New to Zoloft, please give me hope

I've been on 100mg for 6 months, pretty much levelled out but still have occasional blips of up and down mood.

Hi philip. Did you get any relief earlier than 6 months? That seems like a long time.

From 12 weeks on, it's taken a long time

Thanks Johoben! I am on 100 mg for now and have been at this amount for 3 weeks. I am hoping my next doctor visit which is 2 more weeks that I will be upped to 150 and that is where I would like to remain. As long as I can see some glimmer of hope, I know I can move forward. Did you stay on generic the entire time?

Are you feeling at all better yet? And yes, I stuck with the generic. It's usually cheaper and works similarly to the brand name one.

Are you still on zoloft now?

I actually took it for over 4 years and weaned off from 150 over a year ago. I was completely off the medication by the beginning of August. Unfortunately, the anxiety symptoms came rushing back full force and I decided to go back on the meds. Tonight's dose will be my 7th. Moving from 50 to 75 tomorrow. I'm feeling a lot of bad initial effects right now myself. Heightened anxiety, insomnia, bad dreams, upset stomach, no appetite, night sweats and diarrhea. However, those are all quite common side effects so I'm not too surprised it's happening. I just don't recall feeling this bad the first time I started. But that was in 2011, I was 17, and I had no idea how to deal with anxiety or what was going on with my body. Turning 22 in 3.5 weeks and I've had a lot if time to grow and learn different ways to cope with my anxiety. This was just a bad time for me to go off, especially considering I'm on my 4th (but not final) year of college and taking some if the most stressful classes my program offers, while balancing a job on top of that. Plus, I moved to a new home and Michigan winters are brutal on the depression. I have a lot on my plate right now, and I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed by it all. I look forward to the Sertraline kicking in again because I know, for me, it works.

What time of the day you take your medication. It doesn't make me drowsy so I take it early in morning upon waking. Also I take on empty stomach.

I take it before bed. I don't think it makes me drowsy either, I've just always taken it before bed. That's what my doctor initially recommended and I've stuck with that.

Hi Johoben. How are you feeling since your increase from 50 to 75? How quickly will you be titrating up and at what interval. Since you have previously been on dose of 150 then you should not have all the bad side effects that comes with titrating upward. I started on Brand Zoloft as of yesterday and it seems as though I am having the initial side effects all over again especially the diarrhea which I felt was odd since I am on week 5 of taking medication all together.

It's a bit of a roller coaster for me right now. Some days are great, others are very difficult. I haven't felt any difference from going up to 75mgs. I'm still not sleeping too well and I'm still having bowel issues. It's probably going to take at least another month for me to balance out.

And I'll be sticking with 75mgs for the foreseeable future. I'm trying to stay on the lowest effective dose possible.

So the recommended time to give an increase time to balance each time is around 4 weeks. So if I go up to 150 next week in which I am hoping my doctor will say, I will have to wait another 4 weeks to feel better? Thanks for clearing this up for me.

You'll start feeling better after at least 6 weeks on meds in general, but it will take a few extra weeks to get the full effects from your current dose.