My partner has tapered off her antidepressants. Need advice please.

Mental health
1

Hello. My partner has been on sertraline (zoloft) for over 6 years for clinical depression. For the last 2 years she has felt much better and decided it was time to come off the tablets (she also hates the side effects sertraline gives her such as having no energy and needing to sleep all the time).

She slowly tapered off the tablets over a course of 4 - 6 months and took her last one 5 weeks ago. About a week after her last one she started to get withdrawal symptoms: increased anxiety, depersonalistion, flu like symptoms, confusion and feelings of depression being the most common.

Now on week 5 most symptoms seem to be fading except the occassional bout of depersonalisation and anxiety from time to time. She still has feelings of depression though, which can get pretty bad with crying fits and feelings of hopelessness and undeserved guilt.

When I have scoured the internet for information, people generally talk about the physical withdrawal symptoms such as brain zaps (she didn't get these). Is feeling depressed a normal part of withdrawal and how long will it typically last in your experiences? She has bad days and not so bad days. The worst part of her feelings of depression have lasted about 3 weeks now. I imagine her brain was pretty dependant on the tablets, is this what causes issues when coming off them?

It may help to know that this depression is different than the one that got her on the tablets originally. She is motivated to do what she can to manage it, such as exercise and distractions (she couldn't get out of bed during other episodes of depression). Also, she tried to discuss this with her GP, but the GP was useless and denied that SSRI withdrawl/discontinuation syndrome even exists!

Any advice you can offer will be most appreciated. She's not sure if she should stick at it or go back on the tablets. She really wants off them, but I just want what's best for her.

Thanks.

2

Hi this is a tricky one.  The official advice is once you have felt better for at least 6 months an attempt can be safely made to taper off the meds.  Your gf has done all the right things.  There are times though when the depression can still return or it is too soon to go off them.  In which case it's better to go back on them. 

I would give it a while to see how your gf feels - say another month or so.  If she starts to feel better then fine,  if not she might have to return to the meds.  It is up to her though at the end of the day though.  She sounds very sensible and you very caring. 

 

3

I agree with hypercat. Like you said, her brain has become dependent on the sertraline. All the little receptors and so on are having to re-adjust. Just think how complicated the brain is. It will need time to actually physically change itself and for all the neurotransmitters to balance themsleves out. She has gone about everything the right way. I think give it another month or so like hypercat said and see if she settles down. If not, then it might be she has to back to the GP. Fingers crossed she is just re-adjusting.

4

Thank you both.

She is going to try to tough it out as you suggested, and hopefully it will start to subside.

Fingers crossed!