Horrible Reaction to Zoloft

I have what SEEMS to be a quite unique experience when I took Zoloft and I really need answers. This might be long so please stay with me. I really need help and advice so the more input the better. 

I have a crippling phobia of vomiting. I've been dealing with this for almost 12 years and I am only 19 years old. Up until recently it was never a huge issue as I would never allow myself to throw up and usually left the house if someone was sick. But last December I was in a house with someone and they became sick quite suddenly and threw up everywhere. I was trapped in that person's house with no way out but past the vomit (in the middle of the night with no way home) and it literally scarred me. I very suddenly changed - I was anxious, crying, feeling sick, scared of myself and everyone around me. It was insanely hard to live my life for three months. I almost quit my job for fear of running into this person, as he worked with me. I am still paranoid to take the public bus, go to anyone's house, go to concerts, or drink at a bar in fear that something could potencially go wrong. 

Before this I was a happy-go-lucky, confident, great person to be around. Now I live in constant fear. Anyway. About two months after that happened, I was out late and suddenly I felt sicker than I had in my whole life. Very, very suddenly. My boyfriend rushed me home and I laid in bed with the worst nausea I had ever had in my life for five or so days. It finally got to the point where I wasn't eating or drinking, and I had to have my mom come home from work because I was so exhausted from fighting the hunger and sickness that I was crying histarically. 

Either way. The doctor gave me Pantaprazol and Metonia for the stomach issues. At first it worked - I began eating little strawberries and water and it felt like a miracle at that point. But soon after - I'd say a week or two - I began getting this feeling of hopelessness, anxiety, constantly crying and sleeping. The pharmacist suggested that I quit both, and so I did. 

The anxiety and the feeling of hopelessness remained, and so I went back to the doctor for more answers. At the point it had been about two months of this going on. The doctor diagnosed me as severely anxious and severely depressed - which seemed odd to me because I had always been a happy, social person. I was a partier, and I loved people. Now suddenly I was the opposite. A recluse. Ugh. Very weird. But either way I trusted the doctor and he perscribed me Zoloft 50mg to start. 

Having a fear of vomit, I asked him the potencial side effects of taking Zoloft and he said mild flu-like symptoms for maybe a week or so and then I would get right back to normal! So having no clue that he had perscribed me quite a high dosage to start, I went home that night and took the first capsole at 9:00PM that night and quickly went to bed.

I rememer waking up around 1AM feeling very loopy. The colours in my eyes were vibrant and flashy, much like if one smoked marijuana. I just passed it off as a small thing and forced myself to sleep again. Then at around 3AM I bolted up in bed. My heart was POUNDING, I was sweating, I had diarrhea, I was shaking uncontrollably, my pupils were huge I looked like a monster, and weirdest of all I felt incredibally nauseous but didn't care one bit. My mom took me to the hospital in the car and I remember I brought a bucket with me and thought, "I don't even care if I have to throw up. I feel like I'm actually doing to die." When I got to the hospital my heart rate was about 140/80, my muscles in my legs were contracting like crazy, it was insane. From only one pill. Eventualy they sent me home saying that there was nothing they could do for me until it wore off.

Thus began another four days of not being able to eat or drink water. Everytime I went to fall asleep, I felt this insane rushing in my head like what you feel when you're about to fall asleep but think of falling. But it was worst than that, it was like a demon was in my head and it would show up at any time. I looked it up and people said it might be caused by shifting your eyes too fast from side to side. Sleeping was a disaster, being awake was a disaster. This went on for the four days and then on the fifth day I started to get severe eyepain and crazy bad sinus pressure. I went back to the doctors again, and he perscribed me tylenol back pain. That's when I discovered that everytime I took an advil or a tylenol, it brought on this insane dizziness and that demon feeling and I would have to sit there for four hours until it wore off.

ANYWAY. My reaction was horrendous. I tried telling my doctors but they didn't believe me. They said they had never heard of this before and that even though it may have happened, it must have been amplified in my head because I am mentally sick or something. Yeah. I didn't make that up. It was the worst week of my entire life. I only took the one pill and let it just wear off. I dubbed it Hell Week.

Anyway. There must be a reason that my doctors think I exaggerated my symptoms - and that reason must be that not a lot of people get that kind of reaction. But I need to know if anyone else has had it this bad because I've been debating trying a different medicine, (Cipralex), to see if it cures any of these feelings.

The last part I want to add is that I believe my initial stomach problems were extreme stress from my phobia. Then when I didn't get better, I tried a gluten-free diet and it's helped tremendously with the daily anxiety. But it's still there. My doctor suggested that I may have OCD, which is why I wasn't scared to throw up while on Zoloft because that's one of the things that Zoloft normally helps with. I'm also thinking that the Zoloft 50mg was MUCH TOO HIGH for me to start out with, which is why I had such an adverse reaction to it. I wonder if I would have taken the lowest doage if I would have been able to handle it.

At the time I swore I would never try another drug again - but this phobia is so crippling to me. I want to be able to have kids one day, but I'm too scared because kids throw up. It's taking over my whole life, and that's why I have started considering Cipralex at the lowest dosage - 5mg to start. 

To conclude:

Has anyone else had this type of insane reaction, and if so, did other SSRI's have the same effect on you?

Do you think it was because of the higher dosage I started out with that my body just completely rejected?

Has anyone else taken Cipralex and has it worked for you?

Or even, has anyone taken Zoloft, had it not work, and then tried Cipralex?

Thank you for reading, I know it was a long one. I just need help. I don't know what to do, and to be completely honest I have lost a lot of faith in doctors when it comes to this kind of advice.

Thank you! 

0 likes, 3 replies