Coming off Sertraline....is this normal or a sign I shouldn't fully come off it?

[LoudestRoar]

I've been on Sertraline for the past 4 years for anxiety. Increased dosage over Covid due to the situation ramping up my symptoms. I'm now in a good place, and looking to withdraw completely, with the help of the GP.
I've decreased from 100mg to 50mg over 4 weeks. Next stage is taking 50 mg alternate days for 2 weeks, and then I'll hopefully be off it.
The 4 week period was fine. I've been doing the next stage over the past week, and have had a few anxiety blips...(Calling them blips as they aren't full blown and making me fixate for days, but I can tell they're having an affect on me).
If anyone has come off Sertraline, is this a normal part of the process? Thank you.

Hubby came off recently after about a year on 100mg. I think he did similar to your regime he had brain zaps not anxiety issues. He had a wobble after a time back off them thinking he'd made a mistake but he stayed off them and now only has the odd down day. Everyone's individual so no two ppl experience the same. It can be done I'd say persevere and do it carefully and under GP supervision. Good luck 🤞

I’ve come off it before and would taper more slowly for the final 50 and wait a bit before taking that step. Give yourself some time to stabilise on 50. In my experience the “coming off” is much worse than the “being off”. Hope it goes well. I’m tapering off in the same way and hating it! Have decided to stick at 50 for a fortnight more.

Personally I think you are planning to come off it too quickly. I recently stopped taking Sertraline and went from 100mg to 50mg relatively quickly but then took probably about 18 months to go from 50mg to stopping taking it. I went for a drop one a week and stay at that level for about 6 - 8 weeks and then drop another one etc until I was having about one a week and then stopped a couple of months ago.

I do get some anxiety feelings but I know I always will sometimes and so far it’s going all right.

I think I do tend to come off ADs more slowly than most people but when I’ve done it more quickly I’ve needed to be on them again soon afterwards which is a bit frustrating.

It’s really hard. Take advice from your GP. Slowly makes it more manageable. There are no prizes for how quickly you can do it and it’s better to do it in a way that you can best cope with. I was far too keen to get off it quickly and it was super tough. Slow and steady would have been so much more sensible.

I would think about slowing down your taper, my GP advised going from 50 every day to 50-25-50 and so on for a month
then 50-25-25-50 for a month then 25-0-25 for a month, 25-0-0-25 etc. I’m not sure if that makes any sense!

I only actually got to the 25-0-25 stage and then had to go back up but that was because of an external unexpected event that I needed help to manage. I’d managed to that point with very minimal withdrawal steps.

Thank you all. It was the GP who suggested this taper schedule, but I may keep on the 50mg for a while longer. Anxiety sucks!

This is the sensible approach that I wish I’d done. Be absolutely sure you want to come off them too. I sometimes wish I’d stuck to a low dose (possibly forever!)

My GP said not to do alternate days on and off as you are getting fluctuating amounts and this can make withdrawal symptoms worse. He said go down to 25mg a day rather than 50mg every other day. You can get pill cutters if you need.

To help with the brain zaps ⚡️ my GP recommended I took omega 3,6,9 supplements whilst tapering down and watch out for the zaps ⚡️ coming back about 6 months after you come off them completely 💜 taper at your pace with GP support