Posted by BarbaraCat on July 19, 2002, at 21:36:55
In reply to Re: Coming off zoloft » cvb, posted by Rach on July 19, 2002, at 13:17:30
Hi Rach,
I've been there, oh, I've been there as well. It is a sneaky progression downhill. By the time you've really hit the skids it's almost long enough that you've forgotten about stopping the meds. Life just sucks and it doesn't even matter that it's due to severe neuotransmitter brain hell. It's bad enough being depressed enough to take ADs in the first place. Being depressed with even less receptors and little serotonin floating around is ghastly.I've been taking zoloft, prozac, celexa, paxil, with zoloft being the longest at around 8 years. I've weaned off them probably 6 times over my 20 year history with ADs. Even going very slowly it's still extremely rough. I've heard that the lag time both before and after have to do with the growth or 'death' of the serotonin receptors. The growing back is a long term process, some even theorize they never completely do and one ends up dependent upon these meds. Who knows what's really going on? I do know that I've never been able to stay off them for longer than 6 months and probably will never know whether that's because I'm 'hooked' or because I really need them.
Well, we'll see. I'm currently in the ramp down stage with Remeron, intending to be fully off my 75mg in about 6 months. Already after 2 weeks at a smidgen lower I'm feeling it. And dang, I've also given up drinking which is seeming like a masochistic idea about now.
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:5582
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/112967.html