coming off of zoloft after long term use

[joannenate]

I am a 48 year old female. I have been taking zoloft for about 5 years and now I want to come off of it, but I keep having crazy withdrawl symptoms from it. I started taking because my dr felt that I needed something for anxiety when all I wanted was something to help me to get a good night sleep. I think it was very uneccessary to put me on it. I'm on 50 mg now. I started with 100 mg everyday. I don't like it at all. It does nothing for my depression and anxiety. I continue to take it every other day just to keep down the withdrawl symptoms. If I go more than 2 days without it I will get dizzy, nauseas, brain zapps, confusion, and so on. In the middle of the night I wake up screaming from anxiety attacks whenever I try to miss a couple of days...I really want to get off this stuff. don't know what to do at all about it. Just want to get off without all these side effects...especially the anxiety attacks and brain zapps. I also have a seizure disorder which makes it worse when I try to let go of it. Wish I would have never started this stuff. I truly blame my doctor who demanded I take it instead of ambien. I didn't know anything about zoloft. Please tell me what I can do to get off of this crazy medicine.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Paxiled is right..a very slow taper. You might go back to everyday and cut dose in half and do this for two weeks..then every other day, then every third day that last week of four.  Be sure and have your doctor increase you seizure medication dose while doing this, especially at the end.

[Paxiled]

Did you taper off or just quit abruptly?  It should be slowly tapered off of at a schedule that suits you.  Try reading a book called The Anti-Depression Solution by Joseph Glanville.  If it gets too hard to handle, you can go on the last dose at which you felt fine, and taper more slowly.