Question: I have been taking Zoloft for several years, but I really want to get off of it. However, I have read that getting off can cause me to become depressed. What should I do?

You have already taken the first step: a firm resolve to stop taking the medication. The next step is how to do it.
First of all, while coming off the medication, you should be under the supervision of a physician.

Individuals vary in their sensitivity to changing blood levels of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI’s. The following are all SSRI’s: Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor and Celexa. The most common withdrawal symptoms are dizziness, nausea, lethargy and headaches. The discontinuation symptoms are less likely to occur if the medication is tapered slowly.

Because these substances cause a reduction in the normal amount of brain chemicals, the body needs time to readjust itself and begin producing normal quantities of these substances. The withdrawal symptoms from shorter-acting SSRIs, such as Paxil, tend to be more severe than longer-acting ones, such as Prozac.

The worst withdrawal effects appear in 20-30 percent of newborns whose mothers have taken SSRIs in the last trimester of pregnancy. These can include seizures, trembling, agitation, altered muscle tone, lowered blood pressure, lowered heart rate and difficulty breathing,

In addition to slowly discontinuing SSRIs a person may also wish to investigate cognitive therapy or consider a natural alternative to the usual medication for the treatment of depression, should those symptoms arise. One natural substance for the treatment of depression is s-adenosylmethionine, or SAMe, a substance naturally occurring in all cells of the body, which appears to be produced in lower quantities in depressed persons. Consulting a physician to individualize dosage would be helpful.

Additionally, if you have access to a homeopathic physician, he or she can prescribe remedies that should enable you to make the transition from an SSRI-dominated state of physiology to a more normal one.