Hello everyone,
So a little background—I had a terrible anxiety relapse back in November after trying not get off Sertraline, I had dropped as low as 25mg and then I had a little health scare that threw me into panic attacks and full blown anxiety. ( health anxiety is my thing).I have been on Sertraline for years and did amazing. I was loving life up until that relapse. My doctor then upped my dosage to 50mg and after weeks and weeks of ups and downs, and worsening anxiety for a bit, I finally settled and started to feel normal again. Because I wasn’t fully there, my psychiatrist bumped me to 75mg. After 4 weeks on 75mg, I felt 100% back to myself. I felt better than I had in months. But because I have bad health anxiety and OCD, he psychiatrist wants me to go to 150mg. So after 4 weeks at 75, I went to 100. I was feeling awesome for a few days. Then, one night when it was quiet, I noticed ringing in my left ear ( I’ve had issues with inner ear inflammation before because of TMJ and infections) but for some reason I thought it was the Sertraline increase. I googled it, and there were all these horror stories about ppl who get permanent tinnitus (ringing) on Sertraline. I freaked out and went back to 75 a week later. A few days after that I developed an awful head cold with aches, pains, sinus pressure and congestion; my ears became plugged and a bit sore, and I was actually happy about this because I think the ringing is due to the cold/sinus I have rather than the Sertraline. Anyhow, the ringing was annoying and causing me anxiety, but it was manageable—no panic. However, this past Tuesday, my husband had minor day surgery. I was in the hospital with him all day, and then took care of him when he came home (lots of blood— it was a nose surgery) and I felt myself getting pretty anxious. Then I was sitting on the bed looking down on my phone where I had a dizzy spell for like 4 seconds where it felt like I was gonna pass out. It sent me into a panic attack. I freaked out. Since then, I’ve been hyper-sensitive to the lightheaded feeling in my head, even though my doctor says it’s likely the inflamed sinuses. I am a panicky wreck right now, googling the symptoms and convincing myself I have some scary inner ear disease that is going to worsen and that will be permanent. I know this is my anxiety talking. What I don’t understand is HOW this is happening? I’ve been on the increased Sertraline dose of 75mg for 7 weeks now. How can I still be so panicked? Shouldn’t it be working? Im just so terrified of slipping back into a relapse and going back to how I was a few months ago. Is this a blip? A sign I need to go 100 or higher? I’m just so worried it’ll cause tinnitus. Ugh. Any kind words or words of comfort would be so helpful right now. I just feel like I took 10 steps backward. Thanks everyone...