50mg after 6 months of tapering , feeling strange
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hi
Looking for advice please.
I started reducing my dosage in January. I was on 100 mg. I’ve been reducing 10mg every four weeks. I’m now at 50mg and I’m having mild anxiety , upset stomach on and off, muzzy head and emotional. Nothing as severe as when I started the drug but I’m trying to rationalise that they’re mild withdrawal symptoms and not the depression and anxiety returning.
I feel great other than the symptoms. I’m hoping someone else has been through the same and that I just need to keep going.
I’d been on the drug just over two years as I started tapering in January.
0 likes, 4 replies
Sphyd katiec1983
Posted
Hi. I wonder if you should slow down a bit. I tapered from 75mg in 25mg jumps from November last year to April. I have not taken any since beginning of April and the last few weeks have been really tough. Anxiety, tearful and a very low mood. I wish i had made the jumps much much smaller as I may have to go back on and taper much more slowly. I'm giving myself another couple of months to see but it hasn't been much fun. I don't think it's a return of the depression. I keep fit, busy and eat well. Also avoid alcohol. The issue is that if you do the same drop each time (in your case 10mg) it gradually becomes a much larger proportion of the dose you are taking. So for me 25mg was originally a third (way too steep!), then half and then a total drop. If you are sensitive you have to go much much slower. I've even looked into whether I can get a liquid form of sertraline to make it easier and slower. Check out research by Mark Horowitz and David Taylor at the Maudsley Hospital in London. What they say makes sense to me - go slower the lower your dose. And hold it each time. Good luck.
katiec1983 Sphyd
Posted
thank you so much , what you say does make sense. .im going to stabilise on 50 mg and then start lowering the dose much more slowly. hopefully that will ease the effects ive been feeling.
thank you again for taking the time to give advice.
dylan78236 katiec1983
Posted
haha you guys are troopers. when i tried to ween my doctor told me just to stop-- i thought that was silly so I kinda did 25mg reduction every 2 weeks then cold turkey from 50. needless to say, im back on sertraline thinking about quitting again... GOOD LUCK!!! I do believe we are all eventually going to need to find real ways of combating our mental illness. these drugs are a joke. 'much love to you katie and anyone reading this struggling.
Sphyd dylan78236
Posted
That must have been awful. Dont give up if you want to come off them. I dont understabd why drs still give this advice. New advice and research is out there and its not hard to find. And i'm not anti medication either. But it's no picnic and for me has made things tougher in the long term. Thats why i wqnted to stop taking it. But it requires patience and alot of will power in the face of a great deal of fear (for me anyway) of a return of the original problem. I had bad advice too and it's a high price we're paying for it.