An Historic Decision

[Tyburn]

We've decided to try a tremendous effort, in an attempt to get me off my medication. :ninja:

I have been on Sertraline Hydrochloride 50mg per day since December 5th 2003...the aim will be to quit these drugs by December 5th 2013, exactly ten years later. This gives me just over three years to plan a descent. :ninja:

It will be a one of attempt...if this fails, I shall remain on the course indefinately, or until forced off somehow :laugh: My Doctor has told me there is no need to ever come off these drugs if I dont think I can manage...but it would be nice to have a full crack...I did live Twenty One Years without them, there is no reason to think I couldnt gain the control needed to keep my mind in check...we'll soon find out if I have the mental strength or not...because i've told him I plan on going through with it. :ninja:

So the plan will be to hold course until between august and october, to give me chance to get used to the idea. Then we halve the daily dose, and hold course for maybe a year/year and a half, then we start half the dose every other day, then once every three days...then once every five...then once ever seven...then....

[flo]

Did your doctor work with you on your plan to quit?

It doesn't have to be nearly that drawn out; from what I just read:

In another double-blind study of recovered panic disorder patients, the withdrawal syndrome (from stopping medication abruptly) was completely avoided when sertraline was gradually discontinued over three weeks

Good luck, though!

[Tyburn]

Did your doctor work with you on your plan to quit?

It doesn't have to be nearly that drawn out; from what I just read:



Good luck, though!

It has to be this drawn out for two reasons...first...I've been on this drug for many years...my body is used to it...its not like a normal course.

Secondly...the fear isnt the return of any physical depression...I'm not essentially on Anti-Depressents to treat Depression....I never was...Although I am depressive, and was clinically depressed...the problem was not the depression...the problem was what was making me depressed...and that was psycho-somatic ill health stemming from anxiety.

What really made me angry in 2004 when I looked at my own medical records, was that doctors had written to each other in secret, suspecting that anxiety was something I should have been/would be showing eventually from other stuff they saw me about, years before. I was never told. "probable diagnosis was never conveyed"

Its my mind thats the problem...we're using sertraline primarily as an anti-anxiety drug...and secondly as an anti-depressent :)

[flo]

This drug study included people who had been on it for a long time.

[flo]

I'm not clear what your second reason is for taking three years.

On a personal note, I was on a medication for ~ 8 years and just quit early last spring. I took longer than some to do it - 6 weeks - as I am very cautious.

[MattHughesRocks]

Dave, your being WAY OVER DRAMATIC. Everything is all in your head and there's no way it'll take more then a few weeks to get off of them. It doesnt matter if you have been on them 10 years or one.Unless your a complete psycho, you don't need to take anything that long.
Suck it up and take control. Get on with your life and stop clinging to the past and keeping yourself a victim :blink: