Day 11 zoloft... trying not to take zanax, having anxiety

[livelaughlove]

Hi! So I took zoloft 50 mg for about 10 years. I went off it around thanksgiving. By middle of December not only was i going through withdrawal, but I think my old panic was coming back. (i have GAD and have had some panic attacks... no panic attacks while on zoloft, though). I felt good that's why I stopped taking it. So I started taking zoloft again, after being off it for a month. for the first 2 days I took 25 mg. Then I went right back in on 50 mg zoloft taken at 8 pm and last night was the 11th day I took it. The past month has been hell. The first 8 days on zoloft I had no appetite and was extremely nauseous and fatigued. The nausea finally lifted. Every morning when I wake up around 4:30 I feel very panicky, like a hot tingly, numbness type feeling and my pulse is high. When will this stop? I don't remember this happening when i first started zoloft, other than for those first 2 weeks I remember having dry mouth and being shaky. My doc also prescribed me zanax .25 mg which I have been taking, one in the morning, then half of one in the afternoon. Yesterday i only took half of one in the morning, then half of one in the afternoon. Today i have not taken it at all. Right after I take the zanax I get diarrhea. Plus, I don't want my body to rely on the zanax, even though it is such a low dose. But I feel very anxious right now, and for no apparent reason. It's fear of losing control, or I think what if i go totally nuts and zoloft won't work? I mean, I've only been off it for a month and then restarted it 11 days ago. Why is this happening? I just want to feel normal. I do have to say this morning when i woke up i did this breathing exercise and it helped some. I breathed in and imagined the first part of lungs filling up, then the second part, then the 3rd part, then i held it for 5 seconds, then exhaled and imagined the breath going out of my lungs, so i repeated that for about 5 minutes, and that did help. I got that idea from someone that posted on this forum. But it is exhausting. Since i restarted the zoloft, it's like clockwork, every morning i wake up with that feeling. And i did not take zanax today because i want to work through this on my own. But the other part of me says just take a zanax. I don't know what to do. When will i feel like my normal old self? Will it ever happen? I need positive encouragement, people, please! And has anyone else had this problem when they went off zoloft and then restarted? Please help. Thanks. xoxoxoxo

[sohelpless]

Yes!  I did.  I may have even posted about it on this forum.  The anxiety was so bad that I just had to quit.  The awful effects lasted a few months after that.  I have heard that re-instating AD's after using them in the past can sometimes cause adverse reactions or loss of effectiveness.  That is why it is so important to stay on a med if it is working.  I was so disappointed to lose Zoloft.  I haven't found anything to be as effective since!

[sohelpless]

Omg!  I'm sorry!  You wanted encouragement and I think I didn't give you any!  I just wanted to tell you that what you are going through is probably the Zoloft and not you.  It is always best to ride out the bad feelings if you can and don't be afraid to take a benzo.  But at some point if you just can't cope, the med might be doing more harm than good.  Start up effects are always tough the first couple of weeks.

[laineyk]

 I am exactly where you are right now....the only differance is I had been skipping doses of my 50mgs for over a year and then my husband got a script from Canada so dont know about that, but to make a long story longer, back in March 2012 I realized I was having some anxiety (none the whole 6 years being on zoloft) Dr said I had screwed up my brain by skipping doses so started taking it everyday...no improvement, actually got worse (I had to start taking xanax once a day to get to work) then I increased it to 100mgs for 4 weeks without a whole lot of improvement then went to 200 mgs and did have better days but because by this time I was taking klonopin 2xs a day I thought for sure that zoloft had pooped out on me.

So instead of giving it a little more time like weeks, I decided to come off of it (STUPID!!!!) I weaned off it way to fast and after one month of being off it I was in withdrawal pretty bad.

Dr tried me on lexapro but I am so scared of any new med I probably didnt give it enough of a chance. so after a week of lexpro we switched back to zoloft.. I am SO sensitive to the med that I was on 25 mgs for 4 weeks...then upped it to 37mgs for a week & now am on day 5 of 50mgs and its so bad!!!!!

I wake up hot tingly, stomach churning, feel off balanced, headache...and best of all, which my all time favorite...my ANXIETY is three hundred xs worse now....I am now taking clonazepam (klonopin) 3xs a day

not sure what Im doing...do I continue taking the zoloft until I get to 150-200mgs again and then see what happens or do I give up and try something else?

I have no idea what to do but I have gotten worse each day.....I might add that I am in menopause so P/doc thinks some of this had to do with hormones & thats why I my zoloft wasnt giving me the relief it had before.

please let me know what you end up doing

[livelaughlove]

thanks everyone, sounds like we are all in the same boat! After i posted my original comment, i got off this website and started googling ways to deal with anxiety, and i found this awesome tip. It basically said that if you try to not think about something, then you will think about it more. It's actually way the brain allows us to protect ourselves. An analogy was "think about a pink elephant. Now try not to think about it for the next 5 minutes." See how hard that is, your brain wants to think about that stupid pink elephant. Same thing is happening to us. We worry about worry about worry, i guess maybe it is fear of the unknown, or what if's? but whatever it is, the more we try not to think about it, the more we think about it, and the crazier and on edge it makes us feel. So to combat this, you start a "worry journal" and set a designated time period each day for about 20 minutes where you can worry. So each day, everytime you start to worry about something, write it down, and tell yourself i will not worry or entertain this thought until my designated worry time.
So, after i found this tip online, i wrote down my current thoughts that were bothering me. I had 10 things i was worrying about, such as, will i ever be normal? Am i going insane? What if i never return to normal? Will i be like this until the day i die? Will my husband be able to deal with me in this condition? What if i freak out in front of everyone? I have to go to the food store and what if i freak out in front of everyone or puke in front of everybody? what if i get that weird tingly feeling in front of everyone?
So, after i wrote all that down, i looked at it and i thought, sounds like i am afraid of the unknown, and of things i don't have control over or answers to. And then i thought, how the heck am i going to be able to not have racing thoughts about this stuff until my designated worry time? Well, i designated my worry time for 7:00 to 7:20 tonight. I don't know why, but for some reason it is working. Every time i feel bad i write it down, then tell myself it has to wait until tonight at my worry time.
In the meantime, I actually went to the mall with my daughter. I have agoraphobic tendencies. I DID IT! I was feeling kind of like i would hyperventilate on the way there so i did breathing exercises in the car while driving. After about a minute in the mall, i was feeling stronger. Then when we left i felt really proud of myself and i realized that is my problem. I build up this fear about actually doing something, but i always feel better once im out doing it. So i want to keep exposing myself to outside stuff because even though it is hard to get out, it actually is helping me. I came home and dropped my daughter off. I then went out to the food store by MYSELF and was there about 40 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I was so happy and proud. When i came home, the anxiety was starting up again, and i said no, i am allowed to worry but not until my worry time, and i can't believe it but either the zoloft is starting to work again or this technique along with breathing exercises is working, or maybe it's a combo of both.
Yesterday i had a really bad day and i didn't leave the house. Today was starting that way but leaving the house helped greatly. 3 days ago (friday), i worked all day and that helped me too. So that is the answer. I have to stay active no matter what. If i stay home i am left with my thoughts and that is not good for me or for anyone. It is so scary to go out sometimes but i am always ok when i do go out, so i just have to keep going out and doing things, even stupid things, just as long as im out in public, it really seems to help.
So, Im actually feeling good right now. Tomorrow i have work. I work for  a busy doctor's office.  Tonight when i take zoloft it will be my 12th night of taking it. I hope this worry journal thing helps some of you. Take care and until tomorrow..... let's take it minute by minute :)))

[laineyk]

  hi, have you always taken the zoloft at night? because I think I may try that, I know this seems like an  oxymoron but with all my anxiety all day long I still kinda feel zombieish and tired?!?

So this worry journal hmmmmm? I keep a journal but I write in it all day long, how Im feeling. You say to keep telling myself that from x time to x time is the only time I can write down my worries & think about them?

That sounds impossible, but I will give it a try

[laineyk]

one question, whats the dose of your xanax?

[livelaughlove]

Hi! Im only on the 50 mg dose, tonight is my 18th night taking it. I have been feeling so much better, especially since day 15 i would say. I didnt take a zanax today. I don't feel like i even need the zanax, actually. I feel the zanax was doing more harm than good. Also, I beleive it was giving me diarrhea. Benzos will do that, they cause small bowel bacterial overgrowth, cause they change the rate of motility and bacteria just sits there and ferments. I also started taking trubiotic cause my stomach was so messed up, and that is greatly helping (its an OTC probiotic). I havent had to use the worry journal since day 15. That helped me, because when i was feeling major anxiety, i said save it for the worry journal. Then when my time came to worry, i didnt even feel the need to worry. I used to take zoloft in the morning for a couple years and it made me too unfocused during the day, like i feel it zapped away all my creativity or something. Also, I would still get some anxiety throughout the day when i took it in the morning, so for me it works really good to take it before i go to bed at night. At one point i did try taking 100 mg of zoloft for about a 6 month period, but i went back down to 50, cause it really just made me feel "blah" and no creativity at all. So i plan on staying at 50 mg forever :) I almost feel totally normal again. Although, i found out i might have an autoimmune disease, so that could be causing me some problems, my rheumatoid factor is high, just found out last week. So i have to make an appt with a rheumatologist. So that is a little upsetting right now, but with the zoloft, i know i can be strong and just continue to take things day by day and whatever happens, just enjoy the moment and live in the present. Or at least i keep telling myself that :)