Husband with depression - sertraline help me

[MamaBanana12]

My husband has been on sertaline 50mg and all was okay, but then went up to to 100mg, he began to withdraw, no emotions , numbness.

He then started to say he feels nothing and doesn't know if he wants a future with me and he doesn't know if he loves me.

Now he has stopped them cold turkey, I'm so worried about him. He is a stranger and feels so empty.

How do I help? What do I do or say. It's hurting me so much. He hasn't left, he wants to say and asked me to give him a few weeks to come off meds but can't say how he'l feel.

We've been together so long and I know he loves me he has told me. He just doesn't 'feel'

Anyone have any advice

I'd advise him to go back to his GP. You should never stop meds cold turkey without medical advice. I came off Sertraline once without medical advice - absolutely terrible idea!! My mental health took an absolute nose dive.
If he feels numb, I'd suggest that's his mental health worsening and the Sertraline isn't at a therapeutic dose for him. The max dose of Sertraline is 200mg from what I remember. 50mg is just a starter dose to build up slowly.
I'd encourage him to seek medical advice and / or therapy.
If he refuses, there's not much you can do unfortunately. You can provide information to his GP without his consent but obviously this may affect your relationship.

He needs to go back onto 50mg. Stopping them Cold turkey could leave him in a huge mess. He can then drop down more slowly. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommend no more than 10% drop at a time. How long was he on them?

I have been on Sertraline for around 10 years. I started to come off them around 4 years ago (150mg) and the withdrawals are horrific! Dropping more at the higher doses wasn’t massively problematic but at less than 50mg I can’t tolerate a reduction of anymore than 2%. It’s taken me 2 years to get down to 25mg.

i started to come off them when I realised I was numb. They didn’t solve my issues, they just made me
not care if that makes sense.

This must be awful for you both, and I totally understand his desire to come off something that’s making him feel worse, but going cold Turkey could make things a whole lot worse.

sending love

I didn't have great experiences with sertraline. Both going on and off them were very hard and I was on a small dose.

Please get him to a gp and if he won't, ring them yourself on his behalf.

I hear ya. It’s taken me 18 months to get down from 50mg - 25mg as the withdrawal symptoms are just awful. Still preferable to how it would be going cold turkey though 😞