Date: Fri Sep 22, 2000 11:44pm

Hello all.

My name is Chris. I'm in the process of trying to recover
from three months of taking Zoloft (25 mg). 

I took the Zoloft starting in last Feb. to combat depression
and anxiety. I had no idea what I was getting into.

While on the drug, I started having muscle twitches in my
right arm. I went to my reg. doc. and he said it was due to
stress. Later he sent me a letter that this was a 
infreq. side effect of Zoloft. The twitching spread to
my left calf a few weeks later. I decided to switch to Paxil
to see if that would stop the twitching. It didn't, so after
2 weeks I quit the Paxil cold turkey. BIG MISTAKE!

I haven't taken any meds. for 4 months now, and I'm still
in Hell. The withdrawl took about 4 weeks to hit. In the
first episode, I had chest pains, trouble breathing, 
twitching/jerking all over my body. I had chest pains 
a lot. This subsided after a few weeks, and the chest pains 
went away. I has an EKG that turned out OK.

I stopped alcohol, read meat, sugar and caffiene. But this
was not enough to stem the tide. I've made countless trips
to a massage therapist, chiropractor and accupuncturist. All
of these help alleviate the symptoms but not the cause.

Over the last 10 days it has started to worsen again.
Symptoms:

- twitching/jerking/burning like mad when trying to get to sleep
- waking many times in the night
- cant sit still
- pressure behind my left eye
- some minor wierd trouble with voluntary muscle movements, that
only shows up once or twice a day
- dizziness
- tremors in my limbs when I sleep
- anxiety.. BAD

Well there it is. I'm hanging on for the ride, hoping to
God someday it will get better. 

Good luck to us all!! 

Chris