Hello. I have been on Sertraline since 2005.  I started taking it because of inability to sleep and fatigue. My children were little and I was working full time while being a busy mom. I went to met GP who stated that I had anxiety and depression. I was shocked to hear it, I was very upset but I trusted him. Reluctantly, I started taking Sertraline 150mg. It had severe effects on me as it made my symptoms significantly worse right away. He told me to increase my dose so I kept increasing the dose when after a while I stabilized. During this time I was also hyperthyroid due to too much thyroid replacement (I have Hashimoto's disease). Hyperthyroidism can cause anxiety and insomnia...

 

I was never guided to taper off the Sertraline so after about 10 years, I performed a "slow" taper on my own which was liner due to lack of knowledge on my part. This took me about 3 months. Approximately 3 after having been off Sertraline, I developed severe withdrawal symptoms. After this, I was restarted on Sertraline, now on 200 mg.  

 

Approximately 6 years after this (just before Covid), I tapered off Sertraline again. This time I took a year, and I reduced my dose to 6 mg via a linear taper (again unaware of hyperbolic tapering). Approximately 3 months after I was off, again I ended up with severe withdrawal symptoms. MD restarted me again on 200 mg Sertraline and 100 mg Trazodone for sleep. 

 

This time I linear tapered myself down from Sertraline 200 mg to 25 mg over 2-3 years (no withdrawal effects) while also cutting back from Trazodone 100 to 50 mg (no symptoms).

 

Currently, in June, 2025, aware of Hyperbolic tapering, I started hyperbolic tapering off the Sertraline 25 mg. I also joined Outro at this time. 

 

I am switching to this site from Surviving Antidepressants. I am currently (1/30/2026) on Sertraline 14.8mg and Trazodone 37.4mg. 

Interestingly, my thyroid replacement requirement has also declined while tapering from Sertraline. Instead of taking 150 mcg /day, my replacement requirement has lowered to 75 mcg / day. 

This could have many reasons in my opinion: 1. Now I take the two medication separately --> Sertraline was interfering with the absorption of thyroid hormone replacement. 2. Hormonal changes due to less Sertraline present in the circulation. 3. Return or thyroid function due to reduced SSRI in the system (it would be very unusual). 

 

My SA Thread

Hi NOW

 

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your introduction topic. 

I couldn’t find you on SA. Let me know your username over there and I’ll grab your thread and link it here for you?

 

I can see you’ve been on quite a journey with sertraline over the years. It’s so typical to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression and medicated without looking into other causes. 
 

You had a rough time with some fairly abrupt stops too. All not nice for the cns. 
 

Good to see you’re now getting off with a hyperbolic taper which is particularly important at these lower doses. 
 

How have you been? Is the taper going ok?

 

Its great to have you here, you are very welcome. 
 

Chippy

Thank you for crossing over.

 

It sounds like now you are armed with much more knowledge, which is good. Hopefully this will mean that the rest of your taper is much more manageable.

 

  

11 hours ago, NOW said:

Interestingly, my thyroid replacement requirement has also declined while tapering from Sertraline. Instead of taking 150 mcg /day, my replacement requirement has lowered to 75 mcg / day. 

This could have many reasons in my opinion: 1. Now I take the two medication separately --> Sertraline was interfering with the absorption of thyroid hormone replacement. 2. Hormonal changes due to less Sertraline present in the circulation. 3. Return or thyroid function due to reduced SSRI in the system (it would be very unusual). 

 

I have never had any thyroid issues at all.

 

I only took Mirtazapine for a few months, and became extremely severely ill almost immediately with withdrawal. Blood tests showed abnormal thyroid function. At about 9ish months off it had normalised again.

 

Mirtazapine does affect thyroid function while being taken, according to studies. I have seen similar studies for other antidepressants too:

Effects of long term treatment with sertraline (Zoloft®) simulating hypothyroidism in an adolescent - ScienceDirect

 

This one is just a single case study, for Mirtazapine I've seen studies where changed levels were observed across many patients.

13 hours ago, Chippy said:

Hi NOW

 

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your introduction topic. 

I couldn’t find you on SA. Let me know your username over there and I’ll grab your thread and link it here for you?

 

I can see you’ve been on quite a journey with sertraline over the years. It’s so typical to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression and medicated without looking into other causes. 
 

You had a rough time with some fairly abrupt stops too. All not nice for the cns. 
 

Good to see you’re now getting off with a hyperbolic taper which is particularly important at these lower doses. 
 

How have you been? Is the taper going ok?

 

Its great to have you here, you are very welcome. 
 

Chippy

Hi Chippy. 

My taper is going really well so far. I am cutting and weighing my pills for which I bought a high tech scale. My doses seem to be accurate or at least the trend seems consistent. I am planning to switch to pharmacy prepared  liquid in May. I am waiting till May because I am going on a month long trip and I wasn't ready to make a change before the trip.  

 

I was CCRN on SA. 

11 hours ago, Luke said:

Thank you for crossing over.

 

It sounds like now you are armed with much more knowledge, which is good. Hopefully this will mean that the rest of your taper is much more manageable.

 

  

 

I have never had any thyroid issues at all.

 

I only took Mirtazapine for a few months, and became extremely severely ill almost immediately with withdrawal. Blood tests showed abnormal thyroid function. At about 9ish months off it had normalised again.

 

Mirtazapine does affect thyroid function while being taken, according to studies. I have seen similar studies for other antidepressants too:

Effects of long term treatment with sertraline (Zoloft®) simulating hypothyroidism in an adolescent - ScienceDirect

 

This one is just a single case study, for Mirtazapine I've seen studies where changed levels were observed across many patients.

 

11 hours ago, Luke said:

Thank you for crossing over.

 

It sounds like now you are armed with much more knowledge, which is good. Hopefully this will mean that the rest of your taper is much more manageable.

 

  

 

I have never had any thyroid issues at all.

 

I only took Mirtazapine for a few months, and became extremely severely ill almost immediately with withdrawal. Blood tests showed abnormal thyroid function. At about 9ish months off it had normalised again.

 

Mirtazapine does affect thyroid function while being taken, according to studies. I have seen similar studies for other antidepressants too:

Effects of long term treatment with sertraline (Zoloft®) simulating hypothyroidism in an adolescent - ScienceDirect

 

This one is just a single case study, for Mirtazapine I've seen studies where changed levels were observed across many patients.

Thank you Luke. This is very interesting. I appreciate your input and the link. I had no idea....  

10 hours ago, NOW said:

Hi Chippy. 

My taper is going really well so far. I am cutting and weighing my pills for which I bought a high tech scale. My doses seem to be accurate or at least the trend seems consistent. I am planning to switch to pharmacy prepared  liquid in May. I am waiting till May because I am going on a month long trip and I wasn't ready to make a change before the trip.  

 

I was CCRN on SA. 

This is great to hear 🙂 Good glad you are using scales for accuracy and its working for you.

 

There are other routes you can take if you dont want to change to liquids.

How to calculate dosages and dilutions. Spreadsheets and calculators.

 

Also have a read here about making the switch if you do go to liquids.

Transitioning from pills to liquid

 

Ive linked your SA thread above for you 🙂 

 

Chippy

11 hours ago, NOW said:

 

Thank you Luke. This is very interesting. I appreciate your input and the link. I had no idea....  

 

You're welcome.

 

The interaction isn't particularly clear, but it's certainly true that many psychiatric drugs interact with our bodies in a large range of ways.

@NOW I just wanted to stop by your page and say hello here. Thank you for visiting mine. I really appreciate it. I also used a scale for a while when tapering and, like you, eventually transitioned to liquid. It all works. You’re doing very well. I’m very impressed with how you’re handling your taper. It’s hard work, but it’s absolutely worth it.

PS- I remember you from SA. So glad you made it over here

Edited February 1Feb 1 by RachelSusan
added the PS

Hi

What's the easiest way to continue my topic without searching through all the topics and posts? I am sure I can just click somewhere but I can't find it. I appreciate any help. 

I have an update. I taper sertraline 2.5% per week. I held slightly longer the last two times as I am feeling irritable. I am now on 14.3mg sertraline. I have lowered my Levoxyl to 75mg per day and will retest at the end of February. If my TSH is getting even lower, I will reduce my thyroid replacement even further. 

Edited February 7Feb 7 by NOW

Hi @NOW nice to meet you and great work on your taper. Very interesting about your thyroid medication- I just thought I’d drop by and say that I have seen this scenario recently before in Catina from SA. It might be worth checking out her thread on SA, I believe she is currently “residing” over on BenzoBuddies. 

7 hours ago, NOW said:

Hi

What's the easiest way to continue my topic without searching through all the topics and posts? I am sure I can just click somewhere but I can't find it. I appreciate any help. 

Hi @NOW

 

Try saving this page in your book marks/favourites and use that to get back here each time. 
 

https://antidepressantrecovery.org/topic/153-now-my-recovery-on-sertraline-zoloft/

 

Hope that helps. 😀

7 hours ago, NOW said:

I have an update. I taper sertraline 2.5% per week. I held slightly longer the last two times as I am feeling irritable. I am now on 14.3mg sertraline. I have lowered my Levoxyl to 75mg per day and will retest at the end of February. If my TSH is getting even lower, I will reduce my thyroid replacement even further. 

Hope the longer hold helps @NOW

15 hours ago, Chippy said:

Hi @NOW

 

Try saving this page in your book marks/favourites and use that to get back here each time. 
 

https://antidepressantrecovery.org/topic/153-now-my-recovery-on-sertraline-zoloft/

 

Hope that helps. 😀

Perfect. Thank you. It helps 

21 hours ago, SparklingG said:

Hi @NOW nice to meet you and great work on your taper. Very interesting about your thyroid medication- I just thought I’d drop by and say that I have seen this scenario recently before in Catina from SA. It might be worth checking out her thread on SA, I believe she is currently “residing” over on BenzoBuddies. 

Hi SparklingG

Thank you so much. This sounds validating and very helpful. I'll check it out. It's been an issue for me for a long time but the other way around. I needed more and more. But as I think back, I was increasing the ssri dose then. So there has to be a correlation. I assumed my thyroid gland is messed up. It'll be interesting to see what happens as the ssri dose continues to decrease. 

I wanted to make a note about an observation regarding my symptoms and the way they relate to my diet. This is not to say that it will hold for everyone, but it definitely is true for me.

 

First, before I started taking AD medications, I struggled a lot with brain fog, sleep issues and fatigue. My doctor suggested that I had anxiety and depression, but neither of us ever considered that perhaps I needed to pay attention to my diet before starting on drugs. The healthcare system does not regard our diet as a source of symptomology.  It relies on drugs to treat symptoms. 

 

I say this because back then, my husband and I used to eat desserts on a daily basis.  A bowl of ice cream every night, a bottle of beer, and feel-good foods such as Little Debbie cakes, cookies, etc. However, that was 30 years ago, and since then, I have learned a lot about nutrition and its effect on my well-being. I have cleaned up my eating habits and observed a significant shift in mental and physical symptoms. My husband, who continued eating carbs and drinking beer, has developed diabetes.

 

After a decade of eating a clean diet, last week I decided to test the diet theory and spent two days eating desserts, cakes, and carbs (I was not proud of it, and I felt nauseated the entire time).  Needless to say, the brain fog crept on and lasted for 3 days. Now that I am off carbs again, I feel very well.  

 

This aligns with some of Dr. Anders Sørensen's suggestions in his book "Crossing Zero," where he mentions the ketogenic diet as a support during tapering.

 

So, I wanted to make a point of how much carb reduction influenced my well-being. It is worth trying. It might work for others as well. 

Hello @NOW, I wanted to show up on your thread because I read some of your very interesting posts. I also have Hashimoto’s and I’m also on hormone replacement, in my case 75 mg. I will have my.Tsh checked, that’s for sure. Thank you for your information! Catina was writing about the same, but I’m not able to tag  her now.
Anyway, I also thought it was also very interesting, what you’ve wrote about the carbohydrates and the influence of diet on the brain. Kudos to you for doing this self experiment!  I have also made the observation that diet makes a huge impact on my thinking and my general well-being, and not only on the long run, but also immediately. In my case, I have to make sure not to have insulin spikes by eating carbon hydrates on an empty stomach. I also never eat huge amount of carbohydrates, like pasta or rice or sugar. I never drink soft drinks or fruit juice. I would end up with terrible brain fog and heart palpitations, and cortisol rushes at night. I think there’s also a very strong connection between the thyroid and the adrenal glands. In my case, i  suffer from autoimmune disorder of the adrenal glands , too , and an adrenal gland friendly diet works very well for me.

I do not do keto, I shy away from any radical changes. But a clean diet with few carbohydrates and only complex ones works well for me.
 

I hope you are doing well and continue a successful taper! I’m very interested in your thoughts and progress. thank you for being here. Take care, Nemina 

 

 

Hi NOW, I'm coming here to say hello. I was reading your thread and I see you joined Outro. This really is the best help you can receive. You should do really well with your tapering with their guidance. I've found finding different distractions really helpful. Marie.

Hi @NOW, thank you for sharing this. Would it be possible to tell us more about your experience with Outro? 

On 2/26/2026 at 7:32 AM, molly97 said:

Hi @NOW, thank you for sharing this. Would it be possible to tell us more about your experience with Outro? 

Hi Molly. 

Yes. I found Outro by chance online. When I contacted them they gave me an appointment, which they called a discovery visit. It's a virtual visit (all of the experience with Outro had been via virtual platforms). I talked to a nurse practitioner who asked questions for 50 minutes. She then took my case to a panel that decided to accept me as a patient. This cost me $100. After that, I was offered to become a "member" of a selection of 2 different levels. For Approx $300 I can attend support groups and have monthly appointments with a taper Support person. For $125 I can just attend the support groups and if I need an appointment I can pay $175 each time I see a counsellor. I selected the latter option. I don't see a counsellor, I only attend the support groups. They are super helpful with people in similar situations. I don't use the counsellor benefit because it's expensive and I am very comfortable calculating my doses and cutting my pills. 

 

More recently they started to offer quarterly payments which reduces the cost even more. Furthermore, they also started to offer meditation and virtual yoga meetings. They have been helpful too but the support group is the main reason I pay for this membership. 

Please don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions. 

 

I have reduced my Sertraline dose to 13.2 mg from 13.6 mg. I was on 13.6 for 9 days. Experienced no symptoms of the reduction. I plan to stay on 13.2 for 10 days. Then I'll reduce it to 12.9 mg. 

 

I'm May, 2026, I am planning to convert to liquid Sertraline. This conversion will take me a month but it will make it easier to manage small doses. 

On 2/15/2026 at 2:48 PM, Nemina said:

Hello @NOW, I wanted to show up on your thread because I read some of your very interesting posts. I also have Hashimoto’s and I’m also on hormone replacement, in my case 75 mg. I will have my.Tsh checked, that’s for sure. Thank you for your information! Catina was writing about the same, but I’m not able to tag  her now.
Anyway, I also thought it was also very interesting, what you’ve wrote about the carbohydrates and the influence of diet on the brain. Kudos to you for doing this self experiment!  I have also made the observation that diet makes a huge impact on my thinking and my general well-being, and not only on the long run, but also immediately. In my case, I have to make sure not to have insulin spikes by eating carbon hydrates on an empty stomach. I also never eat huge amount of carbohydrates, like pasta or rice or sugar. I never drink soft drinks or fruit juice. I would end up with terrible brain fog and heart palpitations, and cortisol rushes at night. I think there’s also a very strong connection between the thyroid and the adrenal glands. In my case, i  suffer from autoimmune disorder of the adrenal glands , too , and an adrenal gland friendly diet works very well for me.

I do not do keto, I shy away from any radical changes. But a clean diet with few carbohydrates and only complex ones works well for me.
 

I hope you are doing well and continue a successful taper! I’m very interested in your thoughts and progress. thank you for being here. Take care, Nemina 

 

 

Hi Nemina.

 

I have reduced the Levothyroxine dose to 75 mg daily, but my TSH level increased a bit, so I am back to 75 x6 days and 150mcg 1 day a week. Still, this is a reduced replacement need from a few months ago when I was on 150mc daily. Rechecking TSH in a few weeks. Definitely, there is an absorption change that might have to do with the SSRI dose reduction. I will keep posting about this until I stabilise on my thyroid replacement dosage. Thank you, Now. 

Thank you! I haven’t made it to the doctor yet, hopefully soon. It will be interesting if anything has changed concerning the TSH. 
yes, keep posting! Am sure it’s not only me who is interested.
 

Sending you blessings!

I have tapered down to 12.6 mg and will be ready to switch to 20mg/ml liquid Sertraline. Symptoms are under control. I feel good. I continue to experience symptoms if/when I consume too many carbohydrates. I swear by the idea of intermittent fasting and a low-carb diet.

Sounds good! I am happy for you that you are making progress. How do you do the intermittent fasting?