Ayoosh: sertraline withdrawal? Help!

[Ayoosh]

so where to start...

I was prescribed sertraline around 2012 and have been on it since at a steady dose of 50mg which had been helping me live life!

In 2021 i decided that i was ready to start tapering off sertraline and initially discussed with the GP who suggested to reduce by half and the half again and then stop within a couple of months. I didn't feel that it was appropiate for me and so decided to start slowly and took nearly a year to get down to having 25mg sertraline one day and 0mg the next and thats when disaster struck. December 2021, i woke up with evrything swaying, like i was on a boat, tinnitus, having a general woozines in my head, increased anxiety and not knowing why i was feeling like this. I reverterd back to 50mg dose to try and deal with the anxiety but this didn't seem to make any difference. A number of visits and calls to the Dr's, ENT specialists, physios, chirpractors followed but nothing was helping. Some days were worse then others, especially those where i had a lack of sleep.

I decided to approach a private Psychiatrist in the hopes that maybe it was related to sertraline and the reduction in dosage i had taken. The Psychiatrist, decided to change my medicne to 30mg of duloxetine initially for two weeks and then upto 60mg to try and stabilise and balance the chemicals in my brain, unfortunately this has not helped at all and am not seeing any improvement - yesterday the psychiatrist has now suggested that i stop all medication and use CBT instead as she feels that this is all anxiety related and not withdrawal.

 

I'm completely lost as to what to do...any help would be appreciated.

[Ayoosh]

2nd Introduction topic created titled:  Sertraline withdrawal? Help!

 

Hi all,

I've been on Sertraline since 2013 and starting at 100mg but then reducing and staying on 50mg till last year when i felt that i was ready to stop and spoke to the GP who advised tapering down to half my dose and then half again and then to stop within a month. 

However, i didn't feel that i could stop that quickly and started reducing a lot slower - starting at 50mg one day and 25mg - i did this for several months before reducing to 25mg daily. At this point everything was fine, no withdrawal and things were looking good.

In October, i then decided to reduce it further to 25mg on day and 0mg the next (averaging 12.5mg daily) and continued this for a couple of months - i didnt realise it at the time but my anxiety and worries started to increase, and then in December, everything changed: I woke up one day with tinnitus, feeling like there was knocking in my head, a rocking/swaying sensation and a feeling of fuzziness/fog in my head. Spoke to my GP and they believed it could be an infection of my inner ear, however the medicine prescribed didn't do anything and to avoid further anxiety i went to see an ENT specialist, again, nothing was found in my ears but was referred to a specialist physio who gave me vestibular exercises to do - these made the rocking and swaying worse and i saw no improvement.

At this point because of the anxiety of not knowing what was wrong, i went back to 50mg on the sertraline and continued with this over the next few months and started suspecting that this could be due to withdrawal but still not sure as i had not stopped and just reduced and that it took over two months for the symptoms to start to show

 

In March this year, I saw a Psychiatrist and they suggested that these could be withdrawal symptoms and prescribed me an alternative medicine (Duloxetine) to see if this helped, unfortunately, no real improvement was seen and they have now suggested moving me over to Fluoxetine, to see if this helps.

 

Luckily, have also found this website and realised how may others are suffering similar symptoms form withdrawal but now even more confused as to wheter i should start the Fluoxetine, try to go back on the sertraline or just stop altogether - all the while i'm suffering every day with all of the symptoms i stated earlier. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by ChessieCat
added Intro topic title before merging with intro topic

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Ayoosh

 

On 5/18/2022 at 11:01 PM, Ayoosh said:

i went back to 50mg on the sertraline and continued with this over the next few months

 

How did you feel while you were taking 50mg sertraline again?

 

 

[Ayoosh]

Hi Altostrata, 

 

Unfortunately it didn’t make any difference, still had the same symptoms, which added to the confusion and worry. 
Starting on fluoxetine 20mg on Monday and trying to decide if I should start at a lower dose of 5mg instead of the 20mg. Any thoughts? 

[ChessieCat]

If it was me, I would definitely not be starting at 20mg fluoxetine / Prozac.  I am also wondering if 5mg might be too high to start.

 

Q:  Are you still taking duloxetine?  If yes, what dose?  If yes, are you going to reduce the duloxetine when you start the fluoxetine?  If yes, to what dose?

 

Please note that I'm going by the information in your drug signature.

 

I posted this straight away just in case you take the higher dose before Alto responds.

 

@Altostrata

 

 

 

[Altostrata]

If I were you, I might try reinstating 5mg sertraline instead of experimenting with other drugs for your sertraline withdrawal syndrome. You might be very sensitized from going on and off drugs repeatedly. Often a "normal" dose causes its own problems.

[Ayoosh]

Hi @ChessieCat,

 

Thanks for the response.

 

The psychiatrist said to stop the duloxetine and start with the fluoxetine without any taper on the duloxetine. 
 

@Altostrata how long do you think I should go back on the sertraline, if the 5mg doesn’t show any improvement how quickly should I taper up? 
 

The psychiatrist thought that with the longer half life on the Fluoxetine, it would be easier to come off it as ultimately I don’t want to keep relying on the drugs.

 

Thiis week was a mixed bag - found out I was pregnant! but also the rocking and swaying symptoms have been much worse then usual - don’t know if this is related to the additional stress on finding out about the pregnancy or something else…

 

 

[Altostrata]

I don't know what's going on. The reason this site exists is because 17,000 members found their doctors didn't know what they were talking about.

 

As I said before, we have seen that people may need lower doses rather than higher doses of drugs to resolve withdrawal syndrome.

 

We would need to see how you do on 5mg sertraline before suggesting anything else. It probably will take you some weeks or months to stabilize. 5mg sertraline is much less a threat to a fetus than 50mg sertraline or 60mg duloxetine or 20mg fluoxetine.

 

It's more likely that 5mg sertraline will help sertraline withdrawal, but it's possible a low dose of fluoxetine might work, too. But here we like to work with drugs you've had history with instead of experimenting with new drugs. 

 

However, if you wish you can follow your psychiatrist's advice instead.