SlowandSteady

[SlowandSteady]

I started Zoloft 25 me 8 days ago. It made me feel uncomfortably fatigued, loss of appetite and insomnia. I felt like i was sensitive to it. The doctor told me today I could and should stop taking it altogether because it should not be making me feel that badly. I've been through withdrawals before and tapered slowly.

This situation makes me want off it altogether and not take another bit if it. Tonight I took 1/4 mg lo raze Pam to calm anxiety.

I ask for anyone to offer me their expert opinion or advice here. I'm off work from exhaustion and I don't want to stress my system but at the same time I want this zoloft out of my body.

Thanks
!

Edited May 27, 2017 by scallywag
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[nz11]

Hi Slowandsteady,

So glad you found sa

If you don't mind me asking what was the reason you starting on zoloft 8 days ago?

You say you have been through wdl before, what is the extent of your previous drug use?

Are you able to do a drug sig. That will help the moderators.

nz11

[SlowandSteady]

I started the zoloft due to anxiety. I have been having a lot insomnia and anxiety and subsequemtwork stress since lat September 2016. So 5 weeks ago I was admitted to hospital overnight for a very high heart rate that to 20 hours to settle. The doctors in emerg determined that I was burned out and needed sleep and rest. I was prescribed sleeping pills and lorazepam to help settle my overactive nervous system and told to dollop up with my family doctor.

 

The family doctor was very insistent in start zoloft. So after 4 weeks of resting I caved and actually convinced myself I needed it so I started taking it. It gave me side effects of loss of appetite, insomnia and fatigue. But it calmed my brain. By day 8 the fatigue and other side effects were unbearable so I went to a clinic and the doctor there encouraged me to just stop. He thought it shouldnt be this bad now especially on 25 mg

 

Past: Cymbalta 30 mg for 6 months 2014. Took 18 months to wean by counting grains and sensitivity to discontinuation.(Summer 2016)

 

1996 to 2013 took Zoloft off and on for most of these years at 50 mg. Stayed on because I didn't know how to stop. Then weaned 2013.

[nz11]

 Stayed on because I didn't know how to stop.

I think in one sentence you have summed up my story and everyone else's.

 

It is truely disgusting that the medical profession has been so clueless regarding the nature of the drugs they push.

 

I am so sorry you are in this position through no fault of your own.

 

You are going to have to make a massive change in thinking (doctors medicines are safe ) to another way of thinking (doctors so called medicines are highly potent brain altering addictive chemicals and anything but safe.)

 

I have been having a lot insomnia and anxiety and subsequent work stress

Did you know that insomnia, anxiety and intolerance to stress are classic withdrawal symptoms?

Did you know that wdl symptoms can be delayed for  months ?

 

I know you tapered off zoloft over a year in 2013. And i know that would appear to be a slow taper however 17 yrs  taper may well prove and does that one yr taper is far too fast. 

SA recommends tapering at no faster than 10% of the previous dose every 4 weeks. (At this speed it would take 3 years to go from 50mg to 1mg at a rate of 10%. Many here are going to less than 1mg when they jump off and tapering at an even lower rate than 10%)

In 2013 at what dose did you jump off at?

 

This is information on tapering zoloft.

Tips for tapering off Zoloft (sertraline)

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

It would be my guess that in 2014 you started to suffer zoloft wdl symptoms

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen's withdrawal symptom checklist

 

Then went to the doctor to get answers and left with a prescription for cymbalta.

You havent said how you tapered cymbalta.

(By the way i detest this word 'weaned' ive heard this used in my local community by others and it sends a shiver up my back,  its just another pharma word use that tries to hide/soften or play down the dirty little secret of the dreadful difficulty in getting off these addictive drugs.)

 

You then tapered this over 18 months (finishing in approx august 2016?)but havent told us anything more specific than you counted beads. I wonder what dose you jumped off at, anyways again you have tapered too fast. And once again got hit by symptoms of abstinence, symptoms of withdrawal that mimic pretty much every form of psychological distress.  This may be why you said: "I have been having a lot insomnia and anxiety and subsequemtwork stress since lat September 2016."

It seems to me that it could well be that the recent admission to hospital due to work stress would be more correctly interpreted as work stress triggered an intensification of withdraw symptoms severe enough to produce a visit to the hospital. You are not alone.

 

Did you know that wdl symptoms can go on for many many months even years. If this wasnt infuriating enough we are then faced with  doctors who refuse to acknowledge this.

 

Are you able to get the book by R Whitaker 'Anatomy of an epidemic' ? It is highly recommended.

 

As you have discovered going on and off these drugs has left your cns in a highly strung state.

Are you able to refrain from taking the benzo and sleeping pills. As Breggin says "it is best to avoid adding new psychoactive substances (drugs or natural remedies) to the wdl process"

 

Many here are using non-drug strategies to survive while the brain repairs itself from this iatrogenic brain injury.

 

Going to a doctor for help or answers has one very predictable outcome....drugs.

[SlowandSteady]

NZ11 thank you SO much for your knowledgeable and insightful response to my situation. I feel like you have hit the nail on the head. My 'burnout' in 2014 came precisely on the heels of going of Zoloft. For 6 weeks I could barely move from couch to the bathroom. I had panic attacks just turning on the shower. I was in rough shape. Went on Cymbalta and about 2 months after getting off the long term Zoloft. It stopped panic but I was still exhausted all the time and really wanted off all medication for good.

 

6 months on Cymbalta 30mg (low dose but strong for me) I attempted to get off that. I found out the only way was to break open the capsules and count the balls. I could only do a few at a time and went from 282 balls to 0 in the 18 months.

 

Still suffering from fatigue but managing to work and that was it. Low and behold a couple months later the insomnia hit and went on with anxiety and stress from September 2016 to March 2017 when my system finally broke and my heart rate incident in hospital.

 

I've been off work again now for about 5 weeks. I've set in place CBT with a psychologist and a social worker who is teaching me various mindfulness and breathing and visualization strategies to work through anxiety and hopefully help me develop new neural pathways.

 

My problem is my doctor. I've been in to see him 3 timeso in the past year about my exhaustion and he keeps pushing the AD. I have resisted. He thinks my fatigue is from depression. I disagree. I am with you on that my body truly is tired from working and healing.

 

In going to my doctor to ask him provide me with a medical note for a leave of absence from work I did feel compelled to take the damn zoloft so he wouldn't consider me non compliant and give me a hard time about signing me off for time off.

 

I feel I need a long time to rest my nervous system and heal and incorporate daily mindfulness and yoga and things like that. However I'm not sure how long long I can be off work and doctors need to acknowledge an appropriate treatment plan and write the note. My doctor only sees I'm tired so I must be depressed and need a pill.

 

After going against my inner voice and take great this last zoloft for 8 days I will never embark on another medication like that again. I'll use benzo 1/4 mg maximum per day over the next few days until this zoloft is out of my system. Then I'll go from there.

 

I don't yet know what my plan is other than what I have in place.

 

Thank you so very much for your response! I have been feeling alone and like no one understands...not the medical profession...even friends and boyfriend...they don't get it. I can't expect them to but it has left me feeling alone.

[mammaP]

I started the zoloft due to anxiety. I have been having a lot insomnia and anxiety and subsequemtwork stress since lat September 2016. So 5 weeks ago I was admitted to hospital overnight for a very high heart rate that to 20 hours to settle. The doctors in emerg determined that I was burned out and needed sleep and rest. I was prescribed sleeping pills and lorazepam to help settle my overactive nervous system and told to dollop up with my family doctor.

 

The family doctor was very insistent in start zoloft. So after 4 weeks of resting I caved and actually convinced myself I needed it so I started taking it. It gave me side effects of loss of appetite, insomnia and fatigue. But it calmed my brain. By day 8 the fatigue and other side effects were unbearable so I went to a clinic and the doctor there encouraged me to just stop. He thought it shouldnt be this bad now especially on 25 mg

 

Past: Cymbalta 30 mg for 6 months 2014. Took 18 months to wean by counting grains and sensitivity to discontinuation.(Summer 2016)

 

1996 to 2013 took Zoloft off and on for most of these years at 50 mg. Stayed on because I didn't know how to stop. Then weaned 2013.

Hi S&S, how are you now?  I am really glad that your doctor didn't have you continue with the zoloft, they usually tell people to push through the side effects to get used to it, when the body is telling you that it is not right. Reading your history it does appear that you have been suffering from withdrawal from the previous zoloft and cymbalta. It is common for some people to be hit with withdrawal months after stopping. When someone has taken many drugs then suffered withdrawal the nervous system becomes very sensitive to them and can react badly to a drug that was fine before. 

 

can you tell us about the sleeping pills and lorazepam? Are you still taking them? It is possible that you are suffering from withdrawal from those too.

 

It will help if you can put your drug history in your signature, just the basics, the drugs and when they were started and tapered. What you are currently taking.

 

http://survivinganti...your-signature/