Antidepressant withdrawal

[Lannister902]

Hi,
I'm just wondering if anyone's withdrawn off sertraline, and how they coped with it/side effects (what are the side effects I can expect?) etc...

I'm on 150mg, and my thinking is to reduce 50mg at a time every week. I'm not sure if that's an overkill and I'm OK to go cold turkey, or I need to be more cautious?

[tonyvid]

Hi, good luck and take it really slowly, depending on how long you have been taking it for. I'm sure there is "proper" advice out there for each specific medication(you should really discuss this with your Doc first) but try dropping by a 1/3 or a 1/2 every other day for a couple of weeks, if that feels ok drop on the other days for a couple of weeks and then continue to reduce. I don't know what the half life of that particular medication is so it might flush out pretty quickly or hang about for a few days before dropping. Coming off another SSRI caused me all sorts of issues, mostly feeling dizzy, clumsy or a bit drunk - I think I broke just about every glass in the house over a few weeks so go easy! Weird dreams, funny fizzes, expect all sorts if you've been on them for a good while

I was on Mirtazipine for a couple of years which is a different class of AD, it had the rather good side effect of making you sleep forever(and the downside of becoming a fat bd..) Coming off it was a lot easier but I don't think I've had a decent night's sleep since and that was a 2 years ago, humph.

[Gecko1978]

citalipram for like 10 years now....I feel fine so don't think I will ever stop taking it. Best of luck an speak to gp and follow the advice.

[Lannister902]

I've reduced my dosage from 150mg to 10mg. Right now I feel like I'm on both ends of the scale, I can't sleep all day/night, but when I do doze off, I can sleep for 14 hours straight.

[MOBB]

Take your time, small reduction each time. No rush!

My main withdrawal symptoms were brain zaps, annoying but not too unpleasant