Sertraline ups and downs- It starts and stops working- do I push through ?

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Firstly, I never thought I would posting or reading online reviews but I find it really comforting to hear of similar experiences- especially positive and encouraging experiences. Thank you, for your kind an encouraging messages.

My first experience with Seratraline was effective. I recall, it took so long to work and certainly it made things worse before they improved. I had anxiety+ depression. It eventually worked and to be honest, I forget all the bad days and lived my life- After 1 year or so, I slowly stopped taking it...went on with life and had zero issues- I got married, had a daughter and even great success in my career. So, I know it works, I know you can come off it...and I know it gave me my life back.

Fast forward about 7 years- Several major life issues happened all at once (including covid), a new baby, moving countries (deciding that it was not a good move) I started to feel the horrid sensations again- sleep disturbances (I slept so easily for so many years)- I "freaked" out and basically bought the entire holland and barrett sleep section- I guzzeled rescue remedy, I ran, I dowloaded every app possible about sleep- eventually I went to a GP and they suggested that I should take Zoloft again. After going back and forth I decided to be "brave" and started the process of taking Zoloft- it is a process.

It has not been so smooth this time- after the initial first few weeks, I started to feel great, I was then hit with a blip- I increased to 75mg and was fine for a few weeks then once again, a blip. I am now on 125mg and have had some good days and some really bad and scary days. It has been about 12 weeks (in total) and about 4 weeks on 125mg. It seems that I am not having the best luck this time and I am very frustrated as I doing everything to help with my anxiety- meditation etc.

What I believe is that it takes a long time to work and I feel that some people have a quicker reaction time and some slower. My biggest question is: If it starts to work for a short while, then stop- Is this a good thing? I am just sharing with you my situation as some of you might be on the same page.

I really cannot wait for the day that I can write my success story. In fact when I was feeling great a few weeks ago I nearly wrote one... Ups and downs are so hard as you feel frustrated, and of course scared that this medicine will not work, or I have to start over or switch etc.

I would love some advice on the ups and downs and when enough is enough and It is time to try something new. I like all of you, want to focus on other things. I have a family, a career and so many other things to think about other then this issue... but like I told my wife.... Imagine a tooth ache- you can ignore it, but it is still always present... I want my anxiety tooth ache to go...

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  • Posted

    If you are on FB join the zoloft bruno truth group and read the pinned stories, i believe you are upping your dose too quickly, you need to give each dose 12-16 weeks to settle and each time you increase you start the side effects all over again! stay at one dose for a while and let it all settle back down, you will get there! good luck

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