Over the last week or two, I started getting occasional withdrawal symptoms. I haven't stopped taking my antidepressants, but I thought maybe I'd accidentally missed a dose. To make sure I hadn't, I religiously noted down every day when I took my dose, and I definitely haven't missed any. The symptoms only lasted a couple of days, but then the effects of the antidepressants themselves started to wear off.
I've been gradually getting less motivated, barely moving from the sofa during the daytimes. I've also been exhausted most of the time - the smallest thing fatigues me, and I can't face doing things. If it weren't for the fact that it's production week for the show I'm in, I'd definitely have called in sick to rehearsals and stayed on the sofa doing nothing but watching TV. I've been getting more tearful, and feeling constantly like things are too much for me and like I can't cope.
At first I put all of these symptoms down to having had tonsillitis and being on antibiotics possibly interfering with the sertraline, until I realised that the withdrawal symptoms (brain shivers/zaps, worsening depression, etc) started before I went on the antibiotics.
I started googling, and discovered that this is a pretty common occurrence once someone's been on an antidepressant for a while - it just stops working. It's called antidepressant poop-out, or, less amusingly, antidepressant tachyphylaxis. I've made an appointment with my GP for tomorrow morning, and really hope they're able to change me to a new drug, because currently I've got lots of stuff to do, and I just don't care about getting any of it done. I know that they need doing and that I'll be more stressed if I don't do them, but I have absolutely no sense of urgency, or of them being important, and basically just don't care.
