can Zoloft permanently change you?

[michaelmyers24]

i took zoloft a year ago for anxiety. I was on zoloft for almost a year and it just made me feel emotionally numb and i really didn't feel like myself on it, more like a zombie. I felt trapped in my own mind and just wanted to escape and feel like myself again. 7 months later after stopping it and i still feel slightly different. I don't feel as emotionally numb but i don't feel like myself and i still feel trapped in my own mind, i look for ways to escape this feeling like Watching movies, playing video games or sometimes even just having beer. I look back at myself before i started zoloft and see a whole different person, i just feel like somethings not right. It seemed like the medication caused depression for me but fixed most of my anxiety problems.

Anyone have any experience with this or maybe an ideas as to what might be happening with my brain?

[Paxiled]

The problem with medication is that it affects people differently and people metabolize drugs differently.  There is research showing that there can be permanent effects from taking any drug, though usually it's after taking it for an extended period of time.  Antidepressants can affect personality, and they also produce problems that vary in intensity quite a bit when you stop taking them.  Some of these withdrawal effects are protracted.  Given you're "only" 7 months out this could go away over time -- you say it's a lot better than it was when you were on the drug.  Research shows that taking antidepressants can make the brain incapable of functioning without them, but that doesn't sound like you.  I wish it were true that drugs are benign, but none are.  Sometimes they are easy on you and sometimes very hard.  You're somewhere in the middle.  For you it will take some struggle.  But although it seems like a long time, it's not 7 years later, just 7 months.  

[michaelmyers24]

oh okay, i thought the effects would clear just by a month but i guess it takes more time. I shouldn't have been so quick to let my doctor prescribe me them, i did stop the medication fairly quick. I also drank alcohol while on the medication and that was very stupid of me. I'm not sure if that could of messed my brain chemistry for good.