Husband Quit Taking his Zoloft

[Merriweather]

My husband abruptly stopped taking his Zoloft several weeks ago without discussing with me prior.   He thought he was gaining too much weight while on the medication.  I have been in pure hell for the last month.  Our relationship is going down the tubes and I can't seem to get through to him.  He has lashed out repeatedly at me and has no patience with our son.  I feel like his anxiety/depression has reached a worse place than it was even before he began anti depressants.  What other meds should he consider trying?  Can he just start back up on the Zoloft?  Any advice is appreciated.  I'm dying here.  

[dwt7let]

Hi
Your husband is having bad withdrawals when you take these drugs they switch off adrenaline and when you stop them it goes into over drive. Withdrawals mimic depression he could take 5HTP this converts to seretonin in the morning and melatonin of an evening you can build up to 400 mg's and it is natural and not addictive. Ask in the health shop how to take it.
My Dr quit me off effexor cold turkey and it has not been easy, tell your husband to do some exercise. I take 40 mg's of propananol beta blocker in the morning and 100 mg's of clonodine they give this to people coming off drink and drugs.
This is not your husband it's symptoms of an addiction. I wish you luck and hope you
and your family will be ok !!
Love
Lorraine xx

[SLadylani]

That is a side-effect a lot of people have a hard time with when taking anti-depressents; weight gain. Generally the weight gain is limited to 2-3 lbs, if that will ease your husbands mind, but sometimes just knowing about the side affect makes the paranoia about it worse. Zoloft I've heard is actually supposed to be one of the better anti-depressants to be on for weight gain, but it does depend on the person. The best would be to start up on the Zoloft again, if you can convince your husband, perhaps joining a gym together or making a decision to go for walks each morning will help. But either way you can't live like this in my opinion, and you need to let him know this. Another suggestion would be to try another anti-depressent if it's the side-effect that bothers him so much. I've done research, and so far I know the only anti-depressent to not have a weight gaining effect, it actually has loss of appetite effect, is Effexor, but is in a different class and can affect people different ways. But this needs to be discussed with your husbands psychiatrist. I trully feel you being open and honest with how you feel with your husband is important, and giving him some options of what you would like to see happen. I wish you both good luck.

Sara RN

[bbaggins]

Quitting any AD med cold-turkey is a bad idea. If anything, have him taper off. Quitting cold-turkey can actually make the anxiety and depression worse.

There are several other medications you can talk to his or your doctor about including Wellbutrin, Effexor, Pristiq for the depression and Xanax or Ativan for the anxiety.

All AD meds are hit and miss for everyone. What might work for one person may not work for the next. You just have to try them and see what sticks.

I took Effexor, but didn't like the sexual side-effects, so I switched to Wellbutrin which gave me all kinds of bad side-effects, so I ended up going back to the Effexor. My wife is on Pristiq, but she's been diagnosed as being bipolar. She had to try different ones as well until she found one that worked.