1. Community
  2. Mental health
  3. Sertraline

My experience of coming off sertraline

Posted , 240 users are following.

Guest
Guest

I have found this site very helpful during the period that I was taking sertraline and felt I should share my experiences of coming off the drug, in the hope that they may be of help to others.

I was diagnosed with depression last year and have been on 200mg of sertraline for approx 10 months. I also had some therapy during this period and recently took the decision (with my doctor's support) to come off the medication. Wary of repeating the experiences some other posters on this site have had I resolved to reduce my dosage gradually over a period of about a month (more gradually than suggested by my doctor).

Each week I reduced the dosage by 50mg a day. So week one I went down to 150mg a day, week 2 100mg a day etc. The first two weeks were fine with no real changes. By the end of week 3 I began to feel a bit light headed, with hot sweats and dry-mouth also returning. As a result I remained on this dose another week instead of stopping altogether in week 4.

I have now been 5 days with no sertraline and have found the experience of quitting surprisingly easy. I still feel a little light-headed now and again, but other side effects I suffered during the full dose (yawning, tiredness, sexual dysfunction) have all but gone, and although I kind of miss the 'wrapped in cotton wool' feeling I am glad to be back to life without medication.

For what its worth I would suggest that gradual reduction of dosage is the most effective way to avoid the worse of the side-effects experienced when coming off sertraline and that the good news (for me anyway) has been the speed at which the side-effects disappeared.

31 likes, 450 replies

450 Replies

Prev Next
  • jessie09499
    jessie09499 Guest

    Posted

    Good to hear about your experience.

    I have been on 50mg for three months and was recently increased to 75mg. Developed diarrhea and am tapering off slowly.

     

  • roxy25282
    roxy25282 Guest

    Posted

    Ive been on sertraline for 2years i started on 50mg then moved to 100mg... i started therapy and counciling so decided to come off the medication and try to be my old self again.... like a big silly i am i just came off them (i do not recommend it!!) I should have come off it slowly but hey ho its done now.

    Ive had awful symptoms i go light headed random heart palpitations some times i feel a little spaced out im not sure if its my anxiety or my body coming down off the medication i wish it would pass quickly

  • marianne66056
    marianne66056 Guest

    Posted

    currently experiencing nausea coming off sertrilene. Did u experience that? I'm Wonder if there's something natural to handle the nausea. Any suggestions? Thank u so much for sharing here.

  • Shelle8
    Shelle8 Guest

    Posted

    I would love more information on this topic as I'm currently on this medication

  • hans82434
    hans82434 Guest

    Posted

    I do believe diet can make a difference.  Most seratonin is produce in the gut and so diet has to play some role.  I find withdrawals are easier when I eat small meals vs. big meals and big meat meals seem to bring on more crappy fealings vs. greens and what not. Any thought?
  • tvalentine7
    tvalentine7 Guest

    Posted

    Ive been on Zoloft now for 26 years... YES you read right. Im not so lucky in the regard that I am getting the depression again, I have only been weaning off for a month and a half after taking 100mg.  Some one said I am brave, yet I feel weak.    I am going to continue to follow through its just scary, I will continue to read the possitives everyone has written, I hope it gets better! Thanks for the info people have written, it helps.
    • hans82434
      hans82434 tvalentine7

      Posted

      Hi tvalentine7,

      ?26 years is  long time. I took it for 14 years after I started having panick attacks and quit being able to sleep.  I was fine until the remeron and sertraline quit playing well together--I think a ill advised and abrubt substitution of trazadone for remeron caused seratonin syndrome and so I went back to remeron after a week or two on the traz. For some reason remeron and sertraline did not play well together after this and I decided to quit sertraline cold-turkey.  I feel like a space cadet and have experienced most of the withdrawals listed in this forum. It is scary but as long as I can seperate withdrawal from returning issues I can manage. I think you can expect, as I expect for myself, small steps forward followed by several steps back for quite some time. Our brains have a lot to sort through and reprogram.  I am certainly not out of the woods but I plan to stay the course.  Good luck and if you relapse it is OK. You'll be even mre prepared the second or third time.  Feel free to message me.

    • paul38854
      paul38854 hans82434

      Posted

      I think going to a good counselor helped me more than the the drugs. I was taking 200 mg of Sertraline a day and Bupropion 150 mg a day. Plus I tried many more over the years. I took myself off Bupropion first then slowly off of the Sertraline. the less I took the better I felt. I have a 35 year old son who is autistic. i think I starting taking antidepressants when he was 5. I don't want to go back on them.

      Good luck, I know it is hard.

    • jennifdr11527
      jennifdr11527 paul38854

      Posted

      Thank you for sharing! Are you off them all now? I too was on anti depressants but I stopped those a long time ago. I do plan on going to my therapist soon as well. I find reading about ways to aniexty and ways to manage it really helps me. How are you doing now and are you off them completely?
    • Sarahjane1968
      Sarahjane1968 jennifdr11527

      Posted

      Hi Jennifer I wanted to stop my anti depressants straight away but was really poorly so took my doctors advice and I'm on a 8week weaning off (2 week in)hot flushes,light headed,can't sleep,feel rubbish but I have flu as well so can't really say,but welldone to you keep going smile

    • jennifdr11527
      jennifdr11527 Sarahjane1968

      Posted

      Hi Sarah,

      Thanks for taking the time to respond to me. I spoke with my dr today who said to bring it down 50mg weekly, I explained that i'm concerened to go off so fast so she said i could go slower like 2 weeks -50 weekly. She mentioned that lowering it by 50 a week is actually going slow. Do you mind telling me what mg you were on and how much less a week you went down? Hot flashes, light headed, can't sleep (which i can't since i started these) and flu like systems are all withdraw signs according to my dr. Did you find you gained weight being on them? Did you lose that weight while weaning off? Sounds like you got this! smile 

    • tvalentine7
      tvalentine7 hans82434

      Posted

      Its been hard, seems all these years of suppressing my feelings has been now brought to the surface.... now im having panic worse!! Its been aweful, I thought after being off this crap I would be better, I have now been 2 months of not taking the med anymore and my body is not responding well.  I cry I feel everything now, Ive always been one of those people who is highly sensitive to other peoples hurts and joys, and can feel other peoples pains.  ITS been something I have had my whole life, now its even more intense, and hard to be around people. I dont know how much more of this I can take.

       

    • Ash876
      Ash876 tvalentine7

      Posted

      Hi everyone,

      Hoping for some advice. I’ve been on sertraline 50-150mg for the past 9 years. I managed to stop briefly while I was pregnant but had to go back on them when I got pretty bad PND. Now I think I’ve been a bit foolish but I’ve gone cold turkey, with all the drugs I was taking (sertraline 100mg, propranolol, buscopan, Iron, and mini pill) - I decided enough was enough and I just wanted my body back and to be drug free. I realise this is not the way it should be done but I’d had enough. Anyway, for the first couple of weeks it was magic. I was genuinely happy and I got my libido back for the first time in a long time. Now I’m about 6 weeks on and I’m horrible. I flip from one emotion to the other, I have so much ‘energy’ but not physical, like emotional energy - I need to cry or scream or actually cause an injury to myself to get rid of it. I thought 6 weeks on it’d all be out my system. Am I just too reliant on it now after so long? I feel weak for needing it. I wanted to plough through. But I am vile at the moment. My husband is trying his best to be supportive, but I’m so snappy and irritable and emotional. I don’t know what to do. Is this just who I am without the drugs? 

    • sharon68052
      sharon68052 Ash876

      Posted

      Hi Ash, 

      I feel your pain, I am now nearing the end of my 4th month without setraline and in all honesty (in my experience) it was a full 3 months before I returned to an acceptable level/ nearly normal and even now I still find it hard for about 10 days a month which I think my hormones cause havoc (which I never had before having kids). I felt the same way as you - like a Furness of internal energy/frustration. It’s never going to be easy coming off drugs but a very careful reduction of dosage and frequency of taking them I think is DEFINITELY required with setraline in my opinion. I failed on my first attempt and went back on them for another year then took it very carefully and slowly the next time but it’s still hard. 

      Maybe it’s not your time? And that’s ok too!! Don’t be hard on yourself and YOU need to decide if you think it’s too much and try another time?!

      Take care x

  • bolota
    bolota Guest

    Posted

    I'm glad your experience is going well!

    I was on sertraline for about 2 years, but after stopping it my depression started showing up again, 5 months later. I started having really angry about small things and got insomnia I am on citalopram now.

    Does anyone had problems sleeping too much while taking sertraline? I think that after sertraline i started sleeping way too much, and even after it i continued sleeping too much (about 13h a night, and still waking up tired). I don't know if this is a symptom or not, but ever since i started citalopram (2 weeks ago i guess) im starting to sleep less but wake up refreshed

    All the other stuff went away. All the sweat, dry mouth and vivid dreams. I never got many side effects from it, maybe because i was on a low dose (compared to the ones i read in here). I think it was 59 mg.

     

    • bolota
      bolota

      Posted

      oh i meant 50mg smile

    • Sarahjane1968
      Sarahjane1968 bolota

      Posted

      Hi I was citalopram and felt very sick(many times was)persevered for 7month really bad dreams,bad skin,horrid stomach pain etc so was put on 100mg a day of sertraline after 6 or so months insisted last week to my g.p. I wan a stop not taking his advice plan I stopped altogether after reading lots of advice on here I've gone back to my doctors plan by gradually weaning myself off good luck smile

    • chrissy_35161
      chrissy_35161 bolota

      Posted

      Do you take any other medicines we all dream I take 100 mg God bless you and other medicines too
    • angela1980
      angela1980 bolota

      Posted

      Hi im wanting to go on citraloptam what mg are you on and do you take it at day or night ?
Back to top
Prev Next

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.