Comments on: Withdrawal: Paxil > Zoloft > Prozac

By: Barb

Barb — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:57:39 +0000

I have been taking the generic prozac for a week, and I just am overcome with nervousness, interrupted sleep, NO appetite, as well as diarhhea, although there is nothing left inside me to poop! I am wondering if I will have any withdrawals after taking it for only one week?? I just don’t think it’s right for me, and I am worse off now than when I started taking it. Please reply if you have an answer for me!

By: tamara

tamara — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:01:43 +0000

I have been off prozac 20 mg cold turkey now for 9 days. I was gaining weight and feeling no sex drive for the last 3 years. The only side effect I am noticing is itchy skin. All day and all night with no relief from lotions or benadryl. Is this common has anyone else experienced this side effect? Also I have upped my garlic, Vit D 3 and multiple vitamin and started walking more.
tam

By: jerz25

jerz25 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:48:29 +0000

One of the leading causes-Lexipro. He looked up the side effects. Of the major 10 I hit 11! What damage I have been doing to myself because, in the am I would hurry up and take my Lexipro to think it would get me through the day. Today is the first day I am cutting back to 10mg. I feel like hell. Why did I think this was a good idea in the first place? This hell is worse than anything I have ever experienced. I can barely hold it together. My mother came over with a bottle of wine. Having a glass has calmed enough to write and not just cry. How am I going to teach? The fear and responsibility is overwhelming. I will continue this week with 10mg then down to five, and so on. I don’t want to trade one dependance for another.http//www.bodypaintcostarica.com

By: Cher

Cher — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:59:45 +0000

It’s been 4 months and half since I had my last zoloft. I’ve been keeping a log of my symptoms everyday. It also includes how I sleep, and how my mood is that day. I have not had any caffein, nicotine, or alcohol. Although I have been suffering from shoulder pain, I havnt taken any pain meds that contain codein either. I am getting my sugery next week and I am quite nervous. I have been having some anxiety symptoms the past couple of days.

The ringing in my ear reduced down to only when I first wake up and when I go to sleep a month ago. Since I got a noisy aquarium installed a couple of weeks ago, I dont hear the ringing anymore at all. My eyelid twitching came back twice. Last time it lasted for a week. This time about the same and I am not too worried about it because I know it will go away again. So those were the physical symptoms that are still there.

Emotionally, I started feeling depressed because of my shoulder. It’s been debilitating and painful. I am not sure if it was withdrawl or not. I feel like I might still have a bit of ways to go to be completely fine. The symptoms get milder and milder though.

By: juli

juli — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:14:01 +0000

What an eye opener this has been. I was put on Lexipro because of mild anxiety/depression. A year later, I was experiencing fatigue, nausia, mood intability, night sweats, etc. Finally out of desperation I went to my local urgent care for fatigue. They found my thyroid was low. After taking the thyroid meds, it seemed to help for a while. After the thereputic level was reached my other symptions came back, with a vengence. It was summer, being a teacher, I thought maybe the stress was too much so summer should take care of that. Things continued to get worse until I thought I had reach my limit. My doc said to double my Lexipro to 20mg because the lower dose must not be working. From there it has been a black spiril downward. After taking 20mg I was with some dear friends for a vacation we have done every year for the last 11 years. I cried off and on the whole trip. They were great about saying, cry when you need to, we are ok with it. When we came home from vacation, my husband looked up just night sweats. One of the leading causes-Lexipro. He looked up the side effects. Of the major 10 I hit 11! What damage I have been doing to myself because, in the am I would hurry up and take my Lexipro to think it would get me through the day. Today is the first day I am cutting back to 10mg. I feel like hell. Why did I think this was a good idea in the first place? This hell is worse than anything I have ever experienced. I can barely hold it together. My mother came over with a bottle of wine. Having a glass has calmed enough to write and not just cry. How am I going to teach? The fear and responsibility is overwhelming. I will continue this week with 10mg then down to five, and so on. I don’t want to trade one dependance for another. I know that wine is not the answer, I just can’t seem to get it together. I am exausted from the nightly sweats. I have three changes setting out at night, this is my routine. How can this be normal? I feel some hope from reading others coming through this. Right now, this just sucks. I will never be dependent on a SSRI again.

By: Cher

Cher — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:16:47 +0000

I started reading Paxilprogress.org and I think it’s terrible. There are a lot of people on there who have been suffering from withdrawls for more than 2 years. I am sure some people are like that but I also found that some people are so discouraging. There was one guy who got through w/d within 1 wk or so after being on 7 years of Paxil. Wasnt that a great? I found other people attacking him saying that “oh, you will get it in a month or so.” and some people saying that,”oh, you must not be human”. I personally know someone who came out of withdrawl in 3,4 wks and it’s been 4 years and hes totally fine.

The terrible stuff people talked about could happpen but you dont know their living habits like alchohol, illegal drugs, other meds, and exercise habits. I’ve also noticed that a lot of people are taking many other meds along with SSRI’s. Maybe the person did heroin or drank on a regular basis. What i know for sure is that if I was still drinking like how I was before(half bottle of wine to a bottle a night), there’s no way I couldve pulled out of this. There are so many variables and online posts can only be as good as those lavalife ads. Things can be exaggerated and omitted. Who knows?

I just know that if there’s a determination and the right cause, we can do it.

By: Cher

Cher — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:32:31 +0000

Today is the 59th day off zoloft and to be honest with you, I am not sure if I am still having withdrawl or I am done. I still having ringing in my ear but my mom has that too and she’s never had 1 zoloft in her life. I sleep pretty ok most of the time and out of the past 30 days there were 7 days that I didnt sleep well. 2 days I woke up having anxious dreams(not nightmares, but unpleaasnt dreams)but didnt have any anxiety attacks. Havnt been depressed, if anything, people around me think I have been amazingly strong considering I have been suffering from chronic shoulder pain for a year.

All in all, no doubt the withdrawl process has been hard. I am not sure that if I am close to being done or have a long way to go. I think a lot of times we just might focus too much on the symptoms themselves. Coming down on the dosages were not that hard for me because I was just busy with other things.

If you have something/someone that you love, just hold on to that thought and maybe that will pull you through it. Good luck to all.

By: Cher

Cher — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:39:37 +0000

My twitching in the eyelid was pretty much all gone since I quit the nicotine losenge which I had been on for 3 years since qiutting smoking. I started having ringing in my left ear and that whooshing feeling in the head came back along with it 10 days ago. I emailed DR. shipko, who is an expert in SSRI’s, Benzo withdrawls,and panic/anxiety attacks, he said that withdrawl symptoms can come in waves and are self-limiting with time. He said most people are out of the withdrawl within 3 months but some can last up to a year or more. I hope I am not the unlucky one. Even if that’s the case, I am just going to tough it out because there is no way to turn back. Restarting the SSRI can cause new side effects.

I also want to say that everyone is different. Many people gained weight during the ssri’s but I remembered that I lost a bit of weight when I first started it. In fact, the last couple of months I’ve gained at least 5 lbs with the same level of activity and eating. Either way, I am gonna have to deal with the weight thing after I am feeling completely well.

By: lizzie

lizzie — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:52:30 +0000

Been off PROZAC for 7weeks not had a nasty time coming off this time.
Tried coming off in the past and symptoms of the illness forced me to run to the WONDER DRUG and lets face it the wonders of this drug are totally life enhansing, and a life saver on many many occasions.
Hopefully tho I will one day be able to put the illness behind me and its treatment but if I really cant and my symptoms return to dog my life then I will be the first in the que to sing aloud its praises.
Thankyou PROZAC for all you have done to save and improve my life so far.

By: Tammy D.

Tammy D. — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:58:03 +0000

I found this website by googling abrupt withdrawal of Zoloft. I am shocked at what I have read. I was on Zoloft 5omg a day for about 3 months and got this excruciating head pain on one side of my head. I went to the ER, and told them I was on Zoloft 50mg daily. They did a CT scan, drug screen, and blood work. Everything was normal. That day I stopped taking the Zoloft. Two days later I started feeling nauseated,dizzy,and light headed every time I got up or moved around, started having numbness and tingling in my face and lips, brain zaps, fast heartbeat (120-130) when I just stood up, thinking I saw things out the corners of my eyes, blurry vision to the point I could not wear my glasses, and like the inside of my head just had thick clouds or jello in it. Have followed up with my Dr. twice and his “Clinical Diagnosis” as of 2 days ago is “Multiple Sclerosis” and am scheduled to see a neurologist in the next 3 wks.- now if I had health insurance I am sure I would have had an appt. sooner, but anyway….I am a nurse and had no idea about these withdrawals being this severe until reading the stories on here. I will never take another one of these types of drugs. Today is the best I have felt in the last 3 wks, only couple of episodes of dizziness and face tingling that left as quick as it came. I do intend to contact my Dr. next wk, because I have a strong suspicion his diagnosis of “MS” is actually Zoloft withdrawal. I am and always have been fairly healthy with the exception of being overweight, and there is no history of any family member ever having MS-not that there would have to be. The FDA needs to be reading these stories and so should the Dr.’s prescribing these meds, because I can’t imagine my Dr. would prescribe this med if he knew how severe the withdrawals were. I wonder if anyone has ever filed complaints with the FDA?