Zoloft and mom

I am weaning off Zoloft. I began taking it in Nov. 2001 because I knew I would have post-partum depression since I had it with my first two. Zoloft changed my life so much for the better. That was almost 6 years ago. The past year I have decided that I can do w/o Zoloft. One, because I’ve learned how to choose to be happy. Two, because I don’t like being addicted to a pill. I know I’m addicted (or somewhat addicted to) because if I forgot to take the pill, several hours later, I would get weird feelings, like when I turn my head and move my eyes at the same time, a weird slightly dizzy feeling.
Here’s how I did it. In May and June, I took a whole pill (50 mg) every other day and every other day I took half a pill. That’s 2 months of that. Then, July and August, I took a half a pill EVERY day. Now that it’s Sept., I’m taking a half a pill every other day and NO pill every other day. I must say, this has been the hardest. It’s just 4 days into Sept. and I’m having those weird sensations a lot. My toes and fingers are tingly, too. I was planning on doing this for 2 months but I'm on the 4th day (2nd day of no pill) and I'm having too many tingles and weird dizzy sensations. So, I guess I'll continue taking a half pill every day and take NO pill ONE day a week for this month of Sept. Then, in October, I will take NO pill TWO days a week (but not 2 days in a row). Then, in November, I'll go to THREE days a week of no pill (but not 3 days in a row). And so on. I had hoped to be off by Christmas or Jan. 2008, but I see that it won't work unless I wean to a NO pill gradually. I knew all along that it would have to be gradual, and that's what I've been doing, but I had no idea that just missing a mere 25 mg. for 2 days (but not in a row, mind you) would make such a difference.
Now, if I get too many really sad days, I will consider going back on. But I’ve done really well so far. I know that God is helping me. He can lick it; I can’t. I have had just a handful of occasions where I was told something slightly disturbing or something happened to me that was slightly upsetting and it got me down, but only for the rest of that day. AND, I gave it to God and let Him deal with it. He wants to take care of my problems; He doesn’t want me worrying about it. I know that medicine like Zoloft may be the answer and if that is what I ultimately do, then I’ll just continue leave it to Him. I hope this helps someone.

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 first started taking Lexapro 10 mg about 2 years ago. I felt like it wasn't working for me anymore. I had sunk back into my deep depression and was having really bad social and non social anxiety. I went to the doctor and told him that I wanted to try Zoloft. He prescribed me Zoloft 50 mg. I have been on it for about 6 months. I noticed changes as soon as 2-3 weeks. I felt so good about myself and was not having any anxiety.

And then it began...

I noticed that as time went by I was dropping weight tremendously. I am 5'7 and at that time I weighed 150lbs. I completely lost my appetite and only ate once a day, if at all. I now weigh 120lbs. This is only the beginning...

In October of '04 I started using drugs i.e. Lortab, Lorcet, Percocet, Klonopin, Xanax. I have never been the one to use such drugs to get "high" from. I want to say I was on a self-destruct mode. Im only 21 so my mom noticed that I was not acting myself, losing so much weight, being angry, irritable, ect. My mom came home from work early one day and saw I was still sleeping at 2pm. Which is not like me at ALL. She looked in my purse because she had that motherly instinct that I was on drugs. She found all my pills, and took me to a detox program. I didnt care that I was hurting my family, friends, let alone myself. I didnt care about anything but getting messed up. Needless to say Im am now drug-free but there is more...

After I got clean from the pills, I started drinking...binge drinking. I only drank to get really drunk. Let me stress the word really in that last sentence. Once again, I was on self destruct mode. I did some research on Zoloft and I have found out that you can become self destructive/violent towards yourself when on this drug. I would like to consider that taking drugs and drinking to the extreme while knowing it could harm me/kill me would fall in the category of self destruction.

Also, I have really bad tremors from time to time and I will go from having an "I dont care" attitude to "please love me" attitude.

Some things are for some people. And this is not for me. I am now winging myself off of this crazy blue pill. I think Im ready to become myself again.

I also think that for some people it is all a mental thing. I have realized this for myself. That by taking my medicine everyday I feel comforted. When Im having a bad beginning to a day, I take my meds and for the rest of the day I tell myself that Ill be ok, because I have taking my medicine. I dont know if anyone else feels this way...

Hope this helps other people out if they are having some of these same reactions I am open to discuss.

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