7 weeks on 150 mg and all I want is to feel better

When I started 7 years ago, I was put on sertraline and I didn't have to try another. It worked wonders for me for 7 years. The 150 dose is not too bad for side effects, I didn't get any until about week 3 and the worst was dizziness and really bad headaches but I think they have gone. I have to see my psychiatrist on sept. 13th and if I don't see a significant change, he is going to give me a small dose of abilify to help it along. My mom was with me for 6 weeks and she flew back home last night and that could be the reason for all the emotion...its just so hard. I also have Graves' disease and awaiting a thyroidectomy, anxiety and depression are also symptoms of that.

There could be possibilty that Sertraline doesnt work this time (I dont wanna be negative, but there is possibilty).

When I started with Sertraline 6 months ago, it didnt work at all. So my Dr swtiched to Nortriptyline (it is an old med - when some ppl hear its name, they think my dr was crazy to start such a treatment, as there are way better (newer) med - BUT it worked magic for me) and I am very thankfull to my Dr.

Maybe you need to try something other than SSRI.

But I hope you get better by 13 Sep. Hopefully this is just because your mom left you and you feel better soon.

hi again vanessa i agree also about keep going until the 13th when you see your doctor again, as all could change before then and sertraline finally starts working properly for you.

otherwise, there's lots of similar meds, hopefully you are not concerned about switching to something else if necessary

(you could try mirtazapine, which personally i found good but unfortunately i get restless legs syndrome and mirtazapine made the restless legs syndrome worse for me, so i had to stop (but found it was a very good med for my depression and anxiety, and worked fast.. only took about a week for me to feel better on it))

another one i would recommend for you to try is escitalopram, which is another med i was on in the past and found that it worked very well for me personally

keep us posted here please on how you are getting along;  we are all looking forward to the day when things get better for you, which is coming, just a matter of time so keep going and try not to focus on your depression and anxiety but instead if possible try to just do stuff and keep busy

I'm sure I asked you this before but do you remember still having bad days this far into treatment? Did you just wake up one day and feel better or was it a good day here, a bad day there?

in all honesty yes,  and even now i have the odd funny day (where perhaps i feel kind of 'flat',  or sometimes i get some anxiety, perhaps for half of a day).  in my case though, any short episodes of depression or anxiety i experience, i would describe as 'mild' and 'no big deal', and if it happens it doesn't bother me now, as i just think back to how much worse i was a few months ago and how i have progressed in the right direction.  i think to put it simply, sertraline has given me back the strength which we all need in life (a strength which most people take for granted).  so now if i get the odd bit of anxiety or depression happening, it doesn't bother me anymore and i don't fall apart... and so it passes fast,  because i don't give it any attention like i used to do (when i was caught right up in the thick of it), now that sertraline has given me my strength back.  by the way this 'strength' i talk about, is where a lot of people make the mistake and suddenly think "hey, i'm fine now, i'm strong, i don't need to take these stupid pills anymore", - so they stop taking them.  i've learned from experience that's a big mistake     if it's working, stay on them!

regarding ' did i woke up one day and felt better'? ; i think how i would put it is,  at first i was taking sertraline for a few months and during that time i wasn't sure if it was going to work out, and as the weeks went by i felt things like insecurity, fear, anxiety, depression and so on.. but then it got to a point one day where i thought to myself "hey, i feel ok, i can feel my old self coming back and i'm through the worst of this", - and that feeling has stuck, and it's a good feeling (and the odd bad day isn't enough to stop that good feeling.  it would have to take me something like a whole week of feeling awful to lose that feeling...)

i know it's easy (and perhaps patronising!) for me to say to you that you will get to that point also.  everyone will, and it doesnt matter how long it takes (weeks, or months) or how many meds you have to try to get there. the important thing is you do get there, and it's really nice when it happens.  you can feel yourself warming up inside and an old kind of happiness and strength coming back which you remember you had in the past.

things are not as bad as they seem for you vanessa so try not to worry.  you are only around 2 months into your treatment, which might sound a lot but many people need around 3 months. and also you have your doc appointment in 2 weeks, at which time if there still isn't enough improvement towards feeling like you are 'winning' again, then you can either add something to take with your sertraline, or consider switching to something else.  please note that if you switched to another antidepressant it doesnt mean you have to wait another 3 months to see if the next med is the right one.  you will find that any new ssri you try most likely will start working in a matter of days if not weeks (and any new side effects are less likely, and even so would most likely be milder that when you first started out with ssri's, due to you already putting in some 'ssri time' by taking sertraline for the last few months).

... so let's see what tomorrow brings, keep us posted ok

You always know exactly what to say. I just like talking to people who lift my spirits when those bad days come and I like giving reassurance to people who need it when I'm having a good day. As I reach an extra week on meds, I get my hopes up that this is the week that will change my life. I just can't wait for the day that I can have normal anxiety again, you know? The kind that don't render you useless and feeling hopeless. Thank you🙂

Thanks..

(a strength which most people take for granted)... Since I started having my panic attacks, the only thing that matters to me is health... It a blessing...

It is terrible Paul. The side effects are not bothering me too bad, it's the thing of not knowing what one day will be like from the next. I do as much positive thinking as I can possibly do. Every single day, all day long I'm talking to myself and saying "today is going to be a good day." It's so darn exhausting.

But I am feeling way better now. I just started week 5 on 50mg and I am feeling more stable and feeling less of side effects.

Did  you upped your dose suddenly? Becuase my Dr belives you have to let it take its time and do it gradually.. So I started with 12,5 mg and slowly to 50. She believes I need 100 mg, but wants me to stay on 50 for a month.

hey vanessa, here's something good to try and it works for many people. i tried it myself and did feel better for doing it (it's quite a popular method so you might have heard of it before, and perhaps even tried it yourself.. but even so, try it again ok)

what you do is: .. note: i know it's very difficult when caught up in depression and anxiety to do something like this but: ---  starting from tomorrow when you wake up, regardless of how you feel, don't add any 'weight' to whatever you are feeling. just go along with whatever it is you are currently experiencing (eg. anxiety, depression..) - so don't label whatever is happening inside you as 'good' or 'bad'.  try to go about your day as normal, and if you dont have much to do, find something to do.

if you find it's too difficult to stop yourself from ruminating (going back inside your head and thinking about stuff and worrying etc), then just give yourself a reminder that you are currently taking steps to get better (which you are, with sertraline), and that you know it can take time, and if with adequate time (8-12 weeks) you are not feeling better, you know you can simply switch to something else, and there can only be success at the end because in this day and age we all have access to a huge amount of different meds (as well as all sorts of other options regarding tackling depression and anxiety).

if you do feel a few times in the day you kind of slip back into the depression and anxiety and find you are having negative thoughts and anxiety/depression, don't feel bad but instead just ease back into the method of not labelling whatever you are feeling as good or bad, but instead just go with it and try not to 'wrestle' with yourself and what's happening inside you (again, i know this is so easy for me to say because my sertraline treatment is working well, but do try to keep this kind of thinking in mind as it is a strength and even just thinking in this way a few times a day at least, is going to help you because it takes the focus away from yourself and what's happening inside).

note: just to say again, i know it's hard to think in a rational way when caught up in the depths of depression and anxiety, but even so try to remember the above tips because, even if you are feeling too unwell to apply them now, then instead in the future when you feel even just a little bit better, you will find the above tips are easy to do with little effort, and make you feel relaxed, calm and more carefree  (it's kind of the attitude of "ok, i feel like crap at the moment. and that's that.  whatever.  no need for me to add anything more to how i feel".)

I am almost in the same situation as you. I relapsed after being on 50mg for 5 years. I gradually increased the dosage to 100mg (14 weeks) 125mg (8 weeks) and 150mg (9 weeks). I am still not ok with the anxiety but depression is much much better. What about you?

I just had 3 very bad days, anxiety throughout the whole day but I've had some really good days too. I'm just praying that those 3 days didn't mean I won't get better. Anxiety makes us feel like we're going to lose our minds, it's very debilitating. I hope we feel better soon🙂

hey vanessa sorry to hear about this ongoing rough ride you are having 

could i ask a couple of questions, first of all, it sounds like at the moment your anxiety is worse than your depression, is this correct?   or is the depression worse than the anxiety? or would you say they are about the same level?

also, are you having anxiety/depression as soon as you wake up?  ie. literally on waking do u you feel like crap?  or do u wake, and are ok for a minute or two (or even several seconds), and then start feeling bad?

I'm having spurts of depression, I'm being treated for anxiety. I just thought the sporadic depression was the pills getting use to my body. Some mornings the "butterflies" are there in my stomach, some days they aren't but I think I may be bringing them on myself sometimes. Some days I can control myself to not think negatively, other days I can't stop thinking that way. I don't know if you're a man or woman but I have to say, I've noticed my absolute worst days have been days before my period and the first day of and then again with ovulation. I just took notice of this today. I have no idea if it is related or not but I'm hoping so. Last week I had three very good days, my intrusive thoughts barely there and when they did come, I could brush them off as just a thought and I was happy because I was sure that was the end of those severe bad days.

male here vanessa, age 42

i think the good news is, because you have been on sertraline a while now (8 weeks), you only have to give it a couple more weeks and then you know u have put in the time and if it isn't working still, then you can switch to something else and not worry about if u gave sertraline enough time to work. (in my opinion, if something doesnt work by 12 weeks, i would switch.. others might disagree but that's what i do personally)

hopefully u are not bothered about switching if necessary?  i've had it in the past where i try an ssri for 3 months, and it doesnt work out, so i switch to something else, and the new one starts working by a week, and i think.. "aargh! i wish i went on this before! insead of spending 3 months on that other one!",   but i don't stress about it and feel good that i tried hard for 3 months on the other med and never gave up, and got there in the end

or maybe as u hinted at, adding something to take with the sertraline might be the solution?  u might find u only need 100mg of sertraline (for your depression) and then take something else with it for anxiety

i have to go out now but keep let us all know how your day goes ok.  here's hoping you turn the corner this week.  it has to happen sometime, dont worry (even if it feels like it will never happen.  trust me, we have all been there and think that we will never be wll again. and then it happens. it absolutely will for you, so keep telling yourself it's only a matter of time, because it really is).

It's really tough, I hope this week ahead is better than this week gone. It seems every second week I can cope better with my anxiety. Week 4 was good, week 5 sucked, week 6 was good and week 7 sucked. Such a struggle😒