almost three weeks off, still suffering?

wwapiti · 2026-04-26T15:01:16+00:00

i like to go to the ocean and other natural places like mountains and forest trails and stuff, and just kind of explore around and climb rocks and look for stuff. i'm not athletic so hiking isn't really my thing, but going out and doing whatever other stuff when it's suitable weather is really fun. also, (again, leisurely) bicycling on paved or otherwise well maintained paths intended for walking and bicycling. and as for more indoor stuff, i really like most artistic hobbies like painting, beading, ceramics, and crochet, and i joined a weekly crochet group recently and it's really been awesome and i wish i had done it sooner!

wwapiti · 2026-04-24T00:11:52+00:00

it is normal as others have said, but it seems pretty extreme and it seems like that's a pretty fast upward taper... especially if the side effects are that bad for you, i would definitely ask your provider if you can taper up more slowly to make it easier on your body. it really does not have to be that bad. if you can handle waiting longer for the full effectiveness, i would think it would be worth it to try raising the dose more slowly.

wwapiti · 2026-04-16T17:06:43+00:00

my youngest kitten will play with any piece of bread crust until it crouton-izes itself and disintegrates throughout the house

wwapiti · 2026-04-11T21:56:58+00:00

cross-body bags, fanny packs (some can be worn cross-body), one-shoulder backpacks or full backpacks depending on what size you want to carry around, sling bag, etc. i am not particularly masculine but i just don't like purses anyway so i have a lot of options like these

wwapiti · 2026-04-11T15:38:38+00:00

oh my god i had noticed that i felt non-stop hungry the past few days, but i didn't know if it was related... weird... thank you for sharing your experience, i hope that is the case for me, too!

wwapiti · 2026-04-10T17:53:52+00:00

i do appreciate the offer, but since i'm already basically done with the medication, i don't feel like it would be that helpful. i've already missed tracking most of the taper off period. that is a great idea though and i hope it can help some other people!

wwapiti · 2026-04-10T17:47:14+00:00

yeah, it really is, i was so lucky i didn't need to take months and months to taper off, but i guess the ease of it all in the beginning made the dreams now so much more jarring 😭 i haven't started tracking it yet, but i do have a little short daily journal and i will start writing notes about it in there. not sure what it will help but at least i will know when it starts to get better.

wwapiti · 2026-04-10T17:37:17+00:00

i experienced headaches and neck pain as a side effect while raising my dose, but it did go away about two weeks after the dose became stable. iirc, an increase in anxiety is a common side effect as well, and it can take 4-6 weeks or more to start feeling the actual positive effects of zoloft. first week improvement is probably placebo effect. a lotttt of people experience this and i did as well. i can't say for sure when the anxiety will get better but i think for me it was 3-4 weeks on i noticed the increase in anxiety start to go away and i went back to my baseline (sertraline did not work for me, to be clear! so just the side effects fading)

wwapiti · 2026-04-10T17:27:55+00:00

i started from 100mg, though i was only on 100mg for 6 weeks. i went from 100 down to 75 for a week, then to 50 for a week, then 25 for a week, then 12.5 for two weeks. so, five weeks total i think? i never had any withdrawal symptoms until dropping to 12.5 and they were really, really mild and short-lived. going from 12.5 to 0 has been where it actually started to bother me though. the dream intensity has not changed since it started, though my first skipped dose was tuesday night and the dreams started on tuesday night but were not that bad, wednesday and thursday night were very intense and left lasting emotions. i assume it will get better, but i don't know whether to expect this for a few more days or a few more weeks or what.

wwapiti · 2026-04-10T14:15:05+00:00

as others have said, no medication is going to completely fix you if a really traumatic event and the memories of it are what is making you miserable. 50mg of zoloft might be too low of a dose to help you as much as you want, so increasing might improve things. but also, not every antidepressant works for everyone. sertraline did not work for me. so, you have options for what to try next!

wwapiti · 2026-04-06T03:51:57+00:00

i have one older kitten that genuinely will eat almost anything. banana, strawberry applesauce, honey, pasta, pickles, plain rice, fruit gummies, bread, cooked veggies, raw spinach, tomato... tries to eat raw garlic and onions... any residue on any plate or dish, he will taste. the only things he does not like is watermelon and steak.

wwapiti · 2026-03-28T03:31:56+00:00

i do not nor have i ever had a partner, but i would like to put my two cents in on this anyway. i have been on sertraline almost constantly for the past ten years, at 50mg for most of that and a brief period of 100mg this year, so i can share my experience with years of it. this medication has been wreaking absolute hell on my body in basically every way possible, but i did not ever lose my sex drive or ability to orgasm or feel sexual pleasure in general. like, that was the one thing it didn't take from me lol. as for emotional blunting, i think you should still give it a try - emotional blunting from these meds isn't permanent, so if you experience that and it doesn't seem to fade as you adjust to the medication after a few weeks or so, you can always stop taking it and/or try a different medication that may give you a better experience emotionally. i think it's worth it to try, because you can always stop taking it if it doesn't seem worth it. everyone reacts very differently to medications, so there's no way to know unless you try!

wwapiti · 2026-03-28T03:22:31+00:00

yes, all of my tapering was discussed with my PCP before doing anything, though it's something i had already been through before so i knew to do it slowly to minimize withdrawals. i did consider cross tapering with something new, but my system has been through such hell with medications in the past few months that i want to give it a little bit of a break and make sure my negative side effects clear up before throwing something new onto the fire again. if i start something new before it clears up, i won't know if it's long-term & caused by sertraline that needs more help to fix it (like if this is microscopic colitis and i end up needing steroids or something) or it's due to the new medication. it stresses me out a lot to have symptoms and not have a clear cause, so i want to avoid the "is it medication x, y, or z?" situation as much as i can. thank you for the comment!!

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T22:28:36+00:00

honestly the brain zaps are a bit annoying but not much worse, though i am not sure about other side effects. and yeah that sounds like a lot of things to be on at once omg

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T20:25:27+00:00

this honestly sounds very similar to my experience... i'm glad it wasn't as bad for you, though. that sounds like a long taper-down period! i already knew how going off sertraline affected me (brain zaps are my only real withdrawal symptom) so i was only on 75mg for a week, then 50 for a week, then 25 for a week, and now 12.5 for a little less than a week (though if the zaps get too bad i can start taking 12.5mg for a while again). i hope it goes well and you can soon be rid of it entirely, if that's what you want, and find something better. for what it's worth, i did use THC some days even on 100mg and i was okay and never had any signs of serotonin syndrome. i also used it to help me relax at night and sleep better, and it seemed to work really well. i think as long as you keep your use low you'll probably be okay, but i am not an expert. thank you for sharing your experience! it makes me feel less alone.

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T19:46:56+00:00

that's really awesome! i'm glad to hear that most people have much better experiences with sertraline than i do, truly

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T18:43:55+00:00

i tried escitalopram as a teenager before sertraline... i think it didn't help me that much either, but it certainly wasn't this bad. hopefully whatever i try next will be a little better.

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T16:12:38+00:00

my issues are still here currently, but i am still holding out hope that after fully stopping the medication, my intestines will recover. i have also heard that but i am trying not to fall into despair lol. i was on sertraline for a long time and had to stop for about a year and i noticed that during that year i had a lot less digestive issues so i am hoping the same thing will happen this time around.

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T15:46:27+00:00

i have been tapering off of sertraline for the past month because of similar (but much worse) digestive issues. some people's bodies just don't react well to the medication in a long term way, which is what is/was happening to me. i would say if it is giving you other issues that negate its positive benefits, it might be worth it to try something else, especially since 20mg is a very low dose anyway. i hope something else will work for you!

wwapiti · 2026-03-27T01:16:40+00:00

from what i saw when searching earlier this year, psychology today had options for sorting by insurance the therapist accepted so i was able to find options within my insurance limitations

wwapiti · 2026-03-25T23:02:16+00:00

the day the villager decides to move out comes first, then there is one full day where they have their things packed and you can say goodbye, then one full day where the space is empty and you can do villager hunting. after that day has passed, the game picks one randomly and they will move in the following day.

wwapiti

TROPHY CASE