I’ve been on Sertraline since September, 50mg 1 week, 100mg 8 weeks, 125mg 2 weeks, 150mg 5 weeks for severe anxiety. The last few weeks I’d been feeling a bit better and the symptoms were beginning to ease. I thought I was through the worst. Then last week I had a stressful situation to deal with and I coped, but once the situation resolved I started to feel the extreme anxiety again. I’m so fed up of this, as I’ve been struggling on and off for months. I’m also having counselling, trying to eat healthily and exercising when I feel up to it, but I feel like I’m back to square one. I was wondering what other people’s experiences were and whether they felt they were up and down a lot before they got well? I think my biggest fear is that the medication is not really helping. I don’t really want to up my dose anymore as I find the side effects really overwhelming. Sorry for the moan, any thoughts anyone?
Hi Sarah.
Severe anxiety is awful, I had a massive hike in mine recently and it has subsided a bit now. Can you book some extra sessions with your Counsellor? you might need some extra support for a short while. I agree that Sert can have some drastic side effects so maybe upping the dose is not the answer.
You coped and then had the follow through anxiety, maybe this is a pattern for you. I do hope you find some relief as chronic anxiety is so debilitating. Eve
HI Eve, thank you for your reply. I can email my councillor so I might do that. I’m hoping that it is just a reaction to the stress I was under last week and so will pass soon. I just hate how every time I feel like this I feel it is never going to end and I’ll end up like this forever. That fear keeps me in it longer!