Hello hello hello!

I’m currently sitting with my roommate watching a lil Bravo – Real Housewives of OC to be exact 🙂

Talk about D R A M A… yikes!

Anyways – I briefly mentioned on my IG post that I started weaning of my antidepressants and I saw that it sparked some of your interests!

So I wanted to dig into it further and answer any questions you may have about the process.

I guess I should start by explaining why I decided to wean off. 

I first started the medication two years ago to treat my uncontrollable panic attacks and bad depression. Read about my mental health journey here. 

However, I didn’t always have anxiety or depression. I think it was just a really rough time in my life and ended up being a downward spiral. Zoloft helped me get back on my feet – it made me myself again. 

Because of Zoloft, I was able to get out more, think more clearly and explore new holistic ways to heal my body and mental health. Since starting the medication, I have started my blog, I got my amazing job and a promotion, I found my love for yoga, and more importantly I’ve learned to love myself and not stress the small things.

I’ve learned so many techniques during this time to help prevent my anxiety or depression from even starting. 

After a lot of thought and talk with my doctor, we both decided it was time to get off.

I’m weaning off SUPER DUPER slowly… like I’m talking over the course of 2 months or longer. My body is so sensitive so I’m just trying to listen to it and feel it out. 

Even though I’m weaning off super slowly, I’m still feeling some side effects. 

I’m feeling side effects like:

• Very tired
• Frustrated because I’m so tired
• Little bouts of sadness (because I’m tired)
• My digestion is working… like too good which has never been my case. So I’m down!
• I’m holding on to water weight around my stomach

While weaning off, I’m paying extra attention to my self-care. I’m talking about doing something for myself every morning, sometime during the day and at night. I’m doing a lot of alone time, a lot of talking about my feelings to family and friends and using breathing and gratitude lists as techniques to get over the humps! Also, I’m keeping myself accountable and going to the gym 4-5x a week. This is super important to me because I know working out will help my mental health during the process.

I also should note that these side effects have been very triggering. I don’t want you think like they haven’t affected me. I’ve cried from fear that my depression would come back. I’ve been nervous… I’m not going to lie to you.

The first two weeks were a little rough. But now, I’m feeling so much better. Literally no sadness, I have my energy back etc. Again, it’s ALL about listening to your body. 

 There is A LOT going on in my life right now, but I figure there’s not going to be a “right” time to get off….there’s always going to be a lot going on. So I just knew I needed to be confident in myself, have my family’s support and go through this at my own pace.

So that’s the gist.

Let me know if you have any questions – I know some of you are thinking about getting off but are scared. I totally feel you and I’m happy to be there for you!