[Margief60]

I was on Imipramine for almost 20 years. I wanted to go off at different times but the doctors just kept saying, "why bother?"

I had a hysterectomy in May. My PA said I was depressed in July and wanted me to try taking Zoloft for a while. We had so many things going on at one time. My husband had lost his job 2 years earlier. He couldn't find anything substantial and we ended up losing our house and going bankrupt. I had my surgery and then my husband found a job, 60 miles away from where I had lived for 41 years. I have a history of depressoin/anxiety/panic/agoraphobia.

I started the Zoloft, 25mg for one week, then to 50mg. I felt better but hated the way if made me feel aggressive and impulsive.The PA said tat Zoloft does not do that and it is just my anxiety. She upped it to 75mg.

Then she said to stop taking the Imipramine at the dame time. I asked if I should do it gradually and she said no because 50mg is like taking nothing and there would be no side effects.

3 days after stopping it I started having these "attacks" in the middle of the night. I would have terrible intestinal distress with acute anxiety/agitation. It would last for about 4 hours and then suddenly stop and I would go back to sleep. It didn't hapen every night, about 3 times a week. I immediately went back to 50mg of Zoloft. After another week I went back to 25mg. Over the next month and a half I went down to 12.5mg and now am off it completely. And off the Imipramine completely.

Well, it occurred to me last week that instead of the Zoloft causing all the trouble, maybe it was sudden cessation of the Impramine that was causing it all. I am still have some effects, like a weird fuzzy feeling in the front of my head and intestinal gas trouble that has been here since I stopped the Imipramine. It gets a little better every day but still lingering.

Could I be right? Could the sudden stopping of the Imipramine have been causing all this trouble?

I'm a little nervous but I'd love to try to stay off anti depressants. I hate the way they make me feel. It would be such freedom for once. Not to mention the fact that we no longer have health insurance and can't afford it so I wouldn't be able to pay for them anyway!

Any comments are appreciated.