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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
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