Long term Zoloft problem

[gofio]

I'm a long term patient on Venlafaxine & Zoloft. My psychiatrist says that I should stay on them for rest of my life ~ when I first took Zoloft the Dr. said 'don't stay on them for more than a few days or you'll be hooked', after a breakdown he changed the advice to 'they won't do you any harm' continue to take them. I'm now dependent on them, tried coming off them, but in spite of tapering off slowly it became necessary to return to hospital. Side effects from both drugs seem to be responsible for most of the things listed on the leaflets that come with the drugs. Now got cataracts, but these are of recent origin, when my vision blurred I had an eye test & was prescribed glasses for TV/driving etc. That was in Feb, my sight deteriorated from then rapidly & the cataracts that I was told were not there in Feb are now present in May. The Venlafaxine was upped to 150 mg daily,( I'd been on 75mg without problems, but Psych. advised me to increase it & continue with the Zoloft. Memory problems/confusion/shakes etc are of concern to me. At my age maybe the people that prescribe find it the best option for me, but I'm not convinced. Zoloft gets me off to sleep, but I wake many times during the night & at c.0500hrs I'm unable to get back to sleep again. Zoloft dose is small, but constant 37.5 mg daily. Is there a way I could get off Zoloft & hopefully return to Ven. at  75 mg ~ what are my options? Thanks for any advice you can offer. George