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I'm now off sertraline for good. It helped me, but gosh it's a nasty drug

Posted , 5 users are following.

james63103
james63103

I haven't been happy on sertraline for a long time. Been on them 6 months and they made me feel rotten. Every morning I'd have an awful stomach. I'd feel sleepy a lot and spend a lot of time in bed with no motivation.

I was on 150mg. I told my doctor I didn't want to continue them. He was always against giving me medication and he told me to drop down to 100mg for 2 weeks and see how I feel to drop to 50mg.

I decided to just stop. I was already fed up of them. I know people advise against this, and in no way do I condone it, but I felt like the side effects of withdrawal couldn't be any worse than I already felt taking them.

It's the end of day 4. I haven't had any problems to be honest apart from brain zaps. But I've had them coming off other meds so I'm no stranger to them.

I changed my diet 4 days ago to a frugivore diet. This means 70% of my calories come from fruit, and the other 30% can come from anywhere but ideally veggies. I still eat meat in my 30%. I cut out dairy and sugar and only drink pure filtered water.

Sugar cravings are hard to deal with so I do have the odd cup of tea, or bit of chocolate. I instantly feel terrible after I eat sugar, chocolate, dairy or junk food. So I no longer consume it.

Since switching my face has cleared up. No oily skin. My poops have gone back to normal and are as hard as a rock (sorry, lol) which I'm super happy about. I no longer have nausea too. I feel good overall and I feel like I'm going in the right path.

Mentally I feel great too. I have been self medicating with cannabis and my doctor is aware, tbh I'm hoping to be one of the first to get it on a script here in the UK because it's always helped me out so much. I have aspergers too and it helps me become "normal".

I dealt with 2 deaths in a short space of time and I hit rock bottom. Sertraline helped me get out of my hole, and help me come to terms with death. But it was never a long term thing.

Thanks for all the help and support 😃

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • karin88115
    karin88115 james63103

    Posted

    thanks for posting this James. i have been on sertraline for nearly 3 months for panic attacks but its making me feel so lousy i would rather cope with the occasional panic attack. i am going to see my doctor about coming off the drug too.

    dont think im brave enough to go cold turkey so will taper. im vegetarian and take vitamin supplements so hoping this helps withdrawals.

  • hanhoo90
    hanhoo90 james63103

    Posted

    Hi James -

    Could I ask how you're doing now? I've been desperately searching for success stories of people stopping the medication immediately so was happy to come across yours. I've been taking sertraline for about 7 weeks and last 2 week's on 150mg. I feel no better if not worse so just want to stop taking them to get them out of my system. I have multivitamins and magnesium tablets which I can take instead so hoping I will be ok. I feel the same, can't get any worse and.dont want to wait any longer feeling like this

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