I have been taking 50mg of Zoloft, rather the generic thereof (sertraline), daily for the last 5 months for anxiety attacks (via panic disorder). It worked wonders for my anxiety problems, as well as my mood generally, but at the cost of having to deal with the side effects.

If you haven’t ever had the pleasure of ingesting an SSRI, you should count yourself lucky. The first two weeks taking it were rather nasty, I felt like I was on another planet. Eventually I felt better, but noticed that my memory wasn’t as good as it used to be, and my memory was already relatively poor (personally, I think it may be because of inattentiveness – I have Adult ADD).

As time has gone on, it seems the memory problems caused by Zoloft have been getting worse. Add to that the cardiac arrhythmia (palpitations) I experience on a daily basis and the fact that I have been dealing with anxiety attacks for over 10 years without medication and they seemed to be getting better, and you have the makings of my justification for a discontinuation of this pharmaceutical. Oh, and then there is the deadening of my emotions and my feelings of attachment to my family. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I am a zombie now, but there has, without a doubt, been a bit less depth to my emotions. I suppose that is how it helps some people, yes? Well, I would rather have the good and the bad then nothing at all.

The withdrawal symptoms associated with going off of SSRIs are relatively infamous, you can find plenty of anecdotal accounts of the hell you may experience, notwithstanding the pharmaceutical industry’s denial (Pfizer claims that Zoloft is not habit-forming or addictive – if true, why do people experience withdrawal symptoms when they quit taking Zoloft abruptly (which is something you should never do)? Don’t you have to have a chemical dependence in order to experience those?).

So about a week ago I began tapering off Zoloft by following a somewhat-random schedule wherein I take only 25mg either before bed and/or when I wake up, and alternating my doses of Zoloft with ~50mg of 5-HTP. Combining 5-HTP with an SSRI such as Zoloft isn’t something you want to take lightly, as you could end up with acute serotonin syndrome if you are not careful. Since I already take a rather low dose of Zoloft and the dose of 5-HTP I am taking is also small, I am not too concerned. Knowing the symptoms of serotonin syndrome are important if you undertake to try this, as you will need to act quickly should you start experiencing them. Vitamin B6 supposedly helps the body convert 5-HTP to serotonin, and I am taking a B vitamin complex, so it should be helping too…

Thus far, I haven’t felt too bad, but only time will tell! I hope to post a follow-up that this may be useful to someone.

I encourage anyone reading this and thinking about doing anything I say here to carefully research it yourself, and as always, consult your physician regarding any changes to your current medication schedule and before adding any supplements such as 5-HTP. Personally, I only trust physicians as far as I can throw them, and my arm really isn’t that strong. ;)

As names of medical conditions go, "swimmer's ear" doesn't sound too serious or scary. If you have never suffered from it or heard much about it, you might think it a cute name for a minor ear problem that one encounters when spending too much time playing in the pool. Swimmer's ear?! What kind of pansy condition is that?! I imagine little kids getting it and maybe they suffer some mild form of pain that is more annoying that genuinely painful.

Ahem.

Then I contracted swimmer's ear - in both ears. Not too cool. For 3 days, I had pain in my jaw which made opening my mouth less than pleasant. Chewing food was torture. Yawning was nightmarish. Had the discomfort stopped there, I would've been fine; ibuprofen was able to dampen the pain sufficiently. Unfortunately, this was just a mild preview of what was to come. After giving it a few days, I went to my doctor's office and was told I had swimmer's ear. I was given some antibiotic drops for the infection and some other drops for the pain (which were utterly impotent - they were nothing more than a topical anesthetic of sorts).

The next day was when the fun began. I spent the better part of 36 hours writhing from intense pain that merely laughed at the 800 milligrams of ibuprofen I was taking. Once the pain set in, I couldn't believe the doctor didn't give me any prescription painkillers - either they are worried that I am going to be addicted or they are some sort of masochists and wanted me to suffer horribly.

So, the harsh reality is that this innocuous-sounding condition should strike fear in anyone diagnosed with it; the intense and unforgiving pain of this beast is a menace not to be underestimated. Don't fear the reaper, there are worse things to fear - despite how innocent they may sound.