ZoloftHater: Hi I'm Sean and I took zoloft for 4 weeks and stopped on October 31 and have been going through signs of withdrawal

[ZoloftHater]

I'm a freshman at UC Berkeley. I was prescribed Zoloft for normal anxiety. When I took Zoloft, it made me super irritable and gave me violent thoughts and I lost all of my energy and I stopped after 4 weeks. As I got mentally and felt more like my empathetic self, I noticed around December 20 by head started to jitter. And as more time passed and I got better mentally, my physical symptoms got worse and my muscles would start to shake. The last week I am 100% mentally better but physically I've been going through the most pain where my whole body hurts and all my joints hurt. I talked to my doctor and he said he doesn't know what is causing the physical pain and I'm convinced it's withdrawal from the Zoloft. He prescribed me with Gabapentin to help with the pain, but now I am hesitant and don't want to take it since apparently it changes serotonin levels. I feel like with time I'll get better with this physical pain and I've been dealing with it through Advil, Vitamin C, and magnesium to help the joint pain. I'm thankful I'm mentally better, but I just need to get better physically and I am trying to stay away from the Gabapentin and just be strong through the pain since the withdrawal will go away with time as I've seen with other stories on this website. 

[getofflex]

Hello Sean, and welcome to SA.  We are a volunteer-run community of people who have been or are getting off of psychiatric drugs.  You have come to the right place.  I'm glad to hear you are hesitant about taking the gabapentin - this drug would also eventually have to be slowly tapered off, and it could also cause you issues.  It sounds as though you had significant adverse effects from being on the drug.  But your nervous system became dependent upon it, and when you went off, you then had an improvement in your symptoms from the drug, but then experienced other symptoms of withdrawal.  (pain, jitteriness) 

 

Can you please give us specific information in your signature about your drug history for all drugs you are on and have been on, especially for the past 18-24 months?  It would be especially helpful to have the details of your drugs in a concise vertical list (no symptoms), only drug names, specific dates (as best you can say for example early March if you don't recall the day) and dosages of each medication decrease or increase.  Use this format:

 

Drug name: date, dose, date, dose, date, dose…

Drug name: date, dose, date, dose, date, dose…

Etcetera

 

Please read the link below for instructions.  This will allow us to give you the best guidance.  

 

How to List Drug History in Signature

 

Here is some information about how these drugs actually work.   This explains why we get symptoms from going off of these medications.

 

How Psychiatric Drugs Remodel Your Brain

 

 

This helps you understand what withdrawal syndrome is: 

 

Video on Recovery from Psych Drugs

 

Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

 

Here is a link with checklists of common WD symptoms: 

 

Dr Joseph Glenmullen Withdrawal Symptom Checklists

 

 

Here are some techniques to cope with symptoms: 

 

Non Drug Ways to Cope with Withdrawal Symptoms

 

 

We don't suggest many supplements, but 2 that many of us find helpful are magnesium and omega-3 fish oil. Here are the links for info about those. It is suggested to add one at a time, and start with a low dose to see how it affects you. 

Magnesium

Omega 3 Fish Oil

 

 The 2 options for dealing with withdrawal are 1) tough it out, and practice non drug coping skills or 2) reinstatement.  Even though you had adverse reaction (bad side effects) on a full dose, you may be able to tolerate a tiny reinstatement dose to help reduce the withdrawal symptoms.  However, there are risks to reinstatement.  If you reinstated, you would stabilize, then taper off this small dose gradually.  It is up to you what you choose to do.  Here is information about reinstatement: 

 

About Reinstating and Stabilizing to Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms

 

Please let us know what you decide to do, and let us know how you are doing.  

 

I've given you quite a bit of information here.  Please read through it, and mull it over, and we will take it from there. In the meantime, take care of yourself, and take heart.  We in this forum have been through this, and we understand first hand the pain and discomfort you are going through.  Please know that the brain is amazing in it's healing abilities.  It takes time, but healing can and will happen. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by getofflex

[ZoloftHater]

Does anyone know of any remedies for tremors that morph from my body (especially my legs) to my head in phases?

 

I've been in withdrawal from Zoloft since November and I only took the medication 3.5 weeks. I started to feel body tremors since February. I'm mentally feeling so much like myself after going through an entire personality change. I'm taking magnesium and vitamin C everyday, but is there anything to help with the tremors? More specifically, they come in the span of a few hours and every time i go through another phase of tremors, I feel mentally more like myself. I'm feeling more of my general energy but it's making it harder to deal with the tremors at the same time, making it more difficult to sleep. The tremors make me sweat abnormally and my head feels hotter. Does anyone know what causes the tremors? I'm not sure if it's akathisia. My body is always constantly sha king subtly but when it goes to my legs it gets really painful. Also when I visited a doctor, they suggested that nothing was wrong with me since my blood tests were fine, but I'm thinking of getting a brain scan to see what's wrong with my nervous system. I'm definitely not gonna take another medication, but I want to find out what specifically is wrong with my body. I'd greatly appreciate any kind of advice of any natural remedies. Everyone takes different supplements for withdrawal but I wanna know what would be best for me personally.

 

Would any of these be good?: "Omega 3, Probiotics with live strains of bacteria, Choline Bitartrate, Taurine, Magnesium Glycinate, Magnesium L-Threonate, Hops Flower, Green Tea Energy Complex with Matcha Green Tea, Sage Leaf Extract which will help diminish the sweating that occurs with SSRIi induced dysautonomia, Vitamin B Complex, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D3."

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by ChessieCat
added topic title before merging with intro topic

[ChessieCat]

On 6/10/2022 at 4:30 PM, ZoloftHater said:

I wanna know what would be best for me personally.

 

The only supplements that SA recommends are Magnesium and Omega-3 Fish Oil.

 

If you do decide to try a supplement it is better to only try a small amount, and only try one thing at a time; so you would not take a something which has more than one ingredient.

 

Other than these 2 supplements we are not able to suggest anything else.

 

You will need to do your own research and decide for yourself what might be worth trying.

 

There are many existing topics on SA including discussion on various supplements.  To find them use the site search function or use a search engine and add site:survivingantidepressants.org to the search term.

 

 

 

[ChessieCat]

immediate-adverse-reactions-to-an-antidepressant-or-within-a-few-doses-how-long-for-recovery

 

are-we-there-yet-how-long-is-withdrawal-going-to-take