NBJ71: ADR Sertraline

[NBJ71]

Hi, I had a terrible experience with Sertraline after 7 tablets of 50mg. The worst 7 days of my life! 
I slowly recovered and like was getting back on track after 3 months. 
I then took a fitness supplement and suffered 3 weeks of depression which I’d never suffered before in my life but day by day I got back to normal. 
At the same time as I started the supplement I started taking cod liver oil, after a week or so I was suffering have adrenaline spikes, sleep quickly reduced and I was in a mess. 
I then admitted myself to a mental health clinic and have since found this website. 
im now taking diazepam 5mg 3 times a day plus 7.5mg of Zopiclone to sleep. 
When discharged next week im wondering how I will cope with the reaction to the diazepam and Zopiclone. I will have a prescription of each. Any help would be hugely appreciated. 

[Erimus]

Hello, and welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. We are a peer support forum to assist in tapering off psychiatric drugs safely, or recovering from psychiatric drug withdrawal.

 

This topic is for anything relating to you, and any questions you have. Please do not start another topic.

 

We recommend tapering by no more than 10% of your CURRENT dose each month, to limit withdrawal symptoms. E.g. 10mg --> 9mg --> 8.1mg --> 7.29mg

 

All the answers you are looking for regarding tapering and antidepressant withdrawal are on this site. Please search around and continue to read as much as you can manage. Use the site search function to search for specific words or phrases, such as drugs or symptoms.

 

First of all I am sorry you experienced an adverse reaction to sertraline, which was then compounded by a mental health clinic throwing more drugs at you. Many people end up in this situation due to lack of care from prescribers. After an adverse reaction you are sensitive to a multitude of different things. This includes: psychiatric medication, recreational drugs, antibiotics, alcohol and supplements, to name a few. You have to be extremely careful about anything you ingest for the coming weeks and months.

Immediate adverse reactions to an antidepressant or within a few doses? How long for recovery?

I would suggest once home that you begin tapering the zopiclone, sleep drugs are not something you want longer term exposure to. A sensible starting point would be a reduction of 25%, followed by waiting a week to see how you react.

 

4 hours ago, NBJ71 said:

I can’t add a signature as I have no access to a laptop as I’m in a mental health clinic 

You can still edit your signature on mobile here: https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/settings/signature/

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

Thank you for the reply, unfortunately I’ll be released with 28 x 5mg of diazepam and 21 x 7.5mg of Zopiclone. 
My concern is the reaction will be too severe for me to cope with, by that I mean insomnia and anxiety. 

[Erimus]

18 hours ago, NBJ71 said:

Hi Erimus, 

Thank you for the reply, unfortunately I’ll be released with 28 x 5mg of diazepam and 21 x 7.5mg of Zopiclone. 
My concern is the reaction will be too severe for me to cope with, by that I mean insomnia and anxiety. 

The diazepam should negate the rebound insomnia from reducing zopiclone. Zopiclone is not safe to take long-term, which is why I suggested you begin to reduce it. You must learn to embrace the feelings of anxiety and fear around your symptoms, they are not harmful, and with time you will learn to accept their presence for the foreseeable future. The biggest problem with insomnia is the fear we assocate with it, I've been there myself, which is why I ended up in this mess.

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

Thank you so much for replying, so after 21 days of taking 3 x 5mg of Diazepam and 7.5mg of Zopiclone, when I leave here my prescription will be 28 x 5mg diazepam and 14 x 7.5mg Zopiclone. 
 

could you please advise the wisest way to use this over the coming days to reduce the suffering as much as possible please? 
Many thanks in advance. 

[Erimus]

48 minutes ago, NBJ71 said:

Hi Erimus, 

Thank you so much for replying, so after 21 days of taking 3 x 5mg of Diazepam and 7.5mg of Zopiclone, when I leave here my prescription will be 28 x 5mg diazepam and 14 x 7.5mg Zopiclone. 
 

could you please advise the wisest way to use this over the coming days to reduce the suffering as much as possible please? 
Many thanks in advance. 

You'll need to get a repeat prescription for the diazepam from your GP. Under no circumstances should you allow them to taper you off it too quickly or via cold turkey.

 

With the Zopiclone I would suggest breaking the pills into at least halves. That will give you 28 days of 3.75mg. Try dropping to 3.75mg for 2 weeks, then half again for a further 1-2 weeks. Then stop.

 

Keep taking the diazepam. It may be easier to take it all as one dose. It has a very long half-life which means you shouldn't need to dose multiple times per day.

 

You will need to taper the diazepam much more cautiously. We have guidelines for that we can send you in a few weeks.

Edited August 8 by Erimus

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

 

My GP won’t entertain giving me diazepam, I think I have maybe 20 x 5mg at home which would give me 48. 
 

How would you suggest I use it? 
10mg for a week then drop to 5mg for a week? 
 

At the moment I  take 5mg diazepam at 9am, another at 5pm and 5mg diazepam and 7.5mg zopiclone before bed and only get maybe 4 hours sleep. 
 

im prepared for some suffering as the cod liver oil gave me incredible anxiety and insomnia. When I say anxious it’s purely biological, adrenaline in my chest and like a small electric charge going through my jaw, arms chest and legs. 

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

Ive had 7 hours sleep in 3 days, they’re now talking about putting me on a mood stabilizer. Will that make me worse? 
I feel I need to discharge myself so could you giving me daily guidelines on how to taper from 5mg diazepam 3 times a day with 60 5mg tablets please? I feel I need to leave her in the coming days before they put more drugs into me. 
I understand your advise with the Zopiclone. 
I completely understand you’ve probably got a busy life but a reply by Sunday would be greatly appreciated 

many thanks in advance 

[LukeUK]

I don't have any specific tapering advice but I strongly recommend not throwing more and more new drugs at an existing adverse reaction to other drugs.

 

I know you're having anxiety and insomnia but these drugs can cause total mental and physical disability if you have a serious enough reaction.

[NBJ71]

Thanks Luke, 

Thats my thoughts, I’m waiting to hear from Erin’s for some advice on how to taper diazepam with only 50 x 5mg tablets as I’m on 3x5mg a day at present 

[Erimus]

4 hours ago, NBJ71 said:

Hi Erimus, 

Ive had 7 hours sleep in 3 days, they’re now talking about putting me on a mood stabilizer. Will that make me worse? 
I feel I need to discharge myself so could you giving me daily guidelines on how to taper from 5mg diazepam 3 times a day with 60 5mg tablets please? I feel I need to leave her in the coming days before they put more drugs into me. 
I understand your advise with the Zopiclone. 
I completely understand you’ve probably got a busy life but a reply by Sunday would be greatly appreciated 

many thanks in advance 

I would suggest you leave the "facility" as soon as possible. Don't take any further drugs.

 

I suggest you show your GP the NHS guidelines on stopping benzodiazepines. Not prescribing further diazepam to taper is malpractice, with potentially dangerous ramifications.

 

See:

https://nhssomerset.nhs.uk/news/document/diazepam-tapering-document-june-2022/

 

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/benzodiazepine-z-drug-withdrawal/management/benzodiazepine-z-drug-withdrawal/

 

I would take your diazepam all as one dose, so 15mg once daily. You will need to experiment as to whether taking it AM or PM is more beneficial.

 

Start tapering the zopiclone as soon as you're home. Diazepam I would be reducing 1mg at a time for now, every 5-7 days, until you kick your GP into gear regarding getting more of it.

Edited August 9 by Erimus

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

 

My GP won’t entertain giving me diazepam, I think I have maybe 20 x 5mg at home which would give me 48. 

I’ve only been taking Diazepam for 14 days so far, will I still need to taper it? 

 

At the moment I  take 5mg diazepam at 9am, another at 5pm and 5mg diazepam and 7.5mg zopiclone before bed and only get maybe 4 hours sleep. 
 

im prepared for some suffering as the cod liver oil gave me incredible anxiety and insomnia. When I say anxious it’s purely biological, adrenaline in my chest and like a small electric charge going through my jaw, arms chest and legs. 

[Erimus]

51 minutes ago, NBJ71 said:

My GP won’t entertain giving me diazepam, I think I have maybe 20 x 5mg at home which would give me 48. 

Did you read what I put above about speaking to your GP? You need to ask for smaller tablet denominations in order to taper. Be forceful if need be.

 

51 minutes ago, NBJ71 said:

I’ve only been taking Diazepam for 14 days so far, will I still need to taper it?

Yes, it will reduce your suffering. Diazepam also has a really long half-life, which means even after stopping it doesn't leave your system for many weeks.

 

51 minutes ago, NBJ71 said:

At the moment I  take 5mg diazepam at 9am, another at 5pm and 5mg diazepam and 7.5mg zopiclone before bed and only get maybe 4 hours sleep. 

I would combine the doses into one daily dose of 15mg. If you can't get any more of it cut by 2.5mg every 5-7 days.

 

If you want more information on benzodiazepines I suggest you head over to benzobuddies.org . I have no experience with benzos.

Edited August 9 by Erimus

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

 

Thank you for the advice, I’ll try the taper you suggested, try to live with the insomnia and anxiety and follow your advice with the Zopiclone. 
Again, many thanks. 

[NBJ71]

Hi Erimus, 

Ive tapered the diazepam from 15 to 5mg and zopiclone from 7.5mg to 3.75mg every other day. 
My issue is I’m anxious all day and barely getting 3 hours sleep? 
 

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated as I’m getting desperate now.