It’s been 6 weeks since my massive crash at the end of July and most of the physical symptoms have gone. My last taper (8%) was on 1 June.

I’m starting to feel a bit better, but it’s back to how I was before in that I’m still not myself. Operating at a 6 or 7/10. Slight disconnection from my body, brain fog, muddled thoughts, unbalanced, low mood. This is largely how I’ve felt the past 18months to a greater or lesser extent. Never truly myself. It’s exhausting.

I’m still planning to hold until February to allow things to settle more with the hope that I improve. But what if they don’t? What if this is just how I am now? It certainly feels that way. It’s a scary thought.

How will I know when the time is that I should try to taper again if this is the baseline?

Do you think my nervous system is still just in shock and trying to recover from the initial switch to sertaline last year?

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

It’s been 6 weeks since my massive crash at the end of July and most of the physical symptoms have gone. My last taper (8%) was on 1 June.

I’m starting to feel a bit better, but it’s back to how I was before in that I’m still not myself. Operating at a 6 or 7/10. Slight disconnection from my body, brain fog, muddled thoughts, unbalanced, low mood. This is largely how I’ve felt the past 18months to a greater or lesser extent. Never truly myself. It’s exhausting.

Hey @VelvetBreeze I'm glad you're recovering from your crash, that's great. I certainly wouldn't expect you to be at 100% yet, but any improvement is a good sign.

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I’m still planning to hold until February to allow things to settle more with the hope that I improve. But what if they don’t? What if this is just how I am now? It certainly feels that way. It’s a scary thought.

I suspect that things will begin to settle more with a good long hold. If you look around this forum you'll see plenty of people with the same fear as you, i.e. that they're stuck like this. You'll also see that many have expressed that fear and then gone on to improve, because we all heal in time. As a few of us have said before in your thread, you never really gave your nervous system the time it needed to stabilize after your abrupt switch to sertraline. Sometimes stabilization can take a really long time, but I think you will get there if you can give your nervous system enough patience.

1 hour ago, VelvetBreeze said:

Do you think my nervous system is still just in shock and trying to recover from the initial switch to sertaline last year?

Yes, I think it never recovered from the switch and then was further destabilized by your attempted taper.

18 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

I’m starting to feel a bit better,

Good news :)

18 hours ago, VelvetBreeze said:

but it’s back to how I was before in that I’m still not myself. Operating at a 6 or 7/10. Slight disconnection from my body, brain fog, muddled thoughts, unbalanced, low mood. This is largely how I’ve felt the past 18months to a greater or lesser extent. Never truly myself. It’s exhausting.

I’m still planning to hold until February to allow things to settle more with the hope that I improve. But what if they don’t? What if this is just how I am now? It certainly feels that way. It’s a scary thought.

How will I know when the time is that I should try to taper again if this is the baseline?

I think this is wise. We always suggest you want to see mild symptoms of 1-3/10 for a prolonged period of time before starting to taper.

Best thing now is to not worry to much about the what ifs and so on. When you are not feeling good and have been for a few weeks fear steps in. Concentrate on the day at hand and try to not think too much about the future. You'll get there :)