Higher Sertraline dose and side effects

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Hi everyone, hope y´all are having great days.

I am a 23 years old french guy (sorry then if some words are not correct, do not hesitate to ask if some things are not easily understandable). I've been anxious my whole life, even as a kid (referring to what my parents said), but I could manage it until this year (anxious in public or else, but it never stopped me from having friends and dating, even if it was not easy).

A few month ago, all of a sudden, my anxiety went really bad to a point I felt like I could die any moment (either a neurological thing or that my heart was having problems). I had 2 blood tests in february and march, then an ECG in march. Everything was normal.

Then my psychiatrist prescribed me with Sertraline, 25 mg for a week, 50 mg for 3 weeks, and upped me to 100mg after. She told me that 100 mg was the minimum dose required to work, so only then I could have better days.

Thing is, each time increasing the dose, my situation got worse. Muscle stiffness, internal shaking, headaches, and a few others.

3 weeks on 100mg, I wanted anything but to end Sertraline. Then all of sudden, entering 4th week, I felt extremely better. Went to the 24h of Le Mans with two friends and it was sensationnal, felt like I was alive more than ever.

BUT! As a started to feel better (precisely 4 weeks into 100mg), my psychiatrist told me that I needed to up to 150 mg despite the better mental health signs.

It´s exactly one week now and I feel awfull. Anxiety came back again, internal shaking too, and I am also tired again. Theres just a few other thing i can´t get out of my mind:

1 - In addition to the internal shaking and the slight fingers tremor (which seems frequent referring to other people here), I feel like I am moving along with my blood circulation? Like a little movement forward and backwards ? Does it make sense? Is it normal? Is it Anxiety? Or does Sertraline makes my brain not filter some normal body movement?

2 - The back of my neck seems pretty stiff, and I have tremors making my head shake a bit, especially when I try to stand perfectly still and thinking about it not shaking. Sometimes when I do something else or whatever it does not seem like I have this head trembling, but idk I might just not feel it sometimes.

My anxiety persuades me that it is a neurological condition and I can't get it of my head... So can someone give me some advice on it? Or share a similar experience? It's really scary, even if my GP, Pharmacist and Psychiatrist do not seem to think much about this symptom....

Sorry for the very long post, I felt like it was necessary to explain a lot so people could relate to some parts of the story!

Feel free to share experiences or else, even not related, I'm all for spreading positivity around Anxiety and Sertraline, we're all in the same boat, might as well help each other 😃

Hoping for better days to everyone !

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • Edited

    Hi Arthur,

    I have not taken Sertraline specifically but I don know that everything you have mentioned seems to be relatively common, I have read people mentioning it quite often.

    Hopefully somebody with experience with this will come along soon but meanwhile I wouldn't worry that it is anything neurological, if not you wouldn't have felt great on the 100mg dose, plus if your symptoms don't improve on the 150mg, you can always tell your psychiatrist you want to go back to 100mg.

    I wish you the best and that you start to feel better soon!

    • Posted

      Hi,

      Thank you very much for your response, I appreciate it!

      Nice to hear that it´s common then, just need to wait until the 150 mg really kick in i guess!

      Hope you´re doing well too!

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