[Mogeii]

First of all, I want it to be known that my luck has made it so that I always have major relapses or cycling during holidays, weekends, or my psychiatrists vacations. Just bad luck. Sucks.

Anywho, I have been on 150mg Zoloft for about 5 months but was off and on 100mg for about 3 years. I am also on .5 Klonopin once a day. The last 2 weeks I have been rapidly cycling from normal, to anxiety, to minor depression and back again. Yesterday I had a terrible anxiety day for about 90% of the day. Today I have had the worst depression/anxiety I have had in about 4 months. 4 months ago I was dealing with panic and major depression, but the zoloft and therapy brought me back to ide say 80-90% functionality. Now I am at about 25%. I have read a lot about "Prozac Poop Out" effect and how it can happen to any ssri. There is a similarity between how I feel today and how I felt before the zoloft. Of course it is Sunday, and im miserable but I cant talk to my psych until MAYBE Tommorow if he has a minute to call me which sometimes he doesn't. But anywho here is my question.

Anyone dealt with SSRI poop out and had success switching SSRIs? I am hearing and reading REALLY good things about Lexapro for people with anxiety and depression. I have tried prozac and that was a nightmare, and paxil ruined my friend's life for 2 years so im hesitant to even try that. So again, anyone have success after an SSRI poop out? How did you go about starting the new drug? How long until you felt better? Anyone think upping my Klonopin a bit during this transition will help make it smoother?

Thanks guys

[Kaitlyn]

I'm on 100mg of Zoloft after I tried Paxil and Paxil CR both of which made my depression worse and I was on Celexa and that had to be raised every month to finally I was at the maximum level my doctor could prescribe and it was a level that my insurance required a pre authorization for every 6 months because it was 60mg and that was the maximum dose...and the last part of me being on Celexa I was also on 50 mg of Trazodone and we increased the trazodone to 75mg and the Celexa still wasn't working so I stopped the Celexa and after a while of just being on the trazodone I told my doctor and she said that the trazodone couldn't be taken alone as an antidepressant so we tried 50mg of Zoloft.....that worked great and we increased it at the end of 2010 beginning of 2011. You may just need to have your Zoloft increased. If you can find it there's an over the counter herbal medication I take for increases in my stress and anxiety levels and it's called Calm's Forté. You can take 1-2 pills up to 3 times a day and then 1-3 pills at night to help you sleep. And it's safe to take with Zoloft. I still have cycles of PTSD related issues even though I'm on a bunch of meds for it. As my doctor puts it you'll have some good days and some bad days. If you've been feeling this way for a longer period of time than usual then I'd say you may need your Zoloft increased slightly. Unless you're at the maximum dose available of Zoloft then it hasn't pooped out and there might be room to increase it before having to switch to a new medication.

[Mogeii]

Originally Posted by Kaitlyn

I'm on 100mg of Zoloft after I tried Paxil and Paxil CR both of which made my depression worse and I was on Celexa and that had to be raised every month to finally I was at the maximum level my doctor could prescribe and it was a level that my insurance required a pre authorization for every 6 months because it was 60mg and that was the maximum dose...and the last part of me being on Celexa I was also on 50 mg of Trazodone and we increased the trazodone to 75mg and the Celexa still wasn't working so I stopped the Celexa and after a while of just being on the trazodone I told my doctor and she said that the trazodone couldn't be taken alone as an antidepressant so we tried 50mg of Zoloft.....that worked great and we increased it at the end of 2010 beginning of 2011. You may just need to have your Zoloft increased. If you can find it there's an over the counter herbal medication I take for increases in my stress and anxiety levels and it's called Calm's Forté. You can take 1-2 pills up to 3 times a day and then 1-3 pills at night to help you sleep. And it's safe to take with Zoloft. I still have cycles of PTSD related issues even though I'm on a bunch of meds for it. As my doctor puts it you'll have some good days and some bad days. If you've been feeling this way for a longer period of time than usual then I'd say you may need your Zoloft increased slightly. Unless you're at the maximum dose available of Zoloft then it hasn't pooped out and there might be room to increase it before having to switch to a new medication.

Thanks for the reply. Ya I'm on 150mg Zoloft which is Max for me. I was on 200 for 2 weeks and my psych dropped it back when I told him I was having really intense blurry vision and had lost my appetite that I lost 10lbs in 2 weeks. I'm 5"10 and 150lbs so that decrease in weight wasn't really a positive thing. I think if I can get in touch with him before Thursday when I have my appointment I'll ask about a med switch. Zoloft was a good friend for me but the rapid cycling and now crash back into major anxiety and moderate depression seems to be saying it may have run it's course for now. You know it's weird that me and multiple friends I have that have dealt or are dealing with psych meds, we have all been on just about everything collectively but never celexa or cymbalta. Something about lexapro and Wellbutrin seems to interest me due to things I've heard while Prozac and Effexor are considered nightmare drugs in my circle of friends. But hey everyone is different, here's hopin my psych has a good idea for me and it works out

[Kaitlyn]

Originally Posted by Mogeii

Thanks for the reply. Ya I'm on 150mg Zoloft which is Max for me. I was on 200 for 2 weeks and my psych dropped it back when I told him I was having really intense blurry vision and had lost my appetite that I lost 10lbs in 2 weeks. I'm 5"10 and 150lbs so that decrease in weight wasn't really a positive thing. I think if I can get in touch with him before Thursday when I have my appointment I'll ask about a med switch. Zoloft was a good friend for me but the rapid cycling and now crash back into major anxiety and moderate depression seems to be saying it may have run it's course for now. You know it's weird that me and multiple friends I have that have dealt or are dealing with psych meds, we have all been on just about everything collectively but never celexa or cymbalta. Something about lexapro and Wellbutrin seems to interest me due to things I've heard while Prozac and Effexor are considered nightmare drugs in my circle of friends. But hey everyone is different, here's hopin my psych has a good idea for me and it works out

You may want to try Trazodone along with the 150mg of Zoloft. I've been on the 75mg of Trazodone with 100mg of Zoloft for the past year and it works great for me. Trazodone is another antidepressant but it's used mostly as a sleep aid. It gives my Zoloft an extra needed boost so that way the Zoloft doesn't bottom out like the Celexa did every month. I see a PA-C for my depression and she's aware that medicine wise I'm quite sensitive so when I went through Paxil and Paxil CR and Celexa and the Celexa/Trazodone combo and none of that worked for more than a month or so at a time she decided to put me on 50mg of Zoloft instead of putting me on a lower dose of the medication. She had me try 20mg of Celexa and by week 4 she had to increase it to 4. A year later I was at 60mg along with 50mg of Trazodone. And that still wasn't enough. Even with counseling it wasn't enough. That's when we decided to try the 50mg of Zoloft. I guess my doctor figured it wasn't worth starting me on a low dose because of my prior history of needing antidepressants increased month after month when starting them on a low dose.