Sertraline - my 8 week story

hi samantha there seems to be a running theme where a lot of us get worse at weeks 3-5 and then come out of the other side by weeks 8-12 it feels forever away when youre going through it thats for sure, i was on fluoxetine previously for 6 years now that doesnt work but sertraline is meant to be great for conquering anxiety, i at the moment feel like i want to stay in bed all day! how are you filling your days?

Zoloft will work for you! Just give it time. It is so hard yo be patient, but just be gentle with yourself and know you're almost through the clouds again. It is a great sign you had that good day! Try to go for walks and watch uplifting movies or listen to calm and happy music. No caffeine!

I had to wait eight weeks in between each dose increase from 125 all the way to 200. I have been dealing with anxiety since I was 22, and now I’m 38 and my Zoloft had completely stopped working. I told my doctor repeatedly during the dose increases that I did not think it was working and she encouraged me to stick with it. Finally, I am now trying Lexapro. Amazingly enough, I have felt better in these last three weeks it’s going down on Zoloft than I have since September. Amazingly enough, I have felt better in these last three weeks going down on Zoloft then I have felt since September. I almost hesitate to try the Lexapro because I have felt so good getting the Zoloft out of my system. Zoloft worked for me for almost 16 years and it was wonderful while it did.

sorry-was doing dictation while driving and it repeated itself! i will add i took my first 5 mg Lex along with 50 mg Zoloft last night and didn't sleep well. this morning i have a runny nose and a stomach and headache. i guess the feeling good is over for now while my body adjusts to new meds.

Hi Chelsea,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I lost my job due to my latest relapse; I returned to work back in 2004 and gradually worked my way up to a Manager of 15 people before I lost my job in January due to my latest relapse.

Being at home is really hard, but there's no way I could work atm. My Mother, who is retired, lives about 9 miles away, so I fairly frequently spend time with her. Other than that I run...slowly! I can do 3 miles at a steady jog so I try to do that when possible. Other than that I just do housework....I wont pretend I'm always very productive and must admit to spending more time than is healthy reading up on anxiety forums.

My biggest fear is that I wont get well. When I 1st developed anxiety out of nowhere at the age of 25, I spent 10 long years trying a multitude of SNRI'S without success. I'm now terrified that I am going to go back to being a non-responder, given that 2 SSRI'S have pooped out on me.

How about you Chelsea, what's your story? x

Btw, I'm from the UK

Thank you for your words of encouragement; it really helps to know that Zoloft can take a good while to kick in.

Wow! 16 years.....thats a great run on 1 medication. Did it get rid of innappropriate anxiety entirely? When you started improving was it for random days and then back to bad anxiety for a whie? I'm just a bit concerned that my Psychiatrist said it would act like a dimmer switch that would gradually reduce the anxiety, but I'm not experiencing that. My anxiety is still really bax and has been since my 'good' day on Tuesday

Its never easy switching meds but hang in there. Lexapro worked brilliantly for me, so hopefully it will for you too!

i had little to no anxiety for YEARS ON zoloft. i had a really traumatic event happen in aug 2017 and i did extremely well the entire year after. too well. i was basically running on adrenaline and worrying while taking care of my three children and husband. i put myself last. in sept 2018 i think my body and mind had all they could take and i just settled into a deep anxiety. i could feel it coming on over the summer, but just couldn't do enough to stop the cup from running over. my anxiety is very much situational, but not in the sense that i get triggered by the grocery store or a car ride. it's more like when i feel uncertain about my lifestyle security, etc. my husband is in the financial industry, so it's very much feast or famine at our house. we had some rough years after 2008 and it's been hard to get back on our feet since then. things are great now, but after the anxiety sets in, it doesn't go away overnight, as you well know.

i found one of the worst things for my anxiety was forums. i only reply to this one when i have an email pop up. i see a therapist once every week or every couple weeks.

i have literally felt so much better in the last three weeks, reducing my medication. i just wonder if i was on too much.

distraction has been amazing for me. i'm also a believer in God, so i've been praying a lot and trying to surround myself with "good" things, like Bible study, volunteering with our local food pantry, etc. anything to get myself out of my head. have you tried tapping? it looks ridiculous, but is helpful. look it up if you aren't already familiar with it!

sorry for the lower case...my phone is stuck on either all caps or lower case, so it's too much effort to capitalize when unnecessary!

hi samantha i am also from the uk, i had post natal depression after the birth of my first child at 18 i took fluoxetine for 6 years they saved me, at the age of 24 i fell pregnant with my second child and stopped cold turkey with the fluoxetine, felt fine the whole way through the pregnancy then 6 weeks post partum i thought i was going crazy huge panic, adrenaline rush through my body, mind racing, intrusive thoughts etc so they put me back onto fluoxetine lasted 4 weeks on that it made me worse so they changed me to sertraline 50mg for 2 weeks then the last 2.5 weeks 100mg, feel so much worse than before i started them however i dont want to be quick to throw the towel in as others have said it made them worse first and didnt see benefits until week 8-12 so i think im going to try and push through to then and see how i get on, diazepam is helping at the worst points, going for runs is also helping too i feel like it burns the anxiety off, some days i just dont even want to get out of bed let alone leave the house! i do also like you spend so much time trying to reassure myself on these forums whatever helps us get through hour by hour ey! please keep me updated on your journey 😃

Good for you, it sounds to me like you are trying to the right things even if you dont feel like it!

I am also struggling; for me, the physical feelings of anxiety have always been really bad, and they have then caused me to have really bad derealisation and obsessional existential type thoughts, however since going onto Sertraline the derealisation and thoughts have stopped. I just feel soooo physically anxious, with a massive knot of fear in my stomach, shaking, lump in throat etc.

I so desperately want to feel relaxed again and able to chill out. The hardest thing is that when I dont have anxiety I am a really confident, outgoing person but with it I am a quivering wreck!

We will spur each other on, as we have been on it for the same amount of time. Like you say, plenty of posts on this forum indicate that it can take a while to take effect, so we are at a relatively early stage.

On a positive note, I do think my anxiety reduced a little bit yesterday afternoon; it certainly wasn't a big change but it did come down a bit from the very high level it was at in the morning. We have to hold on to the positives, however small at this stage!

I am now going outside to weed my front garden.....passers by will have no idea I am doing it wracked with anxiety!

Keep the faith! xxx

we will definately spurr eachother on!! we sound very similar im a regional manager for a cosmetics company so i have to be outgoing etc but with anxiety i cant even leave the house! what gets me is how can we go from being so confident and happy to the flick of a switch total opposite! thats great news that you had a better afternoon yesterday and i agree with holding onto the positives its litetally all we have lets just say we are at the very least 1/3 of the way there if not more fingers crossed! currently planning my week in a diary so i cant let the anxiety consume me! well done you for getting out passers by dont need to know! hehe we can do it xx

hi patrick! thank you very much for the advise itl be 5 weeks on tuesday since i started sertraline 50mg then 3 weeks on thursday since i upped to 100mg would you say its a tough ride us upping so quickly and early on and thats perhaps why we are experiencing hurrendous side effects? ive heard weeks 4-6 are the worst then things start to improve, im actually reading the positive ones and screen shotting them so when im in a huge state of panic i will read them to try and reassure myself! please keep me posted 😃 also why when we crash back down do we feel like everyday is worse than the last? thank you

hi chelsea

yes i would say that is why it is so tough yes, however i think your doctor has it right,,100mg is a good dose.dont bank on feeling better after 6 weeks it could be longer,,,first time for me took double that,then again it may not so just try not to have any expectations on time as much as its possible to do , which i know is easier said than done

As for the crashes feeling worse in my experience its just par fir the course,,becouse you start having windiws of light you panic more and its just feels worse cis youve had a better day and it is so disapointing and when your in it .it seems impossible and frustrating to see that you have improved

im exactly at the same stage as you meds wise and yes its stiil tough but on a day when things are more managable i can see there has been a big difference from 5 weeks ago regardless of the horendous crashes

if sometimes i dont get back to you straight away its becouse ill be having a bad day and i dont wish to put anything negative on this site as i dont think that is helpful for anyone needing reassurance

keep trucking x