Sertraline or diazepam???

[molly2312]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could give me any advice, sorry if this is a long post but I want to give the back story too. I have been taking 200mg of sertraline for about 8 years, I had the most awful night sweats having to get changed 3/4 times a night which was getting too much to deal with. So my GP told me to reduce the sertraline I dropped from 200mg to 100mg the first week then the second week down to nothing, it seems this was the wrong thing to do as I thought about slitting my wrists when I was cooking dinner so my hubby took me to hospital who put me straight back onto my 200mg dose and gave me 6 x 2mg of diazepam to calm me down. So this year because of the sweats we have tried weaning me off very very slowly with the help of a pysciatrist, She has given me the odd prescription for diazepam if I have been having a horrendous week. I have only had about 30 x 2mg tablets over 6 months but now she has said she will not give me anymore. When I had the diazepam off her it was when we made a reduction in my tablets to help as I always freak out when the dosage is dropped . My question is that would it be easier for me to be given say a course of
maybe 2 months worth of diazepam and wean me off the sertraline a bit quicker. I really want to get off the sertraline as these night sweats make my depression worse as I get no sleep, have constant headaches and to be honest had been put on the sertraline for PND and my son is 16 now, I have been on these for far too long. I'd rather get off the sertraline as quickly as I can so I'm wondering if I could ask about the diazepam but they seem to be so against giving it but surely it will be easier to get me weaned off diazepam if I'm only taking it for a couple of months than to keep going this slowly getting me off the sertraline, they are scared I will try to kill myself if I come off them quickly again. I am now down to 150mg but that has taken 6 months so at this rate I will still be doing this for a couple of years. I hope someone can help and sorry for the long post xx

I’m sorry, I don’t have the answer for you but had to comment, because you’ve just explained why I’ve become so sweaty at night! I take 150mg. Hope you get sorted OP.

Hi I take 9mg of diazepam and 0.5 mg of clonazepam each day. If I miss a dose I have a seizure and I am dependent on mine without them my paranoia and anxiety are through the room, I have also been on sertraline 200mg and weaned down very quickly from experience sertraline withdrawal is about 10 times easier than benzodiazepine withdrawal and benzodiazepine dependence occurs very quickly.

As I said if I go one day without diazepam I have a seizure so really wouldn't recommend this as a course of action my advice would be to gradually start a second anti depressant to ease mental health symtoms so for example as you decrease sertraline slowly increase another anti depressant such as mirtazapine which is my recommendation as it also aided sleep which is a very important factor with any mental illness.

Guidelines today I think are usually don't give benzodiazepines for longer than a couple of weeks. Doctors have maybe gone too far against using them, but they got a lot of people addicted in the past.

You shouldn't take diazepam long term- it's highly addictive and can cause horrific problems.

I had to take benzos long term for a physical health issue and it took 8 months to wean me off them, and for 8 months I was an absolute wreck. I am now back on them for two months and absolutely dreading the weaning part of stopping again.

They need to swap your sertraline to something else surely rather than just stopping it and leaving you with nothing?