TroyGirl: Emotional withdrawals beginning

[TroyGirl]

Hello everyone. I was diagnosed with MDD, GAD and OCD (no ritual just obsessive thoughts) two years ago. It stemmed from a traumatic event. I have since been on 3 ssri's none of which provided any real relief. Zoloft was the only one I tolerated and after a year I made the decision to stop. I made the decision for many reasons....dr and therapist felt I was ready, I suffered side effects the entire time on drug, weight gain, insomnia and I am considering having another baby and refuse to be on drugs while pregnant.

 

I'm currently on week 4 of no drugs and I've slammed into a wall, HARD! I was doing ok and the physical withdrawals seemed to have subsided but then the mental ones hit. Sheer panic, panic attacks, racing thoughts, fear of being stuck like this forever, fear of never being happy again....the list is endless really.

 

Really hoping to find support here as I have none at home currently. How do you keep going on the dark bad days? How do you stay the course even when you doubt everything?

Edited May 31, 2017 by scallywag
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[scallywag]

TroyGirl -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

 

Many people experience symptoms after a cold-turkey stop of drugs like Zoloft. In fact, going from a regular dose to nothing overnight is practically a guarantee of getting difficult symptoms for at least several weeks.  The pharmaceutical manufacturers, who provide "education" to medical professionals, only admit to there being a brief period of acute symptoms, 4-6 weeks. This site exists because that does not apply universally -- many people suffer much, much longer.

 

Withdrawal symptoms are difficult. You can search for others' experiences with a specific symptom in the Symptoms forum. Nobody can predict who will have a short recovery period and whose will take months or several years. The only known way to reduce symptoms is to reinstate the medication. It helps many but not all people.

 

Are you open to reinstating a very low dose -- probably much lower than your last dose -- of Zoloft to stabilize your symptoms? After stabilizing you could taper gradually off that very low dose. For more details, please read:

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

 

We suggest that people taper by decreasing dose by no more than 10% once per month to minimize the risk of withdrawal symptoms. For more information please read:

Tapering -- what you need to know.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.

 

Here's a topic specifically about Zoloft:

Tips for tapering off Zoloft (sertraline)

 

Would you post your medication history in a signature that will appear below each of your posts? This allows those of us reading your post to get a quick overview without having to read everything you've previously written. Please include doses and dates when you started a dose, changed a dose or stopped.

Creating a signature

Direct link to signature settings page

 

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

[Loom]

Maybe it helps if you just try to fake it till you make it. It means that you need to each day try to think new mental exercise that will pull your thought out of that dark place. You can try to remember what kind of thinking you had on bright days. You can start thinking today like something positive about someone or ask for someone else that they will be okey. Tomorrow try to think what can you do good for others in this world (you dont have to really do it but just think). If we have bright days than this thinking is ordinary but when we are down then its difficult and you need to fake it.

 

Loom

[TikkiTikki]

Hi TroyGirl,

 

So sorry you're feeling so terrible. It is just so frightening when all the anxiety and depression comes racing back in force.

 

How long was your taper off Zoloft? 

 

And how are you going now? 

 

Best