6th Zoloft Update - 5.767 - Story 2

March 5, 2026··

taper update

I think I’m going through mental/emotional symptoms: too much worry about money, politics, health, what I consume… I’ve gone through periods like this before, but I know it’s because of the taper. As long as they’re not physical, I’m able to see the catastrophic thoughts and not pay them too much attention… There are brain zaps, but they’re controlled. Today I did reduce the normal 0.03 mg; I don’t want to keep pushing my luc, I can see I’m starting to worry too much. I’ll continue with a bit of history to fill things in: After several months taking alprazolam without control, my psychologist thought my problem was psychological (a mistake in my opinion) and gave me exposure exercises to certain activities. The problem was that when the effects of alprazolam wore off and I didn’t take a rescue dose, I would enter a strange state (which I thought were panic attacks). My pulse would speed up enormously and my hands would go numb, sometimes to the point that I couldn’t move them. When this happened I would usually take another alprazolam… until one day during an exposure exercise (riding a bike) I started to feel my hands tingling until they went numb, my pulse went over 220, and even my teeth felt numb. Since I didn’t have the pill with me, I sat down on a bench. Luckily there was someone nearby and they took me by ambulance. Once there, the doctor, surprised, sent me to the ER where they prescribed the famous sertraline 100 mg and Rivotril thrice a day, attributing it to my “anxiety” and panic attacks (which, if you ask me now, I know were actually rebound effects from alprazolam originally prescribed after a crisis following my father’s death (which in my opinion I should never have taken, and which was the beginning of five chaotic years))

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

3 Replies

⭐

Based PsychiatristStaff5mo ago

Community AnchorEffexor

"too much worry about money, politics, health," — @Bettoben

I hear ya my friend, hard to block it all out but we must

Creator of Taper Community, here to help you.

⭐

Based PsychiatristStaff5mo ago

Community AnchorEffexor

"gave me exposure exercises to certain activities." — @Bettoben

I see a lot of slop psychology nowadays also. perhaps another thing to tackle

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Bettoben5mo ago

Trusted VoiceZoloft

"I see a lot of slop psychology nowadays also. perhaps another thing to tackle" — @Based Psychiatrist

Without a doubt, I went through six of them, of which I think only one was good. He managed to understand that what was happening to me was nervous rather than mental. He suggested that it could be a chemical imbalance, because in terms of reasoning and emotionally I was quite stable

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