Hello all.

22 Year Old male here.

A breif intro - 2 years ago I came down with Pure OCD in the space of a few months. In essence, my life fell apart in a few short weeks. I went to the doctors, and was prescribed Sertraline (brand name Zoloft). After a few months of nothingness, my dose was upped to 100mg, and it has been at that level ever since. Coinciding with this has been a serious alcohol use disorder. I'll make no bones about it, I was drinking whenever I could. Despite being at my final year at a prestigious university, I drank at every available opportunity. I went to work in Italy for the summer, and this trend continued. When I returned, I sought help for my issues, and I came across Naltrexone, and the sinclair method. My GP told me that she would not prescribe it to me, so I got it off the internet. For the past 4 months, my problem has certainly improved - I have had much more control over my drinking, but it hasn't gone away.

Anyway, fast forward to may of this year, and I was about to have a dental implant (oddly enough, for a tooth I had lost in a drunken stupor). As such, I was required to stop smoking, and preferably drinking. I thought I would use this is an experiment, and see what would happen if I gave up all of my 'addictions,' including my Zoloft...

For 2 weeks, I was able to maintain a healthy diet, absent of cravings for sugar, alcohol, or drugs. I exercised daily, and experienced no anxiety. For two weeks, I was the person I was before my OCD episode. This is massive, as I havent been me for years.

Unfortunately, as I am sure most of you know, you shouldn't stop taking SSRI's cold turkey. I knew this anyway, but I didn't care as I never thought it would be forever. The withdrawals kicked in, and I am back where I was.

The reason I am posting is threefold. Firstly, I want to know if anyone else has experienced anything like this during SSRI use? If so, I'd like to hear each and every detail if you have the time to share it with me. I am going to compile some evidence, and take it to my doctor, who will NOT deviate from her medical bible for a second.

Secondly, I need advising with my alcohol use. There is no doubt that in the last year or so, I have displayed signs of alcohol dependancy and abuse. I have read and posted in other forums, such as sober recovery, where I have been vehemently told so embrace lifelong sobriety. I am going to stop drinking for 3 months, while I taper off this drug. Frankly, I have had enough of being dependent on it, as I know I am. With regards to alcohol, I know it isn't wise for anyone who suffers from mental health issues to drink, but aside from this, I feel I have recovered from my OCD. I am 22 years old, and the thought of permanent, life long abstinence is causing me to be anxious. If there is no other way, then abstinent it is, but surely at 22, with no prior addiction issues, there must me another way?

Thirdly, I am posting to raise awareness. Regardless of whether or not I was an alcoholic before this, the damage caused by these SSRI's has been greater than I realised until now. When I walked into that doctors surgery, explaining that I had suicidal thoughts due to OCD, she should have thought 'Here is a prime candidate for substance abuse, I had better not prescribe something that alters serotonin and dopamine levels in his brain, he might just abuse and become dependant on that!'

Seriously, surely anyone with a serious mental health disorder is a prime candidate for substance abuse? Isn't it then elementary that an SSRI could indeed become the abusee, so to speak? I genuinely don't blame my GP, but the fact that I can get a prescription for sertraline, and not for Naltrexone, presents a serious imbalance, and strikes of a greater and deeper moral issue. Why are we willing to prescribe so willingly a psychoactive medication, but blatantly refuse to prescribe an opiate antagonist with NO possible addicting properties?

Answers on an effing postcard.

Yours Sincerely,

A newly awakened cynic harbouring a bitter resentment towards faceless pharmaceutical companies and their narrow minded puppet doctors.