Sertraline - Wow!

[Joscal]

CloudStuff said:

I've stopped completely in the last week - a mixture of forgetting to take it at the usual time and not rushing to find them to take them later in the day. So you could say cold turkey. This is from 25, where the original dose was 150.

Feel ok. A bit 'zappy',but nothing too bad. Am going to see how it goes but cautiously optimistic.

Caveat - I think experiences on these meds are DEEPLY personal & individual. Just sharing my thoughts.

My overall verdict would be hugely positive. A band filter which took care of the many low frequencies without having many high frequencies to contend with.

I’m a month off them now and it really wasn’t as bad as I expected a few zaps, bit dizzy, funny taste, weird dreams (no where near as bad as when I started and no insomnia which was awful at the start) but perfectly manageable. I tapered slowly and it worked well for me.

They definitely helped me through a rough time.

Good luck all.

[Cybertronian]

Yesterday, I started my next batch of 50mg sertraline which also happens to be from a different manufacturer compared to the first batch.

Whereas I had no side effects yesterday, today I feel like they've regressed back to that first week again. I've got tingling in my fingers and I'm feeling slightly spaced out.

I've read this can be normal when switching from one manufacturer to another - has anybody else experienced this? Thankfully I've got 2x months on this new manufacturer.

[James_33]

I'm questioning from reading certain comments here whether i need to be placed on something like this as at 38 years of age I just simply have no desire whatsoever to motivate myself to do anything, it's as if i know i need to do something with myself but just feel my life has been mapped out for me now and that it hasn't gone the way i thought it would so just live day to day in a constant depression, not helped by the fact i suffer from anxiety and am constantly on alert fearing whether i am going to be attacked either verbally or physically for some unknown reason?

[croyde]

Cybertronian said:

Yesterday, I started my next batch of 50mg sertraline which also happens to be from a different manufacturer compared to the first batch.

Whereas I had no side effects yesterday, today I feel like they've regressed back to that first week again. I've got tingling in my fingers and I'm feeling slightly spaced out.

I've read this can be normal when switching from one manufacturer to another - has anybody else experienced this? Thankfully I've got 2x months on this new manufacturer.

I was running out before my next appointment so borrowed one off a friend. Same dose, different packet and I did feel odd that day.

I put it down to a bug or something but now you mention it

[youngsyr]

James_33 said:

I'm questioning from reading certain comments here whether i need to be placed on something like this as at 38 years of age I just simply have no desire whatsoever to motivate myself to do anything, it's as if i know i need to do something with myself but just feel my life has been mapped out for me now and that it hasn't gone the way i thought it would so just live day to day in a constant depression, not helped by the fact i suffer from anxiety and am constantly on alert fearing whether i am going to be attacked either verbally or physically for some unknown reason?

Well, I'd always be very wary of diagnosis over the internet, but hat certainly doesn't sound normal, especially that last part which sounds a lot like generalised anxiety disorder to my layman's ears.

Could you talk to your GP about it to see if they can recommend how to start feeling better as life can't be much fun dealing with all that?

[James_33]

youngsyr said:

James_33 said:

I'm questioning from reading certain comments here whether i need to be placed on something like this as at 38 years of age I just simply have no desire whatsoever to motivate myself to do anything, it's as if i know i need to do something with myself but just feel my life has been mapped out for me now and that it hasn't gone the way i thought it would so just live day to day in a constant depression, not helped by the fact i suffer from anxiety and am constantly on alert fearing whether i am going to be attacked either verbally or physically for some unknown reason?

Well, I'd always be very wary of diagnosis over the internet, but hat certainly doesn't sound normal, especially that last part which sounds a lot like generalised anxiety disorder to my layman's ears.

Could you talk to your GP about it to see if they can recommend how to start feeling better as life can't be much fun dealing with all that?

To be fair i am already diagnosed with depression and anxiety but the medication Fluxotine that they prescribed me never did a thing and i never went back to the doctors to get something else as i just felt like a lost cause, but you are right, it is no fun at all, I would quite happily stay in bed, lay on the sofa, sleep all day if i could that's my level of motivation, I'm also a very deep thinker and always assuming the worst no matter what it is so whether or not this medication would work on me i don't know but even making a phone call to the doctors feels pointless as that's the level of "low" i am at.

[King David]

James_33 said:

To be fair i am already diagnosed with depression and anxiety but the medication Fluxotine that they prescribed me never did a thing and i never went back to the doctors to get something else as i just felt like a lost cause, but you are right, it is no fun at all, I would quite happily stay in bed, lay on the sofa, sleep all day if i could that's my level of motivation, I'm also a very deep thinker and always assuming the worst no matter what it is so whether or not this medication would work on me i don't know but even making a phone call to the doctors feels pointless as that's the level of "low" i am at.

I was lucky that the first medicine I was prescribed (Citalopram) worked wonders.

But I know a few people who trialled a few different drugs before finding the right fit. It sounds like it’s worth a call to doctors to try something else.

I can only speak from personal experience, but I found it transformative. I started to enjoy life again in a way I hadn’t quite realised I’d lost.

Good luck!

[youngsyr]

James_33 said:

youngsyr said:

James_33 said:

I'm questioning from reading certain comments here whether i need to be placed on something like this as at 38 years of age I just simply have no desire whatsoever to motivate myself to do anything, it's as if i know i need to do something with myself but just feel my life has been mapped out for me now and that it hasn't gone the way i thought it would so just live day to day in a constant depression, not helped by the fact i suffer from anxiety and am constantly on alert fearing whether i am going to be attacked either verbally or physically for some unknown reason?

Well, I'd always be very wary of diagnosis over the internet, but hat certainly doesn't sound normal, especially that last part which sounds a lot like generalised anxiety disorder to my layman's ears.

Could you talk to your GP about it to see if they can recommend how to start feeling better as life can't be much fun dealing with all that?

To be fair i am already diagnosed with depression and anxiety but the medication Fluxotine that they prescribed me never did a thing and i never went back to the doctors to get something else as i just felt like a lost cause, but you are right, it is no fun at all, I would quite happily stay in bed, lay on the sofa, sleep all day if i could that's my level of motivation, I'm also a very deep thinker and always assuming the worst no matter what it is so whether or not this medication would work on me i don't know but even making a phone call to the doctors feels pointless as that's the level of "low" i am at.

I think it's worth trying a different drug as for some people it really can make a huge difference, even if the first one doesn't.

I suspect that for very few people anti-depressants are a wonder fix all drug, but the key is to get to the level of motivation where you can at least get up and achieve just one or two small things in a day, then you get into a positive feedback loop where the small achievements spur you for the next day, you repeat and eventually you get to the point where you're leading a "normal" life.

Depression seems to me to be the opposite - you have a bad day, beat yourself up over it, the next day you feel even more down, have a worse day, beat yourself up over it, rinse and repeat to God knows where.

[Cybertronian]

croyde said:

I was running out before my next appointment so borrowed one off a friend. Same dose, different packet and I did feel odd that day.

I put it down to a bug or something but now you mention it

Something is definitely afoot from the supply switch. Tingling fingers, nausea and splitting headache are all back with a vengeance. A real shock to the system after 3 weeks of peace!

[PostHeads123]

Cybertronian said:

Something is definitely afoot from the supply switch. Tingling fingers, nausea and splitting headache are all back with a vengeance. A real shock to the system after 3 weeks of peace!

I started on 50mg yesterday only had 1 tab about 2pm yesterday same side effects nause and splitting headache, do they fade over time as at the moment I'm not sure I want to take another ?

[croyde]

PostHeads123 said:

I started on 50mg yesterday only had 1 tab about 2pm yesterday same side effects nause and splitting headache, do they fade over time as at the moment I'm not sure I want to take another ?

I'm just over 6 weeks in and feeling good. A stark contrast to the last few years culminating in me breaking down in a GPs office last month.

After the first tablet, I didn't want to take another.

Diarrhea, headaches, nausea, terrible shakes but I persevered (thanks to this thread) and by two weeks in most the horrible stuff had stopped.

Probably 3 weeks in when I realised that I was feeling brighter and not having dark thoughts.

Sleep is disturbed by waking 2 or 3 times a night due to night sweats after very vivid dreams, but I am not having a problem getting straight back to sleep.

I'm enjoying the dreams too, good thing as I've lost Netflix

ETA I take mine in the morning after breakfast, which in my case is only coffee and some scotch pancakes. I did this from day 2 and it did help with the nausea.

Edited by croyde on Wednesday 22 November 16:54

[Cybertronian]

PostHeads123 said:

I started on 50mg yesterday only had 1 tab about 2pm yesterday same side effects nause and splitting headache, do they fade over time as at the moment I'm not sure I want to take another ?

Keep persevering. The side effects subsided for me after a few days, helped tremendously by taking them with a decent breakfast, which I continue to do.

I also found when the side effects were becoming a bit too much, I would excuse myself and use the Mindfulness breathing app on my Apple Watch for a few minutes. That certainly helped during the initial days.

[AB]

2HFL said:

I lasted 12 days

Aye, it can do that to you!

[mcelliott]

PostHeads123 said:

Cybertronian said:

Something is definitely afoot from the supply switch. Tingling fingers, nausea and splitting headache are all back with a vengeance. A real shock to the system after 3 weeks of peace!

I started on 50mg yesterday only had 1 tab about 2pm yesterday same side effects nause and splitting headache, do they fade over time as at the moment I'm not sure I want to take another ?

I take mine just before bed, they make me a little tired so taking them around 10 or 11 works well

[Cybertronian]

After 3 days on the new, alternative 50mg supply, the side effects completely subsided and I'm now back to a nice calm, steady state.

Really wasn't expecting that a supposedly identical 50mg tablet, made to a defined specification, can seem to differ so dramatically from one supplier to the next.

Will anticipate feeling rough for a few days the next time I end up switching supplies.

[designforlife]

Great thread.

I started on Sertraline last week, after things in my personal life just came to a point that i felt medical intervention would help. Have suffered from generalised anxiety disorder for most of my adult life, but had always been able to cope, not anymore apparently.

First week on the 25mg wasn't too bad, crazy insomnia the first couple nights, dry mouth, smelly BO, and total loss of appetite (have lost about half a stone)...I'm 2 days into 50mg now and appetite has returned a bit, side effects haven't ramped up yet but I know they can appear at any point.

I take my tabs in the AM, feel fairly spaced out but calm through the day... getting to sleep ok around 11pm, but waking up between 4-5am every morning without fail and unable to get back to sleep.

Early days still, I think Sertraline will calm my anxiety and overthinking, but I'm hoping the spacey-ness and lethargy subside, as I'm pretty active and just don't have the energy currently to exercise beyond a walk.

Edited by designforlife on Thursday 25th January 12:33

[Caddyshack]

Cybertronian said:

After 3 days on the new, alternative 50mg supply, the side effects completely subsided and I'm now back to a nice calm, steady state.

Really wasn't expecting that a supposedly identical 50mg tablet, made to a defined specification, can seem to differ so dramatically from one supplier to the next.

Will anticipate feeling rough for a few days the next time I end up switching supplies.

Wow, I wonder if that was a rogue batch with an incorrect dose?

[Marquezs Stabilisers]

designforlife said:

Great thread.

I started on Sertraline last week, after things in my personal life just came to a point that i felt medical intervention would help. Have suffered from generalised anxiety disorder for most of my adult life, but had always been able to cope, not anymore apparently.

First week on the 25mg wasn't too bad, crazy insomnia the first couple nights, dry mouth, smelly BO, and total loss of appetite (have lost about half a stone)...I'm 2 days into 50mg now and appetite has returned a bit, side effects haven't ramped up yet but I know they can appear at any point.

I take my tabs in the AM, feel fairly spaced out but calm through the day... getting to sleep ok around 11pm, but waking up between 4-5am every morning without fail and unable to get back to sleep.

Early days still, I think Sertraline will calm my anxiety and overthinking, but I'm hoping the spacey-ness and lethargy subside, as I'm pretty active and just don't have the energy currently to exercise beyond a walk.

Edited by designforlife on Thursday 25th January 12:33

It does, I'm on a much higher dose than that after years of Citalopram, which I found wasn't helping in the end.

It does get better - I still go to have a poo reasonably regularly and I have to go a bit harder on washing under the arms and deodorant.

Also, the other thing is, what can you change in your life? I see a BCAP registered therapist which also gives me work to do and food for thought.

[Hodgie]

Glad I found this thread!

I am on day seven. I am a long time sufferer of anxiety and ocd which I have managed with regular therapy. Recently health anxiety has really ramped up to a point I couldn't cope with it, my doctor and therapist recommended I give it a try to try and calm me down enough to be able to let the practices I've learnt in therapy have a chance.

So far side effects have been mainly nausea, although now I think about it some night sweats and spaced out feeling. Looking forward to the nausea stopping, like others I take with breakfast which seems to help.

I am taking 50mg as a starting dose but then increasing to 100mg, not sure how I feel about increasing at the moment.

I think I may be starting to feel a little brighter, I wasn't expecting it to be a magic overnight pill but remain hopefully in the next week or two it will have effect, I've read a lot of positive stories of peoples experience following the initial side effects.

[designforlife]

Marquezs Stabilisers said:

It does, I'm on a much higher dose than that after years of Citalopram, which I found wasn't helping in the end.

It does get better - I still go to have a poo reasonably regularly and I have to go a bit harder on washing under the arms and deodorant.

Also, the other thing is, what can you change in your life? I see a BCAP registered therapist which also gives me work to do and food for thought.

A lot of the anxiety in my life at the moment is situational and will change, so i don't expect to be at this level of stress indefinitely. Short version is that i'm going through a divorce, have moved back into my mother's house which is going terribly, and I've also just broken up with a girl i was seeing for the past 6 months. Something of a triple whammy.

I've been talking my friends' ears off about it all, and am slowly processing through, but there really is just an element of time at play here and riding things out.

My hope is that the Sertraline makes that ride a bit smoother, then I can look at coming off it towards the end of this year when i'm fully divorced, got my own place again and getting on with the next chapter.

Edited by designforlife on Thursday 25th January 17:46