Mental health question

[cleolinda]

I'm curious--I'll get to what set off this train of thought later, but I know a number of people have talked about how they don't or didn't like Zoloft. For those of you who took it for a while and then went through the process of getting off it, what was that like? I'm thinking about transitioning off it entirely, and I'm curious about what kind of side effects that might involve. (Again, there's more to this that I'll get into later.)

Comments

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

I actually did fine going off of Zoloft. I just stair-stepped it down over the course of about six weeks, no side effects.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, we immediately cut mine in half--from 100 mg to 50 mg--but I've also been gradually increasing my Lamictal, so I can't tell if that's picking up any slack. The only real side effects I've had so far are 1) wanting to eat the entire house and 2) fewer headaches.

[krazycat.livejournal.com]

I was increased from 50mg to 100mg recently, which is back to the level I was at before. I think. It's been a while. I only take this one though, not in combination with other anti-anxiety like I have before.

I don't really like it. I feel tired all the time and anti-social.

[krazycat.livejournal.com]

I'm on Setraline, which is the same as Zoloft. I've been on it before, and I had a really difficult time getting off it, but then again I did it myself, without the help of a doctor. I tried cold turkey but I got the shakes, dizziness and raised heart beat, and whenever I got like that, I would take a pill. I think it took me about four months to finally kick it.

I want to get off it again, but I'm not ready to do it yet. This time I want to do it properly, though.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

Have been on Zoloft (and more recently, generic zoloft equivalent) for years now.

Going off it is hard (for me). And hard to describe. For me, the main symptom is these weird "head rushes" that stick around for 10 days or so. It feels kind of like a rush of tingles going up the back of my head... but it's inside my head, too. There's a cottony sort of feeling, like I'm experiencing things from a good three feet farther away than I actually am. Makes it hard to keep up with conversations. Or drive.

Hard to describe... the only person I ever found who understood what I was trying to describe was someone who'd been on zoloft and gone off it. :(

(Going back on is much easier, I only really experience the loss of appetite for 2 weeks or so. I call it the "zoloft diet" har har.)

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

Just be sure to go off it gradually and under the supervision of a doctor. If you try to stop it cold turkey you will have a horrendous, horrendous crash. SSRIs do that.

The crazymeds comm is cool if you're looking for more in-depth info from people who have spent a lot of time on a lot of different meds.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was my doctor's idea in the first place, and I'm over-cautious about decreasing or increasing dosages anyway. I plan on going into details later, but the last couple of weeks on half my usual dose has made me wonder if maybe I shouldn't be off it altogether, is all, even if it takes me weeks or months to taper down.

Sad really...

[jazzminarino.livejournal.com]

It's somewhat sad to me that I can identify the pills in that icon of yours. Though the quality isn't what I would need to do a damned good ID, I can still tell that the one on the left is Depakote, the one on the bottom is probably Klonopin, and the one on the top looks to be either a Seroquel or a Trazodone...

... the purple one eludes me, but it's possibly Wellbutrin.

This probably doesn't count

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

When I went off the stuff, I was moving onto another antidepressant. That means that at first, I was taking Zoloft with a small dose of the other stuff, then tapering off the Zoloft and slowly increasing the other antidepressant. Sadly, neither Zoloft nor the other antidepressant really worked properly. It took some months before my doc and I hit on the right medication, which was another class of drug altogether.

[mia-noire.livejournal.com]

I haven't posted before, but I feel pretty strongly about Zoloft, so I thought I'd share.
I never did very well with taking Zoloft consistently because it made me so sick so often. I would become terribly, violently ill and get terrible headaches on it, so when I told my doctor I wanted to try something else, we moved pretty quickly. I was off the drug in about three or four weeks, no adverse effects.

[ali-jayne.livejournal.com]

it made me so sick so often. I would become terribly, violently ill and get terrible headaches on it

I was started on Zoloft, and that's exactly how I reacted to it. I also experienced chills, violent shaking, and a strange, out-of-body feeling. I stopped taking that pretty darn quick after that. :(

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

It worked wonderfully for me for about ten years, and then abruptly stopped working; when my doctor suggested I try Cymbalta (DO NOT DO THIS, CYMBALTA IS HORRIBLE) it really didn't take me that long to wean off. About three weeks from full dosage to nothing, and there wasn't any nausea or sleep disturbance; I did feel more jittery and anxious, but I think that's due to the underlying condition rather than to side effects from Zoloft withdrawal.

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've been on Cymbalta for nearly a year, and it's been the first thing that's actually worked for me. There may be an explanation though, unlike many antidepressants, Cymbalta works on the dopamine, not just the serotonin. Maybe it's worked so well for me because my issue is with dopamine, but if that's not your problem, Cymbalta may indeed be horrible *shrug*

I will say though, that I'm on the lowest dose of Cymbalta (30mg... we tried 60 for a few weeks, but it made me a little jittery and unable to concentrate) and so far the only downside I've had is that if I ever forget to take it, or take it more than a few hours late, I start getting what they call 'brain zaps', which are like little electrical 'snaps' going off in my head. It's not painful, but it's annoying.


In regards to Cleo's original question. I think that the several times when I quit Zoloft, I just stopped taking it all at once, and I can't remember any adverse effects, but that was at least five years ago, so my memory can't really be trusted.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

Cymbalta got rid of the crushing misery and self-hatred for maybe six months, then quit entirely. I might as well have been taking expensive M&Ms. I also gained approximately ten pounds with zero change in diet or exercise, which I am still struggling to get rid of all the way.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I've been taking Zoloft for ten years as well. It's still working, in the sense that (I think) you mean, but I'm starting to wonder if what it does is still what I need. It kind of made me care less about things, and when I was unraveling at the seams and obsessive-compulsive and suffering from huge anxiety, it was like someone taking me by the shoulders and saying, "It's okay, let me worry about some of this for you so you can get on with life." Now, ten years later, I feel more like a plant that's outgrown a flowerpot--"not caring" is closer to "unmotivated" than "mellow" now.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

I'd been on and off the stuff in the ten-year period between initial diagnosis and the point where it stopped working altogether, and in general what it did for me was take away the mental subroutines associated with my particular case of depression (the ones that kick in during every recollection, every self-conscious thought, that remind me that I am stupid, ugly, useless, that nothing I ever do will be worth anything, that people are being kind to me and pretending that I don't suck and then laughing about it once I go away, all that crap. Zoloft shut that voice in my head up, so that I could behave and react like a normal person.

Then it quit. And the voice came back, and it's still around two drugs later; but bupropion is working much better than duloxetine or whatever Cymbalta is. I hope you can find one that works on the anxiety without making you feel unmotivated.

[lokifin.livejournal.com]

I was switched from Zoloft to another SSRI because the Zoloft gave me racing pulse, sweaty hands, and a sort of lightheaded, speedy feeling I didn't like. I don't think I stepped down the dosage at all--just went straight to the lowest dose of the next medication. I don't recall any bad side effects from quitting it cold turkey, but then I was already having bad symptoms so I don't think I would have been able to tease out which the cause was.

[thyroyalmajesty.livejournal.com]

Please do be careful; I second what was said above about not going cold turkey. I was prescribed Zoloft this past March (50 mg), then my dosage was bumped up to 100 mg in June. Getting on it made me able to get out of bed in the mornings, but I didn't feel that much different. I didn't feel the increased dosage at all. Then, because of a wonky schedule and a stupid "Eh, it wasn't doing anything anyway" attitude, I stopped taking it for a week.

I thought I was going to kill myself. It was horrible. Everything I was experiencing pre-Zoloft -- the reasons I was on Zoloft -- came rushing back, stronger than ever. It's a good (?) thing I'm currently unemployed, because I would not have been able to work. Then I realized what I had done, and got back on my meds. And I leveled right back out. Sooo, in summary, Zoloft, though maybe not a miracle make-everything-better pill for me, helps enough, and going off it suddenly is dangerous.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely--it was my doctor's suggestion, and I'm super-careful about changing my dosages, to the point where I insist on going more slowly than she at first suggests. And as much as people have complained about it, it really did help me for about ten years. I'm just wondering now if maybe what it does is something I needed then, but not what I need now (as in, an increase of different medication may be working better now). But I'm going to go into details later.

[lorax]

I wasn't on zoloft for the usual reasons - I was prescribed it for migraines - but it was massively mood altering for me anyway. I didn't react well to it, but coming off it was pretty roller-coastery too. I was weaned off over about three months I think, and I was a pretty hard person to be around for probably the second month of that mostly, but after that it was okay.

I've been on and off a lot of meds for migraine, and weaning off zoloft was probably one of the hardest. BUT I also had a really strong, not-good reaction to it, mood-wise, so I might not be the best case-judge. I was extraordinarily hard to live with while I was on it.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I've been on and off a lot of meds for migraine

Have you ever taken Topamax for your migraines? I started taking it 4 weeks ago to see if it would deal with the silent migraines (abortive meds don't do diddley-squat for them), and am doing okay with the side effects, though the first week on the lowest dose was absolute hell, strangely enough. Just wondered if you had taken, or are taking, it and if it helped/helps.

[lorax]

Yeah I did, I was on Topomax for years, and never really had any reaction to it at all, even at high dosage, save that once I got past a low dose, it messed up the way I tasted things. Soda for instance always tasted flat, and things would taste just off all the time. It was good for me in that aspect, since it helped wean me off soda!

I did have some emotional highs and lows when I was weaning off of it, but it wasn't too bad. I personally didn't get much reaction, migraine-wise, but I had a friend who went on it not long ago and says it's a big help to her, but it does make her sort of "blah" and too-even, emotions-wise.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I'm really hoping it helps with these particular migraines because they make me "word stupid," as I call it. I lose coherency, which is bad, since I'm a taxonomist by trade. I guess all I can do is wait and see.

As for the taste thing...I can still drink Coke; it actually counteracts some of the weird taste issues, right now at least. Other foods, though, don't taste so good. Except pineapple. And Asian foods. It's weird.

[lorax]

Meaning you can't find the right word, or understand what's being said to you? That's how mine are too. My balance is shot to hell too - it's always off, since I have pretty severe vertigo, but during a migraine I can't really walk, or talk, or follow what's said to me at all.

I really hope it works for you! I know a lot of people have had good results with the Topomax.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

My situation was unusual. I was pulled off the zoloft and lithium at the same time and immediately because of a landed-me-in-the-psych-ward bad reaction to one of them or the combination. As I has immediately put on Haldol it is hard to distinguish what part of the trauma came from what. I suspect the lithium was more at fault, but who knows?

I'm doing really well on a combination of seroquel and lamictal now. Much better than the depkote.

[ali-jayne.livejournal.com]

I had such a terrible reaction to it that I now list it as one of my "allergies" in case my psychiatrist ever wants to try it. I'm currently taking Paxil, but I've not really felt any better because of it for a while now. I'm thinking I'm going to have to change to something else.

If you don't mind me asking, do you have bloodwork to test the proper levels? Or, I guess I should be asking if that is something that is done? I'm kinda in limbo when it comes to meds lately. :(

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Nope, I just figure it out from discussing it with my doctor--I tell her how I feel, and how I feel about how I feel, if that makes any sense ("I feel kind of giddy, and it's a bad feeling," for example), and she's there with a psychiatric knowledge of what that could mean (bad reactions, "Oh, that's a manic episode," that kind of thing). And because it's an inexact science, so to speak, we've made bad decisions before. There's no real way to know, except from her prior experience ("A lot of patients do well on 200 mg") and my reactions to whatever dosage level we try. Which is one of the reasons I wanted to see what going off Zoloft had done for other people. It's interesting, because I'll come in and say that I asked y'all, and she's like, "So... you asked people on the internet, is what you're saying," and I'm like, "Yes, but they actually had mostly positive things to say about [whatever she suggested], except for a few people that seem to be the exception to the rule, and also, they said to watch out for [whatever side effect]."

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Don't you love that saying, "you asked some people on the internet?" It gives that air of skeptical disbelief in anecdotal evidence that you treasure most in a doctor whose last comment was, "a lot of [my] patients do well on 200mg." Pot. Kettle. Black.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

Oh but she's so much more qualified because she has a degree and can tell if people are lying so much easier than other people can. *eyeroll*

[angelene.livejournal.com]

There's no real way to know,

I believe this is the keyline here and what could possibly give your/any doctor a slight/medium/major case of the twitches.

I mean, every person's reaction to any particular medication is different, every person's situation is different, as in the condition that brought them to seek for medical advice and/or psychiatric medication is different, so reviewing a quantity of opinions and personal experiences could be either helpful or misleading or, well, both.

I'd personally treasure discussions like this, because I think shared experiences do always hold a value (an informative value, for instance, that could even benefit some doctors), but I wouldn't blame your/any doctor if they'd fear that it could undermine the patient/doctor relationship and/or trust.

I hope that I'm not speaking out of term (or even that I've managed to make the slightest sense... I'm having a terrible case of tooth/headache, ugh) and, of course, I hope you're going to find the most helpful combination/dosage of medication for your current status.

[ali-jayne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing that. And I hope, like the others, that you find your best combo.

Um. Grammar escapes me today. ;)

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

I think Zoloft's the one that made me feel as disassociated from everything as if I had just had a couple of beers. Either that, or it's the one that had no noticeable effect. I remember nothing unpleasant about going off it.

[brermatt.livejournal.com]

Most everyone here has already said everything.

I was on Zoloft for about 3 months and it helped the anxiety, but I didn't like it because it made me feel nothing. And I'd rather feel bad things than nothing at all. (Anxiety was the result of a divorce and separation from my then-3 year old son - those things settled down.)

So I quit it cold turkey and that was a big mistake. I had horrible mood swings, lashing out to the point of almost violence. So I quickly started taking it again and slowly weened myself off over about 6 weeks and was fine that way.

[oasis-beatles.livejournal.com]

I was on zoloft for a few years in my early teens, and I, as a silly naiive teenager, decided to take it upon myself to go cold turkey, which was terrible. I had really odd dizzy spells, and I felt outside myself a lot... but the cool thing? I could actually feel different emotions... like on zoloft I was very numb, but after getting off of it, I was happier, sadder, angrier... everything-er... and it may sound bad... like, why would someone want to be angrier? Well, angry is better than apathy, and happy is better than mellow...
I mean, it did work well for the years that I took it, but I just hate taking pills in gerenal. They are so mood altering.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

I like this site for psych medication information (http://www.crazymeds.us/), though sometimes info is scanty or hard to understand.

I totally understand about switching meds or changing doses. I hate it. I wish it was more like taking antibiotics.

[editornia.livejournal.com]

One of my doctors tried putting me on that once. I'd only had ONE tablet when it made the clouds dance. That's right, I hallucinated the clouds dancing. I'm a driver, and didn't want anything interfering with that (especially as I didn't NEED anti-depressants), so I said, "OH HELL NO!", and stopped taking them entirely. I flat-out refused (and still do) to take Zoloft. If it makes that clouds dance after takling just one tablet then it is SCARY and should be avoided at all cost, in my book. :S

[lyrainverse.livejournal.com]

I just stopped taking it, which is not the right thing to do, but I didn't have any problems. Though I was only off for about 3 days before I started on another medication, so maybe that's not long enough for the withdrawal to kick in?

My two cents: Zoloft vs. Wellbutrin

[daedreams.livejournal.com]

Hiya Cleo-

I was on Zoloft for a few years, stopped taking it about eight years ago because, while it stopped the Giant Hole Of Desolation from sucking me in, it made me very numb to everything. Felt like I was sleepwalking through life for a while there. When I stopped, I did a fairly quick step-down, from 100mg to 50mg to nothing. The only effects I had were a slight bout of insomnia and the ability to feel emotions again. (I should maybe mention that during the 100mg phase, which was my dosage for a long time, I stopped taking the pills for about three weeks, on my own. Not a good idea, as I still felt numb and got some bad headaches, which contributed to my decision to start up again, right back to 100mg. Not a good idea. Was very wired for a few days, shaky like I'd taken amphetamines, and emotionally a wreck.)

About a year ago, I started taking Wellbutrin after a long period of attempting to function med-free. My main reason for taking it is crippling anxiety, and I've found the Wellbutrin to work extremely well, in that I can process things without having to curl up in a corner with a panic attack. I still worry and obsess about a lot of stuff, but the medication makes it easier to take a step back and look at whatever's causing the anxiety instead of getting swallowed by it. Haven't suffered any side effects from the Wellbutrin, but then, I haven't tried to go off it yet.

Good luck, hope the changes go well for you. :)

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/?page=full) article from boston.com

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

... oh my God. I... I think you've just made up my mind for me.

[therecklesslady.livejournal.com]

Zoloft was the first anti-depressant that ever did anything positive for me, so it figures I would be put on it for PTSD, and not straight out depression. When my doctor put me on it, I had just watched my apartment go up in flames and wasn't sleeping, convinced that at any second another fire was coming, and obsessive-compulsively washing my hands raw because I was convinced they were covered with soot when they, in fact, weren't.

Zoloft worked almost instantly, and was -fantastic- for me at that time. After a few weeks, I started getting these massive headaches that felt like someone was jamming an awl through my temple. Since my doctor couldn't see me for weeks, I just quit taking it (bad, I know, but you do what you have to, right?), and immediately the headaches stopped. I wish I had been able to stay on it longer, though. When it works, it works AWESOME,and when it doesn't, I just wanted to lay in dark cold rooms and cry.

[junebugged.livejournal.com]

Hey Cleo...
I've been on anti-depressants for about 11 years or so... and I feel like I've been on everything under the sun but Xanax and Prozac... I was on Zoloft up until January of 2007. I then had a stroke caused by trauma and immediately went from taking 50mgs to none. I had been up to 100mgs but came down to 50 a few weeks earlier with no affect. I was also on Effexor for a long time - it had replaced Wellbutrin, which had made me shake horribly. The Effexor was wonderful - I had a great combination with it, with only occasional lows.
Now, I'm only on Cymbalta and Provigil. Provigil is more for the narcolepsy which resulted from the stroke, but it also helps the Cymbalta work... apparently it's a mystery drug (http://www.crazymeds.us/provigil.html), but I couldn't get out of bed without it.
Everyone's different, though. I hope you have a really easy time!

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

My husband works in the pharmaceutical industry (he's in vaccines and biologicals) and let me tell you--they're all pretty much mysteries. It's a fucking crap shoot most of the time. They have pretty damn good hypotheses about why most of them work, but the neuro drugs are always the most mysterious. The FDA ought to quit fussing about the cholesterol drugs (because the results are so much easier to quantify) and focus on the neuro ones instead. Oy vey.

Also, your icon ROCKS.

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

I um, stopped suddenly without telling anyone? And I don't recommend it. :>

[golden-d.livejournal.com]

I went off it cold turkey because I was getting suicidal. My psychiatrist was on vacation, so I did it without supervision, which was probably not the greatest idea but seemed like the best option at the time. Thankfully I didn't have a bad reaction to stopping so suddenly, but given how miserable I was feeling, I was willing to take any withdrawal symptoms as an improvement.

(My dose at the time was 50mg, if it makes a difference.)