Advice on weaning off SSRI, Luvox?

Hi there; I've been on sertraline (Zoloft) for about 26 years. I tried weaning off very slowly: cut down 1 day a month, then cut down another .5 pill a month, and so on. I noticed I wasn't feeling well so I went back on full dose. My doc at the time said that although i had been prescribed sertraline for premature menopause hot flashes due to chemotherapy, obviously it was providing a benefit and to continue taking it. But I am trying again, this time doing every other day for about a month. so far so good. If anyone else has any advice, i'd be happy to hear it.

Is yours a capsule? Mine is a tablet so I’m thinking of cutting a very small piece off each day for two weeks and then a bit more. Not sure if two weeks is long enough for my body to adjust. One doctor told me it might take two years for me to get off them.

I was on Peroxitine for a brief period and it made me very sick, the doctor told me to skip every other day for a few weeks and then stop, he was confident that it was all I needed because I wasn’t on it for long, this was very bad advice. I went through serotonin withdrawal and the symptoms were profound, strong headaches, neck pain, body cramps, insomnia and bad dreams. It lasted about six months and I didn’t want to switch to another antidepressant because I feared more side effects, I learned a lot about how bad it is for many people to get off these drugs, there’s a lot of advice on what you can do, usually they recommend switching to another antidepressant. I know one thing for certain, you have to endure the process because there’s no shortcut, there’s a lot of information you can get about the whole thing and maybe you will get lucky with switching to another medication so that the symptoms will go away.

Thank you for that. I wouldn’t dare wean off as quickly as you were told to just judging on previous experience. If you’ve never had anxiety and depression you cannot know how bad it can get. I don’t wish to be put on another similar medication. I hope you have had success since then.

Slow. That is my advice. Do it very slowly. I stopped taking Effexor ER that I had taken for years. I just stopped. Bad idea. I am not on it now, but my advice is to do it very slowly. Ask the doctor about a slow taper. I know that with other slow tapers, it is usually advised to go down 1/4 for several weeks at a time. Sometimes anti-depressants do stop working. I hope that your doctor will help, if not, slowwww.....

@diverdown1 Thanks so much. I’ll definitely do that.