Horrible anxiety after starting Sertraline 50mg

Posted , 8 users are following.

Hello, the dr. prescribe me 50mg of Sertraline which I am taking every evening. I am only going through the day 4 and I know everyone will say to keep going, but the anxiety I feel and the depressive thoughts are much much worse than before Sertraline. I am barely coping not to show off at work, my teeth are grinding all the time. It makes me look like I am not moving my face when talking. Apart from that, I had nausea on the day 1 which has stopped on the day 2. I have been waking up 10 times a night, which has subsided to once a night now and makes me feel like I am ready to wake up. My hands are trembling, but less than on the first day, so makes me think that will subside. Strange sensation when yawning, and overall lack of control. Please anyone advise is this hyper anxiety "normal"? How did you go through that ?

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  • Posted

    Quick answer is absolutely normal, in fact I had every single side effect you just mentioned and I was on 50mg. All my side effects went away somewhere around the 3-4 week point and I’m still on 50mg at 2 months and I’m feeling some much better with my anxiety. I’m so glad I didn’t quit and that I pushed through the side effects. Hang in there cause this will pass and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck and god bless
    • Posted

      OOops sorry joe ... I see  your answer now here on this post !!! You give me fairh!!!
    • Posted

      Thank you so much for answering Joe41529, I was thinking I am getting insane. Can you please tell me when did you go back to your old condition before the Sertraline? I am just hoping to at least go back to the zero point before taking it because at the moment I am only feeling worse. 
    • Posted

      No worries at all, that’s why I’m here!! Anytime you need to chat give me a holla! God bless
    • Posted

      Sure Maria no problem at all, and believe me your not going insane your just going through the horrible side effects of most anti depressants. I think I started getting back to myself somewhere around the 5-6 week and now at my 8 th week I feel almost 100% like my old self. Sleep still needs to improve but my anxiety has improved greatly. Hope this is what you meant by your question. Hang in there because it sucks in the beginning but it sure does get a bunch better in the long run! 
  • Posted

    Why you taking that at night? Thats for the day... Second... I have been on 50 mg for three days and im with headache all the time but I did two weeks 25 mg and it was freaking hell... Its been three days i feel more better than bad, so o will get better jist take ot hour by hour minute by minute, trust me, I never thought I was going to be ok again but i statted to know the difference
    • Posted

      Hi Paulette, I got a headache on the day 3 which disappeared on the day 4. I hope it will be the same for you. Did you have increased anxiety? 
    • Posted

      Acutely you can take sertraline at night or day it works the same either way. It even says that in the paper you get from the pharmacy. 
    • Posted

      Yes and that combined with my period was the cherry to the worse month of this year
    • Posted

      Its funny how different doctor or pharmacy dont tell the same thing about the time to take it!

      A few years ago, when I took it (and it worked) I was told to take it in morning.

      This time, it says to take around dinner.

    • Posted

      Yeah it doesn’t at all matter what time of day you take it, it’s really just personal preference. Some like mornings some like evenings. But I do know whichever time of day or night you take it try to always take it at roughly the same time daily. 
  • Posted

    I stopped at 13 days as my depression was soooo bad but thinking about starting again soon as I didn’t give it long enough 
    • Posted

      Many people say to try another one if one didn’t work. Maybe you can try that. Good luck 
  • Posted

    I was just the same when I first started on Sert (50mg). 

    I promise you it does get better, but it took about 4-5wks for the worst of the side effects to fade away ... 

    Please try to stick it out - hoping for you x 

    • Posted

      When you say the worse pass around 4 or 5 weeks, do you mean from the beginning or from the last increased???

      Cause Im 4 weeks in total...one at 25 and 3 at 50... still having dizxiness, shaking, nervousness, anxiety and fatigue...and feel a bit space... I really hope it passes!!@

    • Posted

      That’s about how long my major side effects took to go away as well, and on 50mg. 
    • Posted

      Hi Lolita yes I did I started on 25mg for about a week of course I had all the lovely side effects with that so instead of going straight to 50 I went to 37.5 for about 5-6 days then went to the 50mg and I’ve been there ever since. 
    • Posted

      Hi Joe, thanks for your help yesterday. I just wanted to tell you I am feeling a little less anxious today. It's bearable. My teeth are still grinding thought and I am still waking up at 4AM in the morning and sitting awake for about 1,5h-2h. 

    • Posted

      Sure Lolita no problem, and yes I had the dizziness for a few weeks actually it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t get around it was more prominent when I would stand up and move I would feel it and I would feel it more in the mornings as opposed to the evenings. As far as feeling spaced out, yup I had that one as well. That lasted about 2-3 weeks for me then subsided. 
    • Posted

      Hi again Maria, your so welcome anytime I can help I certainly will! I’m so glad to hear your having a better day today, that’s pretty much how it went for me as well, I would feel a little bit better everyday but slowly at first. Then I would have a few good days in a row then back to a not so good day, then somewhere around my 6th week or so I started having a chain of good days and less bad ones. Now on the 8th week I’m having mostly good days all together. My sleep is the only thing right now that needs to improve. It’s getting better as well but it’s not anywhere near what it should be. Like you I’m having those nights where I wake up for hours and can’t go back to sleep but like I said it’s improving with time I started with only a few hours a night and now at least I’m up to roughly 5-6 hours so it’s getting there!! 

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