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Sertraline Please Help!!!!

Posted , 4 users are following.

jacqui1978
jacqui1978

Hi

Can someone please tell me what I should do?!?  I have been on Sertraline for over 3 months now and I'm still a nervous wreck!  I am loads better than I was but should I still be feeling so shaky and uptight with stomach churning?  I started on 50mg and after a couple of weeks was "upped" to 100mg then 150mg!  However the shaking was so bad that the doctor advised me to reduce back down to 100mg 3 weeks ago!  However I've noticed that the shaking is even worse than before I started to reduce!  After reducing to 100mg the shaking and uptight feeling went away from day 2 but has come back in the past week again.  If this is just withdrawal symptoms and it will pass then I can bear with it, but I'm starting to wonder if this drug just isnt working for me and making everything worse!  The stomach churning has been here all day and this is the second day I've had it.  I was put on this medication after my mum passed away and although I've had some good days, they are far outweighed by the bad now!  Should I go back up to 150mg and the shaking will eventually pass or should i stick with the 100mg and the shaking and stomach churning will pass?  I just want the shakiness to go away now!  Please can someone let me know if they had the same.  I've read through loads of posts now and I dont see anyone mentioning the shaking and stomach churning :-( Feeling very anxious now :-( :-( :-(

Thank you xxx

0 likes, 13 replies

13 Replies

  • kathy_06966
    kathy_06966 jacqui1978

    Posted

    Hi Jacqui   firstly really sorry for your sad news   I lost my mom when I was young an it totally wiped me out   You have just gone thru something really awful so its no wonder you are shaky and feeling very anxious    I have been on Sert for 11 weeks and have been up and down the dosage  I am currently on 75mg (will eventually have to go on 100mg but taking it really slow as initially had bad bout of diarrhea) I do get 'shaky' days and days when I feel they are not working with churning stomach and negative thoughts   but I put this down to me being anxious for so long its gonna take a long time for me to feel better. Today I feel good   yesterday I felt crap  but I can now distinquinsh what good and bad days feel like  before I felt anxious all the time and was feeling like this is the way Im supposed to feel.  Basically what Im trying to say is try to give it a bit more time  some of your size effects could be because your dosage is going up or down   Shaking and churning stomach is what a lot of people do feel taking this drug   Go baack and see your GP   you may need CBT or even counselling to help deal with your grief    either way I wish you lots of luck and hope  you get thru this bad episode
    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 kathy_06966

      Posted

      Thank you Kathy, yes the doctor did prescribe me Diazipam for the first 2 months and I've been taking none of these for the past 5 weeks or so and I dont know whether it's because I'm technically still "weaning" off of these too.  I just don't know whether I should be "upping" or "keeping down" as it seems I'm shaking either way.  Although now I'm at the reduced doze the stomach churning is back, which was gone for over a month :-(  thank you so much for replying and let me know if you start to feel any better.  I guess you are right that you do have your good and bad days, I just think I'm having more bad than good now, although losing my mum, I dont expect to be partying and happy as larry, but I just didnt expect to be this uptight and anxious after 3 months :-( xx
    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 kathy_06966

      Posted

      Sorry Kathy I was rushing there (I think it's cause I'm so anxious)!  I'm so sorry to hear about your mum also.......it's definately not a nice thing to go through when younger :-(  I'm also glad you are having a good day and I was the same as you with the diarrhea but this definately passed, although took a couple of months.  To be honest, I wasnt bothered as I was quite "happy" to be losing some weight.  But this definately did pass, although I'm sure every time I "upped" the medication it started a little again but then passed.  I hope also when you go back to 100mg it helps you more!  It's the shaking like a leaf, trembling and nervousness that is making me feel so bad now!  Oh and I'm still having terrible night sweats, but I'm not bothered about that either.  Lets hope we can report back to this forum in another 12 weeks and be feeling a lot better, the both of us xx
    • kathy_06966
      kathy_06966 jacqui1978

      Posted

      I am with you all the way on that one    Do you work  coz trying to keep down a job when you are feeling like this can also cause a lot of anxiety  I have found on my bad days especially when I'm feeling anxious  deep breathing really helps  and on the occassions when I have been shaky (usually when I get up in the morning) I have  grip something  like a ball or arm of chair  anything to try and distract myself    As with going up or down meds  I think whatever you decide to do  do it slowly   its taken me 8 week to get to 75mg    keep posting   it does help to know that there is someone 'out there' who is listening and who understands
    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 kathy_06966

      Posted

      hi yes I work and yes I'm struggling to force myself out of the door in the mornings and i think that's why when i waken up the shaking is so bad, knowing i need to go out of the house :-(

      yes thank you very much, keep posting also. If these shakes ever go away I will feel a lot better i know........ xx

  • jen48611
    jen48611 jacqui1978

    Posted

    Hi Jacqui

    My condolences on the loss of your mum. I think the physical symptoms you're experiencing are down to extreme anxiety and not necessarily a side effect of sertraline. When I lost my dad my anxiety levels were so high my whole body twitched all over. I didn't sleep for 4 days, that made it worse and it was the start of a breakdown. Please believe me when I say I know what you are going through. The grieving process takes a LONG time. At 3 months you have only just started, please don't be so harsh with yourself as to think you should begin to be "on the mend" already. While the sertraline will be a good crutch to help you through a very difficult time (it helped me), I honestly think you'll benefit from some bereavement therapy. If the sertraline isn't working it may be because what you may really need to do is grieve... Grieve massively. I hope I've been to harsh here, but what you describe sounds so familiar to my own experience and in the end it was the therapy that helped hugely, with the medication just keeping me functional while I was going through the process. All the best. 

    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 jen48611

      Posted

      Aww thank you Jen, yes my doctor mentioned about bereavement therapy but a part of me thinks if i talk about it then it just makes it worse.  I try and blank it out as any time if i were to sit and dwell on it, makes me so sad and probably even more anxious.  Can I ask you how long you were before the shaking stopped also?  I'm really sorry to hear about your dad, I honestly know how bad the grief is sad  I really appreciate you posting and sharing as like yousay, it is good to know other people have experienced the same thing.  I dont feel massively depressed or suicidal (which i VERY much so had at the start of taking these tablets) but just shaking and stomach churning for 3 months is becoming exhausting...........like waking up every morning knowing its going to be evening time before I feel "ok" :-( thanks again Jen xxxx
    • jen48611
      jen48611 jacqui1978

      Posted

      Hi again. Jacqui, I could have written the exact same thing myself several years ago. Being with your intense sadness is perhaps the most difficult thing you'll ever do. Pushing the sadness away, numbing out the pain will only make you ill, as you're experiencing. Feeling sadness won't make you anxious; to experience it, to wail and shout and cry and scream will actually be quite therapeutic. The anxiety comes when you don't do it, when you shut down to it. Bizarrely,  feeling anxious is better that feeling nothing at all - that's why it happens. My twitching temporarily stopped once I had the big meltdown, now and then it comes back (along with the tummy churning whenever I'm feeling crappy emotionally and it's kind of a reminder that I need to listen to myself and that I've numbed out to whatever crappy stuff is going on. Please consider therapy (if you can afford it do it privately as NHS waiting times are long), it will be hard and a lot of sadness will come out but trust me that you'll feel so much better, not worse, in the end. I think modern life with work etc puts so much pressure on us to bounce back quickly after these things. My therapist once said to me that the grieving process takes a minimum of two years. Two years!! To think I was back at work and "ok" four days after my dad died. 
    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 jen48611

      Posted

      Yeah I know what you mean, i was in at work 3 days later too, although was off for a fortnight after that!  Oh god, the thought of this lasting another year or so is possibly the worst thought EVER!  Yeah, maybe I should come down more from these tablets as it can't be right.....I'm having to hide myself from people, like when i need to do something that will emphasise my shaking.  My mother in law asked to see my nail polish a few nights ago and I think she was surprised at how bad my shaking was.......and even at work when i need to hand something to someone, i'm conscious that they can see how badly I'm shaking :-(  My poor mum was the same, although 100 times worse and by herself! :-( I just don't know what to do about these tablets, whether to "up" or "stay" as i am :-( and thank you so much for sharing, i really do appreciate it xxx
  • cherry123
    cherry123 jacqui1978

    Posted

     Hi Jacqui..So sorry to hear about your mum.I know that shaking and stomach churning only too well..I suffered with it for years. Eventually gp put me on Inderal (propranalol) which really helps with the shaking..I've been taking it for years & it really does work. It's also ok to take it with Sertraline. I was put on 50mg about 15 months ago but still had really bad anxiety/stomach churning so it was upped to 75 which really helped. I decided 6 weeks ago to try to cut down to 50 (because of  terribly bad sweating) but then my mum died too so I decided not good time to be cutting down on Sertraline. About 10 days ago I decided to start on just taking 50mg because I just  can't cope with the constant sweating but I don't know how I will get on especially so soon after my mum's death. I found round time of funeral I was so much calmer than I would have been before I started the Sertraline but I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing and if all the grief will come out now that I'm  reducing the dose. Going to gp in next couple of weeks so will discuss it with her. Was told few years ago I have 'generalised anxiety'..maybe u are the same? Always tend to worry/overthink stuff (even about small things that don't matter). Anyway take care and keep posting!
    • jacqui1978
      jacqui1978 cherry123

      Posted

      Hi

      Thank you so much for this, I'm maybe debating increasing back up to the 150mg as I think the same as you, and with the passing of a parent, maybe isnt the best time to be playing about with dozes of meds!  I'm so sorry about your mum!  I honestly know this is possibly the most devestating thing in the world to experience!  I'm going to maybe try and see if i can stick to one doze for about 6 weeks as I read somewhere that it can sometimes take this long to actually take effect properly, so I will update this if I feel any better in 6 weeks!  Fingers crossed for me and you too!!!  I will also maybe ask about general anxiety disorder at that point if I'm still so bad!  Take care and thanks again for posting!  Stay strong!!!! xxx

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