Advice about Sertraline please
Posted , 4 users are following.
I’m wondering if anyone who is familiar with Sertraline could offer some advice? This site has been amazing since I started my journey, I’ve been a long time lurker.
I went to the doctor about 3 months ago as I couldn’t take my anxiety and PTSD anymore. She put me on a waiting list for CBT and started me on 100mg of sertraline. I went back and saw her after about 3 weeks and I was seeing no improvement so she upped me to 150. On that dose I had horrendous side effects however after about a month I had a really good 5 days but then my anxiety was back with a vengeance. I was due to see her again and when I did she upped me to 200.
I’ve been on this dose for about 3 weeks and I’m feeling exactly the same as when I started. I can’t decide if I need to try something else. Reading other posts I’m starting to think maybe she has upped me too fast and I need to give it more time.
But I’m desperate to get better and thinking maybe it’s just not going to work.
Any advice greatly appreciated
0 likes, 6 replies
pamela51740 peaceofmind84
Posted
You should of waited really more time on 100mg at least up to 8 weeks...I've been on sertraline since October and I'm only starting to feel better. I started on 50mg for a week then 100mg for 3 weeks and then 150mg for 7 weeks then 200mg for 2 weeks but have gone back down to 150mg for the past 2 weeks. I was impatient, so my dose kept upping...but give it time to work, alot of people on here says it takes up to 12 weeks to feel the full benefits on the same dose. Take care x
peaceofmind84 pamela51740
Posted
debra34304 peaceofmind84
Posted
peaceofmind84 debra34304
Posted
joss23656 peaceofmind84
Posted
Hi Peace
It's an interesting discussion. My doctor started me on 50mg just over three months ago. The scrip was to be increased to 100mg after a week but I stayed on 50mg because of the terrible side effects.. I had full on side effects, physical for two weeks, emotional ups and downs for the next few weeks. By the 8th week I felt a bit better, depression buffered, anxiety slightly so. But tiredness continued. She upped ;me to 75mg saying slower increases and smaller increases could reduce the side effects.
The physical side effects on 75mg were reduced, emotional side effects kicked in again on 3rd and 4th weeks. But the tiredness was awful. Sleepiness, apathy, and they were making me feel worse. I took 75mg for 4 weeks and couldn't handle the tiredness, I'd been sleepy for three months by then.
So I decided to tinker with my dose. Reducing it to 50mg and then to 25mg, breakthrough anxiety, then increasing to 37.5, I will continue to adapt the dose in minute quantities according to how I feel. Monitoring what is the right dose for me. Today I feel really good, one week after starting to adapt the dose.
This doesn't mean that it's definitely stablising, I know I might go up or down and will see how I go. I'm not recommending to this approach to anyone, we are all different. In my case it might mean that less is more. I was prescribed Sertraline for GAD and lifelong depression along with mild PTSD, all of these resulting from severe childhood trauma. I've taken many ADs during my life (I'm now a senior citizen) and none have worked. So I'm happy to be happy today, it seems Sertraline may be the one for me, but not in high dose. I wonder if doctor's are sometimes too hasty to increase the dose. I have read that it can take several months for our bodies to adapt to the drug.
If there are serious medical conditions such as bi-polar, personality disorder etc, I would not recommend my approach. My depression was severe but it is reactive depression, anxiety and PTSD.
I'll post in a couple weeks, for general info, to let people know how it's going. Good luck to you! x
peaceofmind84 joss23656
Posted