5 1/2 weeks on zolfolt

I'm sorry you're feeling so bad at the moment. Perhaps you could speak with your Dr about starting on a very low dose with a gradual increase to minimise side effects? The same pills don't work for everyone so maybe they could help you with something else. I hope you feel better again soon xx

Hi everyone - 

Long story but here it goes i will do my best to use that bit of brain that still feels like its working to explain. (Bet you all know how and what i mean).

Over the years i have been on a few different SSRI drugs or as i like to call them now POISON!.

Starting of 5 years ago on citalopram 40mg i had anxiety at this point... Looking back it was nothing like i have experienced in the last few months it happened more in situational circumstances as in i worried about being stuck in traffic and not having a toilet around. My anxiety would then cause me to need a poo etc. But at home i was in my safe place and rarely had panic attacks. My gosh how all that has changed. I now have anxiety attacks in my home god knows how many times a day my safe space has been destroyed and i don't no what it feels like to have a safe place anymore. My health anxiety is atrocious and my agoraphobia is to a new level. 

So a few years of being on citalopram and nothing really seemed to get any better just worse so i went back to the doctors. This is when they put me on to sertraline!!! There was no taper just a straight swap to 50mg of sertraline. I was lucky and i say lucky now as i didnt seem to have any effects of changing over to a different tablet. So over a period of a year i went from 50mg to the max of 200mg with  the added 40mg 3x a day of proparanolol for a while i was ok anxiety still there but nothing like it is now. Then wham all off a sudden i couldn't function again anxiety was through the roof i was dizzy and nauseous constantly and then the agoraphobia hit. I quit my job as i physical couldn't go out anymore. So back to the doctors 5 months ago and here is were all this started. So the doctors told me to cut my sertraline down from 200mg for a few weeks and then stop at 100mg and go onto 20mg of mirtazapine. For the first few days i felt great then WHAM. Whilst sat in my bedroom my eyesight went and i couldn't see a thing. Instantly my body went into panic after about 15 minutes (seemed like a lifetime) my eyesight came back. I stood up and my whole left side of my body, and in my mouth went numb like i had been given way to much anaesthetic. That night i called the Paramedics for the first time. They checked the normal and done a ECG. Everything came back as it should. Within a few hours it was gone and i felt stupid. So i carried on with the mitazapine as been instructed by the doctor. Few more days in a now it had reached an all time high. I was convulsing constantly, shivering but was absolutely boiling. I couldn't settle at all constantly pacing around even though i felt shattered my body would not allow me to settle and sleep. I couldnt eat anything, i was shaking constantly etc etc.This went on for what felt like months but in reality was about two weeks. Doctors were called again and i was told to stop the mitazapine. ( i had taken 14 pills) i was then put straight on to fluoxetine 20mg. At this point i was so frightened of being left on my own that i was having 24 hour care shared between my Mum,Dad and Partner. 

So off i go putting another drug into my cocktail of drugs in my body. Still feeling just as bad as ever. All i can say here is by the 19th day of the fluoxetine i had, had enough of these tablets and made my own decision to get every single one out of my system. I may have been wrong to do this but i could not take anymore. 

So 5 months of the sertraline 200mg and 4 months off the 20mg of mirtazapine and just over 3 months of stopping the fluoxtine. As i said the last two drugs i was on no longer then 2 weeks each. 

My god how do the doctors not know what these tablets can do especially when they dish them out like they are sweets. 

Here and now - 

- Constant tingling all over my body especially worst when i first wake up and when im trying to sleep.

- Burning skin, like somebody is holding a match under my skin at all times. But yet my hands and feet are numb and cold.

- Bloated beyond belief 

- Dizzy ness i don't no what it feels like to not feel like im on a rocking boat in the middle of the ocean.

- Itching like there are millions of bugs on my body. Sometimes it feels like they are trying to get in, sometimes it feels like they are trying to get out. 

- Body jolts. Most annoying at night when im trying to sleep. Its like some annoying farmer is prodding me with a cattle prod. 

- As soon as i eat it feels like my body goes into more dark places. Anxiety levels increase.

- Small amounts of food send my blood sugars up from 5.5 to anywhere between 8 and 10. Absolutely petrified to eat anything to sugary.

- Urination approximately 4 times in an hour every hour. Bladder always feels full and heavy.

- Body temperature always low..34.9 •c even though i dont feel cold.

- Clenched jaw all the time that then gives me headache. 

I could go on and on and everyday there maybe something new.

Will life ever be normal again i would give anything to just have my plain old anxiety back. 

I feel for each and everyone of you on here that have been let down or not listened to by doctors. My heart goes out to you all. 

I pray that i will return to some sort of normality. Some days are harder than others as ive learnt that there are definitely Windows and Waves in this process. But when those Waves hit they hit hard i wonder how i will ever make it through this. 

Everyday is a roller coaster of different Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social whirlwinds wondering if there is something more to this and my organs are failing me slowly. But each day i am still here and i am determined to fight this! 

Love to you all

Laura from the UK 🇬🇧 x

Sorry for the long story it was something i wrote yesterday for a facebook group. Was easier just to copy and paste. 

Thanks for sharing that.  You described a few of my side-effects which I had never actually attributed to Zoloft.  The frequent urination ... I am usually up every 2 hours at night to urinate and have a bucket in the bedroom to avoid waking up the household with trips to toilet.  There is usually 2-3 litres in the bucket in the morning.  I had attributed this to the bladder tumors which have now been successfully removed, but the 2 hour cycle still remains  ... so maybe it is the Zoloft.

The body jolts too  ... never associated them with the Zoloft, but maybe that could explain them.  It usually hits me in foot/ankle or in the knee.  Very sharp pain that lasts a few seconds at a time.

I also have had episodes of itching on the legs, and a pain in a finger which I usually describe as feeling like a papercut, but 'burning' also describes it well.

I am nearly weaned off Zoloft now, and I hope all those side-effects go with it.

Thanks for sharing  ... good to know that I am not alone.

Bren

You did the right thing tapering off. God i wish i didnt listen to my doctor and have so many medication changes in a short space of time especially from the 100mg of sertraline cold turkey to the mitazapine 20mg.

Im now petrified my body is damaged forever. U will get there and fingers crossed your withdrawls will ease