Originally Posted by PamelaJune

Friday 10th February stopped the Zoloft, not because of the angst I endured this week but because my PM went off his Nana when he learned I'd stopped the Endep and gone onto Zoloft. You cant take Endep with Zoloft. Zoloft prescribed by the GP to try & get the depression & anxiety under control.

Endep is a much older drug that provides a measure of pain relief (muscle relaxant) & is often used in cancer patients or those with chronic pain. It's also known as Amytriptaline and is known to help with psychiatric anxiety. I've taken it previously years ago for my severe back pain in the 1990's & eventually developed a tremor which is/was then a known side effect. (This tremor began back around 1996) I stopped the Endep & the tremor went away. I've been reluctant to take it ever since & on the occasions when specialists etc (in 01,2,3 & 4) insisted I take it (when the tumour kept growing back) the tremor would always return.

I explained all this to my PM last year & the year before & he was outright sceptical, said he'd never heard of such a side effect & in effect made me feel I was being silly to not agree to take to 10mg. So after pushing from him I began it again mid last year sometime. Sure enough the same sensation soon kicked in & in December I stopped of my own volition.

I tried to explain to him why I stopped but he was hell bent on believing the GP pushed the cessation so as to commence the Zoloft. The 2 were never related & never featured in our conversation other than when GP prescribed Zoloft the week before last & she said are you still taking Endep, I said no, & she said that's good you can't take Endep with Zoloft.

So long story short, I've stopped the Zoloft & started the Endep. Day 3 of no Zoloft, I've just been crying, read something in the news, can't now remember what and cried. The numbness feeling I had with the Zoloft is retreating. I can feel "me" coming back. I'm not sure if I will restart the Zoloft given the experience I had for those 6 days. I know it's hard to calculate given I've endured unbearable pain from this muscle spasm this week, but I was /am able to separate the feelings of pain from the feelings of numbness/irritability the Zoloft caused.

Let's all hope the Endep offers what he says it will, relief from this muscle spasm (hasn't worked so far) and the tremor on this occasion doesn't return. I should explain the tremor. You know when you put jewellery on, you put your necklace /chain on and bring the 2 ends together to open the clasp and join, or sleeper earrings in your ear and bring the ends together to "click" into place - when I try to focus and do those my hands began to shake and for the life of me I couldn't get the clasp to fix. Other little things, holding a fork on the way to my mouth the fork begins to shake. Now back in the 90's when this happened I thought I was getting Parkinson's or the beginning of an "Essential Tremor" I was so worried I asked my specialists and my GP - both of them looked up amytriptaline in the old "mims" book and there it was a known side effect. Stopped the amytriptaline & within weeks voila I could do my jewellery again. I know I did not imagine that, I know it happened & my DB agrees he remembers it as well.

So I'm back to square 1, the tears have returned, I feel my PM doesn't believe me, (it was like he implied the muscle spasm has come about as a direct result of stopping the Endep) and I'm in pain. SNAFU for those of you who don't dnow the term - Situation Normal All F##### Up. I'm going to deal with tears as a part of who I am for now, if it gets to the point like the week before where I need to go to a wellness retreat then so be it. I will just have to find $3k and DB will just have to cope. I'm sorry if I sound petty & mean, I don't mean to.