Coming off Sertraline: the drama!

[MonnaLIza]

After about 4 months on sertraline my mental health has improved massively, also due to the changes in my practical circumstances. I have decided to start tapering off sertraline as I feel I can cope with life with my own resources and don't like the side effects of the drug (increased appetite and weight gain, woozy brain, weird dreams, crap sex etc.). I have moved from 50mg x diem to 25 and I was getting on fine until today, day 4, when I have had a big crash, exacerbated, I believe, by my period.

I have a headache, diarrhoea, find difficult to swallow and in general I am so out of it. I am at work and it's taking me all my strength to have a normal day. I just want to sleep.

Is anyone else tapering off medication? Or has already done so and has some tips to give me?

With thanks to all!

Anyone?

I thought I'd write an update in caee there are people desperately seeking the web, like I am, trying to find out what happens when you stop/begin tapering.

Now that I have gone down from 50 mg to 25 mg (day 5)

• I am not sleeping as well as I used to. Still awful dreams. So vivid!

• I woke up at 3 am feeling irrational panic. But I was able to see it for what it is: irrational panic!

• today I feel ok.

Bold fail. Was trying to write a bullet point list!

Similar situation here. I was on 200mg for 8 years, started tapering off them about three weeks ago and now today is my first day with nothing at all.
I was dreading it and probably the reason why I was on them for so long was because the side effects when I began taking them were torturous and I was so scared to experience that again.
I've touch wood felt ok besides a few evenings off dizziness when I've lowered the dose. Today I feel a bit short of breath and slightly agitated but fingers crossed nothing else. Will wait and see what tomorrow brings though

You should never come off medication without talking to the person who prescribed it first. I was told to decrease by the smallest possible amount and to continue on the new dose until I had felt fine for a good few weeks.

Weight gain has been horrific. 3 stone heavier than I was. I've never been healthier in terms of diet/ exercise so I'm inclined to think sertraline has a lot to answer for in that respect but equally it probably saved my sanity for a while& I'm grateful for that

I did. I don't take it regularly anyway. As I forget. I lasted four weeks completely off them and then crashed and had to go back in them. I think k I did it to fasts

You are probably tapering too fast. There's no rush, so taper much more slowly. You've cut your dose in half!
Either go back and start tapering more slowly, or grit your teeth for a few hard weeks until your brain adjusts to the 25mg and then drop by a few milligrams every few weeks.
You really need to have your doctor supervise you.

I tried a while back and got the electric brain spasm things people have mentioned before on similar threads which frightened me into continuing to take them. I worry that I’ll never be able to come off them.

It's awful.
Sertraline are actually the worst I've came off.
Having been on and off AD's for most of my adult life I knew it would be horrible but it honestly took me around 9 months to taper down slow enough. In the end it was my GP who ended it as he refused to prescribe more as they were no longer therapeutic at the low dose I was taking. Even then I felt shite when I finally got rid of them.
There's been a few times over the last few years where I've felt I maybe needed some again but the withdrawal for me is just not worth it so I try new approaches to dealing with my MH.
So far so good - it's not ideal but I've not slipped further if that makes sense.

I was on Sertraline 50mg for about 10 months. It helped massively at the time. Then the surgery messed up my prescription just before I went on holiday, so I started with taking one tablet every two days. Then fully stopped within a couple of weeks. I felt fine!! I was dreading it, thinking it will be horrific, reading all the awful unpleasant experiences people have had, but I had no real withdrawal symptoms. Everyone is different, I suppose! But don't be scared to come off it, it's not always terrible!!
I came off it about 8 months ago. I've recently been feeling a bit down and anxious again, been contemplating going back on it, but maybe that's not such a good idea and once the dark winter is over I might be feeling better again. Undecided to be honest.... it did make me feel much more calm and less on edge...

www.survivingantidepressants.org/

I forgot to say that I am following my gp's schedule for tapering off.

I've been tapering escitalopram since last October. I tapered by 2.5mg at a time,cos from 15 to 12.5, to 10, to 7.5, 5 and then 2.5.
I now take 2.5mg every other day but am going to drop to 1.25mg every other day.
It's still been difficult. I get discontinuation symptoms, head ache, neuropathy, skin prickling, hot flushes....I couldn't have got this far if I hadn't started doing Thai chi and had counselling plus reading an excellent book about changing your thoughts.
I think many people end up back on the meds because they either stop abruptly or taper too fast. They can't stand the withdrawal and the anxiety comes back.

Most GP's aren't that helpful in my own experience
Yep just reduce your dose for x amount of weeks - as per in the medical book and you'll be fine.
Doesn't work like that for everyone.

200mg to nothing in 3 weeks is really really fast!

I’ve been on 50mg for a year and need to come off sit to weight gain. Been taking 25mg for the last 2 weeks and only started feeling normal for the last couple of days. Gonna stay at half every day for month and the half every other day. I tried coming off before Christmas but had a massive crash as did not too quickly.

I took it for 6 months, went from 50 to 25 and thought I had flu! Then realised it was withdrawal by which time it was too late to taper slower.

Each cut felt shit for about 2 weeks. I tried smaller cuts but I think the cuts would have had to be tiny to not feel the drop.

Exercise would have helped. Once I stopped completely I had woozy zaps for several (6?) weeks. But eventually those went.

I wonder if one of the reasons why, except day 4, I am feeling ok is because I move quite a bit, I walk to work and back, which comes to about 10 miles per day.

Like a pp I was suggested to move to 25mg and if that felt too drastic to move to alternating 25 and 50 mg. Stay like this for a month. Then move to 25 mg every other day, then every second day, and then nil. I am, as I was saying, doing ok and the only difference is that I do not seem to sleep as well as I used to.

How are you getting on OP?
I'm getting a few zaps every couple of days but less then I'd imagined. Hope alls well for you

So glad to be off it

The weight gain - 4/5 stone
And the sweating
Just gross

Hi thanks for checking in! I actually forgot to take my tablet the past couple of days. Just do much happening. Yesterday wasn't easy at all but not sure if it was because of external circumstances. Anyway the week has gone quite well and think I can move to 25 mg every other day. I am recovering quickly I'd say.

A couple of people have mentioned weight gain. Really, is that a side effect? I did put on quite a bit of weight, about 2 stone, bit more probably, but thought nothing of it. Been off Sertraline for quite a while (haven't lost the weight though!!! ).

Hi @MonnaLIza , good to hear you're doing so well and hope the new job is too. We started sertraline at about the same time. I am doing well too (love my new job! And such lovely colleagues) but I don't feel ready to stop yet. My online CBT came through last week so we'll see how that goes. I just don't feel that I have the coping skills yet to go it alone. But life is good again.

Hi @ThingDoer! Great to hear from you! Lovely also to hear that your job is going so well. I would not worry about not being ready to taper with the medication yet. you go at your own speed. I think stopping for me is absolutely the right thing at the moment. It has been a huge help but now the situation in my life has changed and I have built some resilience and feel it's the moment to fly with my own wings!