Off Sertraline for 3 months

Posted , 3 users are following.

I read a lot of posts on here and it has helped me. So I feel like I need to give something back. Hopefully this may help someone.

I went on to Sertraline for anxiety during a very difficult time dealing with my mothers illness.

I had a few side effects but nothing major. It balance me out - job done. I was on sertraline for about 2.5 - 3 yrs. But I got to a point where i felt like a bit of a zombie. I felt indifferent to things going on around me and I got to a point where I wanted to find myself again. I felt strong enough to come off them so I tapered very slowly over about 6 months. i was on 150mg at highest dose.

I didnt have any major problems during the tapering. However... Its was when the drug is out of my system that my hellish journey began. I had physical symptoms for around 3 weeks (flu like bug - on and off) But i could deal with that. Then the depression came and it is bad. I think its maybe getting slightly better but its a very slow burner.

I am going to keep going - there is no way I am going back on this medication. It has its uses and it works but... its seriously strong mind altering stuff and it scares me.

I am ok. I will get better and better and you can too.

Anyone else going through this currently?

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Posted

    i m in a depression what symptoms , i want to see how bad i feel.

    i cant see forward i feel so disconnected from the things i love.

    im so sad all the time ,does this sound similar?

    • Posted

      Hi David

      Sorry to hear that. Are you on or off Sertraline?

    • Posted

      i see. I cannot really respond as well as id like to that as I am off Sertraline and that is what my post was about. To be honest I was fine on them. Sorry.

  • Posted

    hi there just found your post I'm really going through it right now and I'm so scared of what is happening. I also was on sertraline for about 3 years due to pain with surgery from my gallbladder and being depressed and having really bad anxiety and ocd. I didn't realise that when I first started sertaline I probably had some sort of adverse effect to it even back then but because I was in so much pain with my gallbladder ETC I thought it was all down to that. So I came of sertraline about 3 months ago and felt the same as you at first I felt the flu type feelings but then I was ok for abit then suddenly about a month down the line I started getting the worst anxiety and depression I've ever had and my ocd went through the roof so I decided to start sertraline again last Thursday. I took one sertaline at 50mg last Thursday and one 50mg last Friday then suddenly everything went really wrong. I started have the some sort of really bad reaction to them about 6 hours after taking the first tablet. I started having the worst panic attack I've ever had with uncontrollable crying, shaking and a tremor all over my body, my skin started feeling like it was on fire with a type of crushing feeling and pins and needles, cramping in my muscles, I became really confused and nearly unresponsive to everything and had no idea what was going on, my stomach then became really upset and felt sick 24/7 and haven't been able to eat since last Thursday so just over a week now I haven't been able to eat anything and have to force myself to drink, I can't sleep and also get woken out of my sleep all night long with sweating hands and feet and feeling hot all over also having the worst nightmares and feeling like I'm going to have a panic attack as soon as I wake up and it feels like the world is about to end and that's when the crying spells come in and I became kind of not there and not with it for about 5 hours after this. also I have experienced type of seizure type feelings to. it's so scary. I had the paramedics come out last Saturday and they didn't really do much and just said it's probably a bad reaction and it will clear up in a few days and to get hold of my doctor on Monday if things carry on and which they did carry on so I had to phone my doctor who said nearly the same thing that I was having a bad reaction to the sertaline and it should probably be ok once it come out and if it gets worse phone back at the end of the week. which today I had to phone them back as I'm still feeling awful and I'm still having these awful symptoms and now they are saying it could be a mild serotonin syndrome which is so scary and if it doesn't get better or improve over the weekend then I might need to go to hospital which is so scary as I have ocd about catching anything and with everything that's going around at the moment I'm scared of catching something on top of having all of this going on. I can't believe they missed it at the beginning when they first came out to see me. if i would of known all of this was going to happen I would of never of gone back on sertraline because it's made me the most ill I've ever felt, I can't believe it. are you still getting any symptoms now? And does it get any better and if so how long does it take because I'm so scared this is going to last a long time and with the symptoms I'm having that going to be awful I can't imagine it. any advice would be really appreciated many thanks.

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