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Setraline discontinuation syndrome

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rachellebelle
rachellebelle

My doctor put me on 50mg of setraline back in August. Everything was fine until recently so I've decided to come off of it and try more natural ways of coping with my anxiety.

I tapered my dose from 50mg to 25mg for two weeks and then took 25mg every other day for a week and on Sunday I took my last dose. Wednesday night, I woke up at 1:30 am after only an hour of sleep with extreme nausea, hot flashes and severe muscle tremors. I was terrified and couldn't sleep the rest of the night. These symptoms have not let up in the slightest. They have been so extreme that I had blood work ordered to see if I was diabetic. The results came back normal, but the symptoms have not let up.

I have horrible indigestion after eating: burping, stomach rumbles, nausea and near vomiting. The muscle tremors have come and gone over the past two days and I'm extremely susceptible to motion sickness, more than usual.

I have a friend who has commented that maybe it's all in my head and that was the more discouraging thing I've heard. Reading that others have been through the same has been giving me hope. I'm not sure how long this will last but I return to my university next week and this is not what I wanted to be feeling like. I have been tempted to take another dose to relieve these symptoms because they are so bad, but I feel that if I do, I'll have to start all over again.

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • meteor63
    meteor63

    Posted

    Rachellebelle, hi. This is not all in your head. Sertraline is a particularly bad ssri for withdrawal symptoms. I came off mine in exactly the same way as you and I've had bad withdrawal symptoms too. What I did was go back on a low dose and it stopped them. I went back on 5mg. If you decide to go back on its up to you which dose you choose. 5mg worked for me.

    To get to 5mg, I crushed up 25mg in 25ml of water. I then used small syringe (I got this from amazon) to draw off 5ml of the liquid. It did stop my brain zaps.

    You could try this for a few days to see if it helps. If it doesn't then you can just stop.

    Hope this helps. I feel for you. It's miserable, finally getting off the drug then suffering withdrawal on top.

  • meteor63
    meteor63

    Posted

    Ps, if this works, you could then taper small amounts of this. The survivingantidepressants website has good info on tapering.
  • rachael58630
    rachael58630

    Posted

    I would probably suggest tapering a bit more slowly. I'm in the process of tapering and am now on my first week of 2 days off and 1 day with a 25mg dose. Although yesterday I

    Turned into an emotional wreck :-( I hope to keep this going for another week and then do the sane with 12.5mg although not sure how il half the tablet as I'm already hanging a 50mg tablet. On the plus side I've not had any nausea or muscle tremors although think I had my first brain zap the other night. I wish I'd never started taking these tablets. Good luck though and stay strong xx

  • rachael58630
    rachael58630

    Posted

    I would probably suggest tapering a bit more slowly. I'm in the process of tapering and am now on my first week of 2 days off and 1 day with a 25mg dose. Although yesterday I

    Turned into an emotional wreck :-( I hope to keep this going for another week and then do the sane with 12.5mg although not sure how il half the tablet as I'm already hanging a 50mg tablet. On the plus side I've not had any nausea or muscle tremors although think I had my first brain zap the other night. I wish I'd never started taking these tablets. Good luck though and stay strong xx

  • newie
    newie

    Posted

    I have just stopped taking 25mg of this tablet been on them for a week, as the side effects were terrible, similar to many posts. I am now going to look at other ways to deal with my anxiety, as this was not the tablet for me. Feeling dizzy and terrible stomach.

    Does anyone know how they take to get of your system?

    good luck

  • meteor63
    meteor63

    Posted

    I agree with you both sertraline is a horrible drug. Should be called Poisonine!

    Newie, you were on a low dose for only a week. 25mg is lower than the lowest 'therapeutic' dose. (They were never therapeutic for me..made me feel about a hundred times worse!!). They should be out of your system quite quickly. They have a half life of around 25 hours, so that means half of the last dose will be out of your system in 25 hours (I guess you'd have to add this to the half lives of the other drugs which will be down to very low levels by now). When it's left your system, your brain will just need to adjust to the change.

    Stupid drug!!

  • newie
    newie

    Posted

    thank you for the advice...

    I start a new job on Monday so hopefully this stuff should be out of me. I will never go along with this type of treatment again, it has been awful. once I get settled into a routine again maybe this anxiety will go, if not i can look at more natural ways..

    once again thanks so much for your advice.

    good luck to you also.

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