3 yrs after stopping Zoloft still having withdrawal symptoms every day

I went off Zoloft completely 3 years ago. I tapered very slowly because each time I'd decrease too much, I'd get brain zaps. I thought I was in the clear when I stopped after 6 months but then developed my symptoms about 2 weeks later. I've read since then it is sometimes recommended to taper over a couple of years, especially for someone like me who had been on them for so long. Overall, I could deal with tinnitus. It's the vibrations throughout my body and the wooziness in my head that I'm having trouble dealing with. I didn't know there were neurologists who specialize in inner ear. I'll look into that. It has been verified i dont have Menieres. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

@michelegray -
I’m sorry that I’m so unaware of the difficulties getting off antidepressants!
I don’t even know if they are meant to be taken for an extended period of time.
I hope you get some answers.

@deegee75
I’m sorry that I’m so unaware of the difficulties tapering off antidepressants.
I also don’t know if they are meant to be taken for extended periods.

When I tapered off seven years ago, the recommendation was a 10% decrease every 2-3 weeks in order to avoid “brain zaps” and other withdrawal symptoms. Recently I read on the Surviving Antidepressants website that that is even too much, too fast for some. So someone has developed another tapering schedule that divides the 10% decrease every 2-3 weeks into increments. For example, if you are on 10 mg of Lexapro, the first decrease of 10% takes you to 9 mg/ml (you can get Lexapro in liquid form and take a 5 mg tablet with 4 ml of liquid). Instead of immediately decreasing to 9 mg/ml, you just decrease to 9.5 the first ten days, the. 9.0 the next ten. Or whatever time frame you feel works for you. I never had to do it, but if you experience any symptoms, you can go back to the previous dosage for another week or two. For me, avoiding withdrawal symptoms was much more important than getting off quickly.

@deegee75 -
That’s a great way for slow tapering- I didn’t know it can be taken as a liquid! Thank you for the explanation.

You're welcome! It was a great stroke of luck that Lexapro is available as a liquid! There are instructions for making a solution for other medications on the surviving antidepressants website. I have never tried it. One can also talk to a compounding pharmacy about making a solution. I was going to use a compounding pharmacy to taper off Lunesta, but it wasn't necessary -- at least for me -- I was able to taper off Lunesta just by cutting the pill and reducing by 25% or so (the pills are very tiny so I wasn't really sure of the exact reduction). I didn't want to go cold turkey because of the warning of seizures if stopping suddenly.

Maybe it's not the Zoloft that's causing the problems, maybe it's Effexor. Venlafaxine is probably the darkest and most insidious drug there is. It can torment you for a long time, even after getting off of it. Perhaps a low dose of Effexor XR might help.

If you haven’t been on antidepressants for long and taking antibiotics can you stop taking antidepressants till you finish your antibiotics course I was recently prescribed sertraline but I need to take antibiotics and it says it maybe cause irregular heartbeats which I already have but don’t want them to get worse

@michelegray, I really am so sorry to hear about what you are going through. I know for sure that my tinnitus was/is a consequence of a medicine called Savella that I was given and that I took for some years because of my fibromyalgia. I wish I never had taken it because it is not exactly that it cured the fibromyalgia, but it surely gave me a problem that I did not have before and that I absolutely did/do not need. So now I can add loud tinnitus in my ears all the time, in addition to all the other health issues I have. It seems to me that doctors give us medicines that perhaps are alleviating some issues, but create new ones. I am surprised your doctor seems to believe that all you are experiencing is a coincidence though. He can't be that great doctor who can dismiss what you are telling him and seems to be so secure about things that do not directly concern him (or someone dear to him). And I say this not out of a revenge kind of feeling, but because I often find doctors to be mighty arrogant in their huge ignorance. It would be so nice if they could say: "This I am not sure of", instead of dismissing what we tell them. I wish you the best. I hope your tinnitus will leave you soon. And I hope you can gain your health back. It's a very good thing that you could cut off Zoloft because your depression disappeared. (I got so sick because of Zoloft that I had to stop taking it right away.) Please do not give up. And do not doubt yourself. No matter what doctors and specialists might tell you, there is no one in this world who knows your body more, or better than you do.

For ear-ringing, I tried LipoFlavonoid. It's over the counter. Ear doc recommended it to me. Took about 4-6 weeks to take effect, but it helped a lot!
Good luck to you all!