POST ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT SERTRALINE HERE!!!!!

Thank you so much alf123. This brings tears to my eyes as I hope to be back to myself one day. I have been struggling but have had some good or OK days. My appetite is incredibly up and down and I have lost a lot of weight all I think about is my anxiety and how I'm feeling. Did you have anxiety or depression or both? Would you mind sharing your dosage and how long till you felt 100% yourself again? Are you at that point where you could literally wake up feeling fine and almost forget you're taking medication ?

I am on 100 mgs for the last 4 months now for anxiety /depression ! It was around 6-8 weeks on 100 mgs that i can honestly say i was really gettin back to myself ....looking forward to things again etc! I too lst alot of weight but believe me i have made up for it since lol!!!! I wasnt gettin any sleep those 6-8 weeks as my mind was just buzzing all the time and intrusive thoughts were there all the time !!! Thats all settled now , i wake up i think feelin better than i have in a long time as i NOW know i was suffering for the last yr and a half without realising it!! I wish u the best of luck , life is too short so when u do feel a bit better do something small everyday for ur self. xxx

This is so beautiful to read. I am so happy for you!!!! Mental illness is so hard but it helps so much to talk to people who understand. When did your appetite come back? Was it up and down like mine? Sorry for all the questions I just don't have a psychiatrist yet (waiting till my appointment in Feb) and my GP isn't that knowledgeable.

Probably round 8 week mark and now i cant stop .....my excuse is its xmas lol! I havent seen anybody either yet till jan but my g.p. is very good!! I couldnt care if i had to take 10 tablets and eneded up 16 stone the fact that i am better is more important! xx

I miss eating, I LOVED food now I can't stand it. Do you mean 8weeks total on sertraline or on 100mg?

hi there, i am currently 1 month on sertraline. Been on 75mg for 2 & half weeks. the side effects have been awful feeling sick and anxiety at an all time high fee like i want to give up do you think i should give it more time and did yiu get these horrible aode effectsfeel like im loosing my mind

Joanna

Give it more time as it can take a while for the medication to kick in. I would also suggest reading some material on CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) on anxiety but do not read from too many sources. I did that and lost focus. It points out some self help techniques which are helpful and user friendly.

Do not be too hard on yourself as negative thinking cannot produce positive results. I know that can seem easier said than done but when you get negative thoughts do not make things worse by being hard on yourself for having such thoughts.

can you tell me what side effects you had?

Did it take the full 6-8 weeks to start working for you. I am 4 weeks into Zoloft 50mg for depression/anxiety and am still feeling little relief. I just feel "blah". Is it worth waiting it out? Ive considered asking to switch meds.

Hey there, I just started Sertraline about 3 weeks ago, so still in the thick of anxiety and coming here for support so that I can continue despite the side effects. I am also not sleeping well. Mostly in a super light sleep throughout the night and then usually wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning wide awake, eventually going back to sleep an hour or two later and then waking with my alarm. Though I surprisingly don't feel that tired. It looks like you also experienced this. I know that insomnia is one of the side effects and really hoping it will go away soon. Are you sleeping completely normal now? And it took 6-8 weeks to get there? Any encouragement or info to help me manage my expectations would be most appreciated. Thank you!

Thank you so much for the reply. I've had a bad day today and am just scowering this site to feel better. May I ask why you went off Sertraline? Was it because you were feeling so good?

Hiya taylor41, 

I just checked on this site now because I haven't been on here for a couple of months and was just wondering how people are getting on , and came across your post and my hart felt for you 😪I was put on 50mg right from the start which was about four months now , and was suffering from anziety and depression for a long time before going too the doctors , when I first started taking the pill I had a lot of side affects lack of appetite bad headaches bad stomach the lot and no difference for about two months thaught it wasn't going too work for me !! But believe me one morning about two months ago I woke up and felt wow I feel better and every day from then on I started to feel like my old self again 😄It Realy does work and I was like you , but keep going and know that you will come through all this 🙏 I too have my appointment in January with I talk and feel I don't need it now , that's how good I feel 🙂

Hello Anne, just like the other posts I am crying as I am reading your post. Been extremely tearful today and and currently sitting in a cafe crying as I'm typing this and managed to swallow a bowl of soup. May I ask you some questions? I'm really really glad you are well. Very happy for you. What mg was the magic dose for you? Some days I can muster up strength and go about things and distract myself. Will there ever be a day where I don't have to even fight it? You say you are 100% yourself? I want that so badly ....

Yep, you got it. Hit the nail on the head. The last time I was on it, I was on 100mg from July 2013 thru 2015. From Jan 2016 to Sept 2016 (?) I lowered it to 50mg. Oct 2016 I lowered it to 25mg, and around Halloween was when it all came crashing down. 

I don't know how is it with others, but I get these very severe attacks and when I am in that phase it consumes me 24/7 and I feel like going mad and I don't want to be alive and I can't concentrate on anything, can't enjoy my movies or tv show, can't even go to a familiar restaurant with my husband without freaking out - everything that used to be a more-brainier requires so much work and seems to drain me of all my energy and I feel so anxious and tired. Then when I get out of it, after awhile I am back to my old self, strong, selfish-confident, etc. that I even forget that I have a mental illness and I would even forget to take my med.

You would imagine that I'd learn by now. And really, I have this time. I am going to get a doc and a therapist after new year. Maybe to CBT. 

I even started making a list of triggers to help me down the line, so that I can nip a lapse in the bud and not have it turn to a severe relapse like this time. I don't know about you, but after living with this all my life, I can tell you it's worse around the holidays, the winter months, around the time of your period, being stressed or overwhelmed by school, job, relationships, death of a loved one, loss, etc. Someone told me not to have HALT.

H ungry

A ngry

L onely

T ired

So, my best advice and I wished I had started earlier - see a doc for med and get a good therapist, don't self-medicate like I did, and keep a journal. I started a journal not long ago and looking back I could see all the triggers and stressors and signs of the oncoming attack, but I was stupid not to review my journal when I was well. Now I will try. 

You can get this under control and live with it. You will be yourself again in no time. You will smile and laugh and joke again.  You just have to keep yourself occupied while dealing with the side effects before it kicks in. 

YES, my anxiety consumes me 24/7. It is literal hell on earth. I feel so bad for my family and boyfriend dealing with my crying bouts and just overall hopelessness. That is why I go on here to give them a break when I feel bad cause I can see the sadness in their eyes seeing their girlfriend, daughter and sister doing a complete 180 from how she was before. So all in all your advice to me would be to stick with the sertraline till I find my theraputic dose and no matter what stick with the medication even once I get back to my normal self???? I know a lot of people that stop medication once they feel better and the way I feel now scares me so i know for sure i will not stop. It is just getting to that point of feeling myself again that makes me so incredibly inpatient and having to hold all of it in in public when all i wanna do is cry.

I am so thankful you found what triggers you and know what you need to do in order to prevent relapses and continue on sertraline. My good days are what is holding me on. I just feel so bad my boyfriend was supposed to spend the night but i feel so bad making him come over here for me to just cry or sit around with him, he doesnt mind but i still feel bad. I am going to try and stay distracted with family as  sometimes that helps. 

Hay Taylor , you were sitting in a cafe on this forum in tears....that was me a year ago!

It just brought me a flash back of what I was like and how much pain I was in ( mental pain)

Exshausted of the sleepless nights, weak from not eating, watching people in the cafe being normal and relaxed and not knowing what I was going through. I so wanted to be like them, I wanted somome in the room to say hay I'm feeling like you.

This forum is a life saver for me, to be able to speak to people who understand and know exactly what I'm going through was a massive part of my recovery.

When trying to explain to a friend or relative that never felt like this, they would always ask why??? Why are you crying? Why are you worried? What's making you like this?

Why are u not eating? Ahh all this would make me worry more and get more anxious, but here people don't ask why they just get it and that helps so so much.

I'm better now , I eat well sleep well laugh, I'm able to watch t.v. I'm able to cook clean , work thank god.

I still TO this day think so other people actually feel like I do??? It can't be as bad as what I feel, or what I'm going through. But reading this today has really made me see that I wasn't alone , and this is an awful illness that needs more awareness, there is not even a charity that I know of that helps support people with depression and anxiety?? If I wrong plz advise me.

I'm trying to cut down my 50mg of sertraline now as I feel well and also because I have put on 2 stone . But I will take it very very slowly indeed.

I pray for us all, I thank the person who posted this discussion and plz those of you who are out the other side and in the light, don't forget to pop on here once in a while and help others get through this tough time. It will be an illness that will most probably haunt me for ever, but life goes on. 😏

Hugs to you all and keep the faith in god , he will respond when you ask. Xxx

Hiya taylor

Sorry to get back to you so late , I started on 50 mg and still on 50 mg so that seems the magic dose for me 🙏  But keeping in mind that different doses are needed for other people but keep fighting on it will work I promise, I thought I would never feel like my old self even when I first started on the pills some days I felt like I was having a hart attack with my anziety.

keep posting on here Taylor and let me know how your doing 🙂 I will check on here too see how you are cooping, just know your not on your own and all of us on here have and are going through the same as you . Hugs Anne.

No worries Anne, any replies help me greatly. I am hoping with time maybe the 50mg will help more but if not i am willing to go up to 75 or even 100mg. Anything to get me back to myself. Last night I was able to eat more and drink a lot of water, i just hate having to force feed myself, it makes me more sick. This morning waking up again feeling anxious, nauseous but not as much as yesterday and am still not able to get out of bed until almost 11am Feeling like I am holding all my anxiety in my throat and chest and cant breathe properly, always feel like i am on the verge of crying. I miss waking up and just being able to start my day no problems, i always wake up and am like "how am i feeling am i ok?" and then BAM it hits me. Sadly my boyfriend isnt being as understanding today, he feels as if i dont care about our relatonship anymore but he doesnt understand its hard for me to concentrate on anything except for my anxiety. Sometimes I feel like I am taking sugar pills but that cant possibly be with how you all have expressed how well you are and plus I've made a lot of small improvements since I started. I will continue to post on here and thank you so much for your care and wonderful words Anne. Hugs.

Thank you so much for your response lattifa. Everything you say here relates to me. I have a lot of people around me saying "why arent you eating" or "Whats wrong" and everytime i hear that it stabs a knife in my chest. I had someone at work comment on my weight loss and it almost broke me i know i have to eat but the thought of food sometimes gives me anxiety because i know i need to eat to live but i am not hungry and it makes me nauseous thinking of force feeding myself, its even lead me to think mayeb i have an eating disorder but then again i realize no this is my anxiety tricking me, i love food, always have and think of myself as being too skinny now and would rather be fat and happy then skinny and miserable. I am able to push myself through work but only because I am acting ok but in the inside it is tearing me up. When I am not at work I am in bed trying to keep myself together. Is there ever going to be a day where I will wake up and actually be ok? not just acting like it till i get home so i can break down crying?  

Thank you so much for your response and your journey is wonderful and i am so thankful you are doing better and actually decreasing dosage. I pray every night for better days and for all of you. Hugs.

Taylor, I can't say for you to stay on indefinitely - each person is different and some has it more severe than others - but I read somewhere that if you have several attacks at several diff periods in your life, then you should stay on it indefinitely...maybe at a maintenance dose. You see, after my last attack, I knew I would never get off of it, but 25mg a day is definitely NOT my maintenance dose - I learned it this time during this attack. Now my goal is to get to where 50mg is my maintenance dose, but that seems ways off, and I'd be too scared this time to lower. Right now I am on 150mg a day, and it is my highest dose ever. I scheduled an appt with psychiatrist today for Feb 27 - this is the earliest he could see me. He will only give me med. I called and left voicemail for appt with therapist.

I am really stupid - I may know my triggers in theory, but in practice I am not so good. And each time the onset is similar yet different. I keep forgetting that I have this condition once I get well after awhile. 

I still remember my first official attack at the university. It was during my second year and I had to drop the semester and I think I took another one off. So I feel what you are going thru. My heart goes out to you. I had it so awfully bad I nearly collapsed and blacked out cuz I thought so much and was so anxious. I cried buckets and I remember being on a bed with my boyfriend at the time and wanting to swallow all these pills, but my understanding boyfriend said he'd do it with me. So I couldn't do that to him. In this attack that started in Nov, I freaked out my husband when I told him I am too tired to fight this and I just pray to God to take me home peacefully in my sleep. My husband said I scared him and drained him.  So I hear ya - this illness is exhausting on your loved ones, too. Worst, while I was going thru one of my worst attacks ever this Nov and Dec I had to go on a vacation overseas with my husband's family and a few of their friends. Really, I didn't think I could even go, but it was planned earlier this year by my brother in law and mostly paid for (flight tix, hotels, tours, etc) and if I didn't go, it would ruin my husband's trip. This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, but it was sad that during the trip, all I wanted was to survive the trip and not kill myself and ruin the trip for my husband and his family and friends. Seriously, there were moments on this trip when I was certain I would die in a foreign land (we flew to Tokyo, then took bullet train to Kyoto for 2 nites, then to Nara for 1 nite, then back Tokyo for 3 nites, then flew to Vietnam for 5 nites, then flew to the Philippines, Palawan for 3 nights and then back to Manila for 3 nights - it was so stressful, it was like boot camp vacation, flight delays, always on the go, tours almost every day, and we stayed at 7 diff hotels in about 17 or so days. Now I learned something else. I told myself to not lower med or get stressed around/before any trip.). I even had images of hanging myself in hotel rooms, but miracle of miracles, I made it home, back to the States, and slowly got better. Now I just have to get back to myself. Slowly but surely. 

This is is the first time that my husband is going thru this attack with me. We got married about 1 1/2 year ago, so in a way, I guess going thru this will strengthen our relationship - if we can make it thru this, we can make it thru anything! 

It's hard for family and friends to understand our illness, but we can still try to communicate how it affects us. Hang in there, stay strong. You. Me. And all afflicted with this. I often get angry at God, why me???, but that's a story for another day. 

Thank you so much for your reply, it must have been hard to write this out. I am so glad you found out what works and what does not work for you. I am hoping I can write this right now and vent to you as I just had a very tearful night you can read it or not i just had to type it out. I got my car fixed with my father today and went and got lunch then made plans to go to my grandparents house tonight to watch a movie and I had anxiety built up in me the entire day on the verge of tears then when my boyfriend came over to see me i broke down crying because all i can do once i am home is sit around and think about my anxiety and if i am ever gonna get better. I then went to my father and told him i could not go with him to my grandparents house and he got mad at me (he doesnt really understand what i am going through) which threw me even more into a hole, i ran outside crying and stayed outside on this freezing weather while my boyfriend held me while i was bawling my eyes out. My boyfriend is also on antidepressants for depression so he understands what i am going through to an extent. He says i have to wait for the medicine to "do what it is meant to do" i dont know what he means by that as this is the first time ive ever been on antidepressants. How will i feel once they fully kick in on my theraputic dose? Will i feel like myself? will i ever stop crying? Will there be a day where i dont have to struggle to hold my anxiety in physically and mentally the ENTIRE day just to eventually break down but actually wake up and be calm and happy and act like a normal rational person?!?! I am sorry just venting as my night has been very stressful and sad. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

Hi Taylor , you sound just how I was right at the beginning as well and believe me my husband didn't understand eather thaught it was all and still in my head , not there faults because if they never suffered From anziety or depression they can't understand what we all go through 😪So I found talking on here really healped 🙂But what you said about going up more with you tablets probably will help in time but do talk with your doctor in the new year and I know you will get back to your old self soon 😄🌞🌞

Thank you Anne. Can you give me some advice on what you did till the tablets worked? I feel like I try so hard to distract myself and sometimes it works really well but sometimes I just can't stop thinking about how I am feeling and if I'll ever be ok. Most days I just lay around trying to calm down and distract

Myself and at work I try hard to distract myself or I'm on my phone a lot.

Hiya Taylor,  when I was home on my own I would watch happy films and reading , and I got myself a CD on breathing exercises and would put my earphones on and it always carmed me down too the point I would fall asleep 😊 So maybe investing in something like that would help you . Hugs x

hi there I'm on serteralinine my 4 week now bt my pharmacy changed my brand did you had any problems ever after changing brands of serteraline or you always took the same. thank you for any help

same here, did you have any problems, I did put a question about this in the forum, 1 reply so far