Zoloft Withdrawl after 7 years

sometimes you need to think about what positive effects zoloft had for you. i also have been on it for 7 years and could not imagine my life withouy it. it not only controls my depression but anxiety as well. i even took it throughout my entire pregnancy and had a perfectly healthy baby. if you are feeling so irratable and stuff now maybe you should go back on it. we all will be on some kind of meds when older so you may as well be happy and just take it now. good luck!

If your body does not make seratonin, you need the Zoloft. I have been on it 7 years and tried to go off it and was miserable so I am back on it and accepted it will probably be forever. Fortunately it is cheap and readily available. I am glad that it exists so that I don't have to be grouchy and anxious all the time.

Having been on Zoloft (sertraline) 200 mg daily for about 10 years, I have decided that I am disgusted with being controlled through chemistry, especially after my daughter decided to have me arbitrarily committed to a local psychiatric unit for the holidays because she didn't want to talk or deal with me nor did she want me to be in her way.  Needless to say, I decided right then and there that under no circumstances was I going to have this drug or others like it control my life.  I am personally going through physical hell as I am withdrawing from this wicked medication.  I cannot see any upside to having taken it other than it dulled my senses and made me apathetic to most things after I had brain surgery for a rare brain stem tumor.  In the past 8 years, I have undergone brain surgery, vocal cord implant, gastric tube placement because of dysphasia caused by the brain surgery, loss of balance of my left side, profound loss of hearing on my left side, two bouts of viral meningitis, with the second one rendering me code blue.  A new tumor on the right side of my neck two years later prompted radiation therapy and then several hospitalizations for aspiration pneumonia.  In all of this time, I lost my business, my marriage, my family and just about everything else that one might call "quality of life".  I was severely depressed and no where to turn.  The doc prescribed zoloft long before the brain tumor was even diagnosed for deep clinical depression.  All of the other stuff just added icing on the cake.

Getting off of this med as I'm sure it is with other psychotropic meds is not easy and withdrawal is hell.  No one understands what you are going through and just thinks you're crazy.  If you're not careful and live in a state like I do, someone you don't even know can get in your face and if you defend yourself verbally, you get placed in an institution for a 72 hour observation.  No one competent even has to assess whether you belong in there in the first place, it's done on hearsay and law enforcement.  The result is traumatizing and is not meant for the benefit of the patient at all, it's meant for removing as much insurance money as can be had within a legal amount of time.  It's more about corruption than the betterment of the patient.  The experience is barbaric and inhumane.  It demoralizes and traumatizes the patient (victim) and they (the minions working at the institution) will stand over you and FORCE you to take the medication they dole out.  If you don't take it,  they will put you in shackles and force you to take the medication intravenously.  You lose your right as a human being and are stripped of dignity.  This is supposed to be better health through chemistry?  It's control through chemistry of which I will no longer participate in.  Even though this withdrawal period will be difficult, I will prevail because I want my life back.  I've lost too much to the surgeon's knife and I'm thankful I'm still here to talk about it.  There are far worse things one can endure, but if the prize is being able to control who and what I am, then it's worth it.  I hate how it makes me feel right now and I feel so utterly alone, but deep inside, I know I can persevere and if I can, so can you! 

The only ones who think that you need to be on these drugs long term are big pharma and the doctors who prescribe their products (they get the "kickbacks").  No more...If I need the drug to live, then consideration is given to what it is, how it is administered, its long and short term side effects and what I can expect.  If I don't really need it, then they (big pharma) can just go home.  Just because your doctor prescribes it doesn't make it the right drugs to take...do a little homework...you'll be glad you did!