I'm a 25 year old female who has gone through quite a lot of change since August. I moved away from home and started living and going to school full time in August. That's when I noticed the panic attacks starting, first it would be because of school, then going out to eat in a public setting had me overwhelmed, sitting down watching a movie has me feeling overwhelmed. I cried a lot over the course load because it was a very compressed program. On holidays I came home and worked, then I finished my program in April, went back to work, went on my clinical, continued to work, now I'm finished and I feel like a bag of nerves. I think I may have overdone myself and definitely overwhelmed myself. Anyways, during my clinical I felt like I was constantly in a panic, my fingers would go numb, my legs feel like jello, my face would go numb from my jaw down, my heart would start racing and I would have to go to the bathroom and just sit and breathe. It gets to be too much at times. I went to my doctor on Thursday and told her how I've been having trouble coping the past year and we decided to start on 25mg of Zoloft. I'm only on day 3 of taking it but I'm finding I'm dizzy, having spots in my vision, the bottoms of my legs feel weird, I'm nauseous and yesterday I was extremely emotional. I'm tossing and turning at night. I didn't tell my doctor this because I didn't tell anyone this really but since I was a kid I counted things, like number of times I hear a beep at the grocery store, or how many times the phone rings, it's odd and I blame it partially on OCD. I also find when my anxiety gets bad I get these awful intrusive thoughts. It's been like that since I've been a kid too. Like always making ultamatums with myself for example, I would say to myself if I didn't do this right the first time then someone in my family would die. I know they're just thoughts and I know they mean nothing but they really upsets me when they come in my mind. Can anyone tell me that this will get better if I stick with Zoloft ? Right now I'm just feeling the side effects and it's miserable. When you're anxious enough this surely doesn't help.
Do you have an OCD diagnosis from your doctor?
Please tell your doctor EVERTHING..I am sure you have a similar medical confidentiality LAW similiar to what we have in Canada.
Is your doctor a GP (family doctor) or a psychiatrist?
If he is just a family doctor doling out zoloft without therapy he/she should be drawn and quartered IMO.
Any SSRI is about as effective as placebo if not accompanied by counselling.
They also take 6 weeks to see if they work or not.
Don't expect immediate relief like with other medications.\
Did he tell you that.
The side effects of zoloft can be difficult but are ususally only temporary and you should feel better soon. (from the side effects)
What other medications are you on.\ 25 mg is a realy low dose of sertraline (zoloft)
Any benzodiapines ????
Hello,
Sorry you are going trough this. I know the feelings well. I have struggled with anxiety for a year now as well.
I got overwhelmed when buying my first house (after moving in) and just a lot of other stresses going on around me with work and family.
I am on day 3 of Sertraline as well (25mg). The first day I was calm weirdly. The second I cried all morning. It's not a good look for a 26 year old guy!. My partner didn't know what to do bless her. It's not that anything was wrong, I was just so upset. It was bizzare!
Today, I feel a but sick. Not as bad as yesterday but hope it passes soon. Ginger tea is a god send for the nausea. I have been told it will take a week to settle so sticking it out for 7 days at least before judging. But I also feel dizzy and my vision is off. Got some very scary headaches too!
To be honest though, my anxiety was that bad before these that I had these side effects anyway without taking medication so I don't know what's new and what isn't!
Anxiety really does mess with your body alot.
I'm glad I have someone who's on the same day as me, it's nice to not be alone going through this. I understand the crying, that was me yesterday. You look at me the wrong way and I'd be crying. Today I'm trying to keep optimistic, I still have intrusive thoughts but I try to replace them with positive thoughts. It's only 9am here so I'm trying to keep an okay kind of outlook on the day. Are you having trouble sleeping as well? I've been up since 4am and I'm also having horrible diarrhea (too much info I know) as a side effect. I have IBS so my doctor gave me fair warning.
I really truly do hope it's only a week of this because I'm just sick of not feeling like myself. Each day goes on and I'm wondering what happened, trying to retrace when I started feeling this way.
I hope you start to feel better soon. The way I look at it is at least we're trying to help ourselves !
Yeah that was me yesterday. I have taken the week off work to try and get over the bulk of side effects before going back.
I found that if I take them at night around 9pm, I sleep better and through most of the side effects. It's also made it a bit easier getting out of bed. Though I am very tired already on them.
As for the diarrhea, it's the same story. Hope it eases soon. Just keep drinking probiotics.
Mornings are bad for me though, it's like I am locked in a panic state and when in the house alone I freak out. I have taken propranolol to calm down today, it's definitely taken the edge off.
A lot of reviews say around 7 days, side effects start to ease off. I really hope so, it's what I am holding out for.
Have you noticed any positives yet? I think with these things we tend to focus on the negative rather than appreciate the little things it's changing.
That's what time I take them too but I doze off around 10-11 and by 4 I'm awake and then by 7 I go to sleep for another hour and that's how it's been the past two nights. Before I use to sleep through the night so it's not my most favorite side effect.
I'm also having trouble being home alone, it's not easy feeling miserable alone and that's been me since I've started these meds. I do find if you YouTube guided meditations and listen to them they really seem to help relax you. I try to do that before bed and I fall asleep pretty quick and it shuts my mind off for a bit.
I don't have any other meds to take when I'm having a bad day which kind of sucks, mostly everyone's been prescribed something to get them through the initial shock of it starting to work.
I haven't noticed any positives yet, I think it's too soon to tell. With anxiety I find you're your own worst enemy anyways so even if you do try to feel better your thoughts are telling you other things. I just wish there was a way to shut off the thoughts and I'd be perfectly fine.
I have taken propranolol for around 6 months tbh. It's just not doing enough so decided to switch to something more suitable for long term use so I can come off them.
The downside to propranolol is that it's a beta blocker so it's great for anxiety but was crippling me when I went cycling!.
The sleep issue is a big problem though. I rarely sleep though the night but surprisingly on these I have been okay so far.
All I can say so far is that these are 1 million times kinda than fluoxetine which I have tried in the past. I think I got every side effect listed!
Fingers crossed over the next few days we start to see some improvement eh.
It's the first steps to getting better.
Have you looking at doing any CBT along side the medication?
Well that's good though I'm glad you've decided to get onto something more long term. I think every anxiety med has horrible side effects. I haven't tried any therapies because I'm just graduating and I don't have an insurance plan yet so is currently not feesable. But once I do get something I would like to go talk to someone. Here they have free mental health clinics so I may take advantage of that. Have you tried anything ?
I don't, just anxiety. I didn't go into detail or even mention the counting things or intrusive thoughts. Just that I feel like I'm constantly feeling faint, and sweaty and numb, heart racing in certain situations. I'm in canada, my doctors a general practitioner she explained the meds well and started me on a low dose because I have IBS and Zoloft can make the diarrhea worse. I'm taking 25mg for 2 weeks then increasing to 50mg for 2 weeks then going back to see her. I'm not on any other medication. I have Ativan left over from before I got prescribed Zoloft, that was prescribed by a different doctor while I was living away from home. I'm considering taking one of them so I can sleep.
Morning, how are you doing today?
Don't know what happened last night but been up all night and had a few panic attacks too. Not great.
Hope this stops soon ish. So tired!,
Not good, we've had the same kind of night. Two episodes yesterday. One around dinner time and another right before bed. I didn't get settled til 1am, slept until 330, dozed off until 430 and now been awake since. It's 510am here now. I'm starting to have unwanted thoughts also like suicide so I'm calling my doctor today and letting her know that.
yeah I would definitely contact you're doctor. It might be a sign that you can't take to Sertraline. I was the same on Fluoxetine, the thoughts I had on that were terrible. The doctor took me off it immediately.
On Sertraline, I have had no mental side effects tbh (so far). Just things are quieter, no racing thoughts which is nice. It's just this headache and tiredness getting to me the most.
There is no winning with anxiety is there
Hopefully you're doctor can give you something to help or suggest what to do.
Yes I'll definitely be calling when they open. It's like the thoughts I'm having are irrational. I tell myself they're only thoughts but it's hard to grasp when you're so worked up. I'm glad sertraline is working well for you. I understand you with the tiredness because I haven't been sleeping.
There really isn't no winning with this. I just want to be my old self again.
Hello, sorry to bother you.
Did you manage to get in at the doctors?
I think I am ready to stop these tablets now