[Guest]

Hasn't anyone here been on Zoloft? My psychiatrist wants to put me on Sertralin (Zoloft) and will have my metabolism tested in the coming days/weeks. He told me it was the probably the best SSRI in my case because of the attention problem but he warned me against possible nausea and libido problems, at least in the beginning.

I have never been on anti-depressant class medecine before. Can you please tell me what your first experience of Zoloft or other SSRIs have been like? Is that something that you feel a lot? Can it drive you nuts?

And besides that, he wants me to follow an analytic therapy :?

 

[gimpy34]

It can drive you nuts if you go up on your dosage too much at first. I reccommend not going higher than 25 mg or so your first week or so.

I went up to 100 mg in about a week. When I jumped from 50 to 100mg, I was bouncing off walls and felt like The Incredible Hulk. I probably could have run 20 miles and not been tired.

 

[bat]

hi

i'm on zoloft. i found it hellish to get onto it but because my mental state was in a really bad way i felt that if i didn't see the initial side effects through there would have been no options left to me after ssris. i wasn't concerned about nausea or libido.

anyway the side effects started to subside after about 3 weeks and it took another few weeks before i started to feel any benefit. i am glad i stuck it out now however my advice would be(if you're not in an unbearable state at the minute) to try 5htp first. also omega 3, b vits, ginko biloba(may help with attention), valerian (for anxiety).

btw not everyone gets bad initial side effects with ssris(i was pretty unlucky).

 

[gimpy34]

pdr, did Zoloft make you feel really confused at first? I kind of did with me.

 

[dreamcatcher]

i'm on sertaline and started on 50mg dose......the initial side effects were quiet bad but they resolved themselves after about 72 hours.....when i was use to that level it was uped to 100mg which i've been on for the last 5 months.....2 days ago i cut back down to 50 to see how i go.....don't expect miracles from any ad they all take some time work but they can help

 

[bat]

yea confusion, panic, high anxiety, increased dp/dr...

 

[Phill]

I was on it. It was hell only for the reason that the doctor stsrted me on 50mg. I reccomend don't start on more than 25mg at first.
I eventually got past the nausea, confusion, anxiety, depression and the feeling that i was walking on a conveyer belt.
Mainly get past the initial side effects. Don't give up on it too early.

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for the comments. I'll see for myself if I can live on Sertraline. It's quite scary to mess that much with your brain chemistry, isn't it?

 

[gimpy34]

As all here can attest, just take it really slow. Personally, I would start and stay at 25 mg for two weeks before jumping up to 50 mg. And I would stay at 50 mg a month before going up any higher. As far as meds go, I have found that SSRIs take the longest to work. The initial panic, anxiety, and confusion can be bad at first.

 

[stickdude]

it did nothing for me, except cause terrible withdrawal that lasted a week or two (got zaps everytime i moved my eyes) and killed my libido (was hard as hell to ejaculate). i'm estimating the days here, but i started off with 25mg for a week, 50mg for two weeks, 100mg for two weeks, then 150mg. i took it for about two months with nothing helping.

 

[dreamcatcher]

just getting over the withdrawal the zaps where horrible but hoping won't be as bad when i cut down further

 

[bat]

ah stickdude :wink:

seriously though, i think your dose was increased really quickly

 

[bat]

dreamcatcher

what dose were you on?
what did you cut down to at first and for how long? how are you feeling now?

sorry about all the questions but i really want to know about tapering off sertraline...

 

[dreamcatcher]

pdr........

i started on 50s had hard time getting on them and after 2 months increased to 100s.......it came up to the time to review and after 6 months of the 100s ithought maybe i should taper off them so i've cut back down to 50s but the first few wees were bad with zaps so with advice i took a 50 one day and a 100 the next......now i'm just on 50s and quiet stable even though still dped but to be honest i feel better than i have in a long time so am hopeful that maybe one day i might feel like me again

 

[Guest]

Well, I started the treatment today. The shrink is being very cautious and put me on 25 mg every other day for a week before pushing up to 25 mg per day and keeping it that way for two months before reevaluating the dose. How long will it take to kick in? What side effects should I monitor? Haven't had nausea after starting, nor dry mouth. Anyways, I'm really scared. It's stupid to say but I've never been on SSRI before and it feels strange, like it's gonna control my mind. Well I've tried many other drugs before, recreational or otherwise and I suppose that's yet another one of them. But I can't get over the idea that that one is a particularly long-lasting one, one that takes weeks to reach peak plasma concentration, something that becomes part of your life and affects you profoundly. Am I being too dramatic? I just find it scary...

 

[Sojourner]

Don't be scared. All you should feel is relief from your symptoms.

I have been on Zoloft successfully for 12 years, and at the moment I am having my dose adjusted. I started slowly, achieved a therapeutic dose, and then went back downward to where I have been taking 25 mg. for about five years.

Zoloft did the trick for my depression and changed my life. I went back to graduate school, got my masters, and now work in a field that is really fulfilling.

I hope your experience is like mine, UncleSeb.

 

[Guest]

Well, at this point it's difficult to tell what's causing what in all the mess I'm going through, as I'm still in the early stages of my sertraline (Zoloft in America/Serlain over here) treatment. I'm taking 25 mg daily at the moment and I'm also taking alprazolam (Xanax) "on demand", though not that much, and lorazepam (Ativan) occasionally when I just need to be knocked out. That's the way it works for me: alprazolam works discreetly and effectively while lorazepam sedates me and leaves me staring in the void.

Also, I quit smoking for good once again four days ago and the cravings have been really really bad at times. And just a few weeks ago, I was smoking weed every night after work. Every time I took a break after prolonged weed abuse, I never felt the backlash for more than a week or so but I know it can take a few more weeks for the body to fully detox.

Anyways, I probably shouldn't be monitoring myself too much but all these ups and dows are also badly affecting my relationship and I'm trying to understand what's going on. I seem to be sleeping better and longer and for the first time in ages I remember my dreams when I wake up, which clearly points to the fact something is going on with REM sleep. Also, fatigue when it hits me, feels different, it's not overwhelming as it used to be. I've resumed running, as it clearly helps me to cope with stress and stay smokeless but exercise does not tire me anymore and I am restless again just hours after training intensively.

Clearly, I'm feeling something about two hours after taking my pill but I'm not too sure what. I'd say that my spirits are up a bit, although that turns to restlessness at times, and that my mind is a bit clearer but it does not seem to be helping the DP or the DR as such, so far.

Thanks a lot for the comments and encouragements. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Cheers

 

[Sojourner]

How long have you been taking 25 mg, UncleSeb?

Your doctor should ask you how you feel after 2-3 weeks, and if you're not feeling symptom-free, he or she should be increasing your dosage and checking you every 2-3 weeks to assess how you are.

Old Lady
who thinks maybe she ought to have chosen a different name

 

[Guest]

How long have you been taking 25 mg, UncleSeb?

Slightly more than a week, Old Lady (or whatever you prefer to be called, and btw, you can change that in your profile I started off on 25 mg every other day for a week. The psychiatriast is being very cautious, which is rather a good sign, I think.

Your doctor should ask you how you feel after 2-3 weeks, and if you're not feeling symptom-free, he or she should be increasing your dosage and checking you every 2-3 weeks to assess how you are.

I'm seeing him again on Monday, so it's gonna be one week on 12.5 and about 12 days on 25 mg by the time we meet up again for the assessment.

He told me he might want to reassess the dosage if I don't react appropriately but his initial thought was to keep me on 25 mg for the long haul.

Things are certainly improving in the sense that my downs are now "lucid", not obsessional, and it seems to have had a positive impact on my social interactions in the past few days. But exercise is also helping enormously, and that's also part of my "holistic" treatment (meds+sports+talk therapy).

I'm already starting to taper off the benzos at this point as they are making themselves less needed to get through a "normal" working day.

But again, although I can certainly feel some benefits, I don't think it's really helping the DP/DR. It certainly has helped me stabilise my mood a bit, I sleep better, I feel more positive and at least I'm lucid when I'm not, but I keep losing touch with myself and still have those DR symptoms, although they already had subsided a bit in the past few months (it's always anxiety and stress that trigger dramatic episodes with me). It's hard to explain. My libido and erections certainly have suffered also, but I understand this should normally not last. Ejaculating and even having a P can be hard at times. The doctor warned me against these side-effects but told me they usually subside. We'll see. Overall, I'm better off now than before starting this bloody treatment, and it's only the very beginning...

Many many thanks for your support, Old Lady, I really appreciate

Cheers!

 

[Sojourner]

UncleSeb,

Keep in mind that it is incredibly early in your treatment. Your neural family needs time to adjust to the new environment. It may take weeks for you to see the full benefits.

I started Z. in June of 1993, and it completely turned around my life. Not long after that, I went to graduate school and got my master's degree and began a satisfying new career -- really a continuation of my old career that my depression had led me to abandon as full-time work.

Please hang in there and give it time. The good results you saw immediately are very likely harbingers of better results as time goes by. Once I get through this hard patch I'm in right now, I hope to go back to something like 25 mg, although I don't know why I want to take less, except perhaps the cost.

I'm delighted to hear you are doing better. I guess medication is a hit-or-miss thing with different people.

I'll look forward to hearing more whenever you post!

God bless!

Sojourner (was Old Lady) (in a day or so I'll drop Old Lady entirely) LOL