Posted by spriggyjig on June 20, 2007, at 10:12:25
Formerly my name was esokev, but I had to reregister.. was having some problems with computer stuff.
I've been staying off the boards for a while, because I'm starting a new med trial soon, and don't like to spook myself with some of the horror stories...
Anyway, my big Zoloft adventure. I've been tapering off for almost 2 1/2 months now. We've been using the liquid. The reason for the taper was an almost 100 lb weight gain. I'm very lucky that I have an affirming pdoc that listens and is concerned with all aspects of treatment. He took one look at how much weight I had gained and said ""SSRIs are now a last resort therapy for us to consider (if ever again.)This is UNACCEPTABLE." FINALLY! A little confirmation at just how detrimental this side-effect can be. We decided parnate would be a good solution for my depression/panic along with my current benzo treatment. If the parnate doesn't work, then we will take the benzo only route. I have a REM sleep disorder (sleepwalking and night terrors since childhood) so chances are I'll be on one the rest of my life (or until something more effective comes along.)
So things have been going well, because we designed a very slow taper program due to my being med sensitive. We've been using the liquid. I cannot advise strongly enough that anyone switching or going off should use the SLOW liquid taper method. It has helped a lot. I have very minimal brain zaps, and only slight, controllable aggitation and moodiness at times. It's NOTHING like when I've tried to quit SSRIs before. My energy is coming back, I don't feel apathetic anymore about life. I look back now on the past three years kind of horrified. i let my bills go, my life go... I just didn't care about anything. The not-so-fun aspect has been cleaning up after the mess I left behind.
The weight hasn't budged yet, but the doc told me not to expect anything to happen fast. He saiud my metabolic system has to find it's homeostasis again. However, I can see that my eating has returned to normal again. The SSRIs caused such ravenous hunger that I can't even believe how much I was eating. So you take that with a combination of a slower metabolic rate... well it makes for disaster (I really want to stress here that what happeneed to me does NOT happen to everyone. I'm not an advocate of scare posts. I have two friends who have taken zoloft for years without a single pound gained... It's VERY individualized.)
Anyway, I feel like I'm on my way to a good recovery. I just wanted to keep you all posted.
poster:spriggyjig
thread:764406
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070613/msgs/764406.html