zololft withdrawal

[amanda77rainbow]

I was on Zoloft for depression for about 6 months after trying Prozac, Effexor, and a bunch of different combinations of sedatives, sleep aids, and antipsychotics. I was up to 300 mg, but the side effects, including horrible headaches, insomnia, nightmares, GI upset, and emotional numbness, never went away. I started to taper down with my psychopharmacologist's help. I tapered down to 50 mg, but my psychopharmacologist didn't want me to completely go off of it. She wasn't sure what to try next, but she didn't want to move to MAOIs yet (I agreed). At this point I think I was having some withdrawal symptoms--headaches and nausea along with night sweats--but my doctor didn't return my calls, so I couldn't figure it out. I stopped taking Zoloft altogether and feel emotionally and physically much better. I feel like my thoughts are moving at normal speed instead of the crawl they'd been going for the last 6 months. I'm feeling a fuller range of emotions--a range that includes pleasure and enjoyment as well as some sadness. I've been off of Zoloft for 11 days now. I'm still having night sweats, headaches, dizziness, and nightmares. About 3 days ago I started feeling really severe anger. My symptomology over the past 10 years, even when I was unmedicated, has included severe depression but never anger. In fact, I can't remember ever having mood swings like this. I've been alternating between feeling calm and being so enraged that I'm throwing things and screaming. My sister tells me that this doesn't look like a sign of regression because it's so completely out of character for me. I don't have the history of acting out my anger. I'm also having really violent nightmares and daydreams. My therapist is obviously concerned, but we can't get my psychopharmacologist to call me back. (I have an appointment with a new doctor in 2 weeks.) I'm wondering if this seems like withdrawal and, if so, how long it could last.

[amanda77rainbow]

Wow; finally some hope! I certainly feel ready to do some hard work, and off the medications my head is less cloudy. However, this anger feels disproportionate, and I still hold the hope that at least some of it will go away.

Thanks.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Although some of it sounds like withdrawals, the anger itself sounds like an opportunity.  Be psychotropic medications you have been on suppress a lot of normal feelings that you never get to until you are off a bit as you have experienced.  This is a golden opportunity for you and your therapist to explore and understand your anger which may actually be the source of the depression that you have been fighting.  You probably have no more than a week's more of withdrawal symptoms which should get less each day so if you possibly can you ought to try a timeout without any medication so you and your therapist to do some deep work.