Is it time to give up with Sertraline?
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Hi there,
Im posting on here in the hope someone might have had the same issue and can give some advice. This is my second time on sertraline, the first time was a few years ago and I was on it for anxiety, it helped me a lot and I was on 100mg and stayed on that for around a year. I then felt much better so came off them. Fast forward a few years, and after having a baby during the pandemic, losing my dad and just generally feeling stressed and anxious I found myself back on them. My doctor initially started me on 50mg in April, but I had the most horrendous start up...anxiety went through the roof, so I increased slowly 25mg at a time, but each increase took a few attempts as I got such a horrendous increase in anxiety. I eventually made it up to 100mg and i stayed on this dose for around 5 months, but still had issues with my anxiety and felt worse then before I had started. Around 4.5 weeks ago we decided to increase to 150mg to see if this helped. I felt no different from the increase, until the last week I have felt awful. Anxiety is through the roof again, I have a constant nervous energy and just feel so on edge. Im wondering if now is maybe the time to give up with sertraline and maybe try something else? Has anyone been on Sertraline before and tried to go back on it and found it hasnt worked or even made them worse?
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juliob hannah49068
Edited
Hey Hannah, I am sorry you feel like this. There are times that our brains are oversensitive and this worsening in symptoms can be a real turmoil. I decided to updose from 100mg to 150mg as my doctor oriented due to nonstop intrusive thoughts but I was also tapering Valium... even with me holding the V dose I think I might had not the best idea increasing zoloft at this time. There are some that consider going from 100 to 150mg a quick change despite most doctors suggesting it. The point is that is not uncommon to feel bad or with symptoms worsening after increasing your dose... it's as if you start the week count again. I am now at week 9 and I am much more stable now but still having some issues on mental exhaustion (but I am not a good parameter due to the benzos). If you have to deal with OCD, unfortunately seems like it takes 8 to 12 weeks to reach the therapeutic effects. It's kinda hard to decide if it's worth keeping it as your increase is recent, taking into consideration if it's being unbearable. As you changed it recently, I don't think you are going to have a tough time going back to 100mg now. I tried this and felt awful after 2 days, but I tried this being at week 6 after the increase. Try to keep contact with your doctor about how you feel to decide if it's worth enduring these potentially bad weeks or trying another route. Also... sertraline is one of the most activating SSRIs. There are ones with a more sedating profile that you might also consider.