I made it out and then decided to tapper out... Wrong choice!

[Aranden]

Hi, so here is my story.

Had anxiety and OCD since as long as I can remember... At 26 I decided to do something about it and started taking 50mg of sertraline and went to therapy. After one month on the meds, I went to my first session, in which the shrink made me say out loud my gratest fears and helped me understand the difference between thinking and doing. The guy fred me of the responsability I thought I have of thinking certain things, protecting my loved ones,etc...

I went out of that one session and never had another OCD symptom again. My anxiety gradually went away. Felt like a miracle, although now I know that the meds had a lot to do with it.

I had 7 great years on 50mg of Sertraline, didn't even know I could feel that good. About two years ago I decided to taper down with my doctors supervision, all went great, but after two months without it I suddenly felt way worst than I had ever felt... with syntoms I had never had...

We decided to go back to Sertraline, but it didn't work. In the next two years I:

Upped the dose from 50, to 150. No improvement.

Lowered it back to 50 and added Lexapro, gradually, up to 15. Made no difference.

Tappered completely of lexapro and keep on 50 Sertraline. Made no difference

Now I'm thinking about ading Prozac but I'm not droping Sertraline again until I see some solid evidence of improvement.

At this point I feel as I use to feel just before taking my first med... which is way better than after the big post tapper crash but worse than those 7 years on 50 zoloft...

I've come to the conclusion that the 50 zoloft isn't doing the same as it used to and that the big meltdown I felt after I tappered of it two years ago was probably a withdrawl that has taken my brain a long time to come back from...

Now what?

[Super_Freaked]

it sounds like the therapy was by far the biggest help. I would up that area first as there isn't side effects from it and might be a long term thing you never have to really quit. Nothing against meds when there is no other choice it just sounds like maybe theory about therapy working much better for some and possibly meds being a dead end at one point might be like you.

[Aranden]

Thanks for answering... It's curious how we've come up with opposite conclusions. Being that the only thing that changed between me feeling great and me feeling bad was me droping medication, I think that those are the real factor in my wellbeing... I hope someone can help me in finding a new med that works for me, but I do consider going back to theraphy...

[Fishmanpa]

My daughter suffers from anxiety and depression. She was on Zoloft for a while and it crapped out on her. I took it for 6 months for some depression after my 1st heart attack. That along with therapy helped me get through that tough time.

SSRIs are tricky. What works for one person doesn't for another. My daughter had to try three different meds and deal with the ramp up and cross tapering effects until they found one that works.

There are no easy answers here. If meds help you then it's a matter of finding the right one for you. Therapy is also quite effective in teaching you ways to deal with your anxiety.

Good luck...

Positive thoughts

[Aranden]

Thanks for your response Fishmanpa! So, did your daughter find another med that worked? I guess my question would be that, once one SSRI med stops working, how are the chances to find another SSRI that works?