RandomForest: trying to leave sertraline behind

[RandomForest]

Hello everyone. Nice to e-meet you. I'm a 35 year old male who started taking Sertraline 50mg in 2016 after a bad period of work stress and bullying.

The medication definitely worked - my low mood, anxiety and panic attacks all stopped and I got better. I never intended to take the medication for so long, but I failed to stop it 3 or 4 times over the years. Each time I failed because of unpleasant side effects, particularly stress and feelings of deep sadness. However, I stopped again about 8 weeks ago after a gradual and slow taper over a year, each time waiting for the brain zaps to resolve before further adjustments.

 

I felt like I was in a good place to try and stop about 8 weeks ago. I managed the waves of sadness and dark thoughts with exercise and meditation, and mostly kept them at bay. I can cope with the brain zaps, mood fluctuations, hot flushes and occasional akathesia. But what is really frightening me is the brain fog and lack of mental clarity.

 

I'm coming towards the end of a PhD, and need my mind to work for writing and giving presentations. The work is intellectually taxing and did used to be interesting. But now i find I'm struggling to read properly - the words keep getting jumbled up, like I've just developed dyslexia. My short term memory is poor. And the computer programming work / writing takes me a long time and causes me headaches because of how hard I have to think to get through the mental fog. I also have a toddler at home who needs my time and attention, and I'm very frightened that I'm never going to get the person I used to be back. In six months time I finish the phd and return to work as a doctor, which will be hard, tiring, stressful and will need me to have a working brain.

 

I think I'm here because I need to know that I haven't permanently lost my mind and therefore my livelihood. I need to hear from someone that the mental fog will slowly dissipate and get better.

 

Thank you,

 

Random Forest.

[manymoretodays]

Hi there RandomForest,

Welcome aboard.  And.....you have not permanently lost your mind and livelihood.  Those symptoms will get better, with time.

 

Would you please create a signature as soon as you can, following the instructions in the below link, you'll see an example there too.

How to Summarize Your Drug History in Your Signature

this will give us a better idea of the dates, and how you came off sertraline at a glance and will appear below your posts, once done.  Scroll on up to the first post in the link above to get to the information you'll need to do your signature.  Thank you.

 

Please also add in, if you are on any other psychiatric drugs right now, so we know.

 

We endorse a harm reduction approach to going off psychiatric drugs and recommend a 10% taper or less, from each previous dose every month, or more, depending on how each member tolerates the taper.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Tips for tapering off Zoloft(sertraline)

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

This might be an option for you ^, we generally only suggest reinstatement of a small amount of your drug, which may help alleviate some of your WD(withdrawal symptoms).  In fact it's the only known medical solution to WD, once it has set in.  Generally the sooner done, the better.  Read through that link thoughtfully.  Get your signature done too, so we can further help advise, once we have some dates, and final doses known of your sertraline taper.

 

The link about Zoloft(sertraline) also has methods for getting non-standard doses of sertraline in it.  And so, worth a read through.

 

This is also a great time to work on non-drug coping, and begin to develop practices to offset some of the emotional symptoms that WD often brings on.  Many times it can be worse than what one sought help for in the first place......when they initially agreed to try a drug. 

So do travel over to the Symptoms and Self Care forum and have a look at some of the top pinned topics that may apply to your situation and symptoms now.

 

More about what happens when you come off a psych drug after usage of greater than about a month, and WD(withdrawal)

Brain Remodelling

What is withdrawal syndrome?

The windows and waves pattern of stabilization

 

*Dr.Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list.

 

When we take medications, the CNS (central nervous system) responds by making changes over the months and years we take the drug(s). When the medication is discontinued, the CNS has to undo all the changes it made.  The CNS likes stability. Rebuilding the neurotransmitter production and reactivating the receptor and transporter cells takes time -- during that rebuilding process symptoms occur. And sleep is really important during withdrawal. 

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system.  

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

This is your introduction/journal page where you have now introduced yourself to the community, you can ask questions here regarding your case, give updates, and just keep a record of your journey.

 

Congratulations on getting close to the end of your PHD studies.  That's huge.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

manymoretodays(mmt)

Edited October 2, 2022 by manymoretodays

[margaretLO]

On 9/27/2022 at 5:15 PM, RandomForest said:

Hello everyone. Nice to e-meet you. I'm a 35 year old male who started taking Sertraline 50mg in 2016 after a bad period of work stress and bullying.

The medication definitely worked - my low mood, anxiety and panic attacks all stopped and I got better. I never intended to take the medication for so long, but I failed to stop it 3 or 4 times over the years. Each time I failed because of unpleasant side effects, particularly stress and feelings of deep sadness. However, I stopped again about 8 weeks ago after a gradual and slow taper over a year, each time waiting for the brain zaps to resolve before further adjustments.

 

I felt like I was in a good place to try and stop about 8 weeks ago. I managed the waves of sadness and dark thoughts with exercise and meditation, and mostly kept them at bay. I can cope with the brain zaps, mood fluctuations, hot flushes and occasional akathesia. But what is really frightening me is the brain fog and lack of mental clarity.

 

I'm coming towards the end of a PhD, and need my mind to work for writing and giving presentations. The work is intellectually taxing and did used to be interesting. But now i find I'm struggling to read properly - the words keep getting jumbled up, like I've just developed dyslexia. My short term memory is poor. And the computer programming work / writing takes me a long time and causes me headaches because of how hard I have to think to get through the mental fog. I also have a toddler at home who needs my time and attention, and I'm very frightened that I'm never going to get the person I used to be back. In six months time I finish the phd and return to work as a doctor, which will be hard, tiring, stressful and will need me to have a working brain.

 

I think I'm here because I need to know that I haven't permanently lost my mind and therefore my livelihood. I need to hear from someone that the mental fog will slowly dissipate and get better.

 

Thank you,

 

Random Forest.

How are u now?