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Tapering: Zoloft

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9 posts

France

Did my initial fast taper (skipping days) permanently sensitize my nervous system?

September 23, 2026··
Hi everyone, I am currently holding at 22.5mg of Sertraline after a recent drop from 25mg. However, my real tapering mistake happened before this: Following old-school doctor's advice, I did a much faster taper previously, which even included skipping/alternating days. I thought I had somewhat stabilized at 25mg after that ordeal and could continue, but my recent 10% drop to 22.5mg hit me incredibly hard with a delayed reaction after about a week. Now I wonder if my nervous system is heavily compromised from the skipping-days method before. I have a specific question about the long-term impact of that initial bad tapering advice. I know this is incredibly hard to answer definitively because we are all highly individual, and obviously, no one can experience both paths (tapering too fast vs. micro-tapering from the very beginning) at the same time to compare the timelines. But I am wondering: By doing that initial fast/skipping-days taper, did I essentially make my nervous system extremely hypervigilant, thereby massively prolonging my overall healing and future tapering journey? My core question to anyone who has personal experience, ideas, or knows of any research regarding this: Does my nervous system now have a permanent "sunburn" that I will have to tiptoe around for the rest of my taper, or will this hypervigilance eventually settle down and reset if I hold long enough and switch to a strict micro-taper? Any thoughts, research links, or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Withdrawal is not a preview of who you are without the drug.
Zoloft — 10 years, 50 mg — currently 22.5 mg — holding

1 Reply

songbird
songbird50m ago
Valium · holding
I don’t know much now with that medication outside of it was my first medication I was prescribed at age 9. I have only just become aware of tapering protocols after 2+ decades on psych medications. I have only ever slowly tapered on Seroquel back in 2012 and done cold turkey with almost everything outside of that and a slow taper of Mirtazapine earlier this year upon finally developing an understanding about the importance of tapering. When I mean every other class of psych drug I mean that. I’ve just stopped cold turkey and come off and on multiple times and I’ve never really had any issues with them outside of the benzodiazepine class which I realise is dangerous to cold turkey, but in the past I was given little choice but to stop due to doctors leaving abruptly. But I was okay even the last time I went cold turkey on diazepam for 7 months although it was a walk through purgatory and I felt I was going to die, I didn’t. I cold turkey off SSRIs last year after decades of on and off use for PMDD. Actually, my doctor switched me to venlafaxine and the drug was so awful I was sleeping all day and unable to leave the house on the drug. so I came off it after 3 months and felt like I was sick with a severe influenza and looked into venlafaxine and realised how bad it was supposed to be. I ended up just riding that out for 7-10 days and feeling better after it was over. I know it’s not recommended but that was kind of how I discovered the tapering community. After that I vowed never to touch an SSRI, SNRI or tricyclic again. Ever. I think the power of neuroplasticity is underrated with this and I don’t want to sound invalidating and I think you will be okay, nothing will be permanently “sunburnt” and everything will heal as it should especially if you are resuming a micro taper. If you can find ways to naturally regulate your nervous system, like activate the parasympathetic part of your nervous system, that might be useful. Things like breathing, stretching, light exercise like walks, muscle release, massage, cold water, baths, acupressure and similar can be mildly useful although not a cure. It’s just a way to reduce the state of hypervigilance which is a form of sympathetic arousal.

Valium — 2 years, 2 months — holding | Topamax — 25mg — 3 years, 3 months — actively tapering | other — 3mcg — 3 years, 9 months — supporting others | other — 30mg — 3 years, 3 months — supporting others

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