Where did you hear the thing about serotonin syndrome? Was that from me or some other source? I'm now thinking this might not be the case.
I'm on Zoloft. I ran into a horrible withdrawal syndrome from trying to come off too fast, and I had to reinstate. What I'm doing now is very gradually tapering off the Zoloft, while gradually ramping up methylation. This time it's going better.
What I'm doing is reducing the Zoloft by 10% of the previous dose every 8 weeks. I started at 150mg. I'm down to 67mg after a year of tapering and am doing ok. At about the 6 week mark I get some withdrawal symptoms, mainly OCD thoughts, but they're mild enough I can handle them. I learned about this tapering technique from the Paxil Progress forum. There are many people there successfully using this technique to get off various psych drugs.
On the PP forum they're very conservative and are not in favor of taking any supplements, don't believe in neurotransmitter testing and so forth. They expect that people will be able to get off their drugs and then do ok with talk therapy.
Knowing what I know about methylation and mental illness, I disagree. I'm the only person getting off my drug while doing methylation as far as I know.
There could be several reasons why your drug isn't working great now, and why going lower makes you worse. Your drug could be pooping out if you've been on it for many years, or it's simply not the right treatment. Going lower and getting worse could actually be a withdrawal syndrome caused by going too fast.
Anyway, I think it's possible to do what I'm doing safely (so far). If you do decide to do this, you should be aware that you'll be a pioneer.
I think what I would do in your case, is get some low level methylation going first and see if that stabilizes your depression. Then trial a 10% reduction in your med for 8 weeks and see how it goes. You might get an increase in symptoms somewhere between 3-6 weeks, then it should clear. Then you'll know better how to proceed after that.
Thanks so much for your reply - I've been looking at some of the info on your signature - I can't digest all of it as I have some heavy duty brain fog going on (I suffer from ADD as well as CFS) but I'll look at it in small chunks when I can. I found the videos especially helpful.
I may have heard about serotonin syndrome from you, but I've definitely heard about the risk other places I've read. I've been told by my doctor to watch out for it due to the high dose I am on.
I may have to reduce my venlafaxine dose anyway, as I have been getting heart problems (palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and exhaustion) since the last increase. I will be talking to my doctor about it soon. I haven't tried going lower before, since I started the medication 2 years ago I've only ever had my dosage increased as I got closer to breaking point. My depression is treatment resistant, I've been on a variety of different antidepressants over the past ten years and although venlafaxine is the best I've tried, the most any of them ever do is take the edge off.
Obviously I won't start anything until I have my results and have made sense of them, but what would low level methylation involve?
Have you noticed a reduction of CFS symptoms whilst doing the methylation protocol?
Also I feel for you having withdrawal symptoms from zoloft. I once decided to come off citalopram cold turkey - I had the worst time of my life!
Thanks again for your help. From what I've read, methylation problems can cause everything I suffer from - CFS, ADD, extreme IBS, depression, anxiety. So even though it could be risky, especially without a doctor's supervision, I feel it's probably worth the risk. I have to try.