theelt712's Zoloft Madness

[theelt712]

Hello! I am theelt712. A lot of you may know me and my ongoing story from PP or, early on, SA. I'm 15 years old and was put on Zoloft for situational anxiety so bad that it landed me in the ER. 25 mgs. My anxiety was so bad that I couldn't eat anything. I was on Zoloft for 5 weeks before I decided to taper. Why? Well, I noticed that I didn't have pleasure in the same ways that I had pleasure before, I couldn't feel the same depths of emotions I had before, and that generally, I was tired and feeling crappy all of the time. I would sweat, feel confused, have bad stomach pains, and felt so terribly that I could barely concentrate on school work. This was on the drug. So, I decided to do a quick 4 week taper to limit my exposure to the drug. My days on Zoloft ended on May 20th, 2013. 5 weeks out, and I'm still dealing with shooting nerve pains, anhedonia, reduced pleasure in anything, anxiety, tiredness, and general lack of depth of emotion. I feel hopeless half of the time because I fear it just never gets better. I know I sound crazy, but I generally write how I feel. I hate being so young and so upset. I noticed 3 days into taking Zoloft, my hands were cold and clammy, I felt tired and I generally felt flu like. Although I feel way better now, the lingering side effects are still really distressing. If it wasn't for the lovely people on PP, I would probably be crazier than I am. I have odd, vivid dreams NIGHTLY [which is cool, it resulted in a lucid dream once and I generally enjoy lucid dreaming] and I think that's my brain sorting things out. I am stable enough now to apply for work. However, my biggest fear is never getting my emotions and pleasure back and my GI issues. If I eat a huge meal, my stomach hurts and it results in belching and breathing problems. I had acid reflux before AD's but this is horrendous. Also, cognitively, I have been screwing words and passwords up like crazy.

The good part about this- I have prevented ONE of my friends from ever taking Zoloft. She's 13. Which brings me to why I'm here. I want to help other people going through my situation and get advice along the way. *hugs to everyone*

-theelt712, aka Epiphany

[theelt712]

Hello everyone! Join me on this post-SSRI journey that I have been taking since April 21st, aka when I started tapering from Zoloft. My thread "Greetings from Adverse Reaction World" tells you my story.

Today I woke up in pain and depressed, and hopeless. This is because I'm tired of waking up to the same non emotion, the same non pleasure, the same non depth of emotion that has been tormenting me for about 2 months. This is the short of it- it will get more detailed as time goes on.

[theelt712]

Well, this is rather strange...I feel better since this morning. Maybe it's because tomorrow, I'm actually going to hang out with someone. If only my feelings would come back. That would be amazing. But, this is a good start. :) Been experiencing some mini 'euphoria' waves, which means however blunted they may be, my emotions want to come back. The trick is making them come back.

[Sheila]

Welcome, theelt!

Good for you for keeping your exposure to the drug so short. Have you seen any improvement yet in the last two months? If not, you will be.

And good job saving one friend from this hell!

Your dreams sound cool!

We will be combining this thread with your other thread in the Journal sub-forum and moving it to the Journal sub-forum.

[theelt712]

I wish I saw your reply before sending you the message! I have seen minimal improvement, but I have a therapist who is eager to put me back on SSRIs. I have had mini blunted euphoria waves, but not many. :( I have had an improved libido as well, but the sensory feeling is no longer there. [I do not talk about that much.] I have had no depth of emotion yet. And my dreams are awesome. The combining sounds good to me.

[theelt712]

I have a low blood sugar tolerance than I had before....eating stuff with a lot of sugar in it causes me to feel very sluggish and sleepy, like I am right now. It passes after a few hours, though. I have been eating less, and that's scary. When I went on Zoloft, I lost 25 pounds in 5 weeks. That's when I started to fear that I had cancer. Then I realized it was a severe adverse reaction to the drug doing this to me, and then I discovered how to taper off of Zoloft.

[stan]

hello theelt712,

i understand your high anxiety, i had some similar since my childhood, i could manage it and live almost normal long periods and sometime small paniks, emotional etc
but since taking paxil Sri during many years, i cannot today manage the anxiety, i have now daily anxiety pains, muscle pains, cannot exercise etc
you will need many months to recover because original anxiety is increased and slows down the recovery i think;
the zoloft, paxil etc worsen very much our original problem; in our case we had to never take meds for this, we had to talk with a professional who explain us what happens to us, but today is too late; you experience classic withdrawal,
a young recovers faster than a old as i,

[theelt712]

:( I honestly hope that this doesn't take years....although from the looks of it, it probably will.

[theelt712]

My mind is in 500 different places tonight....ahh man, I'm quite sleepy. It's too early for this too- only 9. I miss staying up till around 2 and not walking up till 12- those were some fun times. I feel like I don't even have a life anymore. I just can't wait for this crap to be over, that is if it ever fucking ends. Excuse the harsh language, it just feels endless as hell.

[Junior]

TheElt - when I suggested you come to this forum - I said you MAY have had an adverse reaction and that these people would be better placed to advise you than PP. I did NOT mean for you to come in, make a definitive announcement, then 'invite' everyone to go on your journey with you.

I also think you need to stop analysing every tiny detail - as PPers have told you - and get on with being a 15 year old.