How to ease sertraline withdrawal symptoms?

[JorisBonson]

I was on 50mg a day for a year, did what it needed to do so I decided to stop. Tapered off over the past 3 weeks as advised by my GP and my last dose was a week ago.

The withdrawal symptoms have really started to kick in - I've felt fluey all week (done so many covid tests!), have horrible insomnia, moodiness and the brain zaps have really kicked in today.

I have a full on weekend including work and a wedding reception - is there anything I can do to dull the symptoms or do I just need to hang on in there until they subside?

Following. Just been taking down from 100mg to 50mg for 4 weeks then nothing else. Can't sleep have diarheoa over thinking everything snappy and got cry at the drop of a hat! Hoping it stops soon

You could ask to swap to low dose Fluoxetine, which is in the same drug family but clears from your system more slowly, so the withdrawal is much more smooth/gradual and symptoms are less severe.

Being distracted and busy will probably help take your mind off the symptoms.

That seems very quick to taper off,I came off seroxat over months reducing very gradually.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor you're not the first person to say that. I'm thinking my GP gave me duff advice.

I'm still quite deep into withdrawal - and I cannot stop bloody sweating! The head zaps are less but I still have that floaty head, falling over feeling, and my stomach is in bits.

Gallons of water have helped and I've started on 5HTP. Weirdly, booze really helped at that wedding reception - but not a habit I'm going to fall in to!

Work have been amazing and allowed me to WFH.

Just keep telling myself one day and at a time and it's not forever

That's very quick to taper off of sertraline. When I reduced my dose from 150 to 100mg a day it took me 6 months in total to achieve. Any slight change in dosage and my body reacted.

Yeah I'm realising that in hindsight - my GP said I was only on a low dose for a year so probably wouldn't even notice 🙄 I'm almost 2 weeks without so don't really want to take again.

I had to stop sertraline cold turkey last year (I have bipolar and it triggered a manic episode). It took about two weeks for the withdrawals to stop but I still had the occasional brain zap a month later. It will pass but be gentle with yourself in the meantime. I found going for long walks helped.

Thank you, this is what I needed to hear. I've been taking it easy, a bit of yoga to exercise but generally not doing much or going far. I walked 5 minutes to the post office today and I was wringing with sweat!

If youve gone 2 weeks without it and aren't having any 'dark' thoughts or signs of feeling low then I would persevere without it.

A few wobbles and low moods but absolutely nothing overly concerning so far. Just desperate to feel normal again!

I'm very spacey tonight and DH is taking me to the cinema - this will be interesting 😂

Seroxat at is horrific to come off. I had to go on a liquid form in a ml and be given beta blockers to stop the head rushes. It took over 6 months.

Sertraline is a bit easier - I was told the half life is exactly 24 hours. So after 24 hours half the dose is in your system. (It's accumulated though so takes a couple of weeks to be fully out.) You could try stopping immediately and take a week off work to deal with the side effects - this is what I did in the end. Or half dose for a week or two before halving again for a week or two etc.

I don't remember much of a side effect from coming off it as I was actually having issues with thyroid levels again.

(I have never recovered from the zaps of seroxat 25 years ago. Awful drug. Shouldn't have been on it anyway as it turned out I was actually very hypothyroid.)

Sorry, misread that you've actually already stopped!

According to this it should be out of your system already and it's your body adjusting.

com.hemiola.com/half-life/

Yep, just a waiting game now (a not fun one!).

Still hanging in there. Feel good in some ways, bad in others.

Brain zaps are still very much a thing but the general fog / tiredness seems to have gone.

My dreams are mental, combined with insomnia 🤔.

Having a really glum day today, but think it's because I'm in the office tomorrow for the first time in a while. I'm waiting to move jobs so in that horrible limbo!

It's definitely better than it was, but not quite there yet.

Thanks for the update op.

Oh no. DS has been taking 50mg after struggling with a breavement. GP has told him that it's such a low dose he can just stop when he feels he no longer needs them!

@EhatBow definitely not! I did 3 weeks at the suggestion of my GP and wish I'd added another 3 weeks on to that.

I would definitely suggest lowering the dose for a few weeks then lowering again for a few weeks etc. I was halving and quartering tablets so I could do it slowly and it still wasn't a nice experience.

I hope you get start to feel good again soon OP.

I think the not sleeping hasn't helped - we were away for the weekend and the bed was awful, so I've got a good few days to catch up on. I'm falling asleep on the sofa so might just go to bed!

I would get your ds to drop to 25mg first for a few weeks before stopping.