Posted by bleauberry on January 10, 2011, at 11:48:03
In reply to Quitting Zoloft After 15+ Years, posted by Sanguine on January 9, 2011, at 1:05:12
> It wasn't necessarily a New Year's resolution, but I decided (alone) to come off of sertraline. I had tried before, but the depression was too overwhelming and I always went back. I was on 50mg when I quit cold turkey, and for a week I've felt horrible. The anger and depression have lessened, but I still feel overwhelmed by loud sounds/ speech, bright lights, vivid and bizarre dreams, and (visual) changes in depth or distance. I am not really get any support from my family and I hate my regular physician and see someone else when I need a script or have a minor medical problem. Neither doctor seems to be very conversant in antidepressants, and the latter considers what I was on a "baby dose" and thinks I just need therapy. Yes, wonderful, of course I would except I have no insurance. I want to know if I am doing the right thing and how much longer I can expect withdrawal symptoms. I feel like either no one is treating this with any gravity or they think it's (as always) all in my head. Honestly, that bothers me more than the symptoms. Sorry for being so verbose, I just feel so alone and ignored.
A baby dose is more like 6mg or 12.5mg, by splitting pills.In my eperience, it will take a long time for the brain and the entire body to settle into a baseline pattern in the absence of the zoloft molecule. 15 years is a long time.
Eight years on prozac. Took a couple months to wean down to 0mg, about 3 months for all withdrawals to be gone, and another 3 to 6 months to stabilize into a new baseline.
To do it better would involve getting back on zoloft and slowly decreasing the dose in tiny steps over about a 2 to 3 month period. You would have to cut and sliver pills to do it right.
Following just 3 months on zoloft it took about 6 weeks for my withdrawals to be gone.
Life without zoloft might be more lousy than with, so keep that in mind. If you were doing well before you stopped it, I see no reason to stop it at all. If it wasn't working, that's a different story. In that case the simple addition of Nortriptyline low dose would have been a great maneuver. IMO.
poster:bleauberry
thread:976279
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101231/msgs/976437.html