I'm 44 male and have had GAD ever since i can remember. Due to a turn of events in my life it got worse over time and cuz of it i developed Fibromyalgia approx 12 yrs ago.
Symptons were manageable then with chronic neck/shoulder pain, low energy and of course anxiety. Approx 5 years ago the symptons slowly and gradually progressed -stiff back and feet, chronic constipation, clammy hands & feet and insomnia, weakness and fatigue to a point i got kind of bedridden and was running from doctor to doctor and tests on tests but to no avail.
Nobody including me could figure out what was going untill the pain , stiffness, extremely debilitating fatigue , severe anxiety, memory and concentration issues , insomnia and extreme sensitivity to touch, light and sound got real hard until my local GP said it's Fibro and i heaved a sigh of relief as finally the condition was diagnosed as i had read the symptons online.
He put me on on Sertraline 25mg - 10 days and then 50mg thereon.
Till about 8 weeks the side effects were almost unbearable which was Fibro magnified. I went to the GP but he said just keep on 50 itself which i did but side effects were better after 8 weeks but still very bad and i was on bed all day untill i started looking up forums like these and gradually upped my dose to 75 -100 - 125 and 150mg. This took me 27 weeks with little improvement in symptons but nothing close to expected untill i titratred to 200mg and ALHAMDULILLAH on the very first dose felt a real effect - minimal anxiety, much less muscle stiffness and a some energy.
Sometimes we got to look back at our own progress and see the small but positive effects and then accordingly increase the dosage.
I really feel Sert is a very good AD but it will take it's time on every individual differently depending on the problem , like they say Good things come in small packages.
However these forums have been a great help and i have been reading and researching during the course of treatment.
My suggestion is to give it TIME and be PATIENT cuz the end result is worth it !
Finally something which kept me going is actually a belief system - 'God never burdens a soul more than it can bear' and ' After every hardship is Relief'.
So people keep positive and fight it out as the peace and happiness is near.
Wish you all a speedy and smooth recovery.
Thanks