Tapering: Zoloft

43 posts

Spain

Massive Crisis 3.5mg > 5mg

June 16, 2026··

I experienced an extremely severe crisis. While driving, I had to stop my car in the middle of the road because my heart rate rose above 200 beats per minute and remained at that level continuously for more than ten minutes, possibly longer. An ambulance was called, but the situation was initially treated as a panic attack. In reality, it appeared to be related to sertraline discontinuation. During the episode, I had no rescue medication available, as I had not taken Rivotril for the previous two years. I experienced intense dryness in the mouth and a state of extreme physiological activation. Although the ambulance arrived and I was later taken to the hospital, my heart rate remained severely elevated throughout. The tachycardia persisted even after receiving diazepam, and the episode did not resolve immediately with treatment. The following day, I suffered another equally intense crisis, also worsened by the after-effects of diazepam. I managed to get an emergency doctor to come to my home. My sertraline dose was increased from 3.5 mg to 5 mg, and I was prescribed 0.25 mg of Rivotril three times per day. I am currently quite traumatized. I cannot even get out of bed without my heart rate rising above 100 beats per minute. I had an appointment with a psychiatrist who recommended increasing sertraline back to 50 mg, which I found difficult to accept, and I ended the consultation. At this point, I remain without a clear treatment plan or structured guidance, both regarding sertraline and Rivotril. Any advice or guidance would be sincerely appreciated.

Bettoben’s taper progress

View full journey →

Dose (mg)

Mood (/10)

Sertraline/Zoloft:
▸1/2021>100mg, ▸11/22>50mg ▸6/23>25mg (Psychiatrist told me to take half the pills until I finished the box)
✘ Clean 3 Month till massive fall
▸9/23>100mg, ▸1/24>50mg, (I started tapering on my own, because the intention was to have me on 100mg for 5 years) ▸9/24>25mg, ▸7/25>12mg,(starting parabolic with tablet dissolution in water) ▸10/25>11,5mg, ▸11/25>10,3mg, ▸12/25>8,7mg, ▸1/26>8mg, ▸2/26>6,9mg ▸3/26>5,967mg ▸4/26>4,8mg ▸5/26>3,73mg ▸6/26>3,53mg
7/26 back to 50mg

36 Replies

WolfJun 26

Community AnchorProzac · researching

"I experienced an extremely severe crisis" — @Bettoben

I took some benzos, not much but will share my thoughts on what I would do in your position. You can develop physical or even mental dependence after 1 to 3 months. If you are slowly getting better, I would hold and wait until you get somewhat better and stable. Then I would cut Rivotril just a little bit to reduce the risk of dependence and side effects, hopefully getting none of that and little to no withdrawal while hopefully arriving at a dose that is still high enough to continue to help you. If your trouble returns, you can easily hop onto higher dose of Rivotril once again. After holding for a much longer while, I would try to find the right time or dose to cut Rivotril even more. All while keeping 5 mg of sertraline. I would also pay attention if you are not making any mistakes with 5 mg of sertraline solution that are harmful. Once successful, you must have some way to decompress, rest and most importantly treat or keep out your mind your terrible memories from the event. That is not expert advice, and I do not know that much about your health, I never took Clonazepam that is what I would do myself when in that situation based on my knowledge of Clonazepam that I heard about and tapering.

Prozac — 40 mg — 6 months — holding | Zyprexa — 20 mg — 6 years — holding | Depakote — 600 mg — 8 months — **tapering** | Buspirone — 20 mg — 8 months — holding | with clinician
"If life is painful, start a rebellion and make it good."

WolfJun 26

Community AnchorProzac · researching

Remember to drink NONE of coffee, tea or coca cola, and most importantly NOT even a drop of alcohol.

BettobenJun 26

Trusted VoiceZoloft

@Wolf I've had to go back up. I'm now on 50mg of sertraline plus a benzo (Rivotril/clonazepam, 0.25mg three times a day) to settle things down. Here's the plan: Stabilize on 50mg for a few weeks, let the nervous system calm down and stop the crises. Then come off the Rivotril slowly, once I'm stable (I've successfully come off it twice before, so I know I can). Then taper the sertraline again, but this time really slowly, proper hyperbolic tapering, tiny percentage cuts, especially at the low doses where it gets tricky. And this time with a psychiatrist who actually understands this method (Horowitz-style tapering), I've already booked with one. No more doing it solo….

⭐

CatinaJun 26

Community AnchorEffexor

Bettoben, just keep a very watchful eye on how you're doing. More of something isn't necessarily better, but I hope in your case that things go smoothly for you. Please check in to let us know how things are going. 💜

Venlafaxine (tapering) - Current dose 17.92 mg
Trazodone - 50 mg
Levothyroxine - 25 mcg

“Your brain and body know how to heal. Trust the process and keep going.”

Please Note: I am not a healthcare professional. Any advice given is based on personal experience and that of others in the lay withdrawal community.

BettobenJul 2

Trusted VoiceZoloft

@Catina @Steve I've been at fifty milligrams for eight days now. Rivotril three times a day. I'm doing fine, in bed. Sedated, completely bored, but at least I can get up now. I try to do tasks, but I'm too foggy to do them. Apparently that's what the Rivotril is for. The Rivotril will be easy to quit thanks to the sertraline. I've already done it, twice. It seems my mistake was making tiny, daily, progressive cuts. I followed the hyperbolic pattern. But the problem is I didn't do plateaus, I just reduced tiny doses daily, and it seems there are several systems in the nervous system that respond faster or slower to changes in sertraline. Blood levels are the first, the fastest. Then the reuptake transporters, the amount of serotonin, and then there would be different systems like locus coeruleus , raphe nuclei, etc. So making a constant daily decrease doesn't let the systems synchronize. That's why the next taper I do should be with plateaus of at least a month long, which I'll try to extend further, because I imagine these adventures will have sensitized my system.

⭐

CatinaJul 2

Community AnchorEffexor

"That's why the next taper I do should be with plateaus of at least a month long" — @Bettoben

Yes! It's best to wait a good month between reductions. Tiny daily reductions add up VERY quickly and can cause destabilization. I'm really glad you're in a better place now Bettoben. I think if you hold longer between reductions you'll be feeling so much better!

⭐

SteveStaffJul 2

Community AnchorEffexor · active

I have also encountered a plateau at about 33mg Venlafaxine. I needed 2 attempts to break it, with reinstating the old dose in between, had one crash and i kind of needed several months to stabilize from the crash and succeeding in overcoming the plateau. Often thought i can‘t taper anymore and i have hit a border, but i was wrong. It‘s true, some taper-stages need more time than others! I‘m really glad you are better now 👍👍💪

off Stimulants (2000-2013)
off Fluoxetine (2010-2013)
off Lamotrigine (2013-2016)
off Quetiapain (2016-2020)

currently Effexor — 33mg — 13 years (from 300mg) — actively tapering | with clinician

DominicJul 4

NavigatorCymbalta · active

Oh man. Reading this does feel familiar, though I have never had a heart episode this severe. I'm glad so many of our members have commented with supportive advice. I agree, yes, to hold and reassess when to continue tapering. I feel that increasing any psychotropic medication is undesirable, because I do believe that the drugs are overall what sets up these heart episodes. I think increasing medication will just delay the inevitable, and potentially make it harder. I'm glad that it sounds like you've been taking the right actions to take care of yourself. Be sure to keep us posted and I'm hoping that an episode like this does not reoccur.

Cymbalta — 5.2mg — 6 years — actively tapering | without clinician

WolfJul 6

Community AnchorProzac · researching

@Bettoben I would absolutely urge you to hold on for very long, as long as you could, before doing a taper of sertraline. Your main problem is Rivotril, not a small dose of sertraline. Rivotril is 100x stronger than that dose of sertraline. You are lucky in the sense that sertraline is one of the weakest and safest drugs, if not weaker than pretty much any other psychotropic drug, certainly at the minimum effective dose of 50 mg.

WolfJul 6

Community AnchorProzac · researching

@Bettoben They prescribe sertraline even for elderly people even if those elderly people cannot handle other meds that much.

WolfJul 6

Community AnchorProzac · researching

"But the problem is I didn't do plateaus, I just reduced tiny doses daily" — @Bettoben

I was going to ask you something like that -- if you are sure you did not mess up your solution, specifically. Do not experiment with these drugs. If hyperbolic taper works for many others, this and only exactly this should work for you.

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