Symptoms: Emotional blunting, Cognitive impairment, Insomnia, Depersonalization/Derealization, Severe anxiety/panic, Anhedonia
I was put on Sertraline in high school and remained on it for most of my life. In 2020 I wanted to try and live med-free. I did a self-taper and, while I did have WD symptoms, was able to get off of the meds. However, 3 months later I started experiencing new symptoms like OCD. I ended up starting Fluoxetine, and was also prescribed trazodone, clonazepam, and hydroxyzine, which I rarely took. I stayed on that for a couple of years and then in 2022 went off that cold turkey. I didn’t have as severe WD side events as the Sertraline, and was off meds for about 6 months. I then had a severe bout of depression and went back on Fluoxetine early 2023. I didn’t like the way Fluoxetine made me feel and switched back to Sertraline in 2024.
I remained very stable on 50 mg for 2 years, but then anxiety and depression started getting worse. An increase in dose didn’t work; it only seemed to make things worse. I attempted to self-taper again in the spring of 2026 and couldn’t manage the WD symptoms, so 25 mg of Sertraline was reinstated. It briefly helped with the acute WD symptoms. Over the course of 2 months back on medication I started experiencing unexplainable anxiety. Before I would even open my eyes in the morning I would have tightness in my chest. We tried a brief increase in dose to 37.5, which made things significantly worse, and I started experiencing severe insomnia, mild akathisia, panic, and anxiety. Dose was then decreased back to 25 mg and I’m trying to stabilize before I can start a slow hyperbolic taper.
I’m experiencing morning adrenaline surges, anxiety, severe brain fog and cognitive impairment, insomnia, and derealization. It’s like I’m outside of my own body. I’m now stuck on a medication that not only isn’t helping me, but is actually harming me.