Sertraline/ Zoloft withdrawal

Hi

I think i've been incredibly unfortunate. I started taking 50mg Sertraline for mild depression relaing to work issues and possibly delayed PND in October 2011. I didn't do any reading regarding the potential side effects or research online. I did read the enclosed leaflet and saw the potential list of side effects and risks of sudden withdrawal but didn't pay too much attention as all medicine has lost lists of effects which have never happened to me. I've always been incredibly healthy and never experienced any illness throughout my 30 years on this planet. My body seemed to accept the sertraline pretty well at first, i had nausea for 2 days then my mood lifted and i felt pretty well for a month. No side effects. Around christmas I started getting bad stomach ache and decided that yes definitely it was caused by the sertraline and anything that was doing that to my body I could do without. Anyhow the work related issues had been resolved and I felt fine emotionally. So... I decided that I'd reduce the dose to 25mg and see how I fared on that. Knowing what I know now that was far too much of a reduction. Anyway January was terrible. I spent 2 weeks in bed with terrible flue like symptoms, the brain zaps, vertigo, chills, sweats, stomach cramp and experiencing major panic attacks. Oh my god. If someone ever says to me now that they experience panic attacks I will have SO much sympathy. They are horrendous. I woke up in the night screaming but I couldnt formulate words - having chest pains, my heart pounding. Anyway I knew I had to stabilise on 25mg before I reduced the dose any further and I think I did manage to do that and had a month where I could function. I started getting stomatch cramps agian and thought 'now it's time' I bought a pill cutter online and cut my 25mg half tablet into 4. I then reduced a week at a time by aruond 7mg. Okay so now it's 10 weeks since I last took anything at all and unfortunately I have to say these withdrawals are worse than ever, I have a constant pain in my left arm (which of course at first I was convinced was a heart attack but it's been 10 weeks now), pains in my back, burning legs, burning inside my stomach, pain in my left eye, creeping sensation in my scalp, tingling face and anxiety. No recent panic attacks but dreading them if they come back. I've been reading online for the most of this year and from what I can gather there are 2 ways of aproaching this. the first way of thinking is that your body has had a bad reaction to the SSRI and you need to try and sedate your nervous system - no st johns wort, no caffeine, no strenous exercise, no watching violence on tv, no spicy foods, no supplements - you should relax in warm baths, try steam rooms, gentle exercise, walks in the fresh, drink milk and water and you brain should recover between 3-18 months (apparently it takes 3 months for your brain to adjust to reduction in dose). Some people's brains spring back into shape faster others take a longer time. The other was of thinking is st johns wort, b vitamins, omega 3 fish oils. I'm readlly hoping i see some signs of recovery soon as it's so hard at the moment. I have 2 small children and I'm unable to be the best Mum I can at the moment because I'm always aware of these withdrawals.I will post again if I ever recover as some day some one who has struggled with these problems for a similar length of time might read this.  Of course the doctor has never heard of any problems with withdrawal. When I spoke to her about these symptoms she said - 'it's very unlikely to be caused by the sertraline'!!