Showing Zoloft the Door

[Fred_The_Cat]

Many (probably most) of us are on or have been on antidepressants, with zoloft probably being a common one. This means monstrous weight gain for many and a desire to get off of it.

I've never struggled with my weight before, even after a year of having margaritas every single night. But as soon as I was on 50mg of Zoloft, I packed on 15 lbs.

Two weeks ago I said enough was enough and made a taper down schedule:

25 mg for two weeks
25 mg and 12.5 mg alternated for 2 weeks
12.5 mg for two weeks
12.5 mg and a blank dose alternated for two weeks

Right now I'm at the 25 mg and 12.5 alternated dose. There have been some slight changes, but no "bottom falling out of my life" feelings like when I tried quitting cold turkey.

Has anyone here quit zoloft or another ssri successfully? How did it go?

[RedThread12]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Zoloft kind of quit me when I was at about 180 mg bac/dy - which is as high as I have gone, consistently. I don't remember deciding "I'm going to quit taking Zoloft." I just did. With no problem at all. I do remember noticing some "zaps, " and remembering that those can be part of stopping Zoloft. But I was already zapping from the bac, so there was no real discomfort. I was taking 100mg/day for several years.

So I think your plan is good, and chanes for success quite high! Good luck.

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Did you gain any weight while on it, and, if so, did it come off? Vain person that I am, it's actually my main concern.

[RedThread12]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Hmmm . . . it's been a while. But in all honesty, I started Zoloft along with Seroquel my first "sober." I guess they are both notorious for adding weight, but I don't have that connected, for me. What I DO know, and have posted repetitiously, in the past, is that l-glutamine, All-One, and a lot of neuro-transmitters stabilized my blood sugar and disappeared about 24 lbs. that I had been heaving around for a long time. The list, et al, is here in several threads. If you don't find it, message me and I'll send it to you. Oh, never mind. I'll send it to you tomorrow. Thanks for your input.

[Cassander]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Fred_The_Cat;1533594 wrote: ...Vain person that I am, it's actually my main concern.

Fred -- Are you the feline or the human in your avatar? Cassander

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Cassander;1533676 wrote: Fred -- Are you the feline or the human in your avatar? Cassander

Sometimes I wonder about that myself.

So far, so good. I have up days and down days, but nothing close to being kicked in the stomach with despair as has happened before.

[paulywogg]

Showing Zoloft the Door

i gained 50 pounds in 8 months on zoloft,i was on it nearly 2 yrs,i quit it in a week,all i felt was dizziness

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Did the weight ever shed? I have not heard good things about long term weight prospects with zoloft.

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Blegh, I weighed in at 160 this morning. Losing the weight is taking too long. I've decided to try cold turkey from 12.5 milligrams- if things get bad I can always start taking it again.

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Back up to 12.5 this evening. The withdrawal effects are coming on slowly and I know they're going to get worse. I feel like the connection between my mind and body is on the verge of snapping and that at any moment I could cackle with laughter for no apparent reason. It was also extremely hard to get out of bed this morning- I had trouble just making myself care. If this goes on the paranoia and obsession with past transgressions will take up hours of my time.

At least I'm catching it early enough to go back to a partial dose. Last time when I went cold turkey things were so bad I came crawling back to the full dose.

[paulywogg]

Showing Zoloft the Door

hang in there fred

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Today was quite stressful.

Our boss has requested overtime on Saturdays, and, being sober I jumped at the chance while the other coworkers in my group had better things to do. I went in with a couple of emails as guidance and got to a good stopping point- so I thought.

I made a misjudgment in excel that turned out to be costly- and there was quite a bit of effort today fixing it. Compounding the situation is the fact that one of my coworkers is a recent graduate who does not yet know the ropes of office etiquette and has been using my mistakes as a whipping tool.

This sent me into a tailspin of panic that my coworkers were talking behind my back and conspiring to take me down- an obvious sign that I'm not quite ready to be off zoloft yet. I hardly got anything done and I'm planning to go in at 5:00 tomorrow to catch up.

I do believe I handled it well- I sent an email to my manager saying that we need to be more organized going into Saturday so no individual person is liable for mistakes. I am on good terms with him and I know he will appreciate my handling this situation proactively like an adult instead of lodging accusatory complaints.

Still, this underscores a troubling trend in my work history with having terrible attention to detail. I thought it would go away with being sober, but it hasn't really gotten better. I feel that going into antidepressant withdrawal will only make things worse.

Another thing- and this scares me more than anything else- is that I had a long history of paranoid anxiety before I started taking any medications. It could very well be my natural tendencies resurfacing.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to sleep on it and hope to kick some ass tomorrow.

[neophyte]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Fred_The_Cat;1535428 wrote:

This sent me into a tailspin of panic that my coworkers were talking behind my back and conspiring to take me down- an obvious sign that I'm not quite ready to be off zoloft yet. I hardly got anything done and I'm planning to go in at 5:00 tomorrow to catch up.

I started taking zoloft around 2004, stayed on it for years and for some reason decided i didn't need to be on it anymore so i stopped, guess what happened next? I became an alcoholic and all the old obsessions and thoughts of people conspiring against me resurfaced but i didn't realise it because i was using alcohol to relax at night.

I',m back on the Zoloft now and waiting for my Bac to come in the mail. Being back on Zoloft has made me really realize how bad i was over the past few years, today is a good day. I just need to kick this alcohol and im hoping bac will do that for me.

my point of quoting you though is, why get off the zoloft?

[Fred_The_Cat]

Showing Zoloft the Door

neophyte;1535442 wrote: I started taking zoloft around 2004, stayed on it for years and for some reason decided i didn't need to be on it anymore so i stopped, guess what happened next? I became an alcoholic and all the old obsessions and thoughts of people conspiring against me resurfaced but i didn't realise it because i was using alcohol to relax at night.

I',m back on the Zoloft now and waiting for my Bac to come in the mail. Being back on Zoloft has made me really realize how bad i was over the past few years, today is a good day. I just need to kick this alcohol and im hoping bac will do that for me.

my point of quoting you though is, why get off the zoloft?

I'm getting fat.

[some-dumbass]

Showing Zoloft the Door

Fred_The_Cat;1535450 wrote: I'm getting fat.

seriously, which is more important - panic, paranoia & possibly relapsing, or being fat?

if you really want to come off the Zoloft because of the SE's, can't you talk to your doctor & work something out to taper you off the Zoloft & onto something else in a controlled manner?

also, I'm not really clear whether you think the problems are down the the SE's of the taper, or the re-emergence of previous symptoms due to the lower dose

for what it's worth, I've tapered off Seroxat/Paroxetine & either Cipramil/Citalopram or Ciplalex/Escitalopram (can't remember which, or doses), & Zimovane/Zopliclone too for that matter, without any major issues, although I was never really convinced that the SSRI's did anything for me except give me mild SE's