johnnyg: My tapering journey and potential kindling

[johnnyg]

I began my tapering from 50mg of zoloft down to 25mg after being on it for about a year and a half following my doctor's guidance. They then told me I could stop fully and after a few days of withdrawals I went back on. Eventually I got to 12.5mg and again was told I could stop fully but had withdrawals. I cut down to 6.25mg about a month after and then stopped again after a month of that. Withdrawals started around day 2 and included sexual symptoms this time. By day 3 or 4 I was told to reinstate by my doctor and I have been taking 5.725mg of liquid sertraline since. After a few days I thought the sexual symptoms went away (I was normal for a few days), but they came back. My doctor told me to stop again after two weeks of reinstatement and tomorrow would be that day. I still have the same withdrawal and sexual symptoms I had before reinstatement so I'm not sure what I should do. Is this a form of kindling caused by reinstatement when I should have just waited out the original withdrawal symptoms? Would stopping now be even more detrimental? I wonder if reinstatement was a mistake that only caused my nervous system more trauma.

[johnnyg]

I should note that I am 22 years old right now.

[Jane318]

Greetings @johnnyg and welcome to SA!  We are a community of volunteers providing peer support in the tapering of psychiatric medications and their associated withdrawal syndromes. 

 

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I recommend you hold at 5.725mg until you stabilize - this could take several weeks or longer.  

 

That you are experiencing withdrawal symptoms is not surprising. You were wise to reinstate, and here at SA, we would not recommend stopping until you safely taper to a much lower dose.  

 

Once you stabilize, you can then begin to taper off again.  We recommend the hyperbolic taper method, which you can read about here: Why taper by 10% of my dosage? 

 

Given your relatively low dose, you might consider choosing to taper even more slowly, with longer holds or smaller cuts.  Read about this here:  The Brassmonkey Slide Method of Microtapering.  The spreadsheet that you can download from here makes it easy to tailor to your needs.

 

Here is some information specific to tapering off Zoloft:  

 

 

It’s important to keep tabs on your symptoms and adjust your taper amount and schedule as needed.  I track my symptoms every day, rating them on a scale of 1-10 for severity.  This will help you identify your windows and waves and reveal your progress, which is encouragement we need!  You can use the following list of typical withdrawal symptoms as a template for a journal, if you wish: Daily Checklist of Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms (PDF) 

 

You may choose to also track your foods and activities to identify things that trigger symptoms as well.  We do encourage people who are tapering to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and recreational drugs.  Many prescription and OTC drugs can cause problems too and should be avoided as much as possible. 

 

We recommend only two supplements here at SA, magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids.  So if you decide to try a supplement, even those we recommend here, start with a very low dose.  If you tolerate it well, you can increase the dosage slowly over time.  

 

As you taper, it is very normal to have periods where you feel better, and periods where you feel terrible.  This is what we call the windows and waves pattern of stabilization.  This is actually a good sign of healing!  Read more about windows and waves here: Windows and waves pattern of stabilization

 

We have many threads on how to cope with symptoms – I encourage you to check out the various forums / links on the SA.org home page.

 

This is your introduction topic.  Each member gets one intro topic- please post updates and additional questions here, in this thread.

 

Do explore the rest of the forum – there is a lot of great information here.  Be sure to read “About SurvivingAntidepressants.org,” which has good information about how to use / search the site: https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/54-about-survivingantidepressantsorg  

 

Also, feel free to read and comment on the intro threads of other members.  This is how you build a community of people who understand what you are dealing with.   It is so helpful to connect with others who are experiencing the same things.

 

I look forward to following your journey, and helping out in any way I can.

[Jane318]

@johnnyg - Just checking in to see how you are doing and whether you have any questions?  Best wishes.