Cherende: How long do withdrawal symptoms from Zoloft last?

[Cherende]

Hi! I was on Zoloft for 7 years and tried getting off several times before but couldn't due to severe panic attacks. Then this pay January I had a really bad sinus infection and was taking an antibiotic and somehow it realllyyyyyy messed with my 50mg of Zoloft. I've never had problems before but this was so bad that I began having suicidal thoughts almost every minute of the day for about two months.

 

I continued taking the medication even though my Dr thought it wasn't being processed bc of my liver enzymes being so high. June 1st I decided I didn't want any pet of this medication anymore and began weening off.

 

Everything was going well until about 4 weeks off I felt like I was going crazy. The thoughts came back and intensified and violent thoughts came rushing in and now I've been off for almost three months and everyone says I should be feeling almost myself again. Some days are better than others. Some days I can manage those thoughts others I can't. Sometime I feel almost brain dead and can't think at all. Lately I've been soo dizzy.

Anyone have advise on when I should be feeling better or will I ever be myself again? A lot of people have told me between 3-4 months off and I should think and feel myself. Is this true? Don't know how much longer I can go on like this. Any recovery success stories? Also pretty depressed most of the time. Thank you!

Edited October 8, 2016 by scallywag
added paragraph breaks and tags

[scallywag]

Cherende -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

 

I've moved your post to the Introductions Forum so that more people will see your question. This is your introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community.
 
A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-18 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to that can just be listed with start and stop years.
• You don't need to include symptoms or diagnoses other than the initial condition that led to prescribing the first drug.
• We ask for this information in your signature so that we can see it at a glance. A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature

The symptoms you describe are withdrawal symptoms, that unfortunately are virtually guaranteed to arise after an abrupt full stop, "cold turkey", of an SSRI .
What is withdrawal syndrome

Some people are lucky and their symptoms do resolve in the generally accepted time frame of less than 3 months. What people don't know is that this time frame has been generally accepted because of self-protecting promotion by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Many people have symptoms that last longer, sadly.
 
People do recover; it takes time.  The best known way to ease withdrawal symptoms is to reinstate a very small dose of the medication one has discontinued. This topic discusses reinstatement; please read the first post carefully:
About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

After reading about this, please come back to this page and post whether you are open to the idea of reintroducing Zoloft.

Then after having stabilized on that dose for several months, one could consider a slow, gradual taper off the drug. We suggest reducing dose by no more than 10% of current dose no more often than once per month.
Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

Some drug-specific information to consider:
Tips for tapering off Zoloft (sertraline)

 

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.

[PoetJester]

Hey Cherende

 

I was on high doses of Zoloft and zyprexa for 14 years and quit both meds cold turkey in feb 2014.  My liver enzymes were always very elevated during that time, too, but my doctor didn't really seem to care all that much.  He would just say "we should keep an eye on it (my liver enzyme levels).  He also told me the pills "make you feel good."  when I had all sorts of side effects from them and rarely ever left my apartment because I was tired all the time and slept like 15 hours a day.  Some of the withdrawal symptoms do clear up within a few weeks to months, while others seem to linger on for quite a while.  There are a lot of us on this site who feel like zombies these days from the brain fog that comes on once you quit the pills.

 

It's been 2 1/2 years since I took the pills and I still have problems with insomnia and fatigue, and like you,  a lot of days my memory and cognitive abilities are pretty slow, mostly on days when I didn't much sleep the night before.   I constantly forget things now.  I have problems with names at times and start to forget what I am talking about in conversations.  It's actually pretty common for those going through psych pill withdrawal.  If you are interested, there is a facebook page that about 70 of us from this site take part in to discuss the  problems we are having from pill withdrawal.  Look under "Off-Topic" on the intro page and there is a link to it.

 

Derek (PoetJester)

[Cherende]

Yes I was on 50mg consistently for he 7 years never tried any other medicine or anything. I didn't stop cold turkey ever but I think my liver enzymes were raised and not processing it so it was if I had. Next Wednesday I will have been off for 3 months. I tapered very slowly for 3 months and now have been off almost 90 days but still dealing with withdrawal such as anger and. Or honking clearly and bad thoughts and intrusive thoughts etc. Is there hope I will overcome this and it will go away? Or should I try a new medicine? I haven't felt myself since January when I took that antibiotic. Also does fish oil help? Does the depression eventually go away?

[Juninmoon]

Hi I'm new on here, I've taken Sertraline and my feet have gone blue? Anyone else had this?

[scallywag]

Junimoon,Please start an introduction topic for yourself. That will be the best place to answer your questions.
 
Tips on your introduction

Link to start a new topic for yourself in the Introductions and updates forum
 
Another request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-18 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to that can just be listed with start and stop years.
• Please provide actual dates or month & year rather than relative time-frames such as "3 months ago" or "last week"
• You don't need to include symptoms or diagnoses other than the initial condition that led to prescribing the first drug.
• We ask for this information in your signature so that we can see it at a glance. A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature
• If you are using a mobile phone, please look at the instructions in Post #8 and Post #9

[3003]

Do you remember the antibiotic you were given for the sinus infection?

 

I had the same issue happen with Augmentin and Zoloft.

[Lakelander82]

Zoloft really is really hard to come off, as are all the SSRIs I'm sure. I remember foolishly cutting my 50 mg in half and trying to ride it out for a week or two. It was simply too much, I was a dysfunctional wreck. I could barely hold a thought in my head for anymore than a few seconds, I was suffering "dead head" syndrome. Then embarking on my taper, 1st 10% cut no problem, the same with the second. I ran into problems with the third 10% cut but rid it out and on my fourth cut I had to reduce to a 5% cut which is just about on the very edge of what I can tolerate. I'm having to hold for 4 -5 weeks on each of those 5% cuts, it's really all I can handle.

Edited November 1, 2016 by ChessieCat
changed obscenity