Zoloft Withdrawal & Warning

November 14, 2004

A while back I made a post about finding a doctor who has at least

some familiarity with CMT. I have not yet found one, but I am

getting closer. The good news is that my employer (I am on

disability, but technically I'm an employee on 'inactive' status) is

changing it's selection of health insurance companies and it appears

that I will no longer be required to have a " Primary Care Physician "

since my new plan will be an " EPO " (whatever that means). This

change coincided with my getting on COBRA.

Anyway, I need to get to the point. Here is the problem: My previous

doctor always responded to my complaints about fatigue (and sometimes

pain) by attributing it to depression. Sometimes he upped my dosage

of anti-depressants and sometimes he just changed me to a different

anti-depressant. After taking anti-depressants for many years (since

1997), I finally met with a responsible neurologist who explained how

CMT is the root of my fatigue. I tended to agree, but now that I am

no longer working I am absolutely certain that CMT was the cause of

my excessive fatigue. I discussed the discontinuation of Zoloft with

my neurologist and he agreed that I should stop taking the drug. OK,

so now (after 'tapering off') I am experiencing these strange

withdrawal symptoms after going from 25mg to nothing (I was taking

100mg about two months ago). These withdrawal problems (going on 5

days) include dizziness and strong head rushes that happen when I

move my head. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what did you

do? Any idea on when it will go away? Doing Internet research, I

have read conflicting information, anywhere from 1 week to six

months. I really wish these problems would go away.

On a related note, if you ever have a doctor who attributes various

problems (like fatigue) to depression without performing a serious

medical evaluation, FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR! I can't believe I was such

a sucker for such a long time and just took the doctor's advice.

Normally I'm a fairly intelligent person (or at least I think so).

Rob

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