg over a period of 15 days (each dose for five days). I completed the taper in mid-July. I didn’t notice any withdrawal symptoms during the taper, but once I was off completely, the brain zaps, nausea, and restless legs began. But I also noticed that I no longer needed the Olanzapine to sleep well, as if the Venlafaxine had been causing the insomnia. The brain zaps were not painful and didn’t bother me too much since I was expecting them to go away soon. And after about two weeks, the zaps were hardly noticeable and I was feeling much better. I was happy about this because it was just a few days before a vacation I had planned to Florida. Throughout the entire 10-day vacation site-seeing and soaking up the sun, I hardly noticed any symptoms at all and my mood was great. It was as if I was completed cured. Unfortunately, the very day I returned to Germany at 7am from a long overnight flight (this past Sunday), I began feeling unwell again, like nauseous or a queasy feeling in my stomach and chest accompanied by low moods. I was hoping it was due to jet lag, but it’s been an entire week now and there hasn’t been any improvement. I can still sleep well fortunately but I have a pronounced feeling of being unwell most of the time and I feel very fatigued and unmotivated to do much. No dizziness, pain, or cognitive issues. Given that I felt virtually symptom-free while in vacation, are my current symptoms are more likely to be a continuation of the withdrawal or some sort of (travel-induced) depression relapse, or something else? Could I already be going through windows and waves just a month after stopping the antidepressants? Just to summarize, I was on antidepressants from mid-March to mid-July, including the two-week taper. So about eight weeks on Sertraline (mostly 100mg) followed immediately by eight weeks on Venlafaxine (mostly 225mg). I was also taking Olanzapine for most of that time, occasionally taking Pipamperone instead. Thanks in advance for the help and insight!

Hi! I wish to document my withdrawal experience here. I’m 21 years old. I started taking sertraline in August 2022 for what was really rather annoying if not terrible OCD. Not long after, I felt that I really should not be on medication, that there was value in my overcoming my OCD through therapy, good habits, and other things. I had actually planned to stop after my second dose, but waited a day and changed my mind, taking a third and final dose of the medication. It seems that the third dose caused some terrible kindling - I had terrible anxiety and was extremely dissociated and emotionally numb, though generally in a positive mood. I also had bad side effects (sexual side effects, bruxism, and more) and had extreme anxiety and dissociation after my last dose of the drug. So I stopped for good after that. Honestly, I’m not sure where I’m at with this whole withdrawal thing. For the first month after stopping sertraline, I was actually in a good way. Sure, I complained about emotional numbness, sexual dysfunction, and a diminished sense of taste. I also had TERRIBLE neuro-emotions. But I was physically very well! I rejoiced because I didn’t have anhedonia and could do a lot of activities with great interest, and I did try to be proactive about healing - getting sun and eating fish oil and getting exercise. My sense of taste, appetite, and sexual function improved as well. But my complaint was that something felt different. I had a blank mind and my emotions were not all present. Also, my sexual function was not completely back, and I kept using that as a measurement of my recovery. (Wrong!!! It was completely unrelated to my ability to enjoy a good meal, engage in work and hobbies, etc. - in my case, I did all of those things while experiencing sexual dysfunction, and it was silly to think it had an outsized effect.) In hindsight, though, things were very good and have unfortunately gotten worse. I think after my long window in September, I firmly hit a wave a few weeks ago this month (October). My mistake throughout September was reading PSSD forums and discussions that made me think I was absolutely positively in the dumps, resulting in me complaining and despairing. I worry that all my neuro-emotion and anger from that time has aggravated a lot of pain and anxiety. So has my pushing myself to socialize with friends, as well as my frustrating my whole family with terrible neuro-emotional outbursts. I can almost identify the particular one that plummeted me into my current wave - I was screaming and crying, and things only got harder from there (I felt physical fatigue and the seeds of my current symptoms right after). If only I did not activate my neuro-emotions so much of the time… it would have been much easier to read a book! Currently, I have what feels like bad neuropathy - skin sensations being uncomfortable through out my body - and increased emotional numbness, cognitive dysfunction, and anhedonia, perhaps because my nervous system is so overwhelmed right now….. And I may not have truly gotten any restorative sleep recently due to the neuropathy. I feel physically sick and mentally extremely slow, whereas before I felt emotional and mental malaise but could have take my mind off it so much more easily. (Music, books, shows, word games, and exercise are all great for that.) I don’t feel like I’m in a state of flow, and thoughts don’t flow from my mind as fluently as they usually do when I write. The positive interpretation of my situation is that the influence of the SSRI is truly wearing off on me, and my body can now finally truly discover its old homeostasis without the cushion of the SSRI I may still have had in September. The negative interpretation… is irrelevant for me right now. I’m trying to take it slow, not be too stimulated, and take good care of myself. I do have some questions: have people have been through similar things and lived to tell the tale? More specifically, has anyone else had neuro-emotions really throw a wrench in things, but still find their way back to a window? Also, I want to make clear that I’m not interested in reinstatement; my long term goal is to heal from this experience without an SSRI. I do believe in the possibility. I’m also really thankful that this website exists and that so many people have compiled all these amazing resources to help people heal and get off antidepressants. Also, before I update my signature, here is my drug history: Sertraline 25 mg, August 19, 20, and 22, 2022 (possibly sensitized by some herbal medicine on October 22, 2022 - or maybe just a huge anxiety attack because I thought of the possibility - I haven’t mentioned it in the body of my intro topic because I think neuro-emotions are more relevant to what I’m currently feeling)

In May 2023 i stopped taking 5mg Cipralex (which is the uk brand name of Lexapro). I was taking it for 3 months. Here i am, 8 months on having experienced so many withdrawal symptoms. The first few months consisted of panic upon wakening in the morning, burning brain and heightened anxiety. These have all resolved. Most concerning to me, which started in the first few weeks of stopping was my sex drive just turned off. I woke up one morning and it was gone. That part of my body felt disconnected from the rest of me. Over time i am seeing improvements in this area. I am getting windows of being interested in sex where i am getting aroused. At the beginning it was only aroused when touched but i’m noticing i’m getting aroused by simply looking at my partner. But then a wave hits and i’m right back to feeling completely detached from that part of my body again. During a wave i also feel detached from the world. I believe depersonalisation and anhedonia are the terms to sum up how i feel. Its not nice. I understand these symptoms would be classed as PSSD. Ive read some not so pleasant things about this condition which scares me and i find the very fear of it makes it worse and takes me off any track of recovery. I’m in a wave right now, which has probably driven me to write this post. I am constantly thinking if i should reinstate a low dose of the drug as i’m mainly in a wave and finding it so difficult. I have the liquid version so could easily get the low dose (0.5mg). I tried 1mg 5 months ago, panicked, and stopped. But looking back at that day, i went for a walk, i had lots of conversation, colours seemed brighter somehow and i felt like i was coming back to the person i knew. It wasnt all perfect, i felt dizzy, my sleel that night was broken but looking back it was the panic that stopped me from continuing. I wonder if anyone can help me in this decision? To reinstate at 0.5mg or to continue this journey? In summary, i’m 8 months on from a cold turkey stop, my symptoms are brain fog, fatigue, symptoms of post ssri sexual dysfunction, but they do seem to lessen at times. I’m just finding this journey so hard and its getting me very low. Thank you for taking the time to read this post and i wish you all the best in your journeys.

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 all, I am not native English speaker. Mom of two kids. Experience insomia induced by sertraline (9 days, stopped after 9 days), then started with mirtazapine to do something with insomia. Need advice, please! I had several panic attacks in October 2023. I was advised to start with sertraline by my Psyholoog. I have used sertraline for 9 days, with very weird reaction: brain zips (almost from the first day), insomia (almost from the first day, it started with 1,5-2 hours of sleep and then I was thrown out of sleep, and then again 1,5 hours of sleep), strange feeling in my heard. These all lasted for 9 days. I used Oxazepam during these 9 days of using sertraline in November 2023 (Oxazepam was advised by the doctor GP). After these 9 crazy days, I could not anymore deal with these adverse reaction and stopped (25mg sertraline 9 days from 26 November until 4 December 2023). After that I tried to get back my sleep. 1,5 week I did one day with Oxazepam and one without. But it did not help at all. I could not sleep at all on my own without Oxazepam. I was advised by the doctors to start with mirtazapine. So on 14th december 2023 I started with mirtazapine 7,5mg. It did help a bit with my sleep, but at some point 7,5 mg did not help. I was advised to rise up the dose to 15mg, starting from 26 December 2023. At first it helped a little bit, but then less and less. So I decided to add Atarax (hydroxyzine 25mg), now three days in a row (advised by the doctor). During the last these three days I decided also to decrease mirtazapine (every day by approx 1mg), so last night I used 12mg. I slept tonight very bad (almost nothing, just laying and sometimes napping). The night before (with 13mg mirtazapine and 25mg hydroxyzine) I did not bad (approx. 6 hours, which after sertraline insomia was already a gift). So now I would like advice what to do next and how to cope with all these…

Hi all. Thank you in advance for any help, advice or support. I am 22(f). I was stable on sertraline 50mg for a couple of years, and then successfully reduced to 25mg in March 2021. This september I thought 25mg was a low enough dose to be able to CT off sertraline. What a disaster. I haven't felt normal since September, panicking that I will never get back to myself... I tried to reinstate sertraline after a couple of months off it, thinking it would fix the withdrawals instantly. Instead it has gotten so much worse. I can't eat, struggle sleeping, functioning... Anxiety through the roof about losing my job, my friends, my life, everything. Now I've found this site I am hoping I can get help to stabilise and that it's not too late for me. I think I reinstated at too high a dose too quickly, so as of today I have dropped back down to 12.5mg sertraline. My main question is whether I should do as my doctor is suggesting and switch to citalopram, because i think my body is just completely rejecting sertraline now. But I've never taken citalopram. I've been prescribed it at 20mg but i think this is too high. I'm just looking to stabilise side effects and withdrawal symptoms not wanting a therapeutic dose. Should I cut the pills into quarters and take 5mg? Or 10mg? Or should I try a lower dose of sertraline for a week? CC added the following (posted in another member's Intro) which provides some more information:

Hi all, First, I just wanted to say I'm so grateful to have found this site. I have been reading it for a few hours every day the last few days and it's really helped me feel less alone, and come up with a tapering plan I feel relatively safe with and confident about. The work you all do is truly a lifesaver both emotionally and physically, and I don't say that lightly. I wanted to share my story in case others are struggling with the same thing, and to perhaps get advice/confirmation about tapering and whether what I am thinking is a good idea. Also, I am just struggling mentally with the fact that psychs and the mental health system, who for so long I though were supposed to help people with these problems, are actually causing so much harm and have already caused so much harm to me and other people. I thought others here might relate. My story (shortened version): I have a long history with psych meds, but I will start at the most recent/significant part. In my 20s (I am 32) I struggled with an eating disorder and undiagnosed OCD. I ended up in an inpatient treatment center where they switched my AD from Citalopram to Sertraline, and added an antipsychotic, Olanzapine (2.5mg). This is where all of the horrors started. They did not inform me that Olanzapine is an antipsychotic - they simply called it a "mood stabilizer" which it is but it is also an antipsychotic - nor of the possible side effects, or dangers of withdrawals (I am learning from this site that this situation is unfortunately all too common). I later felt that the Olanzapine wasn't helping me with what they said it would (anxiety/depression and stabilization of energy levels) so I decided to slowly stop taking it. However, I was in a very chaotic time at my life - the Olanzapine drastically increased my appetite, which made my eating disorder feel all the more out of control, and my life felt out of my hands. I could not maintain a routine and I took the medication sporadically at best and then stopped taking it around spring of 2018. I suffered terrible withdrawals, which I thought were organic mental health issues at the time - awful both outer and inner akathisia (feelings of terror, needing to run and move constantly for fear of something horrible happening), psychosis and more. I truly thought I was going to die or my world was going to end, and my life was completely out of control. I was also living out of my car at this time. I was hospitalized in July 2018 for psychosis. They did not know it was caused by Olanzapine withdrawal (nor did I at the time) and they put me on a round of antipsychotics, finally settling on Fluphenazine/Prolixin 2.5mg. I have been on this medication for 5+ years and it has taken away all of my life, spark, and hope. I have felt like I have lost the best and truest parts of me, which was always my greatest fear throughout my psychosis. It is truly a state I would never wish on anyone. I have quit multiple jobs because of severe depression and am now unemployed living with family. I had lost all hope until I discovered that others feel this way on antipsychotics and it is likely the drug making me feel this way. Also, knowing that my initial psychosis was likely caused by withdrawal makes me feel much safer getting off of it. I have hope for the first time in a long time. My current tapering situation: I tapered 3mg-2mg myself and felt okay. I had not been on 3mg for long, maybe a month. Then I saw a psych nurse who suggested I go down to 1mg after only being on 2mg for a couple of weeks. I felt great for about a week and then withdrawals hit, and I realized this was a big mistake. (Note: I was on 1mg from 12/23/23/ - 1/1/23). I have since gone up to 1.5mg (1/2/23). It has been 5 days and at first was feeling very sedated and depressed (likely from sensitivity after being on 1mg) but am at least today feeling much more stable. My plan: I am planning on stabilizing on 1.5mg for 3 months. This may be overkill but I'd rather play it safe at this point. After that I am hoping to use the brassmonkey slide tapering method. I am very excited about this and the amount of gradual progress and control this method provides gives me a lot of hope. I am unsure if my prescriber will be willing to let me do this, but I may just tell her I want to do a 25% reduction over 3 months and do the liquid suspension of 2.5% reduction per week myself. I would rather get it from a compounded pharmacy but am unsure if insurance will cover it or if my psych will listen. Questions: 1. Has anyone had luck with psychs/psych nurses agreeing to the 2.5% weekly reduction and 2 week hold plan? Does this even matter? Is it possible to work out getting the right prescriptions without informing your psych of what you're doing? 2. I have read the info on creating oral suspensions and will keep reviewing these threads but am nervous about getting it exactly right. If there is some minor difference day to day (e.g. different amount of stirring, slight differences in the dose, etc) can that wreak havoc on your nervous system? Is it still better than doing using whole pills and doing say a 25% drop every 3 months? I know I will have to deal with some withdrawal symptoms but want to be the kindest with my body I can possibly be after all it has been through. Thank you so much for all of your help. I hope this was an okay way to do an intro post. If there is a different thread I should post this or part of this please let me know and I will move it. Sending support and healing to you all. ❤️

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.

SleepPls009 - Luvox Withdrawal, Insomnia, and Heart Problems (Oh my!) Hi All, It’s great to meet you! Though I wish it were under better circumstances. I’m looking for advice around Luvox reinstatement and doctors who deal with withdrawal; more information is at the bottom of the post. I thank you in advance for your help! I am seven months off of Luvox after having taken it for roughly 20 years. After years of experiencing persistent fatigue, muscle twitches, and some increasing insomnia, I decided to go off Luvox in March to see if that helped my symptoms. Go figure, it made everything ten times worse! I was on 200mg daily in winter ‘21, went down to 100mg without incident at the end of the year. Then in March ‘22 I began tapering little by little until I hit zero on April 12 (note: I was aware that stopping cold turkey was a bad idea, but I was unfamiliar with the concept of protracted withdrawal). Little by little I kept waking up earlier and earlier until I could barely sleep, and depression symptoms kicked in hard. My PCP started me on Prozac in mid-May to treat what she thought was underlying, emergent depression, and after a week I reacted so badly to it that I went to the hospital (couldn’t sleep for days, got a fever, upset stomach, shaking uncontrollably). I proceeded to try a number of different meds with my psychiatrist, but every antidepressant would either keep me awake for days, and every sleep med would lose effectiveness fairly quickly. I eventually got the idea that I might still be withdrawing from Luvox, so we decided to do a med washout to see what would happen. I survived on melatonin at the time, which was abnormally effective at low doses, and kept putting off going back on Luvox, somewhat out of stubbornness, since I felt it would be a “waste” to go back on after all that effort if I could make it to the other end of withdrawal. Eventually (about mid-late August), my brain flipped a switch, and the deep depression spontaneously went away. At the same time, my insomnia problem switched from staying asleep to falling asleep (kind of like what I occasionally had before stopping Luvox but much worse). That’s when medicine reactions became weird. I’d taken ambien before a number of times (roughly 10, 11 in total?) before August. I tended to avoid it because it made the depression a lot worse. I tried it again when the depression went away, and started having strange heart palpitations. One day after I took ambien, I went to the hospital for chest squeezing, but they found nothing. Thinking I was being paranoid, I tried it again a few weeks later and started to have what felt like a full-on heart attack. After working with a cardiologist for a number of months, it seems that ambien was causing vasospasm, or prinzmetal’s angina. A few other meds started causing this, too: Lunesta (I let a doctor convince me it was chemically different enough from ambien - dumb mistake), Quviviq (totally different mechanism than ambien, so confusing), and even melatonin causes odd heart palpitations now. The vasospasm itself seems to cause some sort of injury, because running (which I could do with ease before) brought on an episode, and after episodes I am weak and have chest pain for weeks. I am now at the point where I’m trying to decide what to do next. If my nervous system is still changing, I’m worried that it could further affect my heart or other systems if I let it continue to go unchecked. So this is what I’m wondering: Bottom line: I would love advice on whether I should reinstate Luvox. While I know this is a doctor’s realm, my current psychiatrist doesn’t understand (or acknowledge) protracted withdrawal. I will either need to take evidence and a concrete plan to him, or find a doctor who better understands these issues. As for the arguments for/against reinstating, I am now sleeping better, though not well (I still go about two nights without sleep a week and average 5-6 on a good night). But the crazy/dangerous reactions to meds give me pause. On one hand, I don’t want to cause more problems, and I’m almost worried that taking Luvox now would trigger another vasospasm. But if my nervous system is still rearranging itself I’m also worried that, left alone, it’s bizarre reactions to things could get worse! I would also like to get rid of the visual snow if at all possible. I’d also love recommendations for doctors who deal with or specialize in this sort of withdrawal and nervous system disregulation. I know they are few and far between, but I’m willing to travel pretty much anywhere at this point to get the help I need. Thank you all for your help, and I look forward to hearing back from you!

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

Short Story After 6 months of being on 3 SSRIs and 1 SNRI, tapered from Pristiq for 1 week by cutting 50 mg pill in half. After being stuck in hypomanic like anxiety state for 6 months since i got off, seeking help on next move - small dosage reinstatement, go along with bispurone suggestion from doc, or other? I recognize reinstatement after such long time is contentious. Current Symptoms Anxiety (maybe hypomanic?), switching from distractibility to hyperfocus, brainfog, difficulty organizing thoughts, planning, lack of drive, motivation and sex drive. In the 6 months since i am off meds I had under a 7 days (total) where i felt present, calm, w/ reset nervous system - after a rare moment i was tired enough to nap. The rest of the time I was in an agitated, restlessness nervous state with distorted perception of time (highly accelerated). The higher stress, excitement, or other trigger like intense work session, the stronger the symptoms, which without significant rest, can lead to greater distress and extreme brain fog. Long Story I'm in my early 40s. My depression flared up after end of a long-term relationship. Pandemic isolation happened shortly after. The immense stressors during this period caused bad anxiety. I asked for anxiety meds but scored high for depression so I agreed to anti-depressants. Cycled through celexa, lexapro, zoloft and ending with pristiq; all helped anxiety with mixed sideffects, such as removed drive and motivation, which specifically remained after the meds. My pristiq taper - was told to half my 50 mg dose for a week and get off. I was not dissuaded from my suggestion of cutting my 50mg pill in half - i now know that was bad. In weeks and months since (total 6 months now), I am unable to sustain cognitive performance w/o causing aroused state from which i find almost impossible to return from. In fact a lot symptoms and triggers to a varying degree, except for the risky behavior, look like hypomania. It started during the weeks after taper, with a hyper arousal, over-productive brain. I never experienced something like that before and no bipolar history in me and family. Psychiatrist's response is that its likely anxiety. Strange, as I never got so anxious I could not calm down before from stimuli of social night out with friends, working with a coworker, from an angry conversation, or even intense workout session. In the early months of withdrawal, any sort of excitement/stress lead to insomnia, short term memory loss, or even disorientation in navigation (new to me) and I'm frightened to see time and my life passing so fast. I'm unable to perform at any decent rate at work (work as engineer) so much I'm considering quitting or taking sabbatical if they'd allow me. I seem to have lost whatever drive i still had left before i got on the drugs. Sleep stabilized in last 2 months. Most recently once or twice, I reached tired state and got a nap (common in the before-times). This caused me to finally leave my 'hypomania'/hightened anxiety state, felt present, 'reset' back to normal and thought creatively, calmly for rest of day. Since i left the drugs 6 months ago though, I didn't experience more than 5-6 (individual) days like that. Question I don't know if this is hypomania or just a level of anxiety i haven't experienced or heard of before. I read that although people may get hypomania when getting on these drugs or upping the dosage, in rarer cases its possible to get it when stopping. Given the slow rate of improvement, distress, mental performance at work, and inability to consistently get off feeling anxious state or slow down perception of time (despite doing supplementation, meditation, regular exercise), I'm debating either to go on anti-anxiety med like bispurone psychiatrist suggested, or try small dosage reinstatement to abate some symptoms. Highly appreciate any suggestions, comments. Thank you

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!

01/2019: I started taking 20mg Paroxetine. Very good reaction. 5 years, from 06/2019 until 01/2023: Brain zaps between daily doses. Weight gain 20kg 02/2023: Beginning of withdrawal. Reduction 2mg per month. Weaning 5 months ok down to 10mg. Weight loss 5kg. 07-9/2023: withdrawal 4-3-2-1ml Paroxetine liquid (1ml = 2mg) 10/2023 Insomnia, suicidal thoughts, weight loss 5kg. Paroxetine reinstatement: 2 ml (4mg) 11/2023 Insomnia, suicidal thoughts Paroxetine 2.5 ml (5mg) 11/2023 pharmacy dosing error: 2.5 ml (7.5 mg): 1ml = 3mg 1 week in very good health!!! After correction of dosage error, back to 2.5 ml (5mg). After 2 days: Insomnia, suicidal thoughts. 12/2023 Introduction Xanax retard (0.5 to 1mg daily). Introduction Sertraline 25-50-75 Paroxetine withdrawal in 4 weeks 2.5ml-2ml-1.5ml-0ml Today: Insomnia, suicidal thoughts. Even Xanax retard doesn't help. What to do? Reintroduce Paroxetine? Thank you for your help!

Hello, I am fairly new to this community. I have been researching a lot but unfortunately can’t find much about OCD and coping without medication. I was wondering if anyone has any insight into this? thank you

hello all found your site I am 50 year old male never been a fan of medications and pills mostly avoided the last 20 years or so event started in June when I accidently ingested Psilocybin mushroom that were in Butterfinger candy made me fearful because I didnt know what happened shortly after went to ER and was fine but had panic attack couple weeks after rib injury lead to another ER visit triggered panic attack and they prescribed antidepressants at hospital and through my doctor was prescribed sertraline hcl 25 mg only took 5 pills was prescribed hydroxyzine 25 mg only took 3 pills was prescribed benzonatate 100 mg for cough only took 1 pill this over the course of summer into fall stopped taking Zoloft in late october went into a mania state could not sleep involuntary spasms, initial doctor told me to finish the dosage but symptom and side effects were so bad so another doctor he advised stop taking. Since late Oct I have developed vibrations in my body and spastic body tics that conflict with each other strange feeling of heaviness and pulling on my lower back, my head also vibrates, brain zaps and I see lights in my sleep, conditions are worse as I fall asleep, jaw pain when talking and swallowing food, ears now ringing out of no where have seen many doctors done CT Scan bloodwork all comes back fine telling me I am healthy. Too combat this I walk and do lite exercises and play guitar wasnt sure what supplements I can try so many option's I have been eatling lots of vegetable's and tea I quit drinking beer, coffee, and avoid sugar except honey in my tea. Need help dealing with the vibrations and tics its maddening even my eye twitches. I feel everyone pain here I didnt even take that many pills but the last 3 months have been so hard having to continue to work and see doctors that havent helped saw Neurologist they felt it was anxiety although i am calm, my nervous system just wont calm down.

Hi: I’ve been on AD for 29 years, tried going off twice with disastrous results, and am now considering/beginning my third attempt. Here’s my story… I was always a slightly anxious child. My last 2 years of high school I started experiencing depression along with increased anxiety (my home life wasn’t great). The first 2 years of college I did pretty well (it was such a relief to not be living with my parents!). But the last 2 years of college, my depression started again, along with moderate anxiety. By the time I graduated college, I’d been severely depressed for over a year. My therapist suggested anti-depressants and I started on Paroxetine/Paxil at age 21yrs in 1994. It worked amazingly well—my depression and self-critical thoughts were gone and anxiety was reduced, yet I still had full access to my emotions. And the only side effects I noticed were decreased libido and difficulty orgasming. In 1997, I switched from Paroxetine to Bupropion/Wellbutrin in attempt to alleviate the sexual side effects. It worked but the Bupropion amp’d me up too much, so my doc added Sertraline/Zoloft. This “cocktail” of Bupropion and Zoloft seemed to balance out the increased energy/lack of appetite effects of the former with the decreased energy/increased appetite of the latter. I felt great—my depression and anxiety were managed, my libido/orgasms were back and there were no other noticeable side effects. In 1998, some friends who were against ADs encouraged me to go off. My life was stable and I had a good support network, so I was confident I could come off ADs without too much trouble. I tapered off both Bupropion and Sertraline over 2-3 months. I didn’t have any negative side effects/withdrawal symptoms…. until ~2 months after my last dose. That’s when I was overwhelmed by psychological symptoms: deep, dark depression and despair, crying all the time, feeling horrible about myself/lack of self-esteem, lots of anxiety. I had a hard time functioning, especially at my job. This was all pretty much the same as what I experienced before taking ADs, although turned up a notch, especially crying all the time. After a couple months, the symptoms were still raging, so I went back on Bupropion and Sertraline. At my old dosage amounts, I was still mildly depressed. So I increased the amount of both drugs which got me back to my previous “baseline”. Life sailed along from 1999-2006. While I didn’t like being on ADs, I felt it was my only option for having a good quality of life and had made my peace with it. In 2006, my life was going really well, so I decided to try to go off again. This time I tapered more slowly, over 4-5 months. I was fine for 3.5 months after my last dose and thought I’d successfully put ADs behind me. But then the same symptoms as the previous time I’d come off came roaring back (depression, constant self-critical thoughts, crying all the time, total hopelessness, hard time functioning/going to work). I held out for a couple months but then gave in and went back on Bupropion and Sertraline. Once again, I needed to take a larger dose of both meds to get back to my previous baseline but they “worked” (my mood is good, anxiety is totally manageable). Sadly, at the higher dose the sexual side effects returned. After the second failed attempt in 2006, I thought I’d never try to go off again… But in Sept 2022, I decided to see if I could at least lower the amount I was taking and maintain equilibrium. So I reduced Bupropion from 262.5mg (SR 150mg + IR 112.5mg) to 225mg (SR 150mg + IR 75mg); and I reduced Sertraline from 125mg to 100mg. I didn’t notice any changes, so in April 2023, I reduced a little more: Buproprion down to 187.5mg (SR 150mg + IR 75mg) and Sertraline down to 75mg. Since this last taper, I notice I get irritated much more easily and can be snappy with people in a way I wasn’t before. These small successes had me starting to reconsider trying to get off the drugs again. I randomly came across an interview with Dr. Mark Horowitz talking about the 5-10% hyperbolic taper, got really interested and have been doing a lot of research and reading ever since. Now I’m considering tapering using the 5-10% method with the hope of eventually being AD-free. I’m learning so much from this forum and other sources. Foremost is that I’m not alone when it comes to the challenge of getting of ADs. I had no idea how wide the range of side effects these drugs can have. Now I wonder if some of my mysterious health issues might actually be caused (or at least exacerbated) by being on ADs for 29 yrs (intractable belching/bloating/gut issues, poor temperature regulation, poor memory, etc.). I’m glad to be here. I have some questions brewing but I’ll leave those for another post, except one... Question: I couldn't find where to enter my "drug signature" so it will automatically appear on every post I make. Can someone kindly tell me how to do this (or do you just have to remember to paste it into every message you write)? Thanks so much, Dancing Bee -------------- 1994-97: Started on Paxil/Paroxetine for major depression + moderate anxiety 1997: Switched to Bupropion/Wellbutrin + Sertraline/Zoloft 1998: Came off both Bupropion & Sertraline with ~2 mo taper—horrible symptoms so went back on 1999-2007: Con’t Bupropion & Sertraline 2007: Came off both Bupropion & Sertraline with 4+mo taper—horrible symptoms so went back on 2008-2022: Bupropion 262.5mg (SR 150mg + IR 112.5mg) & Sertraline 125mg Sept 2022: Reduce Bupropion to 225mg; reduce Sertraline to 100mg Apr 2023: Reduce Bupropion to 187.5mg; reduce Sertraline to 75mg

Hello, I need your advise about my case I took only 25 mg over 4 days of Sertraline. I stopped it cold turkey because of the side effects. I belived it was everything ok, but 7 days after the last pill, I noticed I coulnd't feel any emotions: no anxiety, no sadness, no hapiness, nothing Moreover I feel low libido. On the other hand I can have erections , orgasms , and morning woods Has anyone experienced this adverse reaction ? Do you think recovery is possible? Any advise ? It's been 5 months after the last pill I've never been on meds before

Hey guys, I'm just going to create a topic about myself, my current situation and my experience with antidepressants/benzos as well as ask for some advice for what to do next. This is going to be a full picture. Lorazepam = Ativan Sertraline = Zoloft I'm a 22 year old. Starting the 19th November - I caught respiratory infection due to being extremely stressed and highly anxious (never before seen in my life, literally pulling my hair out from irrational worries) Starting the 26th November - I started to get headaches and nausea, most likely due to this stress. On the 1st December - stress ended, but the nausea and loss of appetite with the headaches persisted. 20th December - I started to take a beta blocker for stress due to paranoia about the headaches (thinking it could be a tumour due to the continued headaches with loss of appetite) 23rd December - I was prescribed Sertraline to help with the stress and freaking out about the headaches and health issues. I took one pill, where I noticed my pupils went completely dilated for the next week. I didn't continue the drug after that one pill as it gave me insomnia. It may be worth considering serotonin syndrome? Around the 23rd December - I started to get a numbness squeezing/bandlike pain in my foot that climbed all the way up to the top of my leg over the next few days, my current hypothesis that this was either, stress, the beta blocker, or starting the sertraline that caused this. 25/26/27 December - I went to Accident and Emergency, where the Doctors thought I could have MS and didn't consider ask about current drugs. This sent me into a big spiral as I worried a lot about this. Around this time my headaches, nausea and loss of appetite stopped. 27th December - I started Lorazepam (2mg) 31st December - Started up Sertraline 50mg at the advice of the doctors to help with my stress. My head MRI came back fine, all normal (So not MS). 5th January - Muscle cramps, and widespread pain with bandlike sensations in legs and arms. 14th January - 3mg Lorazepam with and increase to 100mg advised by my doctor. 19th January - Tapered off lorazepam and started to notice stiffness in back, legs and wrists. 26th January - completed off lorazepam. 1st February - Reduction of symptoms around this time, except obvious lorazepam withdrawal of shaking and sweating. The only other symptom that persisted was very tight calves. 2nd February - Reduced to 50mg of Sertraline. 6th February - Started to get a whole host of symptoms -Burning Legs and lower spine, muscle spasms, vibrating left eye, nausea, diarrhoea, dark stools, less appetite, insomnia, numbness/tightness in limbs, vertigo, enhanced smell - (I could smell empty wine glass from the other side of the room, slight instability. 10th February - Reduction to 25mg Sertraline. 14th February - Saw a neurologist who told me the sertraline had nothing to do with this since I was on such a low dose, but also said everything seemed fine from an neurological assessment (I could walk fine, I could feel everything he done). Thus, he told me to stop taking the Sertraline completely. ( I now see this as a big mistake.) Present day (3rd March) - Many of those symptoms have gone, although currently persisting: Much rarer burning (less than before), muscle spasms (less than before), slight instability, nausea, tight bandlike sensations in legs and arms, hyper sensitivity to cold (causes pain if something too cold touches me, almost like my nerves are hyper sensitive to everything. I did start to have really bad physical ticks for a week after stopping the sertraline completely, but they seem to have stopped completely now. I also got brain zaps, but that seems to be very rare now. I was thinking about going back on the Sertraline to help with the burning sensations and muscle pains (and other symptoms.) It's interesting to note that these were also the same symptoms I had first coming on/ upping my sertraline dose. Does anyone have any advice whether it would be best to: A.) Wait out the withdrawal, and if so, how long until I'm back to normal again? Will these symptoms eventually go? The muscle tight band pain is definitely the worst effect I have. B.) Reinstate at a low dose. If so, how low a dose should I reinstate back at? How long should I stay on that dose for before dropping the dose? How much should I drop the dose? I also wonder if some of these effects could be lorazepam protracted withdrawal coinciding with the sertraline side effects/withdrawal. It seems the lorazepam could have been masking some of the side effects I may have had from the sertraline. Thank you for reading, any advice would be much appreciated. I'll be sure to return the favour once I'm well and help others suffering from withdrawal and antidepressant mis-advice from doctors.

Hi there, so I'm not new to Zoloft, been taking 50 mg (1 pill) for 10 years from age 17-27. I'm 42 now. I don't really remember how I tapered back then, as far as I remember one day I realized that I do not need it anymore and gradually within months I decreased by a quarter pill, the stopped with no issues. I can't remember if I stopped from a quarter pill (12,5 mg) or went down to 1/8 pill (6,25 mg), but probably from a quarter pill. I had a few brain zaps maybe the first few days, but that's all I remember. I was not new to brain zaps, if I did not take my daily dose on time in the morning, I also got them. Originally I started taking it for social integration issues and mild ticks. I was absolutely drug free for 15 years, had no anxiety or depression issues. I also have an active social life, although being an introverted type I tend to have fewer friends but they are really close. I also have a daily and really good connection with my family. I have to admit, I live a stress free life, no job for 6 years, no girlfriend for 8 years. I know it's not normal, but I was okay with it and it might have been only because I'm really lazy. When I had a job I was working at a multinational company and was quite successful, promoted twice within 3 years but I did not find myself comfortable in the last position, got mild anxiety and ticks again and quit. Never really found the balance between work and life. So in the last 15 years I was perfectly fine, no anxiety or depression, except a little bit when I left my job. I admit, my life is far from perfect, but I was okay with it. I did the El Camino pilgrimage this year the second time, the first time I did was a big milestone in my life, I changed job after that and lost a lot of weight, I was really obese. This year I had the same aim, to lose weight (got obese again) & and to change my lifestyle and find a new job. This year I was really unlucky and got Covid after two weeks on the El Camino, rested a week but was able to continue and successfully finished it. Back home, I had a really good friendship for 4 years with one of my neighbour. She is much older than me. She has a lovely personality, the always happy type. We were kinda soulmates since his husband died 4 years ago, that's when I got to know her. We were really close, was always able to talk about anything and we talked & met every day. On the Camino I thought a lot about, why not extend our friendship a little bit with some extra benefits. I know we never thought of each other like that, but I know she likes me a lot, me too, so shy not. At first she refused my approach, I got her too sudden. I asked for a few weeks break so I can process the refusal which she took very heavily. I promised that we will not lose each other, I just need a little time. After 3 weeks (in which she wrote me every day, even though I asked her to give me time), I contacted her again and everything seemed to be normal, soulmates again. I just needed time to process the refusal, but did not have anxiety or anything like that. But as we became friends again (was really strange at the first few times), we started talking a lot again and we both fell in love with each other. Unexpected twist, ha? Unfortunately we both talked about our past and she did a little bit too much. As it turned out, she had quite a colourful sex life when she was young and she shared too much details. I probably have a mild retroactive jealousy OCD, because of a childhood trauma when my father almost left my mother for another woman & also because of my own similar trauma at age 25 when it turned out that the girl who I thought was the love my life slept with half of my friends. She defended that "we were on a break" at the times and now she only wants me, but I was never able to forgive her and broke up after a year or so. So back to the present. Probably all together because my convenient lifestyle seemed to change drastically, the fear if our new romantic connection will ruin our soulmate thing with my neighbour, the burden that we can't act as a couple as she is much older than me, and she telling too much about her past got me a nice breakdown. I only experienced a breakdown like this, when I got to know slowly about my ex love of my life missteps. That only lasted for 2 weeks, at the time I was still on Zoloft though. This time I was almost not able to eat for 2-3 days and had really high anxiety. I went to a psychiatrist who put me on 3 x 0,25 mg Xanax. That corrected me in about a week, but we had a few jealousy fights which always set me back to high anxiety. Very interestingly, usually only the mornings were really bad, by the evening I was the loving guy I wanted to be. But the jealousy fights always set me back really hard. At the same time I was really angry with myself, as the stories she told me was like 20-30 years ago, they still bothered me. Now I know that this is a kind of OCD, best treated with ERP and I probably will be able to get through it. It was just these stories were new to me, also probably mixed with a little Madonna-***** complex. I was able to guess that she likes sex (that's why I tried her the first time), so that was not a surprise for me, but hearing some exact stories was still too much. On my last setback to anxiety I go so desperate, that I decided to start Zoloft again. I started with only half a pill (25 mg) and took it for 11 days. From the 3rd to 9th day I felt like salad/zombie. I had diarrhea and felt like I'm out of my body. Had insomnia, woke up like 4-5 times & night sweats. I also reacted really harsh to any emotions. I did not leave my flat and only felt apathy. I think this was the time when my soulmate realized that I have a real problem. By the 11th day my side effects kinda faded, but I also felt totally emotionally numb and & light depression, apathy. This was on Christmas day, I just had the strength to visit my family. Retroactive jealousy also disappeared, but also the love. I felt nothing. This is when I decided that this is not for me. I'm a very emotional person with high empathy, I don't want to lose it. Also this is when I found your page and decided that antidepressants are just not worth it. The next five days I took only a quarter pill, then stopped. After the dose reduction I got mild anxiety the first 3 days, then nothing. Still in apathy though, almost no kraft to do anything during the day. Now I'm on my 6th day of not taking Zoloft and it seems something started. I got stomach ache, mild anxiety and still in apathy. I'm still taking the 3 x 0,25 mg Xanax (2 months now), will taper that only after everything okay with Zoloft. And of course I will taper much slower than Zoloft, although I hope 2-3 months is not a long time & my dose is really low. I took the Zoloft tapering advice from Adele Framer: https://www.quora.com/I-have-stopped-taking-50mg-of-sertraline-after-10-days-will-I-get-any-withdrawal-symptoms Sorry if this got a little long, it felt good to write it down. My family knows about my 'drug' situation and they are supportive but I did not tell them about my new romantic relationship. She is also supportive, but does not really understand what I'm going through. She just wants back my old myself, but understands I need time. Got a few questions: 1, What are the chances that the stomach ache, mild anxiety & apathy are Zoloft withdrawal effects? Although I had apathy since I started it. I took Zoloft for 16 days altogether, 11 days half pill, 5 days quarter pill. This is my 6th day of not taking it at all, so 5 half life times past. I want to avoid reinstating Zoloft at all cost. 2, What are the chances that when I started Zoloft, from the 3rd to 9th day feeling like a zombie/salad was an Adverse Reaction? Do we have an estimate around how many ppl are affected by this in percentage? Although, I took Zoloft before, that was a long time ago, my body is older now. 3, If you have any other insight or advice on my situation, I would be grateful.

It’s time for me to write this. I’ve wanted to write it for a while and have often come close in the last few months, only to be hit with another short 1-2 day long wave. It’s been 2.5 years since I took my last dose of Sertraline and I am happy to say that after 2 years of horrible insomnia and the plethora of other physical and emotional WD symptoms we have to endure, I’ve slept well for 3 months straight and aside from minor tremors, tingling hands and what I can only describe as moderate nerve pain in my head 1 hour before bed and 1 hour after waking I feel pretty normal. I smile, I laugh, I cry. I enjoy the moment instead of living in an anxious world wondering if I will ever feel normal again. My story starts in early 2016. After a normal and happy life, I had a number of significant life challenges thrown at me in a very short period. I became anxious about my health and issues in work and sleep started to elude me. Eventually I became anxious about my sleep and we all know that makes sleep worse. Somehow I managed to keep going for 6 months on virtually no sleep before I blew a fuse and ended up off work, in bed with a prescription for Zoloft/Sertraline. I still remember my first dose. It made me feel much worse and made me not sleep at all. I was back at the doctor 2 or 3 times saying that this couldn’t be right and wondering if I’d ever sleep again. After about a month, the side effects subsided and sleep resumed, though I still felt very tired all the time and would often need a time out during the day and in the evening I would just curl up in a chair as talking to people, even my family, was too much for me. This went on for 2 years with some, but limited improvement. I was really questioning why I still felt so tired? Was it the Sertraline, was it that I was still in the job which had been part of the cause of my condition or had not sleeping for so long damaged my brain permanently? I had to do something and the smartest place to start seemed to be to stop the Sertraline. I didn’t like feeling reliant on a drug anyway and 2 years had passed and my sleep was good. At the time I was on 25mg and had been for several months. My GP said at that small of a dose it probably wasn’t doing anything anyway and was just a placebo and that I could just stop taking it. I ended up splitting tablets with my nails ‘roughly’ into quarters and had a couple of weeks at 12.5mg, then went to zero on November 1st 2018, so that I would be over the alleged 2 weeks ‘self limiting’ withdrawal effects well before Christmas. I remember immediately feeling sharper. The emotional numbing effect of the drug had gone and I felt great for a week. Perhaps this was my new beginning. Then about 1 week after stopping I had my first brain zap. I remember it well. I was driving and I felt something building in my head, right in the middle of my brain. The jolt was so strong I remember it to this day. It scared me. I didn’t know at the time but I was to have brain zaps, ripples & electric waves in my head for almost 2 years. My WD symptoms got worse over the first year. First was the insomnia. I hated that that had returned and considered going back on the Sertraline, but I chose to persevere. Then the nausea and fatigue got worse. I was excusing myself from social events and having tactical timeouts in advance of important events. My work suffered and I started being managed out of my job. What was going on? It was about this time that my wife discovered this website and I started reading stories and realised what was happening. I searched the recovery stories to figure out if I would recover and how long it would take. I’m sure we all have done that. My initial hope was 12-18 months. At 9 months post zero I left my job. For a month I felt reasonably OK but at 10 months I started feeling worse and worse. By month 12 I was bedridden, sweating, nauseous and emotionally very low. I’d get 1-5 day windows but waves lasted weeks. The worst one was around 10 weeks long at around 15 months post zero. I’d say my symptoms changed over time. Initially they were fatigue and nausea, this moved to sweating and tingling, then emotional with many flashbacks and much self-criticism and finally more nervous with tremors, shakes and voice loss. Tinnitus and Insomnia were present throughout, especially waking in the middle of the night for 2-3 hours. At 18 months things started to improve. My wife saw me laugh for the first time in ages, my kids said I was better company, I remember being able to cry again, I stopped being so self-absorbed and started being interested in others and the surroundings. At 2 years I started working again. That was tough, but over 3 months I got back to being able to work a full week. At 27 months I stopped taking Sleep aids and I’ve now gone over 100 days with good sleep. It’s now 30 months and the only thing I get is the odd tremor and head pain an hour before bed and an hour after waking. I can manage that and know it goes in an hour or so, though I suspect it may be a while. My tips are the same as everyone else’s: Be kind to yourself Accept your situation, stop looking for answers There’s no magic cure with diet, supplements or re-instatement Walk a lot Appreciate those who support you Finally a big thank you to all those who have provided help to me through chats on this forum or privately, to the administrators and to Alto for creating this forum back in the day. I wish you all patience and success in your WD journeys. ADMIN NOTE DaBro's Introductions topic is here: ?>

Hi everyone, I am new here and I am desperate to get well. I was on Prozac for 10 years and stoped very easy. Three months I was feeling great but some major changes in my life made me hit rock bottom in March 2021 and was put back on Prozac 40 mg and klonopin 1.25mg. I decided to stop after one month and went into insanity, emergency rooms and but back on Lexapro 5mg to 10 mg and klonopin .25mg as needed and then decided to stop again after one month. I ended up with the worst panic attack from withdrawals and shaking,not eating, lost 15 pounds and ended up in hospital. They kept me 12 days on Paxil 40mg and Quietapine for sleep and 1mg Ativan. Was feeling great and came home just to start all over and ended up in the hospital again. I was put on 100mg Zoloft, 300x 2 a day Depakote,1.5mg Ativan and 15mg Mirzaten I was great for a month and I reduced myself the dosage to no benzodiazepines, no Depakote, 25mg Sertraline and 7.5 Mirzaten. I took 0.1mg clonidine to regulate my blood pressure for three weeks. I am finished, I am bed ridden, crying, surge of adrenaline, shaking. I am taking 0.5mg Ativan and I am calm till I go to sleep. Every morning I am waking up with anxiety. I am at the end of my ropez I am planing to go to a psychiatrist tomorrow and see what I can do to stabilize. How can I get off the 7mg mirzaten I am now without feeling this mess. I cannot keep a job now. I took my 20 years old son from Canada and moved at my parents in Romania and we suffer here because we cannot adapt. My son will leave in couple weeks back to Toronto but I am not able to go in this state of mind. I am unstable. Help!

Hi all, Here's a quick summary about my situation. I am currently on 25mg of Sertraline, but still have all the issues that have plagued me even when I was on 200mg - brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, no energy, no short term memory, and no emotions. It honestly feels like my soul has died. When I taper, I have a week where emotions (mainly negative) come back and I feel a little clearer in my head. But once I stabilise on the lower dose, I go back to being numb. The hardest part of all of this is I worked so incredibly hard to improve my life and had a blossoming creative career right before I was polydrugged in 2020, and it's not like I can take a massive break and just stop working - I have rent and bills to pay. I work freelance as this allows me to charge a higher day rate, and thus work less days per month. Somehow I force myself to keep networking, getting jobs, and creating work for clients, even though my creativity feels utterly dead and on many days just writing an email feels impossible. I honestly don't know how I do it. Some clients have still loved my work, but I've definitely ruined my reputation in some circles, burned a few bridges, and lost work (and a lot of money) due to making silly mistakes. At the moment, it's looking like another 2 to 3 years until I'm off completely, if I want to taper safely. The idea of this fills me with dread as I have no idea how I'm meant to keep working like this for such a long period of time. By the time I'm off the drugs and feeling myself again, I won't have a career to come back to. I have a few questions. 1.) Has anyone else had these severe side effects from Sertraline? If so, at what dose did you find them lessening? I know everyone is different but it would mean so much to have a glimmer of hope, if many people found improvement at 10mg or 5mg for example. 2.) Should I switch meds? If Sertraline causes me this much trouble, would it make sense to jump over to Prozac and then taper from there? Or would this risk sensitising my nervous system more? 3.) Should I use stimulants? 2 years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD and given stimulant medication. They did help the brain fog. However, since going through withdrawal I have avoided taking them in case it causes more damage for my brain. But am I just being overly cautious? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this post. And to anyone going through a similar situation, my heart goes out to you. I wouldn't wish any of this on my worst enemy.

I am looking for a psychiatrist who is good at helping people get off of psych meds and practices in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. It would be good if their practice is in the southern part of King County or the Tacoma area. I am 66 years old and I have been on Sertraline since March of 2003. Before that I was on some other meds at various times between 1995 and 2002. I went completely off of psych meds for 1 and 1/4 years, then four months, then for 2 months. I did not have adequate support from others in my efforts to get off the meds. I regret not pushing through and going for broke. Now, after all these years, I am feeling impaired mentally. I have done some research into SSRIs, and they look bad. The guy who prescribes the meds seems to believe whatever big pharma says. He would probably be willing to give me a taper schedule, but if things get tough, I don't thing he would be much help. Today. I regret ever going on these meds. I started taking them for OCD. I am now pretty sure that I can do well in the fight against OCD without meds.