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4 weeks on sertraline - please help

Posted , 7 users are following.

Kay12321
Kay12321

I hit rock bottom early February and have been taking sertraline for 4 weeks tomorrow. 2 weeks on 50mg and will be 2 weeks 100mg as of Tuesday. i felt as though i was improving and seeing signs of hope but since Thursday I have took a huge dip. Feeling really sad and hopeless, my intrusive thoughts are quite strong again and I just feel like my life is pointless because we will all die anyway. I'm really hoping that this is a case of 'worse before it gets better' with the dose increase but not sure. Wondering it anyone else has experienced anything like this or has any encouragement? I feel like i will never get better. Thank you in advance for any replies 😦

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  • matt74045
    matt74045 Kay12321

    Edited

    I was in a very similar spot this time last year. I transitioned from effexor back to sertraline around the start of 2019. I made the switch because I was on sertraline a couple years ago and felt that it work better for me than effexor. When I made the switch, my anxiety/depression increased a lot. And there were times when it seemed to be getting better but then went back to being miserable. Over the first 2 months or so, I slowly transitioned to 200mg and it was when I made the transition to 200 that I started to feel better. That, and I was taking fish oil, doing regular exercise, and reading books on how to address the cognitive components of this. In the end, I felt better. I would consider going up in dose to see if it makes a difference. I remember being in that spot and dreading going up a dose because of the side effects when switching. But, when I made the final switch to 200, I didn't experience side effects as drastic and they went away in about a week.

    I hope things turn a corner for you quickly and I'm sure they will.

    • BulldozerMcr
      BulldozerMcr matt74045

      Posted

      Hi Matt! I am going through on the same thing. I creased the dose to 100mg 5 weeks ago and still feeling awful. Did you have any good days before week 6 on 100? Or you started feeling better only when you went up to 200mg and not any earlier. So hard being in doubt, I am not sure at all if this med will work for me or my suffering is completely pointless, trying to fund some hope on this forum.. Thanks very much Best wishes for you!

    • Kay12321
      Kay12321 matt74045

      Posted

      Thank you for your reply! It always to know you're not alone. I'm glad you're in a good place now. My anxiety seems to be much worse in the morning as I dread the day ahead but the night time seems so much easier. Looking forward to those brighter days! Going to try and stick at 100mg for a little longer, as much as i can manage and see what it brings 😃

    • matt74045
      matt74045 BulldozerMcr

      Edited

      I didn't have any really noticeably good days at 100. I remember hearing that things get better in a few weeks, but never seemed to turn a corner. And I was so nervous about going up because I didn't want to make things worse. But, as I got to 200, I finally started to feel better. I'm now at the point were I don't struggle with it (I'm still taking 200 a day). I'm back to feeling myself and not having those dark days anymore. I might still get some anxiety or sad about something, but it feels like the normal emotions that anyone would have. But, aside from increased dose, some other things that helped:

      • I tried to get some exercise every day, exercise that got my heart rate up. This always helped.
      • Read a book on anxiety and depression and learned that by simply starting to read a book like that makes people feel better. And for me it did, made me feel like there's things I can do.
      • Ate better. I read that there's research that suggests inflammation is associated with depression. This inflammation, as I understand it, is the normal type of inflammation that can occur due to bad diet and habits. So, I tried to find foods to fight inflammation (there are several) and it helped.
      • There are some supplements that might help, such as curcumin and methlyfolate. The first fights inflammation and the second is a form of folate that can be metabolized by individuals that have a disorder that prevents them from metabolizing the normal form of folate found in many multivitmins and food.
      • In the winter I do light therapy in the morning to get a good dose of light exposure. Seems to help a bit.
      • I tried to talk to someone about what I was going through. Talking about it helps.
      • Found a new job. My job was what drove me into a depression and cycle of anxiety. I was working way too much. I learned that I simply needed to make a change. And in general, I learned that if something isn't making me happy, I need to change it (walk away from it, work to make it different, etc.). Keep it simple and just do it.

      Increasing your dosage might help. And all the things above are worth trying. I know what it's like to be where you're at, but know that you can get out of it and you will.

    • matt74045
      matt74045 Kay12321

      Posted

      It was the same for me, worse in the mornings and gradually improved as the day moved on. I did a little research on that pattern and found that it was a specific type of depression that doctors recognized. Not sure if they still do. But for me, my depression/anxiety centered on my stressful job. And I dreaded starting each day because it meant going back to my job. One of the key things I did was to find a different job. So, perhaps it wasn't anything biological that was making it worse in the morning, it was just the stress in my life peaking in the morning.

    • Kay12321
      Kay12321 matt74045

      Posted

      That makes a lot of sense. I don't know what has triggered this for me to be honest, the counsellor i'm seeing thinks it's some PTSD from a near death experience when a lorry crashed into my car in November. Could be multiple things though! Just tossing a coin between persevering on 100mg for abit longer or just going back to the doctors, only been on 100 mg for 13 days

  • abbi19580
    abbi19580 Kay12321

    Posted

    Hi

    I have been on sertraline before and started taking it again about a year ago, i am currently on 100mg but have been up to 150mg

    I felt very low when i first started taking them especially when i started to up the dosage but after about 2 months my mood improved so much!

    My worst side effect is insomnia (which was the reason i stopped taking them the first time) i get on average 3 hours a night even when i take them in the morning, usually the side effect goes away after a few weeks but im an unlucky one and has lasted nearly a year so if you do start to suffer with bad sleep that lasts longer than 2 months i would speak to your doctor

    Hope this helps, i understand how difficult and confusing new medication can be

    • Kay12321
      Kay12321 abbi19580

      Posted

      Thank you for your reply Abbi! So you did feel really anxious and depressed during the adjustment periods of upping the dose? It really helps to know you're not alone and it gives me hope. I keep telling myself it's early days as this is only week 4 and i've read it can take around 8 weeks! I'm glad you're in a better place now but that's rubbish about the sleep, I hadn't been getting much sleep either but last night i slept pretty well! If I woke up I managed to get back to sleep pretty quick. Do you struggle getting to sleep in the first place or is it just waking up through the night? If you find it easy to fall asleep for 3 hours at first you could consider taking some of the Nytol herbal sleeping tablets for when you wake up so they could help send you back to sleep?

  • GodsServant
    GodsServant Kay12321

    Edited

    Hi Kay, although it was more than two decades ago, I can still remember how long it took this drug to work in my system. I had to drop out of a semester in my sophomore year in college. I was depressed and anxious and suicidal - I was at a point where I could no longer function - the side effects of the med made it worst. I was like a yo-yo for more than 6 weeks and I'm really not exaggerating. I would feel like I'm fine one day and then the next I would be a slump, the lowest of lows. And the doc increased my dosage from 25mg to 50mg very quickly, then 75mg for a couple of weeks and then 100mg, all the increases in about 6 weeks.

    It took about two more months of 100mg (not counting the 6 weeks) for me to start feeling better. It took the fourth month for me to feel like I could function like a normal person. Sixth month for me to feel that it was gonna to be okay. So I would advise you to give sert 8-12 weeks to full its effectiveness. I know it's horrible. I cannot tell you the number of times I wanted to give up and tried another med, but the side effects at first were so bad that I didn't want to try another med and faced all new side effects, not to mention the crazy fear of that transition period of switching from one med to the next - how these two meds would interact and would I suffer twice the amount of the side effects? I was going nuts.

    Whenever I go through an attack like this, I lose lots of precious time in my life, but at least I come out of it...alive. Healthier and happier. And each time I've learned how to deal with it better so that next time it won't become a full-blown attack. My last attack lasted about 4 months in total, from the time I got back on the med again to the time I was able to laugh again, and that was one of the shortest. Ever. My best advice to you this time is to take your meds, try to eat healthy, get plenty of rest and sleep if you can, and just to stay positive despite the uncertainty, try to make yourself most comfortable and remind yourself that it will pass, be gentle with yourself, and try to keep yourself occupied with something - whatever it is, a mindless Word game, Candy Crush, etc. that will help you pass the time as you go about like a zombie. But hang in there, this too shall pass. You will smile and laugh again.

    • Kay12321
      Kay12321 GodsServant

      Posted

      Thank you so much for your reply! It really helps when people have been through this can encourage you to carry on and push through! I think I thought it would be a miracle and I would wake up feeling myself again but I'm slowly learning that's not the case. I'm so glad you're feeling better now and are able to manage and notice your attacks. I definitely think this is a case of the dose increase causing anxiety and making it worse. Just need to keep telling myself I will get better.

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