Posted by sk8rjockid on February 27, 2001, at 22:06:36
In reply to Re: withdrawal symptoms from Zoloft, posted by coral on November 19, 2000, at 22:15:10
Wow ... I just found this site and let me say that I was really glad to stumble upon it. I have been on zoloft for almost a year. First 25 mgs then 50 then 100 and now I am on 200mgs. I am also on zyban to quit smoking. I have also smoked pot for years b4 all of this. I am now pretty darn sure that i was self medicating with it. I had been physically assaulted twice by gay bashers (now that I have a metal plate in my arm [which incidently would have been my head if I hadnt caught his boot with my arm] the second time I was left unconscious in a parking lot while the perps (I know all the police lingo now) made off with my bookbag and my research notes and writings. My year long relationship crumbled if front of my eyes. My depressive episodes left me feeling alone, immobilized, and I would spontaneously weep--usually 3-5 times throughout the day. The department head of the graduate psychology program (!!!!!! weird eh?) I was in gave me the boot, but with a condition that I could come back if I got my dissertation in order. When I asked what I was to do about my student loans coming due, she replied, "I dont know, get a sugar daddy?" I've also been in psychotherapy for 4 years now and while things were pretty good when I first entered, I'm not sure if I'd be alive right now if it weren't for my therapist (and my friends). Well after all this time Im beginning to feel somewhat like myself again but with all the hurt and what is in my mind a slap in the face from my supposed academic "colleagues," Im still not feeling all that motivated to get my life going. Most of the time I would rather just stay in my room. I keep waiting for my self confidence to suddenly return or the Holy Ghost to step in and say "oh sorry im late I meant to get here with your epiphany when you first hit rock bottom" but I realize that is unrealistic at this point.
I can tell that Zoloft is merely a bandaid or a cough syryp in the sense that it doesnt remove the problems but makes living with them slightly more palatable. When I have had to stop taking Zoloft for financial and logistical reasons I begin to get what I refer to as NueroBioChemical Shocks ... my mouth gets a little dry, I feel a little woozy with out feeling dizzy and it's like a jolt or a quick zap. The only time I had something similar was when I went into an empty and unfamiliar classroom when I was 8 and everything kind of when white and I almost fainted. Im wondering if it might be some sort of panic attack like reaction. My mother was pretty tightly wound from PTSD 'cause my dad was a mess when he came back from Viet nam and used to beat her and her high anxiety rubbed off on me (I was always in the nurses office with stomach aches and later with debilitating complex migrain headaches that left half my body paralized--all that stopped the day I moved out on my own to go to college). I'm not sure if these withdrawl symptoms (the "neurobiochemical shocks") go away after more than I week but I was curious as to whether or not anyone else experienced something similiar. Thank you for letting me relate part of my story and knowing that others (who are or have gone through difficult times) might read it and feel the compassion that I have felt in reading the other stories here brings tears to my eyes -- the good kind =) My heart goes out to you all.
poster:sk8rjockid
thread:49078
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010221/msgs/55051.html