How long after restarting Zoloft (sertraline) after quitting does it start working again?

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If you stopped Zoloft (50mg/day) cold turkey after 6 months on it, and you got really bad withdrawal symptoms (mostly in the form of agitation), so you went back on it at the same dosage, how long does it take for it to start working again and for you to get back to the mental state that you were in prior to quitting?

Been on it 3 weeks now and, besides the tiredness, it doesn’t seem to be working. When i first started it, it worked almost instantly in calming me down. A week later, i felt much different, in a positive way. In 2 weeks i was feeling great (sane).

Now, i just started taking antiphychotics (olanzapine) because the aggitation is just way too serious, despite having been on Zoloft 3 weeks. Why is it not working now?

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3 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi, I have gone off cold turkey but don't remember how long the interim is before restarting it. I can tell recently, it's taken me 6 weeks to see a glimmer of hope. 2 months to start coming out of my attack. So please give it sometime. 50mg is a very low dose so the med is prolly no longer in your system. You may also want to up your dosage if you start to feel a bit better after 2 months. Take care.

    • Posted

      Doc said to up the dosage to 100mg, but i feel its not a good idea to start taking higher dosage when 50mg was working really well, before i messed up everything. I figure if i want to quit later on in the future (correctly this time, by tapering), it would be much harder to get off 100mg than 50mg. Also if i build tolerance later on, i'd have more time before i max out on dosage. Is my logic sound? 

    • Posted

      Your logic is sound to me. For decades I thought the same way, but remember, 200mg is the highest dose, so you are far from that. Also, it's really not that big difference tapering off from 50mg or 100mg...you just need a much longer amount of time to taper off the higher dose. In any event, seeing that after you got off 6 months your anxiety came back, don't you think that the next time you quit it might come back again?? I used to think exactly like you until it dawned on me that I shouldn't keep getting off and on cuz each time it is so hard on my body, and who knows if it will work again like it once did the next time I get back on it? Regarding pooped out effect, who knows by that time they may have better targeted drugs that we can take with lesser side effects and more efficacy? I am always so hopeful seeing the leaps and bounds of modern medicine. Just my take. Take care.

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