3rd day on sertraline, feeling awful and can't sleep :( any tips?

sorry for all the writing, just looking for advice on how i can help what i suspect are sertraline side effects!

basically, my health in the last two years has been a real rollercoaster - late 2019 overnight i started to have really bad nausea and general anxiety constantly, it affected my school and everyday life and had me going from doctor to doctor and cycling through different medication like it was my job. i also unfortunately lost my mother last year very suddenly, and have since been wondering more and more just how much it affected me mentally, as my dad started on sertraline and had a really dark period of time. i am an only child and the youngest of any further family, so it probably unavoidably took its toll. however, i think i have generally a pretty healthy way of thinking - my self esteem is quite good and i am quite a happy, outgoing person on the whole. nothing seemed to have changed even after our loss, and i felt honestly the same as always, although grieving.

last september (about 8 months ago), my doctor prescribed me a very low dose of amitryptiline (10mg i think?) to take before bed each night - it was to relax muscles in the body rather than to treat anxiety etc. - , as well as an anti emetic to help regulate nausea, as i seemed to have developed a sort of emetophobia. it all seemed to ease up a lot in the past few months to the point where i felt like i was getting back on track finally and felt like i was finally Normal in myself, i was looking forward to university in september and making plans with my friends after having to sit the majority of them out for 2 years simply because i felt so ill.

a couple weeks ago, however, it all came back all of a sudden. i have been worrying recently about university and life in general, but i have not had any panic attacks...ever, really, as far as i know. my nausea and worry got so bad i went to see my doctor again. she said that they have tried every physical test they could without being fully invasive, i had appointments and still do have them with a dietician who helped me when we thought it was IBS, and that at this point the symptoms i was describing are very common symptoms of anxiety. i said okay, that probably makes sense and i was suspecting it, what can i do to help it. she prescribed 50mg of sertraline and said i could halve the dose to 25mg to begin with if i was feeling worried about it.

i took my first half on friday morning and felt pretty normal, only noticing a dry mouth, until i had this really queasy feeling kick in around 7 hours in. at night i got no sleep at all. i would calm down from nausea and start falling asleep but every time i reached the point of just about sleeping, it was like my eyes and brain would jumpstart and i would sit upright and turn on the light and feel wide awake and panicky. it went on from around 10pm to 4am, i kept having to get up and pace a little in hopes of finding any relief. same thing happened last night too and it has honestly made me incredibly anxious about trying to fall asleep, since each "jumpstart" makes me so anxious all at once that i feel nauseous again. ive had awful sleep, having to take my tablet midday because i will sleep until noon out of exhaustion. unfortunately i am someone who cant physically take naps as they make me feel awful, so i have to deal with being tired the rest of the day. my entire face aches constantly and it feels like someone has put a stopper in my head and sucked all the air out, just headachy and out of it. my eyes are so tired they feel bruised and honestly i feel like all hell.

my doctor didnt mention anything about coming off the amytriptiline slowly and i assumed that it would be fine to just stop altogether. she is the best doctor ive ever met and makes me feel listened to, so i trust her and thought that if it was important, she would mention it, but now im wondering whether im having some reaction to just coming off it all at once? sometimes when waiting for my prescription to arrive, i would have to wait 2 to 3 days without a dose and i would often feel pretty bad, just not like this.

i feel pretty silly thinking maybe all of this is the sertralines fault, seeing as ive only taken 75mg in total in the past 3 days. my dad is also on sertraline and has been for around a year and talking with him hasnt been very helpful, he doesnt think the sertraline could have such a bad effect on such a low dose - we both wondered if i had just a tonne of anxiety buried somewhere in me subconsciously, so i couldnt feel it but it manifested itself physically as nausea. due to the past year being so difficult, i would not be surprised, but it is very hard to dig out thoughts when you dont know where or what they are. (the doctor did refer me to a therapy group, so hopefully i will go there soon too).

a few of my friends are also on sertraline and havent had side effects as bad as this. i just feel really gross and exhausted to the point of feeling physical pain from it. i eat breakfast then take half a tablet (following advice online about helping with nausea), eating bit by bit throughout the day when i feel i can. i eat quite bland foods naturally by this point, drink lemon and ginger tea, eat my fruit. i go on a walk every day since we have dogs, lasting from 20 minutes to 2 hours. i do my best to distract myself and keep my mind busy, but i seem to not be able to concentrate on anything and just end up curling up in bed with a hot water bottle waiting for the hours to pass so i can try taking another anti emetic (cyclizine) in hopes it will help properly this time. as a side note, i am not taking them regularly and try to avoid them if i can just to make sure i dont go crazy with them, only taking them when it gets unbearable. at this point im getting waves of hot flushes, feel on the brink of uncontrollable shivering, clammy and ill. it feels like i got hit by a truck. i really need to sleep, but at this point the anxiety medication is becoming the source of my anxiety - i know it gets worse at first before it gets better, and that ive only been on it for 3 days on a tiny dose, but it is a little scary seeing answers on the web say "may end in a few weeks" or "symptoms ease in 2 weeks to a year". i really feel like i cant mentally deal with these symptoms for another uncontrollable amount of time without finding some sort of relief, especially when i have no idea what could be really causing them and none of the things that should help Do help, which is why im here.

has anyone else had this sort of experience at the start? did anyone find anything that helped? i know i have to keep going, but it honestly feels a little hopeless, like i cant escape the awful nausea i keep getting like a curse. was wondering if anyone had this and it did finally get better!

sorry for the long block of text, i seem to have had a lot bottled up! hope everyone is doing well :•)

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