hiya everyone
I have been suffering panic attacks for 2 months every few days so I asked the doctor what would help ( current coronavirus situation isn’t helping )
I started sertraline Saturday and Sunday woke up feeling horrendous, shaking, dizziness,foggy head,really bad feeling of fear and doom which was making my body shake even more and panic.
I persisted a couple of days and the feeling didn’t go ,all night when I’m sat watching tele shaking and feeling awful ,feeling of doom and that I am dying.
I’m on day 4 now and feel like I can’t go on what should I do ?
is this normal so feel this bad or is it not suiting me ?
Hi I was prescribed sertaline for my anxiety and I will be completely honest and say I am was absolutely HORRENDOUS and had to come off it. Like you my symptoms were 100000% worse when I started taking them. The side effects do say that it will get worse before it gets better but I just couldn’t cope at all. I couldn’t eat or sleep I had the shakes and sweats it was really bad. My Dr did say it was normal but I couldn’t cope at all. The extra anxiety was making me worse. I’d suggest to speak to your Dr but they possibly say it’s normal and to wait for your body to adjust. It can take up to 6 weeks. X
so nice to hear im not the only one ,I have read a lot of people’s anxiety got worse but its got so bad the last 4 days I feel depressed and don’t want to continue, so down and when I get the horrible feeling it brings on a panic attack and it feels like I’m dying which is horrible:((
I don’t know what to do
I’m just stuck between the anxiety i had in the first place or this new nasty feeling and whether it will subside or not
Hi,
I suffer from dizziness / brain fog virtually every day whilst at my work place or it appears around people full stop - by home time my head feels very tight and like soup (if this makes any sense). I was also prescribed Sertraline for these problems linked to anxiety and have to say have not noticed any side effects other than dehydration and excessive sweating. I do notice however, that if I was to miss taking the drug for a few days that I will experience strange brain zap sensations - which calm down again after re-taking the Sertraline.
Unfortunately, I have not noticed any real positive relief from the dizziness by using Sertraline - I am not really sure to be honest how it is supposed to work ? I should really go back to the doctors but feel this situation is just going around and around with the problems being rooted in my mental state.
yep this situation at the minute isn’t helping anyone and I feel like I don’t have a life , least you can. get out to work ,mime is shut for a few months yet
I get strange flings in my brain like a tingle and then go dizzy but it only lasts a few seconds so maybe that’s just the drug
Hi, Yes it is good at the moment that I have a workplace to go to each day but not so great with some of the people I have to share it with. An office complete with personalities such as a gossip / loud mouth / management bs talker / smelly food eater / persistent sigher - am not saying am perfect by any means but after a day with some of them - wow - my head hurts.
haha yep that doesnt sound good especially when your not feeling right anyway.
how long have u been on sertraline for
About a year and half - I start the day off feeling normal - it gets to about 11:00am and the brain fog moves in making me feel dizzy and tight in the head. It slowly eases after I get back home again and start to relax.
Do I want to be at home during the day - no, not really I would get bored / fed-up.
Do I want to be around strange people all day - well, no again !
Arrgh !
Best wishes for your journey, please give the drug a chance - I believe it would take a few weeks of usage before noticing any benefits.
Honestly I was exactly the same I literally couldn’t get out of bed. Cos all I could think of was how am I feeling worse when I’m supposed to feel better? And then I started to think the symptoms I had weren’t anxiety after all and it was something worse so I completely and utter sympathise with you. Have you tried any thing like breathing exercises or meditation? I downloaded headspace and blasted it in my ears to try and drown out stuff.
luckily I’m up and about and going on walks to get fresh air and try and improve my mood.
i have taken a beta blocker to stop my heart race pacimg and going into panic attacks and they have helped a bit
how long were u on them for ?
and how do I know if they’re not for me ?
I stopped after a week as couldn’t cope feeling worse than I already did. I suppose you can only wait and see if your symptoms improve
I was put on Sertraline 100mg and I had to take myself off of it. It caused an extreme panic attack. My whole body got high I couldn’t talk my whole body was shaking I felt like I was going to die. So back to the doctor to see what else we could do it’s either have anxiety or extreme anxiety and I’m hoping to one day just get rid of anxiety.
maybe you could wear headphones while working to drown out annoying noise from your colleagues? 
I am surprised your doctor said this was normal! I have experienced some side effects coming on various drugs
citalopram - a sense of derealization/depersonalisation where I felt disconnected from myself and my emotions. I felt completely blank and numb and could hardly feel any emotion
sertraline - I don’t remember noticing any side effects coming on it
quetiapine - I noticed a slowness of thinking. Sometimes I got stuck trying to speak or to think of a sentence or word. I think I noticed that I could remember a lot more dreams while on this drug too, actually.
I never experienced any physcial side effects coming on any drugs like, these thank goodness. But unfortunately, I usually have a very difficult time coming off them due to physical side effects - nausea, headache, dizziness.
Anyways, I know they list in the side effects that things that you can experience panic attacks, anxiety or suicidal ideation before the drugs kick in but your reaction sounds quite extreme to me! I think you made the right decision not to continue to take it. . . I guess it comes down to the decision of is it worth it to wait? or How much risk are you putting yourself in suffering the side effects?
Haha ! If only
Yesterday I had the joy of listening to my colleagues speak non stop all afternoon about:
‘Downstream business continuity plans’ and
‘Relative Performance Matrices’
Load of old waffle !
Beam me up scotty !
hmmm I guess you will have to practice tolerating and being patient as best you can then! I can appreciate how distracting it must be to have colleagues chatting while you are trying to work. Last year I was teaching. We had a tiny work room for us to work in between classes. Nearly all the time, people would be chatting. I could never concentrate in there!!
Hi charlotte 301273,
I have been thinking of starting Zoloft and am grateful for your feedback. My doctor has also told me that it might make me feel worse before I feel better and I don’t think that’s acceptable. Because of this I’d like to tell you about an experience I had many years ago when going on to a tricyclic antidepressant before I was put on another antidepressant which worked fine without having adverse initial effects.
The tricyclic sent me into such a state I thought I was going nuts, the stress was unbelievable. My general practitioner didn’t believe I was taking the full dose, which I was, and I continued for two more weeks to prove to him I was. I then stopped it as things got no better.
Soon after I saw a neuropsychiatrist who said that most general practitioners, and even some psychiatrists, were not properly informed about antidepressants. He said very clearly to me: “An antidepressant can take two to three weeks to begin working BUT if it’s wrong for you, you’ll feel it in a matter of days.” I have never forgotten this and only wish I’d known it before taking the tricyclic.
The antidepressant he put me on was fantastic and, although I had to start slowly, due to potential nausea and build up the dose, there was no increase at all in my panic attacks or stress and soon I was free of them. Unfortunately the antidepressant I was taking, Nardil, ran into manufacturing problems eighteen months ago and I had to discontinue taking it.
When a person is vulnerable it is shocking that an antidepressant makes them feel worse in their anxiety symptoms before they feel any benefit and that is why I’m telling you my experience of all those years ago. Your experience now makes me think twice about Zoloft and the advice of some doctors. They may mean well but they aren’t the ones taking the drug. You may think it is worth persisting and perhaps things will come good. Take care and don’t go past your ability to cope before asking to try a different antidepressant.
Hi,
I have just googled doom feeling when on sertraline and come across your post. just wanted to share my story if that helps.
I Literally started sertraline last Monday. I started taking it because my panicky moments become more sporadic and wanted to have more control over this. Was originally taking propranolol which i was taking as and when but found i couldn’t always judge when i might get one.
My first dose was 50mg and by the evening i was not feeling good. I felt sick (my body was trying to be sick) the doom feeling was so overwhelming. having had panics before I feel i was rather aware but this felt very different, so so intense.
For the next 3 days i couldn’t eat, i couldn’t sleep, i felt lightheaded, headaches, jittery and the anxiety was so unbearable. worse than i ever had it before. i couldnt really do anything, was frightened about going out but not sure why. It was so so intense. I had to take time off work. I chose to stop as i couldn’t manage this any longer.
doctor explained to me in some cases this does happen and is abit too much for some more than others.
Please dont feel your alone in this as i felt really silly that others managed through this and i couldn’t. if you need to stop thats fine, if you can make it through thats great.
remember this is your journey and there are other ways for support if this doesn’t work. thank you for sharing your story because you have made me feel better about my experience. i found it too hard to reach out online as my anxiety was so bad, i reached out to friends and family who all had different experiences but i just felt like i was either being ‘too much’ or was failing. everyone is different and we all manage different.
Hello,
I’ve read your concerns. I’m a retired medical professional from the U.S. and will try to provide you information to help get you on the right path. Realize that people respond quite variably to SSRI medications and while there is mixed evidence that SSRIs are effective in treating Panic Disorder, there are a considerable number of people with Panic Disorder or significant chronic anxiety who experience a paradoxical reaction and find themselves suffering worse anxiety and/or increased frequency of panic episodes. Additionally, while some patients typically adjust to the effects of these medications within several weeks, others find that their symptoms either demonstrate no improvement or their symptoms grow steadily worse.
It’s important to provide constant feedback to the prescribing physician because anxiolytics and antidepressant medications target neurotransmitters responsible for mood regulation. The results are quite variable and again, some patients can respond well while others experience an exacerbation of their symptoms.
The suggestion here is to promptly contact the prescribing physician and discuss other options.
Regardless, follow your doctor’s instructions and the prescription until you’ve made contact with them to determine the best course to proceed.