I have been reading this forum and SA for a while and am finally starting my own thread. I am currently tapering and having a hard time with windows and waves. I have already tapered too fast, reinstated, and am tapering more slowly and now I am afraid it is still too fast. I feel like my waves are getting more intense. I get discouraged when I read about the windows and waves people experience during withdrawal as I am not completely off of the sertraline yet and my waves already feel horrible. I am guessing I should hold at my dose for a bit longer. I don’t know why I feel in such a hurry to get off of it… I guess because I just want to be “normal” again, whatever that is.

Right now, when I think about my windows, it feels like even my “good” days are just the days where my mind is a little quieter from the negative chatter but I don’t actually feel good or hopeful or anything else. I have 3 young children and I just feel guilty about my feelings and that I should be enjoying my time with them and that everything shouldn’t be this difficult. I feel like all I want to do is run away from my thoughts and that’s something I have historically been doing with alcohol and THC and I know that doesn’t help my recovery, but it is so hard. The things that do help, help only minimally and oftentimes I feel I can’t even bring myself to do them.

Anyways, I’m here now.

Edited August 3Aug 3 by SarahMc

Welcome to the forum!

 

This is a volunteer-run, community forum aimed at helping those who are tapering and/or experiencing difficulties with psychiatric medications and withdrawal syndrome. We are not medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice. We simply offer support and opinions which you could use as talking points with a medical provider knowledgeable in withdrawing off psychiatric medications.

 

Please familiarise yourself with the forum rules and the disclaimer located here: Guidelines

 

Please make sure your signature is kept up to date with your drug history. This will allow members to see some basic information about your drug history and situation so that they may help you best. Information on how to do this is located in the FAQs section above, but here is a direct link: Update Signature

Once this is done, future posts made by you will have this signature turned on by default. For this reason please keep it clear but condensed as possible.

Please use the format outline here Preferred signature/drug history format

I'm so sorry to read about the tough time you've had recently you will find plenty of support here for sure.

52 minutes ago, Imjustjen said:

I am currently tapering and having a hard time with windows and waves. I have already tapered too fast, reinstated, and am tapering more slowly and now I am afraid it is still too fast. I feel like my waves are getting more intense. I get discouraged when I read about the windows and waves people experience during withdrawal as I am not completely off of the sertraline yet and my waves already feel horrible. I am guessing I should hold at my dose for a bit longer. I don’t know why I feel in such a hurry to get off of it… I guess because I just want to be “normal” again, whatever that is.

 Assuming your signature accurately reflects your taper, you are absolutely tapering much, much too fast. It looks like you reinstated 25 mg in March of this year after an extremely fast taper off 200 mg, held at 25 mg for only two months, and then cut 50% to 12.5 mg? And then you cut another 20% two months later. That would be enough for most people to be doing very poorly.

Generally speaking, after a bad withdrawal reaction and reinstatement we recommend a long hold until you feel stable. Stability is a long period of feeling withdrawal symptoms around a 1-3/10 in severity (10 being very severe). Of course everyone wants off these meds, but tapering from a place of instability causes a lot of problems, as you are discovering, and can lead to a long period of recovery once off the meds. It's much better if you can be very patient with yourself, wait until you feel stable, and then taper as slowly as you need to maintain health and functionality during the process.

I would recommend holding at your current dose for as long as it takes to feel stable. This could be many months, but will make this process much easier for you in the long run. Once you do feel stable, we recommend tapering at a maximum of 10% of your last dose per month: Tapering Information. Many people cannot even go this fast, especially at lower doses and after a major destabilizing event.

1 hour ago, Imjustjen said:

Right now, when I think about my windows, it feels like even my “good” days are just the days where my mind is a little quieter from the negative chatter but I don’t actually feel good or hopeful or anything else. I have 3 young children and I just feel guilty about my feelings and that I should be enjoying my time with them and that everything shouldn’t be this difficult. I feel like all I want to do is run away from my thoughts and that’s something I have historically been doing with alcohol and THC and I know that doesn’t help my recovery, but it is so hard. The things that do help, help only minimally and oftentimes I feel I can’t even bring myself to do them.

I understand feeling guilty and frustrated during this process. There are other parents of young children on here with similar feelings, so I think you will find some good support. We recommend trying to practice acceptance: Acceptance is key - Why does acceptance feel impossible?

Right now, it is really just about passing the time. Just make it through one day at a time, and slowly your symptoms will start to improve and you will start to feel more stable. As you know, this process is slow and non-linear, but healing will happen.

We absolutely do not recommend using alcohol or THC in withdrawal. Alcohol in particular has been documented to make things much worse for a lot of folks. Try to keep yourself as healthy as possible, and avoid introducing other substances to your system: Medications, Supplements and Other Substances in Withdrawal.

In the mean time this is what I would do if I were you:

 

-Stay Hydrated 

 

-Eat a good clean whole food diet, avoiding processed foods and sugars.

 

-Stay away from caffeine, alcohol and antihistamines and any other psychoactive substances.

 

Supplements are to be avoided initially, as they often irritate our nervous systems. Try to get your nutrition through food.

 

Down the line, you may wish to introduce Fish Oil and Magnesium. Those who can tolerate them have found them calming to the nervous system. Be careful try one at a time and start low and see how you get on should you choose to try them.

 

A daily walk is very important as much as you can manage, if you can manage it. Gets you your fresh air and Vitamin D does wonders for your mind!

 

You are very welcome here and I hope you find the site supportive.

Hey @Imjustjen Welcome to the forum, I am so pleased you decided to make your thread on here. You are so very welcome. As Sarah has said your taper has been too quick, RI dose probably too high, and you've been tapering whilst destablised. Using substances like alcohol certainly adds to the harm.

The good news is your body is designed to heal! And heal it will! All you must do is hold and give it the time it needs to stablise and heal. Creating a nice platform with low stress, good whole foods, plenthy of water and a gentle daily walk. Once stable you can taper at a rate that is led by your body not by a schedule. Everyone wants off these drugs, I understand, but coming off them too quickly is way worse than being on them and tapering a rate you can tolerate. You've got this and we are here for you every step of the way. :)