when back to me?

[lobelia321]

How long does the withdrawal period from sertraline (zooloft, lustral) take, I wonder? I've been off them since mid-January now. Last week, t'son yelled and shouted and hopped up and down in pubescent rage and annoyingness. So I threw the phone at him. Then I threw the phone some more, and finally I threw the phone at the front door. The phone smashed. The glass at the top of the door smashed. Is it possibly preferable to be in the throes of puberty?

The emotions seem to be back. Now what do I do with them?

I miss LJ but can't figure out how to get back into it. Instead, I submit to my addiction to Sims2. Last night, I played it for a bit in bed and then I looked at the alarm clock and it was 2:30 a.m.. We are driving to Brighton tonight. I decided that we had better not drive to Brighton with me, demented and tired, behind the wheel so now we are taking the train.

I feel very directionless. I'm not posting. I'm not writing origfic, either.

Comments

[blythely.livejournal.com]

It took me about 3 months to properly come off them (though I maintain you're never quite the same). The physical horrible effects (dizziness, electric shocks etc) lasted about 3 weeks I think. I'm sure there is wide variation, but given I was only on them for 18 months I think that's a shockingly long period of time to re-adjust.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Never quite the same: this spooked me all day yesterday. Could you elucidate?

I didn't have dizziness etc. but just uncontrolled rage.

I was on sertraline for 6 months.

[blythely.livejournal.com]

It's hard to say as it could be just getting older and not being a spring chicken anymore. And it could also just be the psychology of feeling sad and depressed (never mind the brain situation). But I have real memory fuzziness for a lot of that period of my life--not blanks of recall, but it takes a lot for me to dredge up the chronology of those couple of years (very grateful for LJ in that respect). For example, I had a weird situation last year when my dad referred to some event at my grandmother's funeral in 2004, and I honestly couldn't recall ever being told that she had died. I knew she had in some dim way, but the specifics were a complete blank to me. The other thing I feel has changed permanently is my concentration, but again, it could be age. It has improved again a bit though.

On the plus side, I think my trigger to get really angry or anxious is much much reduced, so it isn't all bad. But again, it's hard to tell if that's just general life changes and nothing to do with the drugs.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Since mid-January's not very long when it comes to them things. It took me ages last time, although I couldn't tell you exactly. I have a feeling it was at least a month. One of the worst symptoms, for me, was PURE RAGE! I wanted to hit people quite a lot, which is rather unlike me, really.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

That's good to know. It takes ages, eh? I have the rage. I push the children out of the way to get downstairs faster. When I was tranquillised I just plodded along bovinely.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

It's hard to remember exactly, but I do recall thinking, "Why am I still so angry? Is it just me?" But I went online and saw that a lot of other people had had a similar experience. I felt quite lucky, to be honest, some people have a terrible time and get quite ill. I imagine it's worse the longer you've been on them, it certainly lasted for longer the second time, when I'd been on them for about a year.