Sertraline positive/success story

Hi!

First time poster here. Just wanted to share my positive/success sertraline story as I too have been on this and other sites looking for some guidance.

I’m a 36 years old male, 189cm tall, weighing about 205 pounds. No somatic ailments.

I’ve been on and off on Sertraline for about 15 years. First time I started taking it regularly was about 6 years ago when I had some kind of a breakdown caused by too much stress, although I’ve always been a ”worrier”.

That first time, I went from 25mg (which I hade been taking for some years) to 50mg. I took it primarily for panic attacks, Generalized anxiety and some intrusive thoughts. The effect and side effects were almost the same the second time around….

This second time around the story repeated. I started worrying about mundande stuff, couple that with not enough sleep and raising two small children and one day it just said ”bam”, and just like the first time, I started having extreme worry/anxiety, panic attacks and just a complete sense of being out of it. This time some feelings of depression hit me too. So me and my GP decided to increase the dose to 100 mg.

First 1-2 weeks or so I just had some very vivid dreams and nausea and maybe some increased nervousness. No biggie……then the nightmare started – ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC side effects, just like the first time I upped the dose 6 years ago. To say it was anxiety is to express it mildly. It was anxiety squared, complete and utter dread with somatic symtoms on top of everything, every second, every minute of the day, and during the nights. Non stop. Everything I did and thought of induced anxiety. I could not distract myself from it. By far the worst I have ever felt in my whole life. That lasted for 10 days (at that time I hade taken 100 mg for about 4 weeks).

Some 30 days in I experienced a dramatic change, that was the evening after the day when my anxiety was the most unmanagable. I remember it clearly. I went home earlier from work, fell asleep on the couch and woke up almost completely anxiety free. It was the strangest, and most lovely, feeling! Then I had a dip two days later, but that passed in a couple of hours. Then that whole week I was almost completely anxiety-free. That weekend I suffered from a minor panic attack, but that passed after 15 minutes.

The last two weeks ( 8,5 weeks in total on 100Mg) i have had blips on weekends, because work now helps me distract myself and the weekends just kind of pass by. The blips/downs are definitely scary and last for a couple of days. It really sucks, but the anxiety is kind of managable . This means that the drug is still settling in my body so I just try to stay positive. The panic attacks are completely gone, as is the worry about mundane things like work and the future.

My doctor also described Mirtazapine (Remeron) 15 mg which I have been taking every night for the last 2-3 weeks. It has been an absolut life saver as a sleeping aid. It also sometimes augments the Sertraline according to the doc. So this combo really works for me!

Right now I´m about 60-70% recovered, if I would make some kind of approximation taking in account every hour I am awake. Still some anxiety, some days of the week, and easily fatigued in social situations and depression some hours of the day. Not quite there regarding anhedonia either. But a more positive outlook overall.

My thoughts about Sertraline and this journey generally:

It does not make my anxiety go away completely, neither is that something that is desireable for me. It makes it more managable, kind of creates a secure ground for me to stand on in the face of adversitiy.

It takes AGES to balance out in your system, and I will have ups and downs for months and months to come. Some will take hours some will take days. But they will pass more quickly. They will absolutely suck but I’m staying positive. Last time I upped the dose (25-50) it took me about a year to feel balanced!

The intrusive thoughts are still there and induce anxiety but they pass more quickly. I think that these thoughts will take a long time before becoming completely managable

The episodes of depressed mood come more often than the anxiety now, but are shorter in duration and more managable than before.

During the upping-phase I took Valium as prescribed by my doctor.

I try to remember: No person is the same or has the same amount of symtoms or the same diagnosis or the same brain etc etc. so sertraline will have a different kind of effect and take different amount of time to work. I have a friend who took prozac for 5 months before it had ANY effect att all on his anxiety. Talk about a slow responder! He also suffered from very weird side effects like nose bleeding.

Getting sound sleep was IMPERATIVE for me and still is; that helped me with appetite loss, and general mood during the day.

Because alcohol and caffeine influences the quality of sleep I cut alcohol completely and only drank coffee in the morning.

Taking long walks, talking to friends and family about my situation, talking to my employer, helped me a a lot and I was always met with understanding.

Did I mention the importance of sleep and physical acitivty??

I was off from work 3-4 days. Instead of taking a sick leave I made a deal with my employer that I could work a bit more flexibly. Staying at home and not doing anything is for me personally not good for my mental health.

Side effects:

Now that the worst side effects have passed I have more managable ones -

Really dry mouth, mostly at night. Some nights it’s an actual desert in my mouth.

Sensitive to hunger, and harder to feel full after eating.

My libido hasn’t decreased but sex is about 40%-50% less enjoyable. It doesn’t bother me or my spouse.

Tiredness and brain fog some hours of the day

Vivid dreams. Luckliy no nightmares like when I started 100mg.

Just fieeling a bit ”meh” some days but that’s OK. I imagine this is how most people without anxiety feel.

Getting very tired after drinking only one beer.

More irritable and some problems concentrating sometimes.

Harder to fall asleep.

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