Cross Taper Zoloft to Prozac- Very scared, New

[LilyLabVA]

New to this page but not to health anxiety boards:)

My psy. dr is switching me from 175 zoloft to 80 prozac due to health OCD

I am cross tapering which terrifies me for Seratonin Syndrom! He reassured me he has been doing this 26 years and he has no concerns and that the only other way is for me to wean totally off zoloft which would not be good for my state of mind...

So this is the plan
Drop Zoloft by 50 mg each week while adding 20mg of prozac.

I'm so scared I will get SS and die. Please help me get over this fear with the real data out there and not scary google.

[Darksky]

I don't know much about meds to honest but if your Dr. has 26 years experience why don't you trust him. He's real life...Dr.Google just a scaremonger, so don't go there.

[LilyLabVA]

My Dr. is switching me from 175 Zoloft to 80mg Prozac due to health OCD. I've been on zoloft over 10 years and it's just not doing the job anymore. So out comes the health OCD as I taper....

I'm terrified of Serotonin Syndrome! He reassured me he has been doing this 26 years and he has no concerns and that the OTHER option to switch way is for me to wean totally off zoloft which would NOT be good for my state of mind...

So this is the plan:
Drop Zoloft by 50 mg each week while adding 20mg of prozac........ Today is day 1 and 4 hours in I feel fine, does that even mean anything? Haha
Week 1- 125z, 20p
Week 2- 75z, 40p
Week 3- 25z, 60p
Week 4- 80 p

Has anyone cross tapered like this? Any reassurance would be especially helpful!

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.

Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.

It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.

[MyNameIsTerry]

This is how we tend to do it over here:

https://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=1637482568

Withdraw then start new one. But a cross taper can be a good way to ease the potential for withdrawal. If you were on the minimum Sertraline dosage when just withdrawing first is less problematic but when you need to come down from higher dosages the withdrawal may be a problem. So the cross taper will be attempting to stop your Serotonin levels dropping too low that it becomes a full withdrawal. These meds have a cross over effect.

Since they are slightly different you may still have side effects but the point is the brunt of it should be reduced.

Switching meds is a daily thing to these doctors, they know what to do and what to look out for. And please remember even if someone gets Serotonin Syndrome it comes in levels, it's not straight to the worst cases you will read about on Google. It can be mild.

Tons of people on this forum have switched meds. I've watched a lot of med threads since been here, especially my first couple of years on the forum. In this time I can only think of 2 cases where SS was a possibility and that was due to their GP's doing some strange things with meds that aren't in the above guidance or what your psychiatrist is doing. And both those people also got themselves sorted out from what was actually a mild thing, if it was SS.

[RadioGaGa]

Excellent advice from Terry - keep in contact with your psych and you shouldn't have any problems