Advice from cutting sertraline meds or not from 85 mg to 75

Posted , 3 users are following.

I've been tapering off sertraline for what i think is a few years now starting at 300 mg and up until about a week and a half ago, where I've been getting what feels like fast heartbeat and slight tension in that area and anxiety in my body and shallow breathing too, during certain times during of the day.  Yesterday I went back up to 100 mg and the night before that to the 85 mg dosage I was on before which seemed to help the more (since i upped the dosage but also exercised which seemed to help as soon as I felt this way), but am not real sure what I should be doing?  My shallow breath seems to last for quite a bit of time like over 10 or 15 minutes.

Should I continue to stay on the same 75 mg I've been on for the past week and a half and keep suffering the same problems I felt, or should I go back up to a certain dosage and stay on that from now on?  I read the half life of my med is 2 weeks but always stay on many more weeks longer before I have cut again.  I just don't wan't to have a heart attack or stroke or something bad happen to me because it can feel quite bad.  Should I go see a medical doctor in that maybe its something else?  The pharmacist thinks it could be another problem with my blood pressure in the past I have been told to go see a doctor for having a little over high blood pressure but never listened due to my social phobias at the time and still feel at times when I dont get out enough for a while.

I feel like I trust you guys more than my psychiatrist as I don't feel like he gives me definitive answers to my questions and doesn't feel supportive about me wanting to cut, when I talk to him about it I feel.  This would be the third day I've felt like this, since I've gone from roughly 85 mg to 75 mg.  I asked the pharmacist if this was something I should feel due to cutting the meds as I don't remember feeling this way or at least to this extreme for some time, and she said that little of a cut wouldn't cause these problems, although I did tell her I took a small amount more of the dosage I was taking before and felt somewhat better and she didn't really know what to tell me, so it could always be the pills too?  My sister had similar experiences with some antidepressants she was put on just recently. 

My sleep schedule has been irregular to the point of sleeping at different hours at night and day for the past roughly two years or so.  Sometimes it's been more more consistent but I will eventually fall back into staying up late from being impulsive on the internet watching videos, games, etc.  I don't go out a lot and didn't even when I was working (which was a year ago of having a stressful restaurant job but am not working for a year now), but when I do go out I feel a sense of freedom come over me, where my troubles/thoughts seem to diminish more from being negative and how they make me feel and more positive.  It's just hard overcoming the anxious feelings I feel about stepping out into places I'm unfamilar with in the world, which is why I stay inside.  But I know staying inside only makes me feel worse. 

I'm trying to make an effort to go out more now, eat better, sleep better and exercise more, since I didn't before.  I've achieved it so far for these three or so days but feel very tired, and anxious and irritable (and maybe with fast heartbeat) from how my body feels I think due to have been from starting to cut and have felt this way before, but again not to this extreme.  I'm just afraid like always of falling back in these pitfalls of being inconsistent which I do get into not keeping up with a routine.  

My thoughts always feel that much more aware as soon as I started cutting from the original 300 mg dosage and still feel that way up to today, as soon as I start.  I feel at times like I'm at the mercy of my thoughts many times and have to remind myself that's in all my head even though my mind says it's not.  My impulses have felt like they get stronger when I cut too.  I have been diagnosed with severe OCD and started with different meds since I was about 15.

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3 Replies

  • Posted

    Sorry to hear that Rene! The best advise I can give you is ....Listen to your body when it comes to taking the medication, and make sure schedule a doctor's visit, as far as your blood pressure Sertraline don't agree with food high in Tyramine, it could cause your blood pressure to go very high, google it. it happened to me 2 weeks ago, still a doctor's visit a must, the rule of thumb is you cut down on Sertraline between 10% and 25% a week, depends on the individual. Good luck!

    • Posted

      God Bless you Dan and thank you for your advice!   And actually I have some advice for you guys too that my sister just told me about and may help others going through these withdrawls!  Because I started feeling bad right after I wrote the first message and was going to go the hospital having these heart palpatations, where I feel like I'm going to die lol.  But actually my sister who has been through these withdrawls too, told me to take very slow and deep breaths, that I didn't know would help me the way they did and I am no longer feeling this fast heartbeat or tension.  

      I just tried to control my breathing as best I could but if you start to feel woozy, it might be because you are doing it too much which I felt too.  I actually remember reading that doing it like this causes more oxygen to go through your system, which would explain why I felt the way I did and felt sleepy too after.  She says to just keep practicing it every now and then or when I feel the way I did.

      Thank you to all of you honestly for all the love all of you show on here to one another!  May Jesus always bless each and every one of you and don't forget to read your Holy Bible my friends!  We will all perish, healthy or poor but must entrust the our eternal afterlife to Him! smile

      Your friend in love, 

      Rene

    • Posted

      HI Rene which part of the bible did you read? As I cud really do with some help and guidance with my anxiety 

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