Blossom71: wanting to be sertraline free

[Blossom71]

Hi folks

 

i found this site quite by chance when I was trying to find some information about reducing doses.

 

Ive been on 150mg sertraline for about 5 1/2 years. I started on 50mg after becoming paralysed by anxiety after a few traumatic events over a few years. I started on 50mg but quickly stepped up the dose for what I realise now were probably side effects.

 

Recently I had 2 weeks off due to me being crap at ordering my prescription and there been a mix up at the chemist. 

 

i didn’t  intend coming off them but when I went back on the 150mg then the numbness that had lifted during the 2 weeks off was back, and I now realise that the numbness and apathy that comes from being on them is preventing me moving forward in my recovery from anxiety.

 

So after a couple of days I dropped to 100mg and that’s what I’ve been on for the last 3 weeks. I’m planning on sticking at this dose for a bit until my withdrawal symptoms settle and then I’m hoping to drop down slowly.

 

There are some amazing people with inspirational stories here, and I’m looking forward to being drug free!   B.

[Shep]

Hi, Blossom.

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants.

 

Here is some information to get you started:

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms 

 

Tips for tapering off Zoloft (sertraline)

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

 

Healing from antidepressants. Patterns of recovery video (4 minutes)

 

How psychiatric drugs remodel your brain

 

You may find some helpful information to handle your symptoms here: 

 

Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements, as many members report their nervous systems are simply too fragile to handle them. However, magnesium and fish oil tend to be calming to the nervous system and many people report they do help. Please only add in one supplement at a time and at a small dose. For more, please see:

 

 King of supplements: Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil)

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker

 

Some questions:

 

• How did you feel when you reinstated to 100 mg?
• Since you were previously on 150 mg, do you feel that 100 mg is enough? 
• Are you taking any other drugs or any supplements? If so, please list them in your signature. 

 

Please continue to use this thread to document your taper and to ask questions. 

[Blossom71]

Hi Shep

 

Thanks for the links. I’ve read most of them but there’s a few of them that I haven’t, so will read those.

 

In some ways I feel better on the 100mg but in some ways worse. 

 

Pros: I feel less numb and more motivated. I’m feeling more.

cons: my hips hurt, my ears are ringing, fluttery feeling in my stomach and I just feel really down and flat.

 

So at the moment the pros and cons are balancing themselves out.  I plan on sticking where I am for a while until I feel that I’ve levelled out and then I’ll be starting to do the 10% tapers

[Blossom71]

Hi folks

 

After reading more of the threads here I have come across many of you that have had problems with vitamin B. I take vitamin B complex as I struggle to keep my folic acid levels up. 

Im wondering whether to stop taking it for the time being until my WD symptoms settle and then reintroduce and see what happens?

 

i am planning to get some fish oils and magnesium so maybe I should just stick with those for the time being?

 

any thoughts welcome!

 

[Gridley]

21 minutes ago, Blossom71 said:

 

After reading more of the threads here I have come across many of you that have had problems with vitamin B.

 

In withdrawal vitamin B can be overstimulating.

 

Hypersensitive to B Vitamin or B-Complex  

 

Try getting your folic acid from food.

15 Healthy Foods That Are High in Folate (Folic Acid) - Healthline

Re the magnesium, magnesium glycinate is a good form.

 

 

[Blossom71]

Hi folks,

 

All in all a pretty good week. 

The majority of how I was feeling last week have subsided and I am just left with a bit of tinnitus and my hands feeling like they are vibrating a bit.

My focus and motivation have improved this week and are better that they’ve been in ages. 

 

Im thinking that I’d like to try dropping by 10% from 100mg to 90mg but to be honest I’m scared.  I’m worried that i won’t be able to tell the difference between WD and relapse even though I’ve read the threads etc.  I am petrified that I’m going to crash and burn, which is why I ended up on these bloody things in the first place. It was such a horrific time and am scared of going back there.

 

Can you please hold me hand while I take the plunge?

[ChessieCat]

You made a 33% reduction in May (please add the dates to your drug signature for this year).  But at the very most it's only been 6 weeks on 100mg sertraline and that was after being off completely for 2 weeks.  A 33% reduction is more than 3 reductions of 10%.

 

It may take several months before you are stable enough to reduce again.

 

You don't have to reduce by 10%.  You can always make a smaller reduction.  After reinstating/big reduction is may be a good idea to do a test reduction after a few months to see how the reduction affects you.  You could try any amount that is less than 10% of the current dose.  If things go okay with the test reduction you could then try a larger reduction.

[Blossom71]

Thanks for your reply Chessiecat.

 

so would you recommend I stay where I am for a while then?

 

Edited June 14, 2019 by ChessieCat
removed quote

[ChessieCat]

Please add the dates to your drug signature:

 

April 2019 no meds for 2 weeks

May 2019 150mg for 3 days then 100mg since then

 

I reduced my Pristiq from 100mg to 50mg for 2 weeks and then found SA.  I updosed to 75mg.  After 2 months on 75mg I tried to do a 10% reduction (from 75mg to 67.5mg) and got very painful ears as a withdrawal symptom.  When I updosed (to 70mg) the pain went away.  I had tried to reduce too soon.

 

It is better to start from a stable place than to risk reducing too soon.  Realistically I think it would be better to be on 100mg for a minimum of 3 months before making a reduction.

 

 

[Blossom71]

Sorry, I’ve edited my signature with the data not 100% sure that they are correct but they’re close.

 

Off meds:

Severe hip pain, squishing ears and mild feelings of having cystitis but I felt brighter, happier and felt less numb.

 

back on 150mg:

All symptoms reduced significantly but the numbness returned and felt a bit wired.

 

Dropped to 100mg then found SA.

All symptoms have reduced gradually and just have a little tinnitus and my hands feel like they’re ever so slightly buzzing. I am more alert and motivated and my concentration is better than it has been in a long time. I also feel positive which is a feeling I’d forgotten was even possible 

[Blossom71]

  

 Hi folks,

 

it’s a while since I’ve been in here and since then I have managed to drop to 50mg sertraline from 150mg. 

 

The first time I dropped 33% was not long after I’d missed a week of meds and went immediately back into 150mg, then dropped to 100mg.  That was where I was at the last time I was here. I didn’t tolerate that well. It started great then the WD symptoms kicked in after a few weeks -  hip joints painful, a weird disconnect between my body and brain that made me really disoriented, and tremors - so I went back up to 125mg and after a few days everything normalised. 

 

I did bigger drops than the recommended 10% and they were mostly tolerated well but I’ve leaned that a drop of 33% is definitely too much. (I bumped my car into the gatepost on both those occasions because of the wierd disconnect between my brain and body! 🙄)

 

150-100 = 33%

125-100 = 16.6%

100-75 = 25%

75-50 = 33%

 

So I’ve been at 50mg now and have held here for a while to make sure I’m stable (and also because the pandemic was particularly stressful for us as a family and I didn’t feel like a good time to make any more changes!) So now I’m Looking at options for reducing again.

 

As my body has tolerated 25% drop with relatively minor WD symptoms I was wondering:

 

Does it follow that a 25% would still likely to be tolerated as the dose gets smaller or doesn’t that follow?

 

Also:

 

As I can only get Lustral in 50mg tablets, would you recommend cutting the tablets down or would I be better trying to get Lustral liquid?   Reading threads it seems that there is a difference between tablets and liquid, but as I go down it feels like it will be more difficult to cut the tablets down and get accurate doses. Any thoughts would be most welcome.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by ChessieCat
Resized font

[ChessieCat]

My suggestion would be to slow down and taper by no more than 10% and hold for at least 4 weeks from now on.

 

See:

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

Basically it is because you were taking a high dose of the drug.  When I was taking 100mg Pristiq I had very few issues reducing to 75mg because I was  overdrugged. 

 

I will try to explain using an example of starting at 10mg of a drug.  These %s are not factual just for demonstration.  If you double the dose to 20mg, you might only get a 75% increase of the drug, not the full 100% increase.  If you triple the dose to 30mg you might get a 50% increase, and if you quadruple the drug to 40mg you might only get an increase of 25%.

 

See:

 

Why taper paper: dose-occupancy curves

 

So even though you had only minor issues reducing the higher doses by larger than 10% reductions, and you have been very fortunate to be able to reduce your drug quickly, that does not mean that you will be able to continue fast tapering.  From what I have seen from the experience of many other SA members, continuing to taper by more than 10% there is a strong possibility that you will bring on bad withdrawal symptoms.

 

The idea of tapering is to reduce the drug by a small amount and allow the brain to adapt to not getting as much of the drug, sneaking it away, so that we only get minimal withdrawal symptoms, if any, and we can live our life as normally as possible.

 

It is has nothing to do with how strong or determined we are as a person.  It is the brain which dictates how fast we can go.

 

It is possible to make your own liquid.  See Post #1 of this topic:

 

Tips for tapering off sertraline (Zoloft)

 

And I understand that you probably want to get off the drug as quickly as possible.  I did too.  It took me 6 years to get off Pristiq, but I have done it successfully and only had minor issues, other than the initial issues right at the start which is when I found SA.

[Blossom71]

Thank you so much for the info ChessieCat.   I’ll read again to digest it more, but makes sense.

 

10% it is then.  I have no time frame for getting off them so I’m happy to be cautious. 

 

I’ll ring the docs and see if I can get an appointment to ask about liquid lustral. In the meantime I will shave some off the tablets and weigh them- I already have scales to do that.

Thanks again. 

[ChessieCat]

Making your own liquid is more accurate.

 

Did you read Post #1 of the Tips for Tapering topic?  There is a link there to the make your own liquid topic.

 

It's important to be able to continue to get a doctor to write the prescription for the rest of your taper.  If you think they might not support you tapering then you might decide not to tell them and make your own liquid.  We have SA members whose doctors think they are still taking the "full" dose.

 

The reason this site and other like it exist is because the majority of the medical profession do not know how to get people off their psychiatric drug/s safely.

 

how-to-talk-to-a-doctor-about-tapering-and-withdrawal-what-to-expect

 

[Blossom71]

I did think I would t tell the docs. I absolutely know that the doc who put me on them the first time wont be supportive. he wasn’t supportive of me coming off them ever. He said “why would you want to stop taking it. If you had an prosthetic leg you wouldn’t just decide to stop wearing it”  🙄

 

And I could see another doctor, but I’d rather do it my way than have to fight to be honest.

 

I’ll go through the post about making my own liquid tomorrow when I’m less tired and can make sense of it.

 

thanks again

[ChessieCat]

You are welcome.  I am glad that I mentioned it.  I was fortunate that my doctor was okay about me handling my own taper and would write a prescription for what I needed.  However, there are some SA members who have had issues with their doctors and had to do fast tapers or try to find another doctor, which isn't always easy/possible.

 

If there is anything you don't understand, ask.

 

From my counsellor (couldn't prescribe) I got the "you need to take an antidepressant for life like a diabetic needs insulin". And that was only in about 2013.  Chemical imbalance, which was a theory, was debunked many decades ago.

[Blossom71]

Hi folks,

 

I've been preparing to start my 10% drop so today I have:

• Created a spreadsheet and calculated my doses for a 10% drop (I know there are lots of other peoples spreadsheets on this site but wanted to go through and create it myself to make sure i fully understood the calculations).   I've calculated for the next 2 years, and if all does to plan that will get me down to 4mg.
• Weighed a few tablets to get an average weight per tablet.
• Cut down 28 days worth of tablets to 45mg
• Cut 23 tablets down to 36.5mg.   I wasn't intending on doing this but i shaved to much off some of them so i just cut them to the next size down.  I still ended up with a little pot of even smaller ones  🙄 but I'll use them up in later months.
• Been to the chemist and got Omega 3, Magnesium and vitamin E and have taken one of each.
• Read through a ton of links and the links ChessieCat sent.

 

I take my sertraline on a night before bed*, so i will be taking my first lower dose tonight!   I'm going to keep a diary of how I'm feeling and my symptoms so I can keep a track of any patterns etc.

 

I had a pretty rotten nights sleep last night. I think a mixture of it being my first day back at work after Christmas and al the info i had read on here yesterday running around my mind. I think I'm also pretty excited to have a plan and to be moving forward.

 

*I know they are not supposed to be taken on a night but if i take them on a morning as 1) They upset my stomach more on a morning, 2) I wake up jittery in the mornings almost like withdrawal before i take my next dose and then feel wired for a couple of hours after, 3) My sleep has been rubbish since i started taking them anyway and the time of day I take them doesn't seem have any additional effect on sleep  4) I never forget to take them if i take them on a night.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Blossom71
missed a line

[ChessieCat]

9 hours ago, Blossom71 said:

Been to the chemist and got Omega 3, Magnesium and vitamin E and have taken one of each.

 

SA recommends only trying one thing at a time, making one change at a time and to start with a small dose.

 

the-rule-of-3kis-keep-it-simple-keep-it-slow-keep-it-stable

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by ChessieCat

[Blossom71]

Ah, funnily enough ChessieCat I realised this evening  after doing more reading that starting take the supplements wasn’t the best idea. I am a software tester so I KNOW not to add more than 1 variable at a time, but I got ahead of myself.  I won’t be taking them again until I see how things go with the drop. 
Thanks for keeping me in check! 😀

[ChessieCat]

12 minutes ago, Blossom71 said:

I am a software tester so I KNOW not to add more than 1 variable at a time, but I got ahead of myself.

 

I did the same thing adding both omega 3 and magnesium at the same time and ended up with a backache.  I had to stop both, wait then re-start one at a time.  Even after that I was not sure what caused the backache.  However I recently tried to increase my omega 3 and got backache!

 

And do NOT make a reduction at the same time as trying something new.

[Blossom71]

Sooooo, I’ve been reading more threads and saw threads where people mentioned tapering off omeprazole, then did more searching and found this:

 

I was given Omeprazole as sertraline was giving me stomach problems. Well the branded Lustral ones didn’t to start with, but they gave me some generics in probably around 2016 that played havoc with me. I was being sick and dizzy and my blood pressure went through the roof. They put me back on the branded sertraline and everything else resolved but the stomach problems didn’t go away, so they prescribed omeprazole.
 

(In fairness my stomach had already become pretty sensitive to meds after 20 doses of antibiotics in 18 months for constant tonsillitis - which ended when I had them removed in 2004)

 

It’s interesting as I’ve struggled to keep my B vitamin levels up so I guess these won’t be bloody helping!!!  I was also planning on stopping taking my vit B supplements whilst tapering down but not sure that’s a good idea now. 

 

Im wondering whether to add vit B back in, and continue with omeprazole until I get a better idea of how the sertraline taper is going. And I could maybe hold the sertraline taper at some point if things are going ok and start tapering omeprazole?
 

any thoughts anyone?

 

Thanks in advance. 

[Sunnylight]

Hi @Blossom71 thank you so much for stopping by at my page and supporting me, that's very kind. I see you are about to taper further from Sertraline and I wish you all the best with that. I wish I would have known more about tapering and this site when I started my taper. I would have tapered much slower, with more tiny steps and never would have jumped from the last 6mg. The first step I noticed nothing from (70-50mg) but that's probably because it was to much for me. Again, good luck and I will check in every now and then to follow your journey 🙂

[Blossom71]

Thanks @Sunnylight for dropping by, that’s really nice of you. 

 

I noticed 75-50 as it was a 33% drop and my body really felt it.

i did come on here 2 1/2 years ago but to be honest I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the information. But I am fortunate to have found it and remembered it as at least it meant that I was aware of the issues with coming off these drugs, so I could try and do it it safely.  
I feel so sorry for the people here that didn’t get the information that it was too late.

 

I’ll keep dropping by your thread to see how you’re doing, but in the meantime take care x

 

 

[Blossom71]

Hi folks,

 

Today is day 6 after my 10% drop and it’s going pretty well so far.

 

Day 2 and 3 were the worst, the main symptoms being: tremors, internal buzzing, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, irritability and a whopping headache but they have pretty much cleared.

The positives have been:  increased ability to focus, feeling things more.

 

I am struggling a bit to get off to sleep so am going to make some changes around my bedtime routine to try and help this. I also still have some stomach acid but I’ve also been improving my eating habits after the excesses of Christmas so I expect this to resolve soon.

 

I'm keeping a more detailed log of my symptoms so I can see any patterns over time. I’ll be sticking where I am until the end of January now.

 

[Blossom71]

Today is Day 10 of 45mg. The last 3 days have been a bit trickier but still manageable.

 

I am ranking the day out of ten with 1 being the worst I've ever felt and 10 being perfect.

I tried to do a more scientific approach ranking individual symptoms then taking an average, but I stopped doing that as some side effects are more severe than others, but bother me less.  Also, i wasn't finding having so much focus on my symptoms helpful, so I've tried to find a happy balance.

 

My rankings so far are:

Day 1 - 5:  Mild buzzing, floor moving, acid stomach, mild tinnitus

Day 2 - 4  Mild buzzing, slight tremors, acid stomach, moderate tinnitus, moderate headache

Day 3 - 5  Mild buzzing, slight tremors, acid stomach, mild tinnitus, mild headache

Day 4 - 6  Mild buzzing, irritable, acid stomach, mild tinnitus

Day 5 - 6  Mild buzzing, irritable, acid stomach, mild tinnitus

Day 6 - 8  Mild buzzing, mild tinnitus, felt pretty normal

Day 7 - 8  Mild buzzing, mild tinnitus, felt pretty normal

Day 8 - 6  Moderate buzzing, tightness in chest, mild anxiety

Day 9 - 4 Moderate buzzing, tightness in chest, moderate anxiety 

Day 10 - 6  Moderate buzzing, tightness in chest, mild anxiety.  Walk at lunchtime helped this down.

 

Symptoms tend to increase as the days go on but calm a bit later in the evening.

 

I'm definitely grinding my teeth more (which has only been the case since i started on sertraline), so at my appointment the dentist at the end of Jan the dentist is making me some sort of device that will fit over my teeth to help with that. Should save my teeth a bit and help with headaches and neck tension etc!!!

[DeterminedAnna]

Hey Blossom, thank you for saying hello and following me here!

This site has been the most beneficial thing that's happened to my health and I am really glad you found it – but like you I have long spells where I'm not here at all – I find I have to distract myself from thinking about tapering and withdrawal because the whole subject and seeing others' suffering is distressing – and reading about the harmful behaviour of some doctors is infuriating. So I completely understand your remarks above about tracking symptoms – for me there's a fine line between monitoring what's happening and becoming fixated.

As you'll have seen, I've been tapering from Seroxat (paroxetine) since 2018. (Well, I tried to get off it a few times before that, having started it in the early 2000s). I had to pause tapering for the whole of 2019 and first half of 2020 because withdrawal symptoms were so severe in early 2019. I then restarted tapering in June 2020 and again had to stop last March. I've learned a lot of (painful) lessons through this process, but also like you, as my dose has got lower I have had the lovely revelation of feeling less numb. For me, that means I've become more motivated, I procrastinate less, and I get spine tingles at music again, to name a few things.

It's great you've already been recording the benefits of reducing your dose alongside the symptoms. It's really important to celebrate the positives as you go, however small they are. I'm late to the party, but having looked back at my notes, something that's dawned on me is that symptoms can be cumulative. So for my next taper, if I feel things are getting worse, then that's my warning sign to stop tapering. Previously, I wrote off symptoms of things like random diarrhoea as something I'd eaten, and stuck to my schedule come what may. But in hindsight, I realise those were the signs that my body was becoming troubled. It has then all caught up with me and I've had a severe crash of withdrawal symptoms. So I now wish I'd gone slower, with longer holds between reductions. That's not to say you need to go slower – I have been on Seroxat for 20 years now so I think that's a factor – it's just to say be prepared to hold if you get an inkling something's not right.

Like you, I have my own spreadsheet (yes, I also have to see the calculations myself to understand how it works), and for the next phase of my tapering, I've created a simple daily tracker of my most distinctive withdrawal symptoms. If I see the numbers repeatedly going down, then that'll be my warning sign to stop tapering. 

I have also been grinding my teeth due to Seroxat – mainly the first few months of starting, and in recent years when withdrawal symptoms flare up. It was my dentist (who knows nothing about me being on Seroxat) who alerted me to it when I had an appointment during a withdrawal episode. Turns out I was doing it in my sleep – my partner had heard the sounds but didn't want to wake me. I'm sure it's a factor in my morning neck and head aches. Glad your dentist is helping – but keep in mind, too, you can get a cheap mouth guard from Amazon that you can put in hot water to mould to your teeth. It worked well for me, as did a hot water bottle around my neck.

Another thing (and I hope it's ok I'm braindumping here and sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs!) that I've found through tapering is that is has helped me to take better care of myself. Walking has been a great help, as has swimming. I've also learned that crying (which I couldn't do at all on a big dose of Seroxat) is a good thing – it's a way the body releases stress hormones. To put that into context: a few years after starting Seroxat I was asking (again) for help to get off it, complaining about feeling like a zombie, a psychiatrist said "well, you're not crying any more, so it is helping." I look back at that and realise there is something wholly wrong about such a view. Learning to cry again and realise I feel much better after a cry has made me wonder why we as a society see crying as so problematic.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few things that hopefully help you to know you're far from alone in what you are experiencing and what you are doing. And I wanted to say thanks for dropping by – and that getting off is hard – there's no sugar coating it – but so worth it. x

PS. Magnesium helps me with anxiety/agitation symptoms, especially magnesium oil you spray on your skin. But as ChessieCat and software testers say, only change one variable at a time!

 

[Blossom71]

Hi @DeterminedAnna

 

Thank you so much for stopping by. Its great to meet you and am giving you a wave from Leeds 👋

Also, thank you so much for spending the time writing the long post sharing your hints and tips.  Your post will be a really good to go back to in times when it's hard to see the woods for the trees and i need reminding of the basics.

 

I know the road will probably be bumpy but at least now I feel like I'm in a good place, so prepared to roll with whatever comes my way.  I made a lot of changes to my lifestyle last year and i feel stronger and healthier than i have in a while so I feel like that's going to stand me in good stead as i move forwards. That includes better self care which i think is absolutely crucial.  I guess doing that was the start of me wanting to be in charge of my own destiny.  I (like most people here) have felt like a passenger in my own life since I started on these meds, and I need it to change.  But I'm not in a hurry. 

 

When I found this site the first time I was pretty overwhelmed with all the information so i think that's part of why I disappeared for a while. I think I needed to come to terms with the fact that this was going to be a long haul.  But I've been on these meds around 8 years now without any improvement really, other than numbing my initial crippling anxiety for long enough for me to work through it to be able to function again.   So if it takes a few years then that's fine.   At least I'm taking charge of my own health and wellbeing and that matters to me.

 

Thanks again for dropping by Anna, and I'll be cheering you on as you carry on your journey x

 

[Blossom71]

So its 2 weeks since i did my first 10% drop

 

Things are going well i think.  Pretty much the same each day symptom-wise and the only thing i have is some internal buzzing.   I have had palpitations that were coming and going but i realised i wasn't breathing properly and was breathing from my chest rather than my diaphragm so it was giving me palpitations and making me feel a bit panicky.   So i have been taking time to correct my breathing periodically  and it keeps this at bay.   It's just weird how I've forgotten how to breathe properly since i made the cut 😃

 

I have been feeling more emotional today and I'm grieving the loss of the girl i was before my trauma and meds.

[ChessieCat]

7 hours ago, Blossom71 said:

 It's just weird how I've forgotten how to breathe properly since i made the cut 

 

I have the same issue, but not related to withdrawal but to my back and knee issues.  I have noticed that when I experience discomfort (happens regularly) or pain (thankfully not too often) I have to start mentally coping with the issue and I don't breathe as normally.

[Blossom71]

Yesterday I had a lunchtime chat with hubby while i sobbed. I tried to explain  how I felt like I’d been smashed to pieces by my trauma and the meds and will be forever broken.

 

He said “you were broken but you put yourself back together, but you probably won’t be the same as before you were broken because life and experiences change us”

 

He reminded me of the Japanese art of kintsugi. if you’re not familiar here’s an article that explains it.

Nothing is ever truly broken - that's the philosophy behind the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, which repairs smashed pottery by using beautiful seams of gold.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/326qTYw26156P9k92v8zr3C/broken-a-pot-copy-the-japanese-and-fix-it-with-gold

 

He’s right. Different isn’t necessarily less beautiful.

[Rrsfc]

Hello @Blossom71 ☺️, thank you for leaving such a beautiful and encouraging comment on my thread. I hope your withdrawal symptoms get better and everything turns out well for you. I have years of my life I am never getting back because of all the meds I took, but we have to try to make the most of the ones se still have... It's hard to accomplish, but it's the only way to move forward, otherwise we get stuck. Learning to be truly grateful for what I have on my life today and not focusing on the past or on the future was very important on my Journey. I really enjoyed the book "Self-compassion", by Kristin Neff, maybe you find it also helpful... 😘

[Blossom71]

Thanks for stopping by @Rrsfcand for the encouragement.  
 

Reading your thread made me feel really optimistic, that I can come through this, and grow during my journey. 
Thanks for the book recommendation, I’ve just added it to my Amazon basket!

I hope things carry on moving in the right direction and I wish you well  xx

[Blossom71]

It’s 3 weeks since I did my first 10% drop and I’m doing pretty well.

 

Last week was pretty stressful but I managed it ok, then on Friday I fell asleep at 6.30pm, slept 13 hours and woke up on Saturday like a brand new person!

So for the last 4 days to focus and concentrate really well, I’ve been more productive, the buzzing has either gone or it’s so feint I don’t notice it.

 

I am still having very slight palpitations after lunch but I can forget them and move on.  On Monday and yesterday I tried 50mg magnesium at lunchtime to see if it helped with the slight jitters and it seemed to - without any detrimental effects - so I will take that every day.

 

I prepared my meds for the next drop so all being well I will start that in a weeks time.

[Rrsfc]

I'm glad you are doing well ☺️. Hope you continue to do so! 

[Blossom71]

Thanks @Rrsfc 😘

 

Btw, I managed to get the book you recommended on Kindle for 99p!

looking forward for some time to start reading it!

[Rrsfc]

That's great news! That book really helped me dive within myself and learn how to give myself Self-compassion. It was a milestome in my Journey. I love the author's voices, she is so soothing. If you like the book try to search the NET for videos of the author to get more in touch with her energy. I also love her loving kindness meditation, very Simple yet effective. It's on her website I believe... Hope you enjoy the book, let me know what you think. 😘