coming off of Zoloft, anything I can do to help my body adjust?

[jennica]

I was diagnosed with PTSD, PPD and anxiety after Ds was born 28 months ago. I've taken zoloft for one year, but I've decided to go off of it. My mood is stabalized and I've gained 20 pounds so I want to go off of it and loose the weight, plus some. I'm still in therapy, well, sort of, not at the moment due to lack of funds, but I plan on returning as soon as I find a job. I still have unresolved trauma that needs to be worked out in therapy.

Anyway, I'm only on 50 mg. I started cutting my pills in half and taking half pills every day. I've done this for about a week now. Well, just recently I noticed that I am frequently dizzy and sort of nautious. I've also noticed some anxiety creeping back in, but I am planning to increase excercise and mediate in the hopes of warding that off. I didn't expect my body to react to such a degree afte only cutting back a small amount.

Is there any vitamins or anything that will help with the dizzyness or just the process of going off the drug? I'm already on about 1000 mg of fish oil a day and I plan to double that soon (trying to allow my body to adjust to it). Anything else I can do?

[timneh_mom]

I came off Effexor a couple of years before I got pregnant with DS, and it was really hard. I should have done it much slower than I did, but I was already taking a very low dose and they are capsules so it would have been hard to do it slower. I'd just encourage you to go really slowly, I'm curious too, to see if there would have been anything else I could have done to make it easier. Hope you are feeling better soon!! It was a bear coming off Effexor.

[mom0810]

Watch the fish oil. Too much of that with zoloft can increase anxiety. Too much fish oil ALONE can actually increase anxiety.

Go off of it as SLOW as you can. You've been on it for a year, what's a couple of months to get off? I know you want off NOW, but you will feel SO much better going off really really slow.

If you are down to 50 now, take that for a few weeks. Don't go down any lower. You need to take a long time to wean. Once you are doing okay on 50, I would do one day on 50 and then one day on 25 for a few weeks, then go to 25. Stay there for a month or so, and then do one every other day for a month. Then you can stop.

This is NO substitute for a psychiatrist's advice, but it is what I have heard a lot of people do. I would keep the fish oil where it is until you are down to 25 every other day.

The nausea, dizziness are normal withdrawl (discontinuation) symptoms. You may also have a day or two where you feel flu-ish, might even run a fever for a day. But if you really think you are ready to go off, then I would go the route of very very very slowly. I know it's longer to be on the meds, but you will save yourself a lot of discomfort and anxiety if you do it really slow.

[jennica]

Originally Posted by mom0810

Watch the fish oil. Too much of that with zoloft can increase anxiety. Too much fish oil ALONE can actually increase anxiety.

Go off of it as SLOW as you can. You've been on it for a year, what's a couple of months to get off? I know you want off NOW, but you will feel SO much better going off really really slow.

If you are down to 50 now, take that for a few weeks. Don't go down any lower. You need to take a long time to wean. Once you are doing okay on 50, I would do one day on 50 and then one day on 25 for a few weeks, then go to 25. Stay there for a month or so, and then do one every other day for a month. Then you can stop.

This is NO substitute for a psychiatrist's advice, but it is what I have heard a lot of people do. I would keep the fish oil where it is until you are down to 25 every other day.

The nausea, dizziness are normal withdrawl (discontinuation) symptoms. You may also have a day or two where you feel flu-ish, might even run a fever for a day. But if you really think you are ready to go off, then I would go the route of very very very slowly. I know it's longer to be on the meds, but you will save yourself a lot of discomfort and anxiety if you do it really slow.

Thanks, this is what I was wondering about. Where did you here this info about the fish oil? I've never heard that before.

[Firefly0345]

I just want to second what was said earlier about going off really, really slowly (as in, take months, not weeks to go off). I am not a psychiatrist and agree that there is no substitute for someone who really understands these meds helping a person go off. The way the medication interacts with your system is affected by a variety of factors (one of which being the half-life of the medication itself, but there are others). For some people, if they go off too quickly, even if they feel fine for a while, the symptoms can come back with a vengeance.

Some things I have read said to go off no more than 5% per week, at a max (and it is probably best to stretch this out to 5% every couple weeks, better to go really slow than too fast). If you went from 50mg to 25mg that is a 50% reduction, quite a bit for a person's body to handle! Also, sometimes using the liquid can help you taper off more slowly because it is easier to take less of a liquid than a pill.

Also, as for the fish oil, the actual amount of DHA and EPA can make a difference, so you do want to be on really high quality (and usually expensive pills). The ones from the grocery store may not cut it.

It also might be a good idea to taper off while in counseling or seeing a psychiatrist just to have someone help you monitor your moods. It can be really hard to notice yourself, but it is an important factor.

Hope you get to feeling better.

[mom0810]

The info about fish oil is from the book, The Mood Cure. She talks about how it can make you more agitated and nervous if
1) you take too much of it, and
2) you take it with an ssri.

[jennica]

Originally Posted by mom0810

The info about fish oil is from the book, The Mood Cure. She talks about how it can make you more agitated and nervous if
1) you take too much of it, and
2) you take it with an ssri.

I'm just having a hard time with this concept I guess. It's not making sense to me. Fish oil is simpy an oil, like many other edible oils that are in our diets. So why would taking too much, or taking it with an ssri, cause anxiety? I mean, what is the science behind that? Does it discuss this in that book? How did she come to this conclusion? I'm really wondering because my therapist told me to take 2000 mg of fish oil for depression/anxiety. And Dr. Sears said that ds should be taking 1000 mg (2 500 mg capsules) of fish oil a day for his Verbal Apraxia. Ds has some mild anxiety, so I don't want to increase that with giving him too much fish oil, but I also feel pretty confident that 1000 mg is the correct amount. So if he should be taking 1000 mg, then it makes sense that I should be taking 2000 mg, since I am an adult and all. But now you have me worried :

[mom0810]

I am not sure, other than the fish oil obviously DOES have an effect on the brain, or people would not recommend taking it for depression. Julia Ross says it can cause hyperactivity and restlessness, I remember, and that too much of it, when taken with an ssri, especially, is not good. I believe because it enhances the action of the ssri. It's been a while since I read the book, and I have loaned it out since then. But it makes sense that it would enhance the activity of the ssri.

It's not a good idea to take ANY two things that enhance serotonin function at one time. You risk serotonin syndrome, which is not a good thing.

As far as 1000 mg for a child, I would think that is fine. People treating depression with fish oil usually take MUCH more than that.

[mamaboobaAES]

Fish oil treats depression by depleting tryptophan, the precursor to serotonin. Thereby lowering serotonin. Fish oil is essentially the opposite of an SSRI.

It is also antiinflammatory. Recently a bipolar study on fish oil was halted out of ethical concerns because the placebo group needed to be immediately put on fish oil. It was 14 tabs a day in the study.

To get off drugs carefully you should look at theroadback.org or drugawareness.org or breggin.com

I also have a vitamin regimen that should help,
I will post more later, baby is crying.

[mamaboobaAES]

I was going to post this long thing about cal-mag for sleep and a "drug bomb" vitamin regimen, I remembered that I can't violate the UA with anything longer than 100 words. So I will pm it to you.

As for the fish oil and high blood pressure, I do not know if this was said earlier because I skimmed, but I read in Alt. Med. that if you don't balance the 3 / 6/ 9 it can cause high blood pressure.

However you get a lot of 6 and 9 in your diet. If you want me to go look up the article and post the info on it let me know. I think you need a 3 to 1 ratio of 6 to 3.

Also, fish oil is WAY safer even if it did raise your blood pressure, than Zoloft.

[mamaboobaAES]

When I was coming off Zoloft I cut the tablets in half once I got to 50, I went to 25. Prior to that I was on 150. I did 100 for 3 weeks, then 75 or 50 (can't remember) for 1-2 weeks, then 25, then stopped. Withdrawal was scary. Once I was off I started feeling normal again though after about 2 weeks. But I still had protracted withdrawal for a long time.

Withdrawal is very dangerous because your brain and body need time and space to recover from the rebound you're putting it through as you remove the drug. But it's not the same as relapse.

Experts on withdrawal recommend a much slower time frame than what I did or what some docs say.

Breggin reccomends a 10% reduction in dose for two weeks every two weeks until you're through (not sure about the # of weeks... I will have to double check). The problem is finding a way to get a pill 10% lower in dose... maybe a compounding pharmacy or special rx would work. Ann Tracy recommends you spend about half as long withdrawing from the drug as you were taking it. If you want to go faster it's up to you, just be aware that withdrawal can be very difficult for some and it shouldn't be taken lightly. I was lucky b/c my mom was supervising me the entire time. She moved in for about 6 months or so w/ my first because I was psycho, later we figured out it was all because of zoloft.

Anyway check out theroadback.org or pm me if you want more info. I have some books I can check.

[jennica]

Originally Posted by mamaboobaAES

I was going to post this long thing about cal-mag for sleep and a "drug bomb" vitamin regimen, I remembered that I can't violate the UA with anything longer than 100 words. So I will pm it to you.

I got the PM, thanks! I'll look it over soon.