Beginning

I dare say meds are not for everyone, just like counselling; we are all individuals. So it follows that just because one person's had a bad time/lack-lustre GP/poor advice, not everyone else will.

There is no single approach which will work for all. The most important thing is to commit to your choice, engage with your healing. If you think meds may help, give them a chance, make sure you take them. If counselling is your choice, get to all your sessions. If exercise is your thing, keep up the commitment. Above all else, give your choice some time. A chance.

Meds may feel weird for a bit. But so does starting to exercise - boy, those muscles can ache. Getting well takes time. If we judged the benefits of exercise on how we felt right at the beginning no one would ever get fit. And don't forget, even people without depression have carp days; getting well is no guarantee of life becoming a picnic !

Stay with it, whatever "it" might be - unless you have had a severe reaction,you'll probably be jumping t he gun trying to see a difference before you have been taking the for about 2 months, in my experience.

Hi Jane97070, and all the posters on this forum,

Wonderring how you are feeling.  Has the sertraline started to work its magic for you yet?

I was on sertraline for nine years.  I did ok on it - 25 mg the whole time.  But then, I decided to wean myself off of it last spring.  Six months later, I had an explosive panic attack that hit me out of nowhere.  So now I'm starting up the sertraline again, but am experiencing every possible side effect - horrible tremors, shaking, heart racing and pounding, dry mouth, insomnia, inability to concentrate, nausea, diarrhea, the works.  I am a total trainwreck, physically.  If I didn't have two kids to parent, I would probably just lie in bed and look at the walls all day long, shaking like a crappie on a fish line.  

So today marks day 9 on this stuff, and I feel just as bad as ever - maybe worse because now I'm so weak and light-headed all the time.  I live in Japan, so help is not readily available, as mental illness is not treated with the same assertiveness as in the West.  Therefore, I really rely heavily on the posts of forums like this to help me field what might be happening to me.  It's so very, very frightening.  And to make matters worse, I leave for Kenya in six days, so my pre-travel anxiety is all built into this whole messy package.

Thanks for your reply.  I was able to consult a GP, and he prescribed a week's worth of half-doses of Xanax, twice a day, to work through the transition period into travel and (hopefully) when the side effects will begin to subside.  Wow.  I had never taken Xanax before. That was amazing.  I can totally see how that can be habit forming.  Meanwhile, the tremors and shakiness continue.  The nausea has tamed down a little bit, which helps me feel  one notch above pathetic!  Attitudes toward mental illness in Japan are changing, but they are still a bit antiquated, meaning simply that there is still a lot of shame in having mental illness of any sort, so it is a hidden disease and difficult to find treatment that reflects "best practices."  I *finally* found an American psychiatrist who I can consult for practical medicatioin/interaction advice.  

My former experience with Sertraline was that, while it didn't fix my life, it made dealing with the everyday stuff much more manageable because I was more even-keeled.  But it does take a while.  While the drug was starting to work on the inside of my brain, I had to be deliberate about changing old "outward" habits at the same time.  I should have done this with a therapist, but unfortunately I didn't, and that's probably a good part of why my panic has just been breeding and escalating - because I didn't develop some of the tools to cope with stress.  I *only* relied on the medicine, and looking back, I regret that.

 

Hi, can anyone help me out! I've been on sertraline before and it worked amazingly but I decided to come off it to try for a baby, I encountered a fee stressful situations at home and work my angst spiralled and I decided to go back on Sertraline.

I've been taking them for 6 weeks now and have had pretty bad anxiety throughout but I kept to a low dose of half a tablet for the first 4 weeks. Last night I took my first dose of three quarters of a tablet and today my anxiety is through the roof. I've phoned the doctor who has took me that this is normal as now I'm in a good dose (37.5g) therefore I will have the side affects, she's given me Valium 3 times a day to get through this bit. Has anyone else had side affects for this long, it's been about 6 weeks now and I feel far worse than I had hoped. I thought the doctor would be wanting to take me off them now but she inists that this is normal and I need to continue! 

Thanks in advance. 

Clare,

I *so* feel your pain.  Well, your anxiety.  I'm ina similar boat in that the low dose (25mg) is either not therapeutic (becauuse my anxiety is as high as ever), or the side effects of increased anxiety continue to plague me all.day.long.  It is crippling!  I was also on sertraline (successfully) for nine years, quit, and now am returning.

Scientifically, according to my psychiatrist, it really isn't possible to know if it's your axiety amping up, or if it's side effects.  The only way to know for sure, is to quit the sertraline altogether (again), which doesn't seem to make sense since I (and you?) have invested this much time so far.  Does that sound like what you're experiencing?  

My tremors are so bad that i can never sit down - not to eat, not to work, nothing, without my leg bouncing around like I'm trying to run the Kentucky Derby in place.  And work?  Getting there sucks.  No two ways about that.  But once I'm there and occupied a little bit, I seem to fall into a healthier rhythm (I'm a teacher).

You've been approved to up your dose - I'm thinking that has to be a good thing, because your body might be telling you that only taking 25mg is like drinking 100ml of water after a race, instead of maybe 500ml, or a liter, which might be a more appropriate amount.  Certainly six weeks is plenty of time to know whether 25mg was therapeutic.

Hang on to hope.  It's not easy, but this forum is full of people who are who are cheering for you on the sidelines!