Getting off of Zoloft

[RachLease]

I have been taking 200mg of Zoloft for two years everyday. I am going to start getting off of them soon. What are the some of the withdrawals that I am going to experience?  

[nursegirl6572]

Are you going to be switching to a different medication after coming off the Zoloft?  Just keep the lines of communication open with your doc during this process.

Good luck to you!

[RachLease]

Thanks! That was really helpful. The reason I'm going to try to get off of it is because I get a lot of the side effects and I want to try other things, thank you!You made me feel a little better about getting off if them. :)

[nursegirl6572]

You may experience some symptoms of a discontinuation syndrome (aka "withdrawal"), but if you have a good doctor who knows his/her stuff, you should be just fine.  You need to make sure that you ask your doc to help you formulate a SLOW and gradual taper plan.  If a taper is done properly, the symptoms of withdrawal are either greatly minimized, or eliminated all together.  I've never had any trouble when I tapered off an antidepressant personally and I have tapered off both Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro (at different times obviously).

The most common things to expect, if you're going to have symptoms, is an increase in anxiety or depression, labile moods, irritability, headache, sleep disturbances and the infamous "brain zaps".  I wouldn't get too focused on worrying about that stuff though, because like I said, with a proper weaning plan, you may do perfectly fine.

If I may ask, why are you coming off the Zoloft?  Just make sure whatever you do, that you make that decision VERY carefully.  There are countless people (me included) who decided to come off their medication, only to very much regret it later.  If you're making this decision because you think you "don't need it anymore", or because you "shouldn't need a medication to feel normal", I would urge you to reconsider and think about it.  It's usually not until we're off the meds that we realize just how much they were helping us.  The reasons I listed above are common ones that lead to that post-discontinuation regret of the decision.

Very best to you, keep us updated!