You have a lot of misconceptions about how these drugs work. I think you've also gotten a very odd sense from someone that Zoloft caused your rectal bleeding but you say you were told it didn't cause the swelling. Lots of things can cause rectal bleeding, including hemorrhoids but also harder to find and diagnose anal fissures (had one, so I know). The thing is, no other drug is guaranteed to do a thing about your withdrawal from the Zoloft -- the only thing that most often works is to go back on the drug and taper off of it at a speed that suits you. That can only be done if the bleeding isn't attributable to the Zoloft, so the best thing you can do to start with is make sure this diagnosis is correct, especially if it's your suspicion and not the doctor's conclusion. From what I know from being on saris for years and years, they only cause bleeding on occasion when combined with NSAIDS. Doesn't mean you're wrong about it, just means it's rare if it's happening and there may be another explanation. As for your comparing equivalencies between drugs, there are no such things. You will see this discussed but it isn't true. The starting dose of Lexapro might be 5mg, but 10mg is the recommended dose for treating anxiety and 20mg for treating depression (I know because I was on it for a while). There is no equivalence between any dosage of any other antidepressant and Zoloft or any other antidepressant, as the key isn't that but how well you metabolize it. Remember, your body thinks this stuff is toxic and doesn't want it in your body, so all drugs have to be engineered to get around this problem. How well your liver and the rest of your system allows this to happen determines whether a drug will work at all and how much you need for it to work. The longer you're on a drug, many people find it poops out, and need more for it to work. Ssris also don't destroy receptors -- but they do cause the brain to determine many receptors are no longer needed because the drug has blocked the normal breakdown of serotonin and targeted it to wash around longer in the targeted receptors. Others shut down, and withdrawal is thought to be in large part the dormant receptors trying to turn on again. Sometimes, this doesn't ever work when someone has been on saris for a long time and sometimes this withdrawal can last a long time or forever, a condition called PAWS. You don't want this, so if you can go back on the Zoloft and successfully withdraw before starting a new drug it will be better for you. If you can't, you can't, and we can only hope the Lexapro will work for you. But all these drugs work differently from one another -- they have to or they wouldn't be able to get a patent. As for the difference between Xanax and valium, valium lasts longer in the body, though not as long as klonopin, but how well any drug will work is, again, dependent on you individually, so no one can tell you how it will feel. We have different brains and we experience drugs differently. Lots of people get tired when a benzo wears off, it's just the way it is. Many get tired while it's working. Others don't. Your particular body, how energetic you are, how much you exercise, how well your body metabolizes it, etc. will determine that, not a pamphlet or somebody else's experience. My own addition to this is only that, if a bad LSD trip was the cause of all this, therapy and not more drugs would have been the best thing -- most often, when drug use causes anxiety, it's because the experience was so bad you expect it to happen again and that becomes your way of thinking. If you get to it early enough, you can learn that you don't have to keep thinking like that, you just need to stay away from that particular drug. I have no idea if that can still happen, but I hope you're at least pursuing it. Most of us with chronic anxiety have no idea why it's there and so have little to work on in this way.
Well, the rectal bleeding is a rare side effect of the zoloft and it only happened on it when I was restarting it. Zoloft is known to cause diarrhea and other stomach issues also. When there is a risk for the receptors to never work again, this is definitely what I would certainly consider destroying them. Again, my second biggest regret in life was ever starting an SSRI. I know that a lot of the swelling can only be from the zoloft because swelling especially on hands and feet is a zoloft side effect. And the swelling didn't begin until I lowered the dose. Remember that serotonin is a hormone and screwing with one hormone will automatically throw off the balance of others.
When I first took zoloft originally there was no generic and I was told it was "safe" and not "habit forming." Which I obviously found out later was a lie. It is also shown in their own clinical trials that it was barely effective over a placebo. And that was only for people with very severe depression. SSRIs were never meant to be taken long term. They were only meant to be taken 12-18 months at the absolutely most. I never knew that originally either, which explains a lot. As far as the conversion, that comes from two different doctors and four different pharmacists. It's an estimated conversion. Obviously, there has to be some type of idea of a conversion between them, how else would they change between them after a long period of time and know what dose to give?
I was asking more about the effects of xanax vs valium. The valium was absolutely terrible and made me legs quiver along with some of the worst panic attacks I've ever had. Valium's half life is much longer than klonopin which it one reason I was so hesitant to take it and I paid the price because I was miserable for hours. (How long the effects last are different from the half life.) The half life of valium can be up to 100 hours vs 12 hours for xanax. I am now going to try ativan, but I am pretty traumatized after taking the valium. I still haven't been able to start the lexapro.