Hi guys,yours views please

Hi Yes

I wish also that I could stop thinking, I used to get inappropriate thoughts as well as considering all sorts of indepth scenarios.

I was on sertraline before for two years and am now going back onto them. It takes a while to get used to them but they really help, I am able to rationalise situations when taking them. I dont feel that i am Mad anymore!

Hi Mark,

Sertraline is also prescribed for post traumatic stress disorder, which is the reason I took it. I think, but I am not sure, it may also be prescribed for obsessive compulsive disorder

If you have only just started to take Sertraline it can take up to 3 months before you start to feel the benefit. I would not recommend alcohol as this just compounds the problem and may interact with the sertraline.

Shouldn't you be asking your GP all these questions?

Hi well I had the same problem for a lot of time in my life in fact most of my adolescence. This thing about thinking too much. In fact this is over-excitement of the mind. Sitting in a place, or laying down in bed, and breathing regularly and deeply, and preferably slowly, paying attention to your breath, is one thing that has lots of chances of helping you with this.

Also you may consider taking an antidepressant. For me, Fluoxetine and Mirtazapine were the best antidepressants in calming my over-active mind. I´ve been on Sertraline for about 7 weeks and it has not worked as I thought it would, so today later on I will be seeing my doctor and switching to Fluoxetine (which I try to avoid as it makes me loose completely my sex drive but it works with my over active mind and depression/anxiety).

Sertraline is likely to make your mind less active. Another thing that may help is physical exercise, if you can do it. Yet another thing is acupuncture. I have tried all these and they did help me in calming down and having less thoughts.

Hello,

I'm a 34 year old guy and have been suffering from over thinking, extreme worry and anxiety ever since i can remember. I think it stems from my childhood and school mainly but it can be an incredibly difficult thing to control as i'm sure you know, your mind just decides to take over and your pretty much at it's mercy until it passes.

Over a long period of time i have taken various different medications to combat this including Paroxetine (Before they got a bad name for withdrawal reasons) Citalopram, Prozac (Just made me high and more up tight) and recently went to my GP to change from Trazodone to Sertraline as I found the sedative effects of Trazodone too much for me. To be honest the most effective I found for these thoughts was Paroxetine but it has such bad press and rightly so, even if you miss one dose you certainly feel it.

Anyway i'm going to give Sertraline a go, my family has a history of depression and my Mum swears by this Medication. The thing I have found from taking these different treatments is the amount of negativity you find when you research them on the internet, mainly the side effects etc.

I would just bear in mind that there are many thousands of people taking Sertraline and gaining really positive results, but you tend not to hear these success stories as they are getting on with every day life and feeling the benefits and don't feel the need to look for help or advice.

Hopefully Sertraline will prove beneficial to me as the last 4 months for me have been a living hell, i found it incredible that i thought at one stage i had hit the lowest i could go and that was painful enough, only to find that i slipped even deeper into the hole with feelings of utter despair and if i'm honest I had thoughts of cutting my life short just so i can get a decent nights sleep and never wake up.

Other people, including family and friends can understand Depression up to a point but at the end of the day and what most people feel so hopeless about is the feeling of being alone with the illness which leads to feelings of helplessness. This morning i woke up for the first time in a long time and felt reasonably ok.

I am going to fight this for all it's worth and i wish you and everybody here the very best of luck in your own individual experiences. One good thing i'm thinking about doing is when I am actually better i'm going to make damn sure is raise awareness for children, teenagers and adults going through this because in my honest opinion this is still a silent illness and I want to shout it out. All the best everyone.

HI

For as long as i can remember, i have had an over active mind. Not necessarily mulling over problems, just thinking about daft different scenarios and what the outcome would be. What if this? What if that?

The other problem, is my mood swings. One minute i'm fine, the next screaming and shouting over something trivial like \"a tray of eggs\". This has gone on for such a long time that i forgot who i really am, thinking this person was the real me. Things have progressively got worse over the last few weeks. My relationship with my Partner and my teenage daughter have completely broken down. They are constantly walking on egg shells around me!

So, tomorrow is when i start this \"wonder drug\". I am hoping, that tomorrow is the start of me finding the real me again. I want to be the person with a half full cup again, not constantly half empty. I want my life back. I know it will take time but i'm prepared to be patient-if it works-.

Fingers crossed eh?!

Hello Mark,

Please don't take this the wrong way but could i be right if i asked you have you at any time taken any drugs for recreation? I only say this because i know some-one very close to me who suffers similarly to you but he has taken drugs for recreation in his past, he has finally been for help and is taking a different kind of medication to stop these thoughts rushing through his mind constantly.

I on the other hand have never taken drugs until i was in a terrible collision and suffered severe burns to my legs, i too am on anti-depressants but my constant pain from nerve damage causes me to get very depressed.

I am not trying to accuse you of anything bad, so please accept my apologies if i have offended you in any way. It's just the way you have described what happens to you sounds so similar. I wish you luck for the future and please take care. x

I just wanted to add my comments to everyone that has posted under this title and to answer questions left by some.

I have been on Sertraline for nearly 2 years now and it has completely changed my life. I too could not switch off my brain and frequently told people that I just need to be able to take my brain out and put in a jar until I've had a break from it! I thought everyone was like that.

I have always been an analytical thinker even from being a small girl but when I got older and lifes usual stresses and strains come into play my brain would go into overdrive. The scenarios of \"what if...\" would torment me for hours and hours until eventually (and this is the only way I can describe it) I burnt out!

At this point, my doctor put me on 50mg of Sertraline. I was not given these drugs for depression, it was to just try and give me a break. I have obsessive compulsive thoughts, not behaviour, on really bad days I did used to obsessively check things but not to any significant degree, it was always about my thoughts. I felt the side effects within 4 hours of taking the medication but this could be because I am small. They lasted for about a week and I had double vision, sweating, sickness, no concentration, short term memory loss and feelings like I was zinging. However, I persevered and the side effects did go.

In response to another posting, yes, I have put on a little weight since being on these tablets, but that was something else I was obsessed about but since being on these tablets I am alot kinder to myself about that too. It took time for my weight to regulate and I think it has settled down now.

After a year I felt so much better so I thought I would try and live without them so with the support of my doctor I started reducing the dose, and I did not get withdrawal effects, but unfortunately, after time I started getting the same old feelings of \"what if...\" so was advised to increase my dose to every other day again.

I guess what I wanted to say was that this particular drug has worked for me. I have obsessive compulsive thoughts, always have, and realise I always will. But these tablets have given me peace. I am peacefully happy, calmer, more positive and in control. It is particularly difficult to constantly be living inside your non stop \"what if...\" brain, so if this allows me to have a fulfilled life then so be it.

Good luck to everyone who is just getting on these tablets and I truly hope that they bring as much peace to you as they have to me.

Hello

The constant \"what if\"'s sound to me like you're experiencing anxiety, which often occurs with depression (my own diagnosis is \"Depression with anxiety\". They kind of aggravate each other, leaving you in a downward spiral The medication takes the edge off, but you need to work on how you think, correcting these \"faulty thought patterns\". Talking therapies are good for this - there will be relapses, but in my own experience of being to see a psychotherapist for 12 months now, I'm a lot better than I used to be, and I'm aware of any \"faulty\" thoughts that creep in.

Hey, iv been on setraline for 2 years now, and got to say best thing i done, only for the fact that i use to have really bad anxiety, the dug has calmed my mind down alot and im finding it alot eaiser to think clearer, still sometimes have the odd fight or flee experience, but managed alot better now.

Hope it all goes well..

Joey :p

Hi all

Reading your comments many of you appear to be visual (creative) thinkers. I am.

We cope with the world by visualisation of scenarios and undergo those emotions in our minds as if they actually happend. This is as a result of circumstances and how our minds have developed from childhood. However don't let this concern you it can be an advantage. You can see the big picture and often spot the opportunites or traps in reacting to a situation.

However I have fallen into the problem of dwelling on the negative rather than the postive outcomes caused by a number of circumstances. It does not sound as if I am alone in this. Just about to give sertaline a go reluctantly. Hopefully to get out of the rut as a quicker fix as it is difficult to take a sicky or a break from work when it is your own business.

Now for the thoughts going off on a tangent. Have you had any learning difficulties? I didn't until i got to university when i had difficulty with taking notes in lectures, i found i had dyslexia. I've got two degrees now and am running a sucessful business. I have since come across a program called the Davis Program that was a great help with clearing my head.

It was developed by Ron Davis, (info on web also you-tube.) I was very skeptical however it has given me a great insight into how and why my brain works as it does. It works on the principle that visual thinkers express problems of interation with the world when they cannot visualise a concept or word. This can show as dyslexia, ADHD, autism etc.

I am sure you have a picture in your head for the word cat, but have you got a picture in you head for the words 'to', 'the', and 'consequence'. These words can cause disorientation, when the mind is throwing pictures trying to fit that dont. I liken it to thinking with a stutter.

I recommend it to anyone, it has helped me understand me and also how my employees minds work. Try it or even his book 'The Gift of Dyslexia'

It may be the long term non chemical response to the cause rather than the symptom. Good luck, appologies for my poor spelling etc, I now know why.

Hey Guys, sorry its took so long to follow up on my posting, but a very Big Thankyou to you all for your time and messages.

Not feeling any benifits yet on the sertraline yet.. but you never know....

In response to one posting on recreational drugs no offence taken, but to answer you question yes.me and all mates were in to the rave scene,started off on cannabis to speed to LSD to Ecstasy and a little cocaine, and never felt any problems while taking them or after

However i will put my blame on Cannabis without a doubt its what started me off,i have always been a thinker always planning things having good ideas,working things out etc..

But this was the trigger as well as being in prison (for a stupid offence) but anyhow,this is when it started i was smoking the herb,as they say,but also feeling very alone and at times being on my own with my own thoughts and then i could not thinking.... i don,t take anything now and when i have been with freinds in the past after a few drinks and tried it boy does it bring my thinking issue on very strong and feelings of paranoia its horrible, hence i do not smoke it anymore.

Cannabis does or can screw you up i have seen in in many freinds even people that have never taken anything else,its seems fine for ages even years but depending on your own mind set, and how your mind works it can tip you over the edge.when your young and carefree living day to day theres nothing to worry about, only when you have to face issues and think about them cannabis can heighten your thinking process to the point you can not stop it anymore...I am living proof and so are some freinds.

Cannabis and personal,family,or work related problems that need your thought process to work and help you through things, whilst smoking Cannabis,these thoughts will be deeper and last longer to the point that you can not stop them anymore,even if you stop smoking the drug some damage has occurred and then you are on the long uphill struggle to turn this back around,but it comes quicker than it leaves.

Take care and best of luck and wishes to you all, please keep us all updated as to how we are getting on.

Regards and Best wishes for now and into the New Year Mark

This is such a common thing although there is so little awareness to it. Most 'normal' people can feel a smatter of what we go through although obviously they have the luxury not to have this in an obsessional way. This is, at least what I have found when I have spoken to my close friends about it.

I am now 30 and have had OCD since I was about 7 or 8. I was very lucky to have an intuative mum that took me to the doctors and I have been receiving help in this ever since. Many people think that OCD is all about washing your hands or other typical behaviour, but it has many horrible forms, just like you guys are describing....intrusive and obsessional thoughts, the uncontrolable need to go through a senario that you know is pointless and unneccesary, but we have to do it!

I personally have found Sertraline to be brilliant. I have been on 2 other types of drug to help, but they made me feel like a zombie and I was very reluctant to take anything else, but having taken these, now around 8 months later, they have been the best thing I could have done. I have been tempted to up my dosage to 100mg when I have been going though a tough time, but I have held off doing this as I was worried about having that detached feeling again. (perhaps others could put my mind at rest about this should I need to ever up the dosage).

All I can say, is that I have been to many councellors etc. from when I was found to have this problem, at age 8, since then it has got better and worse over the years, sporadically, I know feel that I am able to help myself, thanks to all the help I have had. The best thing that I could ever suggest, as well as getting help with Sertraline is to speak to your family (if you are happy to) there is scientific research to suggest that what we are going through is hereditory.

No matter what thoughts you have, you often have this problem because you are a good person...you care about things.

Someone once told me that the reason for having these thoughts is that you are trying to control things and the thoughts are a product of self preservation, you are trying to prepare your mind for every situation encase something bad happens. My problem started after a death in my family.

I dont know if I am rambling, but I am happy to speak to and hopefully help anyone about the problem we suffer from. It shouldnt change your life, I am a manager of a high pressure sales environment...with the right help it will be something that you can learn to live alongside with. Sertraline for me has been a great help with this.

[i:f6b531b7a5]Mark,

I understand where your coming from completely. 100%! I always think. I am completely obsessed with fate for e.g if i chose that mug then its gonna lead me down a route of my life without me controlling it? Im finding it very hard to explain [/i:f6b531b7a5]

I cannot tell you how nice it is to hear that I'm not the only one with the overactive mind issue associated with anxioty. I feel much better knowing that I'm not just imagining my issue. I've always had a sharp mind but the throttle was stuck wide open.

I've been able to cope with the issues for years but recently I lost my job. Being the sole wage earner for a family of 6 made this a particularly stressful situation which blew the lid off. On my wifes advice I consulted my doc about it and he prescribed sertraline. I'm feeling a bit improved and no major side effects. I don't get as giddy as I used to but I also don't get as low. I've only been on the drug for a week but it's starting out nicely. I like being a nicer father to my children and a better husband to my wife.

We are all going through this and it helps to hear that someone else has the exact same issue. I cannot express the frustration I've felt with this issue over the years since most people have no idea what we go through. I feel that I can do great things now that I'm better able to focus.

Rgens Hi glad to hear the meds are helping you out and the best of luck with them,funny i have a friend of a friend who i had a beer with a couple of weeks ago and yep she,s just joined our gang as well i told her exactly how she was thinking and feeling,she had to pick her self off the floor,because i knew so much from her telling me so little,and she treats hers with alcohol,as i did for so many years,alcohol in tablet form would be the answer,i have had to stop drinking alcohol,as it got too much for my body to handle and bothered my pancreas.

now i have not drunk for 3 weeks and feel so much better for it,i used the alcohol as a tool and it worked so well,when you don,t have the optionanymore alcohol is not a great tool after all,its a short term fix,that leaves you craving more to feel better again,i know now having stopped that it was not the answer,life and the people around you make you feel better drugs help a little,people are the best cure.

best of luck and my very best wishes to you and your family