Posted by Rach on July 19, 2002, at 22:41:17
In reply to Re: Zoloft 50mg to 100mg » Rach, posted by Preston on July 19, 2002, at 15:27:01
On 100mg, after a settling in period of maybe a month, I felt normal. Actually, now that I think properly about it, thats not at all true.
I was on 100mg for about 6 months. I spent most of that time in my parent's home, doing nothing. I didn't work, I didn't go to uni, I spent most of my time playing freecell on the computer. I guess at the time I was just happy to be getting up in the morning, and not wanting to sleep my life away. But now that I really think back on it, I was barely functioning in any 'normal' sense. But I needed that to turn my life around and start doing those 'normal' things like getting up before 2pm, sleeping before 6am, eating proper meals. I was having weekly counselling at this time.
Once I realised I was functioning in those respects, with my doc we made the decision to cut back so I could feel my emotions and start to try to have a natural life. I then made a very bad decision that I was feeling so much better and didn't need the meds anymore, so I went off cold turkey, without my doc, and proceeded to very slowly and insidiously sink back into depression worse than I ever had before. This took about 5 months to eventuate, and symptoms I'd never had before began, like agoraphobia and anxiety. I ended up dropping everything again and returning home to live with my parents while I started back on zoloft 50mg. After two months I started working full time, and now I am back at Uni. It's been about a year since I went back onto the 50mg, and I'm not going off it for at least another 6 months I think. Because I still do get down. I still have bad times. But I much more likely not to fall into depression so severely, and usually I get up within a few days, instead of a few months. My coping skills are increasing, and I hope that one day I won't need the med.
But I'm not going off until I know for sure. Because the last thing I want is to undo all the bullshit I've gone through in the past few years.
poster:Rach
thread:112822
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/112972.html