Zoloft and cold turkey

I have been on Zoloft for about 8 months. I began taking it for anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and eating issues. Since I have been on it, my eating issues have gotten a lot worse. I began binging, something I've never done before. I have racing thoughts and feel like I am just floating through life. My weight has gone from about 120 to 155. I am not happy, and am considering coming off of the medication. Has anyone else noticed they have not been able to control their eating while on Zoloft? However, my anxiety did subside.

My mom,77 who has ALS was but on Zoloft for depression. I really need to get her off of it FAST! She was at 1ml for one week. I called the doc because she was having nausea. He wanted to try it one more week. She went to 2ml last monday after one week. Fri,Sat, and today she is having terrible headaches. I read all the replies on this sight yesterday for side effect. I told her about the zapping pains and she said yes, that is the kind of pain in my head. It will not let up. I took her back to 1ml last night. What happens if I take her clear off? Can the side effects be any worse than the constant pain she is having in her head? It is 2 weeks today that she is on the drug. Do I wean her or just stop now? PLEASE Help!!

I've been on Zoloft 50mg for 4 months due to post partum depression. I was told to take one tablet before bed and when I did I couldn't sleep, my mind would race. So then I would take it first thing in the morning but would feel sluggish and lazy all day. I definetly gained weight from it and hope I can lose it now that I've been off it cold turkey for 7 days. However I've had extreme dizziness almost to the point of where I've fallen since I stopped taking it. Also while I was on it I had no sexual desire at all and couldn't reach climax. At first I felt the pill really helped, maybe it was more of a placebo or to low of a dose. However now that I've stopped I feel better and much more mentally motivated. It could possibly be that I feel better because I don't have post partum depression anymore, but I do now I won't be using it anymore.

I have been on Zoloft for two and a half weeks, and in a constant mental struggle with the fact of being on psych medication (one minute I'm going to stop taking it, the next I'm giving it another week). Have seen few benefits, although early in the course of usage. One benefit is I'm tiring out earlier at night and getting good sleep. Another is probably a placebo effect of feeling a little more calm and less tempermental. But the negative side effects have been a minor sexual problem in finding great difficulty achieving climax. The worst side effect (assuming it is a side effect of the drug), is urinary incontinence, especially at night. I wake up with urgent bladder pain only to release a small amount of urine with almost no force behind it. This is followed by several daily episodes similar in nature and lately a mild pain in my lower left abdomen. I am visiting the doctor today in hopes of determining the cause of this, but it seems too coincidental to not be related to the Zoloft. I'm stopping cold turkey today.

I started taking 50 mg of Zoloft about 1 year ago and eventually went up tp 150 mg. I gained 20LBS in 4 months!!! My doctor specifically told me that these meds would NOT MAKE ME GAIN WEIGHT! She had NO IDEA WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT!! I started tapering off the meds a month ago and took my last dose on the 22nd of June. Since then I have felt so tired, but the worst part is the electric zaps. It feels like I am being hit with a tazer gun or lightning or something. ALmost everytime I move I get a jolt through my whole body. I want to cry!!
While I was on the meds, I had heavy spotting between periods. My doctors couldn't figure out why it was happening. I have been trying to get pregnant and I think that Zoloft is the reason I have not been able to conceive.
I would also wake up with terrible night sweats and developed Hypothyroidism while taking this medication. I am 28 years old, and thought I was starting to go through Menopause!

I can not wait for these side effects and withdrawal symptoms to end. I will NEVER take this type of medication again. It is not worth it. I told my doctor that I would rather be depressed than feel the way I did while tkaing this medication.

Good Luck to everyone on this board.

I had the most terrible time if I missed a does of Zoloft. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was getting these shocks to my face. It was if I was standing in the ocean and waves of sand were slapping at my face. These happened to me every time I moved my head. On a Thursday I went to my nurse practioner who prescribed my psyche meds and told her about these symptoms I was experiencing. She said it must be physical. On Friday, I went to my physician and she said it must be from the missed doses of Zoloft. At this point I decided to take the weekend and go cold turkey from Zoloft. Monday morning I was feeling so bad that I called the nurse practioner again. She only told me to go back to my psychiatrist because she insisted that is was the Zoloft that was causing this problem. Frustrated, I headed to the nurse practioner only to be told that she knew for a fact that it was NOT the Zoloft. By Monday night, the shocks had taken such a toll on me that my daughter was frightened by the way I looked and told me I needed to go to the hospital. My face had become so numb from hour upon hour of these continuous shocks. My daughter's concern finally convinced me to go. Once I got the emergency room and the ER doctor examined me, he immediately recognized that it was the Zoloft that was causing me to have these electric shocks to my face. He said he has seen many people come to the emergency room with these same symptoms thinking they are having a stroke from the numbness that the shocks create. He told me to go back on the Zoloft and to have the nurse practioner wean me off of it over the course of many months so this would not happen again. After this ordeal, I switched to a psychiatrist who would have a broader knowledge of medicines and any of their side effects so this may not happen in the future and have not been on any other ssri's since. This situation was horrible. I don't want to feel those electric shocks to my face again. Even though my side effect from Zoloft might be rare, I hope that this may help someone in the future to feel that they are validated in what they are experiencing and not have to go through what I went though.

Vivid & later very distracting dreams, lasting side affects that "punch you in the chest, mentally & emotionaly" as a result of stopping just after 2 weeks at 50mg/day. Can't sleep. Fast weight gain. Zombie status. Rather use pot again. Much better results. Sexual disfuctions. Jaw clenching. Seems that the drug is designed to self replacte it's own exsistance by the delayed
side effects of stopping cold turkey. Should of never started
because stopping is like droping off a clif. I'm ok now that I'm
off sertraline hydrochloride (Zoloft). The vivid dreams seem to
want to live out their vibrance during the day during the few
days after stopping the doses. Give yourself a few days to really know what it's like to be fully off the drug. (diagnosses:
attempting to live in College Station, nepotism capitol of Texas)

Zoloft was working for my depression (very slowly though--took about a month or more), was helping with my lethargy (that worked a lot quicker -- within a week or two), also worked for my panic attacks. I didn't even mention to my doctor that I had panic attacks, but after I started taking the Zoloft for depression I noticed that the panic attacks virtually disappeared. Problem is, I stopped taking the Zoloft without consulting with my doctor (big mistake), and lately I have noticed very severe headaches every day that don't go away with Excederin (usually works for me). I also notice some level of paranoia (although not extremely serious). Zoloft saved my life and my job, but I would not advise stopping cold turkey without consulting with a physician.