Hi. Bit of back ground info. I first suffered from anxiety and depression following the birth of my son, I started citalapram and in time started running and doing hiits. I came off the medication with no problem. In December I stopped exercising as much due to the cold icy weather and then had a nasty virus iver Christmas when all my running stopped completely, this is when the anxiety started. Has anyone else found that their anxiety or depression started after they stopped exercising. I have now planned to start up again. I've been for 2 runs this week and did a hiit, I bloody ache 😂 hope it's worth it. I am also on day 11 of sertraline 25mg
Hi Kerry. I've taken Sertraline for many years, and I've been put on different antidepressants from time to time, but if they affect anything other than serotonin re-uptake (some affect re-uptake of norepinephrine or even of dopamine as well), they've caused my anxiety to worsen. I have Major Depressive Disorder (lifelong) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (both lifelong). Besides Sertraline, I have a prescription for Clonazepam (generic for Klonapin) which I take as needed to reduce anxiety. It is habit-forming, so you wouldn't want to take it too often, but I've used it long-term without problems.
If the anxiety is a side effect of Sertraline, it might pass after 6-8 weeks. I've only ever experienced fatigue when starting or increasing my dose of Sertraline. But I think that increased anxiety is one possible side effect.
I hope that you can keep running! It helped my depression and anxiety a lot when I was a runner. But full-time work and snowy/icy winters got in my way, and I think that SSRIs tend to make me feel less like exercises and more like having snacks. And my knees gave me trouble - I'll be having two knee replacements as soon as I can fit that into my life. I'm in my 50's now. But in my 30's and 40's, I used to push myself to watch my diet and get out to run (or do water exercise at a pool in the winter) and I could shed the 25 lbs that I picked up when I started on antidepressants. In my 30's, I would even go off antidepressants to lose weight. But that never turned out to be a good solution. About 10 years ago, I decided to accept the extra weight. It's fairly common in women my age in the US to be a bit overweight, so I've decided to be "fat and happy." But if you can keep on exercising, it should help with your anxiety and keep you healthier. Best of luck!
Thank you for your response, I've bitten the bullet today and upped my dose to 50, I know it isn't a lot but was on 25mg before as I was scared of the side effects. It has made me tired and not wanting to run, I'm going to wait a week to let the side effects go and do yoga in the mean tine.