Zoloft Withdrawal

[cmb431]

I had mild anxiety last july 2008 and my family doctor prescribed me buspar. After two weeks I felt very blue, and was put on 50 mg of zoloft. The zoloft didn't seem to help too much. It somewhat cured the depression but not the anxiety. In september, bumped it up to 75(anxiety with school). After another month of feeling like a zombie, I met with a doctor and made the decision to wean off 25 mg every 3 weeks. Weaning off 75 to 50 was pretty easy, felt a little tired the first few days. When weaning to 25, I felt absolutely PHENOMENAL for 2 weeks on 25 mgs. Best I've felt in a while. Smile was back. Energy. Everything was great. I then went to a few parties, drank socially. After two weeks on 25 mg, I have began to feel terrible. Extremely tired, physically and mentally. Headaches, muscle weakness. Just feel like ****.

These symptoms have lasted for close to a week now. Should I continue the weaning process?

[birdie0907]

Printing is a great idea. I would take it all to a pharmacist so you get some info and perhaps ideas about relief before Wed. Ask about the life of the drug in your system so you have some idea of how long it takes to clear. You need real info from pro's not guesses from me.
Also take it to your doc. It is so easy to forget some important point but crucial that you don't, since you only see the doc occasionally.

I don't know anything about this drug, but wouldn't taper down any lower until you stabilize, especially since you see the doc on Wed.

You wrote,
"he said I should switch to zoloft for its anxiety/depression help.
I complied. Felt ok. Moved back to school and anxiety returned(again normal). He told me to jump it up to 75."

So here are 2 questions:
1. Are you feeling worse now than you did when you initially started taking 25's?
It doesn't sound like you got any total relief throughout your meds period. I believe you started taking meds in the early summer, like June.
2. When did you start and is it true, there has been no period of calmness and not depression?  The only reason I ask is I was told I had been under anxiety/depression attack long enough that I couldn't remember what being happy felt like. I disagreed at the time thinking that was not the problem but it must have been, since once I got anti-depressed I stayed that way. It is up to your doc in combo with your feedback to figure out the best solution for you.

[cmb431]

Luckily, I have a meeting with my doc again this Wednesday.

Basically, I am 21 years old. I went to my doctor in the beginning of summer because I had mild chest pain and had been feeling on edge. This could be due to a number of reasons: work, recently moved, impending graduation, many stressors. It didn't really affect my life, but it was a bit concerning. So, he prescribed me buspar. On day 2, my anxiety skyrocketed so he doubled my dose. After two weeks of that, I began to feel pretty blue, called the doctor and he said I should switch to zoloft for its anxiety/depression help.

I complied. Felt ok. Moved back to school and anxiety returned(again normal). He told me to jump it up to 75. I wasn't having panic attacks, just felt kinda numb. So after two months I met with a psychiatrist and told her that I still didn't feel back to normal(before going on buspar) My concern was that anxiety/depression was being caused by the meds. I know I am a worrier, but not this bad. It's like I want to be back to my old happy self, but I just "feel" bad. Like its a sickness. Hard to explain. But it seems that its not a concrete sadness issue, I'm actually pretty happy, just feel awful.

So I began to wean off at the counseling of the psychiatrist. 25 mgs every 3 weeks. As I said, didn't notice much of a difference going 75 to 50. Just tired for a few days. Then I dropped 50 to 25. Tired for 3 days. Woke up and felt great. Happy. Full of energy. Excited about tomorrow. Felt fantastic. Went home for break. After two weeks of 25 mgs, I started to get a little anxious. I went out with some friends, drank a good amount. Got a pretty wicked hangover. By day 3, hangover turned into just an absolute funk. This funk is a combination of mental and physical fatigue, disconnected feeling, brain haze, headaches. Im able to do everything in my life, just don't feel too hot. This sunday will be 3 weeks on 25 mgs and should be when I switch to every other day, but it concerns me because I'm not feeling 100%. Especially when I'm feeling more like 50%.

But should I try to quit it and see if I feel better. In the next week, I am also getting tested for sleep apnea which may be a possible culprit as well.

OK. Thats the jist. Thanks for the help. I'm gonna print this out because it let me really organize the past few weeks. Any input is helpful.

[birdie0907]

Interesting situation. The anxiety was still there but your doc weaned you off just because you felt like a zombie? Anxiety breeds depression so why didn't he switch meds instead of leaving anxiety free?
I am curious why the anxiety went away at 25, but am not familiar with Zoloft but your pharmacist will be.

Write back to make sure we understand your situation.
You need to update your doc again. Get some background info from a pharmacist until you can see the doc. I find that calling the drug mfgr. does not provide much help as it is an over the phone thing and they have liabilities to worry about whereas your pharmacist can be more informal.