Truth is its different for everyone and you won’t know until you try. What I will say is that it will be ROUGH when you start but that should start to improve after a week or so. I’d also say try and still with it, even if you feel worse, for at least 4 - 6 weeks as it can take that long for the medication to reach full effect. I gave it 6 weeks and I am coming off as I don’t like how they have made me feel personally, but again I am positive they do a lot of good for a lot of other people
It may be rough. Lots of people don't have any side effects. I didn't and my husband didn't. I got nothing for a few weeks then one day I woke up and nothing was as overwhelming as it used to be.
Yeah, I've seen people saying that they experience too much side effects and also none. So it was suddenly that it helped you? Almost like an miracle, I'm grateful that it worked for you two.
I wouldn't say it was a cure all but I just ended up being able to cope a little more with my day to day life and the anxiety just stopped being as overwhelming. I'm not on it any more but I did take it for 10 years.
Thank you for sharing.
Can I ask you how they affected you negatively? Anything related to your concentration? One of my biggest worries is that it may affect my concentration/focus skills and my academic performance in general, because it calms you down and makes you feel less worried about everything. I don't know if it's worthy the first rough weeks too when I probably can overcome it by myself. I'll start taking if it gets worse, I guess.
Didn’t affect concentration.
But it did make me gain weight and killed my sex drive and I was so hyper-focused on that stuff that it ended up making me anxious about things I wasn’t anxious about previously.
Sertraline fucked me UP but I got a genetic test afterwards and it turns out my body just has a hard time metabolizing SSRIs, so I take an SNRI (desvenlafaxine) instead. You’ll never truly know until you either try something or get a genetic test, but they’re pricey and my insurance didn’t cover it.
They did impact on my concentration yes and I became quite forgetful. Always felt zoned out and essentially in a constant state of disassociation in addition to higher anxiety overall. Today is day 3 of tapering on 25mg and after today I will probably stop them.
This 100% Sertraline did make me feel numb, but I was taking it for depression and anxiety, and it let me just not feel; but after my whole life of feeling like I felt everything so intensely, I was grateful for it. Took it for a year or so and then tried others. I just have trouble with feeling like my emotions control me though.
Thank you for sharing.
That's my fear. I don't want to have my personality changed because of this, and I don't want to lose concentration and feel numb... some people said that it works better when taken only for anxiety, but I don't really know. Did you experienced any loss of focus in that year? How you're doing with the new meds? That's a problem I have too, I hope sertralin helps me with it.
Sounds like it may be the anxiety talking :p
For real though, you can't know until you try. The problem is, with these medications, you have to wait for 1-3 months to truly see if the medication is going to be a good fit for you. Right now, it's keeping me sane as a grad student who's living alone for the first time and dealing with financial stresses and cognitive overload. Zoloft helps reduce the noise in my brain and enables me to focus on one thing at a time.
Thank you for your response.
And lol it probably is :S
After reading all the feedbacks I'm convinced to give it a try. My doc said that it should start working by 3-4 weeks.
I'm interested in your point of view tho, other people said about reducing the noise but what captured my attention is the focus part. Do you believe that your skill to focus is better now than it was before? Or it just changed, like before you couldn't focus on only one thing and now you can? It's better that way for you?
A side effect of anxiety is impaired concentration. So sertraline, an anxiolytic, should technically help improve you focus and stay on task as you won’t be as distracted by excessive worries and anxious thoughts.
Start low and go slow, as far as the dose goes, if you’re apprehensive. Just discuss with your doctor—they want to help you, not add more problems to your life.
Wow, I didn't knew this. Thanks for the info! As i said, I've read a lot of people saying that it made them lose focus and everything before taking it. If that's so, I have much less to worry about.
Other people suggested that too - I'm thinking of taking half of the pill for the start.
A lot of people do that. They start with half a pill and increase to the full pill after a couple weeks or so if tolerating well by that point (meaning no significant adverse side effects). And if it doesn’t work out and you don’t tolerate it, you can always stop taking it (and tell your doctor/check with them as well). You don’t really need to worry about withdrawal effects when you’ve only been on it for a couple of weeks. Don’t take my word for it though—as always, discuss with your doctor who is there to help you! I’d also maybe discuss with them trying cognitive behavioral therapy with a therapist, as that can be very, very helpful with anxiety. Anyway, hope this helped and hope things work out!
I actually took sertraline for the first time as a grad student, and at the time it was the greatest thing. After I started taking it, I got up the energy to break up with my alcoholic boyfriend, move to a sweet studio apartment, and finish grad school. I was only on it for maybe 6 months because after a while, I felt ready to feel things more deeply. I really needed a break from all the anxiety, and these meds did the trick.
It’s funny bc now, it’s almost two decades later, and I got my first sertraline from the pharmacy today. The anxiety feels different than before so like OP, I am really doubting myself. And I have personally had such a good experience! But I’m on the internet reading about sertraline than just taking it. Ah, my brain.
Anyways I’m glad it sounds like it’s working for you! Grad school can really suck but hopefully you can finish. Lots of fun opportunities on the other side :)
Im a scientist, and started with SSRI during my PhD. Never regretted it, and did not make me less concentrated. If anything, it made more productive and successful in science because I wasn't debilitated by anxiety and worrying. I travel the world alone now, give science talks to 100+ person audiences and I am never going to stop taking antidepressants.
Wow, thank you for your response!
I'm more and more relieved now, specially seeing a scientist speaking about it. I know that it's different for everyone but most people here are saying that it actually helped them to be productive so I'm giving it a try. Also, congratulations for your success!
I took a minimum dose for only 8 months. Now it has been 7 months since I stopped the medication and I have no lubrication at all, I am unable to get aroused, I have 0 libido, I am not able to feel anything romantic no matter how slight and sometimes I find it hard to feel other emotions. This is called PSSD (and there are other symptoms and much worse than mine), it doesn't happen to everyone, but I wish I had known before I started taking those damn pills and trusting doctors who then wouldn't believe me that I had these symptoms and would abandon me to my fate after ruining my life at only 23 years old. And no, I don't have depression or anxiety and that's not it.
Do what you want, it's your life, but it has chemically castrated me and thousands of others at the very least (r/PSSD). I wish I had never taken it.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm so sorry to hear that, I really am. I heard little about it but it seems to be affecting many people. These doctors are a bunch of a$$holes sometimes... I'll look at the reddit and learn about it. Maybe it's not worth the risk after all.
I think it's ruining my life without my knowledge, I always think that it's not thad bad but it is. I'll try to see how it does... a little scared but motivated too. I hope nothing like this happens :(
Chances are you'll be okayy, so don't be too afraid. There are millions of people who take these drugs who do not develop these severe symptoms that stick around after coming off the drugs. I am just of the opinion that doctors need to be informed of the longterm risks and pass these along to the patients to receive consent that they accept these risks. That is all.
my sons both take setralime. For over 2 years.
I have seen nothing negative from them
For taking it. And they are on pretty high doses (ages 16 and 18).
Thank you for sharing. That calms me down a little. Other people here also said that it had more pros and cons for them, so I'm considering giving a try if my anxiety gets worse.
Not a doctor, but I'll share my experience with that med so far (few weeks):
- It is starting to help with anxiety.
- Hurt my stomach the first few days. What finally helped was drinking plenty of water after the pill.
- It does feel like my existing concentration problem got worse, but I think this is more because "SSRIs can make ADHD worse" (undiagnosed. Again not a doctor so take it with a grain of salt)
- My libido dropped significantly (I'm a guy), found out that this particular side effect was relatively recently reframed as "Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction" but I'm hoping that's not the case.
Any improvement in libido getting back to normal?
I took my first pill today! I'm nervous about sexual sides and weight gain, but hoping to dodge them (or at least not suffer anything permanently if i have to stop the meds!)
Libido feels like 70% of original, but performance regained up to 85% of original, but I'm guessing mileage can vary for anyone. Speaking of variation I had depression many years ago and the SSRI I got for it didn't cause this particular side effect.
When faced with such a decision, I often try to reframe things like…”Am I willing to try Sertaline for six months?” You don’t have to make a lifetime commitment to any single solution.
I took that for anxiety for about 6 weeks. I wasn’t depressed before and it made me very depressed, numb as you mentioned, and gave me suicidal thoughts. I stopped taking shortly after. But everyone is different.
I have been suffering with GAD for years and tried like 5 different SSNI and SSRI meds and none of them worked for me. They all made me feel depressed and crazy. Also like most of them made me sweat profusely lol. But I recently went to a new psychiatrist and he says he thinks I have adult ADHD that he wants to try to take care of. So I’m now taking adderall. It kinda helps with my anxiety because it helps me focus and keep my mind on track. I talked to him about buspar at our last session and he said we are going ti give it a try soon. I could give update in a few weeks after my apt if it’s working for me or not. I have used Xanax and kpin for anxiety brfore but it’s not the best. It’s very addictive.
Honestly after about 5-6 psychs and therapists and whatnot, I finally found a psychiatrist that helped me and prescribed me an OCD/anxiety/antidepressant. He said it was a SNRI that was mainly for ocd and anxiety, not depression. Because I’m not depressed. I’m just like not happy. I never have been. He said it’s not really a medicine that is often brought up or considered before like lexapro or buspar or even worse, a benzodiazepine. Which most def works. But it’s not a good fix and it actually doesn’t fix anything at all long term. I can’t remember if the sertraline helped with anxiety. I’d say not since I wanted to kill myself after about 4-6 weeks. But not I am prescribed Fluvoxamine and adderall. 30mg XR in the AM and 10mg IR for if I feel groggy and anxious mid afternoon at work. I take 2, 25mg tabs of Fluvoxamine before bed everyday and have been for the past 6-8 months. It does help with my anxiety. But like it’s hard to explain how it helps. It’s not instant at all. It takes 2-4 weeks to feel any affects. But it almost just shuts my emotions down and makes me not obsess or over worry about anything anymore. But that’s where the adderall helps. My brain doesn’t create the right amount of dopamine and with the adderall and the Fluvoxamine it levels me out and slows my brain down and helps me not focus on what other people think or do. Of course I still have anxiety often. But I’m learning to cope with it. I see a therapist regularly, I express my emotions now, I have finally built a relationship with my parents and family. I haven’t seen many downsides tbh besides losing sex drive completely. Like I haven’t had a hard dick in like 3 months. Haven’t thought about sex. Nothing. And I used to be a pretty bad porn addict. Like several seshes per day type shit. Not no more. There are ups and downs. But the pros weigh out the cons for me.
Hi there, sertraline user here. As some people have said it effects everyone differently. I heard of a lot of the same things you did and I too was scared to take it because of that. For me it’s working really well. I’m able to go to work every day and focus on what I need to do. My focus is actually a lot better because I’m not constantly worried about my anxiety. Best advice I can give you is try it out and see if it works, if it doesn’t you can talk to your psychiatrist and try something else. Medication is a lot of trail and error. You’ll eventually find something that works for you. I hope this helps :)
Thank you for sharing.
I'm definitely giving a try, specially after so many good advices here in the comments. If it helps me focus then I just have things to win honestly. I'll make sure to keep in touch with him too.
It helps, thanks again!
Everyone reacts differently to medications, but having anxiety about taking an anxiety medication is pretty normal. I imagine you have anxiety about lots of things if you're getting medication for it.
sertaline was hell. try it just in case because everyone’s brain chemistry is different. my personal experience was it made me smell really weird sulfur
smell 🤮 which is why i stopped. i have a phobia of smelling bad so it was triggering me ( a few antidepressants cause this). also made me really hot i’d be sweating in a tube top in december 🥹 made me feel constantly bloated and i wanted to eat everything in sight! i usually only eat once a day but on sertraline i was non stop hungry . it made me very anxious and dissociative as well. also it made me irritable i would randomly get mad all the time. my bf took it as well and experienced the same thing. this is one of the only anti depressants ive taken that makes me not like myself or feel like im on something. i only lasted like two weeks taking it so if it doesn’t work out don’t be hard on yourself. hope it works out for you!!!
Thank you for sharing and for your support.
I didn't knew it could make you smell bad, I'll probably be annoyed by that too! When I asked about gaining weight my doc said the opposite, that in fact it reduces the appetite, but yeah it depends so it's hard to know. The anxious and dissociation seems to be the worst part of it tho. I'm sorry that you experienced so many negative effects, I hope it works for me too.
Unfortunately people who don't really experience side effects don't put much online review wise. It's always the negative reviews you see and it freaks people out. I read somewhere that typically, severe side effects of medications happen to less than 1% of the global population. And some of those are because they abuse alcohol or other really bad drugs or are really ill and they take alot of medications and interactions may happen. After a 10-14 days hopefully you'll feel the positive effects from it. 4-8 weeks the medication should be at 100% in your system. At that point the doctor can adjust it or add a medication. I take 2 medications for panic attacks and they work great together.
I (28F) have been on sertraline, 100 mg, for the past ten years. I have never had any negative side effects from sertraline, it is generally a very well tolerated drug, but obviously this varies for everyone. Prior to sertraline I was on paxil for almost ten years as well and had no issues with side effects either, so I do think my body handles SSRIs very well. I did very well in school and my career so far, and I never thought that my concentration was impaired. Try it for a while, and give yourself enough time to get used to it. 50 mg is a pretty low dose.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm relieved to hear that. Yeah, I've seen some people saying that they experienced some really bad things, but I'm hoping to be like you. My main concern was having my concentration impaired, so I'm glad that it's not that common. Congrats for your success too! I'm giving it a try, I thought that 50mg was higher than it seems.
Just a heads up to PLEASE do your research regarding the link between sertraline and severe bruxism. I had to get my jaw replaced with a titanium joint. And it’s all attributed to sertraline use.
Thank you for sharing.
I'll do my research... specially because I experienced bruxism as a kid. I didn't knew it could be so severe, sorry for that. How you're doing now?
I resonated with you saying you think you made yourself have anxiety. I have always felt like this too. I tried several medicines and sertraline was the one that stuck. I have been on it for many years (8 or 9 I think) and have gradually upped my dosage. I now take 150mg a day. I never really noticed any side effects besides decreased sex drive. I honestly feel I concentrate better now because I’m not in a constant state of panic. It did take about 1-2 months to help though.
Best of luck and don’t be afraid to change if it isn’t working
I prescribed a different anxiety medicine and I was worried that I would be a different person as well. I'll describe what happened to me to the best of ny ability. I always walked around in a fog, always felt nervous and angry and after about 1 month and a half I felt way calmer. I could focus a bit better (I had trouble focusing on the smallest tasks) and it felt like a giant cloud was lifted in my brain and I could see what was actually happening around me. I found I had been overreacting to things that i should have been laughing at and whatnot. If you are concerned about whether or not you actually have anxiety then try the pills still. A doctor wouldn't give them to you for no reason and generally anxiety symptoms are pretty easy to pinpoint. Especially with physical symptoms
Thank you for sharing.
That worry was frightening me up. As you pointed, I hope to get better too. I identify with a lot of the symptoms you had, specially nervous and anger over minor things. The doc probably is right, the truth is I was anxious when writing this and it made me believe that "it wasn't that bad", so maybe I wouldn't need them. Now I see that I do.
I totally understand by what you mean. Anxiety is very hard to tolerate though and you'll see after a while that you can live a life not worried about every little thing. Because I was there 3 months ago and I had a really hard time accepting them and I also posted here asking generally the same things and saying I was scared. You'll be okay and if you need feel free to message me if you are worried or have any questions :) I'm obviously not a doctor, but I am a friend and I am here!
Living a life without worring about everything? can't even wait! I was having a hard time too but I'm more calm now, reading all of the comments really helped. That's so sweet, thank you so much again!
Of course! :) I'm excited for you as well, if I could go back 10 years I would've told myself to get on anxiety meds sooner. I'm almost 29 now and I wouldn't want you to wait that long. I'm rooting for you!
I also had a lot of anxiety about taking sertraline. I ended up taking it for 2 days, then freaked out and stopped taking it. Don’t feel like you have to take it if you don’t want to. Only you can decide what’s right for you.
For me personally, I did not do well and was switched from SSRIs completely within a week because they gave me suicidal thoughts. If you have any thoughts of that nature, CALL YOUR DOCTOR, do not continue taking it hoping those thoughts will go away. With that being said, my mom and my boyfriend have both been taking sertraline for years and have never had any negative side effects. It works well for a lot of people, just wasn’t for me. It might take a while for you to find what works, but you can ask for something different at any time if you don’t like how a drug makes you feel.
Yes, that and serotonin syndrome are the big life-threatening risks. They are rare, but everyone who takes it needs to make sure they've read the leaflet and know the signs of those two issues so that they can get medical help right away.
The other risk appears to be loss of sexual function, but I have never been able to find any statistics on how common this is, it seems that research is lacking. Curiously, I had the opposite effect!
Dear friend, as a sertraline user and at the same age as you (18yo and 3 month old male), I think maybe I can give my insight here. Basically I had extreme anxiety issues since around 8yo, but I live in a Third World country where people usually dont talk much about these issues. Also, I was always interested in medicine, so I researched a bit when I was 14yo and saw that taking SSRIs before full growth and full sexual development could in some cases lead to stunted growth. That would be taking SSRIs before 16-18. At your age, you are fine and almost fully matured.
So, 2 weeks after I made 18yo I got prescribed 25mg of sertraline daily. In the first 20 days, I felt nothing at all, but after that ALL my symptoms got better:
Sweaty palms and feet: It has been over 60 days since I had this, and before taking meds I had constant sweating.
Insomnia: I was always restless at night, constantly worried about med school admissions, my health, the violence in my neighborhood etc. Now I sleep like a baby.
Focus: I could not concentrate much, specially regarding reading. Now I easily read tons of Bio and Chemistry books and my overall performance improved by around 34% regarding comprehension, grades etc.
Appetite: Anxiety made my stomach very acidic and I was usually without hunger during morning and at lunch. Now, I am WAY hungrier.
Lastly, some sites claim SSRIs can cause sexual dysfunctions etc, especially erectile dysfunction in males. I have never had sex, so I cant say to you what I think about it. But as a young male, frequent erections happen as often as before taking SSRIs. So I would say for me, nothing changed.
Basically, sertraline changed my life for the better without a single problem or negative aspect. Again, this is just my experience. I would say I have never been as happy as I am now. So yeah, for me it was like a gift from God. Sorry for the long text and poor english (it is my third language), but this topic was pretty similar to my life experience, so decided to go deeper. Good luck and wish you all the best!!
Echoing what others say here, it is different for everyone, so I can only speak to my experience.
Like you, I was scared of what the meds would do to my personality, so I avoided them until I basically had a very public panic attack at work a couple of years ago and got my butt to my GP as soon as I could (which was a couple months after the episode - hooray for American healthcare!) My GP put me on sertraline, and it made a huge difference, to the point where my only regret was not starting sooner. I also take buspirone now, since the stress of ::gestures vaguely at the world since March 2020:: caught up to me, and it actually helps the sertraline work better for me.
Again, your mileage may vary (my husband's does, as he's on Lexapro), but it is definitely worth a shot.
Thank you for sharing.
It seems that anxiety itself makes us to question even the meds. It's good to know that I'm not alone in this about the fear of personality changing tho. If your only regret was not starting sooner I can assume that the side effects (like less concentration or difficulty to focus) are little compared to the pros, right? That's my main concern rn, but I'm more and more convinced to try it. Besides, what motivated me to seek help was also a panic attack where I could only breathe through forced "yawns". The problem is that we take too long to realize how much anxiety affect us.
Yes, that has pretty much been my experience. If anything, I've been more productive and confident since I started, as opposed to constantly second-guessing myself and feeling paranoid about what other people thought of me all the time. I have had a few side effects, like weird dreams and some digestive stuff, but I'll take that over constantly feeling anxious.
Perfect, meds are really life changing then. I also need that productivity/confidence boost. The second-guessing myself and paranoid thoughts are definitely one of the things that are lowering my academic performance, so I'm giving it a try. I don't know which side effects I'll have but I'm pretty sure they'll be nothing compared to the harms of anxiety.
Best of luck! Thinking back on it, I wish I'd gone to my doctor for this back when I was your age (God, I sound old!) But it was the early '00s, and there was still a lot of stigma around mental health then.
SSRIs have a wide pool of side effects so different people will get very different ones. I for become suicidally depressed to the point where I started abusing my painkillers just to stop the emotonal pain I felt on them. That shouldn't scare you away though. I'd KILL to find a medicine that works, and you still have the chance that I don't. It'd be a waste not to try it, and remember you can always quit it if it isn't tolerable for whatever reason, it's not some permanent decision. I went from suicidally depressed to normal (for me) in literally 1-2 days.
I took sertraline and got off it after a year. It didn’t help me but you won’t know until you do it. I was on 100 mg. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to antidepressants. just make sure you’re doing in person therapy. Honestly tele-health in my experience isnt ideal. Therapy for me is more effective in person.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm giving it a try, hope it works for me. 100 mg seems a little high tho. I'll try to continue doing therapy, is a bit hard for me because of my routine but it definitely helps. In general, I think that the "physical contact" is very necessary in therapy, it's so different from talking to someone behide the scream.
My daughter is 17 and takes 100mg of sertraline and it works wonders for her. If you have any adverse reactions let your doctor know so you can monitor it and decided if it is or isn’t the med for you!
I hesitated for years with medication. I tried a few and had bad reactions including the numbness/fog you're worried about. Could never push through that part and had such awful health anxiety with every medicine tried. I finally stopped medicating with alcohol in 2020 and began Sertraline 50mg late 2021 and it's been absolutely fantastic.
I had an initial sleepiness and felt pretty lethargic but I reconvened with my doctor and began taking it at night and it's been great. I am far less prone to anxiety within my day to day life now. Sure I have good and bad days; I'm having a bad one today but because of Sertraline my default state isn't anxious.
I'm still me in all the good ways; I didn't have some personality change or anything drastic. I'm just far more focused and able to work now.
Obviously it's different for everyone but my side effects subsided about the 1 week mark. I began it in the holidays and basically set aside a week for it where I just hung out at home, did some light walking and was super kind to myself. It wasn't too bad at all OP
It might help you a lot
Feel free to send a PM if you want to talk more in-depth. I'm happy to help :)
Thank you for sharing and for your support.
These two reactions worries me so much. I'm so happy to read that your experience was this good! I plan to take at morning but if it didn't work I'll talk to my doc too. Hope your day gets better also.
The focus part is what keeps me more motivated. I really need this to work. If it goes like it was for you I think I'll be fine soon.
Thank you so much!
I am the opposite of what you described, I feel like it helps me concentrate a lot more and makes me able to look at situations objectively and not let me anxiety and emotions get in the way. I don't get a numbness like I did on lexapro
Hello! I have been on sertraline since I was 8 (23 now). Personally, the medication saved me! It can have its side-effects like all medications, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t experience them. However, it’s non addictive! I was on the 200 mg dose for years, and have managed to reduce it to 50 mg now. I feel really no side-effects now. It’s different for everyone, but feel free to message me if you’d like to talk more :)
Thank you for sharing!
I'm glad to hear that! A lot of people said the same, that it saved them. My doc said that it's not addictive too, I'm excited to start. Thank you for the support!
I’ve been on sertraline for a few years now! It’s been amazing for my anxiety and I’m sure it could be for you too. My only side effect at the beginning was lots of drowsiness (however I’m on a fairly small dose so it could be different for someone else). In terms of the numbness feeling, I think that once we stop having so many constant anxious thoughts it feels numb to not have thoughts racing through our heads all the time. Based on how it’s effected me, I feel like it’s actually made me far more productive because I tend to worry about less things that could impact my ability to get things done efficiently. Give it a shot, I think it’s worth it
Thank you for sharing.
I'm pretty convinced to try it. Taking the first dose today! Maybe that's it. We're so used to chaos that when the piece comes we don't know how to feel about it. I need this productivity boost.
The problem is this medicine has different effects on everyone. For me I started out on 20mg and slowly went to 50mg and both times taking the first dose made me dizzy after that the only side effect I had was no anxiety. I never gained any weight, I would say I’m less emotional than I was before but nothing to the extending of feeling nothing. Honestly you never know until you try it.
I take 100 mg of setraline everyday, rather than “change who you are”, they just make you you without anxiety. At first, expect some side effects and the medication not really working(for me it was nausea but it’s different for everyone), however once youve been taking them regularly for a couple of weeks/months, the improvement is insane, it’s like you cant really remember how it feels to be anxious, oh and also the side effects definitely dont last forever, as long as you take it with food(one bite of food, take it, another bite of food), the side effects should be very minimal/negligible
Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, I mean I thought they could make me less focused and mess with my performance at school but I was probably exaggerating. I really want the feeling of not being anxious so I'm giving it a try.
Ok so here’s the deal. You don’t have to take it forever, if you don’t like it after a couple months(6 weeks I think for full effectiveness) you can stop.
What do you have to lose from trying it?
I’m on 200mg of sertraline. It’s a very weak anti anxiety pill. All it really does to me is give my mind some resistance when I’m getting anxious, giving me more time to use my CBT skills. They haven’t changed who I am, just allowed me to do more.
I am on the same dose as you, been taking it for 6ish months. First week was horrible, but after that it was great. No discernible change in my concentration. Sexual desire did go down slightly however, but not a lot.
My only piece of advice is to take it. Don't be afraid.
I’m in this EXACT situation. I took one pill and felt awful for 2 days (YES EVERYONE I KNOW YOU HAVE TO GET PAST THE SIDE EFFECTS AND KEEP TAKING THEM TO SEE AN EFFECT) but I even had to force myself to take one pill and I’ve realised that actually I don’t want to be on medication for it and I’m going to talk to the doctor about talking to somebody instead.
Hi, I'm on sertraline for the same reasons. I started at the lowest dose possible (half a tablet a day) and upped the dosage until I felt like it was enough. I did have a period where my dosage was too high. I felt like a sack of potatoes and I felt numb. When I lowered the dose I was fine again.
I would advise you to just try it. **Please keep in mind that your anxiety can get worse after you first take it but it will get better.** I'm very sensitive for side effects so when I get new medications I always take two or three days off. Some of my friends quit after a week because it made them feel worse at first. I'm glad I pushed through tho. Try it for a longer period of time to make sure it does it's thing. Sertraline doesn't work right away. (not for me at least)
I haven't had any concentration problems (except for the first few days). But I also have autism so something that clears my mind helps me.
If you decide to try it, please tell your psychiatrist if it works (or if it isn't working). Don't skip days or adjust your dose on your own. It was worth it imo.
Please note these are my personal experiences. Also english isn't my first language so sorry for any spelling errors ;) I hope this helps a little :)
Thank you for sharing.
Other people said the same, that they raised the dosage and experienced worst side effects
I'm giving it a try, I've taken my first pill today. I'll stick to the necessary time. I'm motivated to push through it too. I just hope it makes me better and doesn't affect my concentration, that's my biggest concern as you could see. I'll make sure to talk to him!
English isn't my first language either but I guarantee it helped me. Thanks!
hi! im basically the same person as you lol i always pushed myself to the limit and i did my assignments as soon as i can, im very focused as well as an overachiever. im also on sertraline for my anxiety and im honestly very thankful for it. first week was rough, palpitations, my anxiety getting worse, jittering. but the next few weeks, i started feeling better. i had a big project to be presented a couple of weeks after taking my meds and i was waaayyy calmer than expected because i was dreading that day all year. unlike pre-meds, i also give myself more breaks. i always let myself do something fun before/after homework because I realized that thinking more and more tasks are coming so i need to do it right then and there was irrational and we all needed a work life balance. yes, sertraline is not a cure for anxiety but it definitely helps me function better. things that used to trigger me before dont have that much of an impact on me anymore. i used to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep (i used to only get 5 hours esp the weeks leadig up to my psychiatric appt) but now i sleep better (7-8 hours) . from DAILY breakdowns to having almost none. it also made me more sociable for some reason lol def happier and better with sertraline ++ my psychiatrists advices :)
Thank you for sharing.
Good to know that there's more people like me on this. You described me perfectly in the assignments part. That's why my doc prescribed me sertraline too. I have to learn how to give myself a break without feeling guilty tho. The work life balance is so accurate, I think like that as well, that if I didn't do it as soon as they appear I couldn't do anything else. I started to taking it today and I'm really excited for a change.
Late to the party OP, and seeing as you already said you’re up for trying it, good luck.
I’m on 37.5mg, and been on 25mg up until last week. I have a background in psychology, so I went into trying SSRIs knowing about the tough parts
Still, knowing and experiencing are 2 different things. And experiences vary hugely between person to person.
The side effects can be quite shitty, but if sertraline is the right med for you, when it works -it works well.
My own personal experience is that I feel better now than I have in my whole life. I am making decisions better, focussing on work better
I am on (now) 37.5mg of Sertraline, and been on it for 2-3 months (I think? I’ve stopped counting). It took 6 full weeks for me to feel the good parts consistently.
Because I like data, I kept a week by week (daily as much as possible) record of my experience and if you feel like it you can have a read. I read similar posts on the Zoloft sub to set my expectations. They’re a good bunch there and it’s a good support system to have when you start off (as is this sub)
Thank you for sharing.
I really want to be able to make anxiety-free decisions and focus better on my things. I'm motivated to wait, a lot of people said that and I know I have to (even if it's difficult for anxious people like us). I'm interested into reading if possible and I'll take a look into the Zoloft sub. Other person here suggested me to write my experience too.
I have taken it for 15 years with virtually no side effects and my only regret is that i hadnt started it sooner. My experience with zoloft is that it is a very mild medication that does reduce anxiety significantly. It will not change your personality or make 100 percent of your anxiety go away, but for me it substantially reduces obsessive thoughts and reduces my body's fear reaction. I felt slightly off and mildly dizzy for a couple days when I first started taking it but nothing after that. I also think I had to take it in the morning at first - it gave me a bit of insomnia if i took it at night (that stopped quickly). Definitely worth trying for a couple months and nothing to be scared of. once it starts working you will probably realize the fear was just anxiety talking. You can always stop if it doesn't work for you.
Also, please be aware zoloft will make you get drunker faster with alcohol. Alcohol is bad for anxiety anyway, but it took me by surprise when I first started zoloft in my early 20s.
Finally, trust in cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapy seems ridiculous when you are young, but cbt really helps anxiety. When you get anxious thoughts your mantra should be: my body is having a fight/flight/freeze reaction and it will pass. My thoughts during this period of stress are not me and can be ignored.
Seems common practice that the therapist will refer you to a psychiatrist after first meeting. To me it seemed weird mine did that without even talking much and trying to work on things first without medication. For me just therapy alone seemed to work good enough, you can always try that first then add medication once you get more comfortable with your therapist and if it seems like you still need a boost. Just what worked for me, I am also very anxious/hesitant about taking any medication. Good luck!
Uplifting comment here!
I started Sertraline about 2 years ago (at 23 years old). Previous meds helped a little but I still had anxiety and the panic attacks would not go away. Sertraline gave me back my life. When switching meds, the first weeks are always a bit rough... but it was worth it. I also had basically no side effects. Now I can eat, sleep, study/work with entusiasm (I'm currently a PhD candidate). Also no effect on my sex drive (I know it is a common side effect).
I just wanted to say: please do not be discouraged by all the negative experiences. I know the health anxiety is real, and all the negative experiences tend to reinforce your fear. But I suspect there may be some bias here - I guess that many people that follow this subreddit are having a bad experience with anxiety and related madications... But there are also many many success stories like mine, that maybe are less represented in this subreddit. (It's just something I thought... does it make sense?)
With that said, absolutely do your research and ask all the questions to your doctor. You have to be informed about all the pros and cons.
I really hope Sertraline will be the right one for you, if you decide to take it.
Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing.
Some people told me their negative experiences, but a lot more said that it works for them and changed their lives. And it makes a lot of sense, people tend to talk more about things that didn't worked out for them (specially in a reddit about anxiety). I'm doing my research, I hope it'll be the right for me too! I've decided to take it, so best of luck to us.
I was on that same dosage for quite a while. I didn’t notice any side effects although it did affect some of my blood tests. It is different on everybody of course.
I think if your psychiatrist proscribed it, you should give it a shot, you can always tell them if it is affecting you negatively and they will help you.
As I said, I didn’t feel anything wrong, and it did help me to get better.
I started taking it four years ago in addition to Lexapro. I did take it titrated by upping the dosage slowly. I am a systems analyst and I did not see any impact on my focus and concentration other than improvement since I could stop the running thoughts which did prevent me from focusing. Best of luck and check with the psychiatrist if titration Is an option.
Thank you for sharing.
I'll do my research, never heard about it before. Also, relieved to know that it didn't affected your focus and concentration, a lot of people said it improved so I'm excited to try it. Thanks again!
I started that recently and my symptoms (nausea, diarrhea, dry heaving, could barely eat) were so bad i lost 5 lbs in one week and had to stop and i’m only on 25 mg, i didn’t feel different in a bad way personality wise
i’m giving it one last try soon but good luck we both need it
I recently just started taking to two years ago. I've been through a few, wellbutrin and Lexapro. I had a really bad reaction to Lexapro but after I started of the zolft(50mgs) I felt like my old self before I was depressed with high anxiety. You're having the side affects I was told I was gonna have (diarrhea, anxiety attacks, ect) but I'm detoxing from methadone so it kind of counteracts the diarrhea and I have an mmj card fir my anxiety. But overall I couldn't be happier once my body got used to taking them. But everyone is different. I hope the best for you and that everything works out!
As for concentration, i definitely feel it has helped with my concentration a ton!!! I used to never be able to study but now i can sit down for hours and it wont really matter. I suggest taking it at night if you’re worries about it, but i suffer from ocd and it has insanely helped me
I've been on a low dose for over a year and I've been pretty happy with how it helps me. I still get panicky, but it's way less severe and my anger is way more under control. I'm also pregnant and feel comfortable taking it after getting the ok from multiple doctors. You can always wean yourself off of it if you decide you don't like it. Medicine roulette isn't super fun, but you'll be glad you took the time to figure out what works best for you. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing and for the support.
I'm definitely trying. I hope it helps me to deal with my emotions too and I'm relieved to see that it's mostly a safe med. Good luck for you too!
I was on Sertraline for about two years and I wish I never had. It made me feel numb, and more anxious than I had ever been previously. I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I switched to lexapro after talking with my doctor few weeks ago and I feel so much better. I actually feel happy, instead of feeling nothing.
Thank you for sharing.
Sorry for your experience. It seems to work different for everyone, so it's hard to tell if it's going to work for me. I'm happy to know that Lexapro is working for you, I hope to feel better too!
I was afraid to take drugs for the same reason when I was younger. I've taken over a dozen different ones since, for both depression and anxiety, and while I've experienced many side effects this one specifically was never one of them.
Also, just something to think about... Perfectionism is sometimes a symptom of a less-than-ideal upbringing and a way for kids who are under stress and don't feel like they have the emotional connections they need, to control their environment. It may not be the worst thing to give up some control and sometimes just let things unfold as they might.
Thank you for sharing.
That calms me down a little. Your view about perfectionism actually got me thinking. I've always felt like this, but I didn't knew the reason behind it. My thoughts were that it was anxiety's fault, but it can pretty much be what you said. Maybe giving up some control will be the best.
I do understand your worry, a lot of people will have some adverse effect at least. We are similar in being perfectionists, always want to do my best,etc. Although imposing myself with impossible expectations has taken me down the road of burnout—depression and anxiety. I’m not saying this is your case but we perfectionist tend to fall down that rabbit hole if we don’t balance everything else in life.
I’m taking sertraline 100mg for MDD with anxiety. started with 50mg and went up in dose over the course of months.
For me the most important side effects were nausea, which by now I don’t even perceive any more.
Personally, anxiety (and ofc depression) were rendering me almost useless. I had anxiety to start any work for fear of failure. Sertraline has worked for me. Some months into treatment + therapy + healthier habits and starting to feel capable of studying for the most important exam in my career.
I took zoloft for many many years. 150mg to be exact. It helped me tremendously. Only side effect I had was a little bit of dry mouth. No problem. Sipped water all Day or chewed gum. Wasn't that bad. This is one drug that saved my life.
Pshh 50 mg is nothing, but then again medication is ALWAYS subjective to the individual. I take 200mg everyday and it still doesn’t feel like enough some days but you might react differently. It’ll be an adjustment to make from suffering everyday to taking the medication. For me when I started suffering from anxiety I felt lost, like I didn’t recognize myself anymore. When I got on medication I finally felt like myself again, like I was back to normal how I was before I had it. So it might have that effect on you and not necessarily become something u don’t recognize. I’d say try it and be consistent about it. Sertraline, along with other SSRI’s take a good couple weeks before you feel the full effect of what’s it like to be on the medication and you can see how you have changed since then. But as soon as you take it the first day or any time you take it, you can feel it around a half an hour later. I know it might be scary but there is nothing to worry about, the medications goal is to help you not hurt you. Maybe right a journal or take notes and just observe yourself over the next month of consistently taking it to see what’s different about yourself. If at the end of the month you don’t like how you feel, try something else, there’s tons of different medications and therapies out there to help you if that’s what you want. Remember, the hardest step was asking for help in the first place. YOU GOT THIS!! 🤟
Thank you for sharing and for your support.
200mg seems to much for me, but as you said, everyone's different. I'll follow the tip of writing about it, and I'm giving it a try with some time. Asking for help was one of the hardest steps for me too, I'm glad we did it! I really want know how it is to be anxiety-free.
Hey that’s awesome yeah definitely keep some sort of notes! Yeah no 200mg is not something you’d take at first, doctors always start u off small. And hey if the 50 mg isn’t strong enough after a month or it’s just not doing the trick then talk with your doctor and they might try you at a higher dose. Hopefully the 50 mg will be enough for you though! Keep ur head up though, it’ll get better! I NEVER in a million years thought it would but it did, and it will take some time.
If u need to talk we are here for you, we’ve all gone through it or are currently going through it. I’m always open to dm if u need help or further advice. I’m glad you went through the uphill battle, admitting you need help is the single HARDEST step. It’s all downhill from here, in a good way.
I'll definitely talk with him about it if it's not working. I'm hoping that is enough too, and I'm giving time to it. Thank you you much for the support, I had some hard time accepting that I needed help but here we are!
Definitely the best thing you can do now, is monitor yourself. Monitor everything, trust your gut, and reach out to your medical professional as soon as something needs to be addressed. Everything will get better now I believe in you! You don’t need to thank me lol, just trying to help. I wish you all the best throughout your journey, good luck!
Everyone's different so what works for some may not work for others, I had a really positive experiemce, I was on sertraline for years and it worked amazingly for both my anxiety and depression kept me really stable, then I was recommended vitamin E, I think it was to improve my energy levels and it interacted with the sertraline and totally messed me up to the point that sertraline no longer worked, so I had to move to a combo of pills which work ok but no where near as good as sertraline was, and I have to take them more often which is hard to remember to do.
The only way you'll know is to try, if there not right then go back to the doctor but if you dont try then you won't know weather they're going to work for you. You need to take them for at least 4 weeks though to see if they will work.
I'm not gonna lie sometimes there's an adjustment period of a couple weeks where it can feel like there not working or the side effects are really unpleasant but push to the 4 week mark, because the side effects can go away !
The only sort of down side I found was if you have an alcoholic drink, then they can make them feel stronger so if you have say a single vodka coke it feels like you had 5 so if you do have an occasional drink while on them be prepared and don't go mad. (I know your not supposed to drink on anti depressants, but I like an occasional glass of wine with a meal)
Now they were fine for me in mood corrections until they started to cause me heavy insomnia, it would make stay awake for days solid without any switch off. Then when I tried to come off them after being on them months, they’d give me flue like symptoms and higher blood pressure/nose bleeds. I tried to come away a couple of times. I’m the end I stayed in bed for a month and suffered it out… I started to sleep again, I seemed to have been left with a strange dizziness type thing (which has slowed right down now) but went through a bit to come off them. But I’m the end I came off them. Would of stayed on them if it weren’t for insomnia.
Thank you for sharing.
Interesting, some people said that it made them sleep better. I hope that insomnia doesn't occur to me, I was having some because of breathe problems related to anxiety before taking.I'm sad to hear this too... it's different for everyone apparently. Good luck finding the right med tho! I'm trying sertraline today.
I genuinely can’t tell if this is sarcasm or not. Point being you made it clear in a lot of comments you have really good concentration/motivation and perfectionism and you don’t want to lose that— I’m simply pointing out that may be the anxiety the professional noticed and prescribed you something to help for? And the anxiety seems to be fighting to stay alive with all the doubt about trying a medicine that may or may not help. That’s what anxiety and depression and all these things do.. fight us to stay around.
No, sorry, it wasn't sarcasm. It occur me a lot of times that perfectionism may be an anxiety symptom, but I wasn't sure. I'm sorry if it looks like I was making fun of it - I swear it wasn't my intention. I recognize that I was also anxious when writing this, it's true, that's the reason I was was doubting probably. Sorry again, and thanks for the clarification!
No need to apologize! SSRIs didn’t work out for me. I’m glad I tried just so I know I didn’t leave the option out there but in the end they weren’t a fit. I felt like I was recognizing a little anxiety in your comments and just wanted to voice that hey- don’t let the anxiety win this one. It makes total sense to be doing the research you’re doing, the nerves are completely normal! Basically I just wanted to be a small reminder that said “hey that anxiety is on the no side of the line- don’t let that voice be the loudest simply cause it’s familiar”
It is very individual. All I can give you is my own experience. I am also very perfectionistic and can be highly focused on performing well. It has had no effect on my concentration in that way, I can still hyperfocus when I need to, and my cognitive abilities are not really changed. I'm able to drive as far as ever without any additional tiredness or loss of competence. My brain is fine in that way. I would say it's better, because the anxiety was more of a hindrance than a help in getting things done. It turns out my real motivation for getting things finished was not actually anxiety but satisfaction in a job well done and my self-image as someone who does things well. That's unchanged.
In fact the only cognitive effect I notice, now that I'm completely past all the acclimatisation effects, is that my thoughts are a little more "free-floating" than they were. I've always been a little vague and daydreamy, and I'm slightly more so, and slightly more inclined to lose situational awareness when I relax. More likely to wake up not knowing what day it is, randomly forget the time of year and have to think about it, that sort of thing. But it does not affect my focus when I'm "switched on" - it just gives me a more complete ability to "switch off", maybe slightly more than I intend to! I can control it, though, is they key point.
In fact I have very few side effects generally now. A very very slight reduction in coordination which makes me a little clumsy, but not seriously so. A slightly increased tendency to vertigo when tired or stressed, but I had that tendency anyway.
In general I feel normal on it, like myself, more so than previously when I was in a hell of negativity and worry.
I've been taking Sertraline for years, and I have had no noticeable bad side effects. for a while I had extremely vivid dreams, and guess I still do, but not nightmares.
I take sertraline and I have not experienced numbing, personality changes, or difficulty in concentration. It changed my life in profound ways and allows me to find happiness and contentment. It did drastically reduce my sex drive, and that's a bummer. But I can still reach orgasm and enjoy sex. I just don't think about sex much anymore, so my partner needs to be the primary initiator is all.
Worst case scenario, you take it and you don't like how it feels. Your psychiatrist can help you try other options until you find something that suits. Trust me, it is so worth it. I have generalized anxiety disorder and persistent depressive disorder if that makes any difference.
Thank you for sharing.
That's good to hear. I'm giving it a try, I don't have much to lose and everything to gain. Everyone here said it's worthy too, so I'm convinced that it'll be better that way. I want to be anxiety-free so much.
Zoloft seems like a bad starting point if you’re not currently taking meds. It is a little more hardcore then the other SSRI’s that are available - venlafaxine, desvenlafaxine (i had a bad experience with this one)
I have been taking 50mg of setraline for 7 years at this point. The first week or two feels a little weird, but I have felt great ever since. I still feel like myself, just less anxious
It’s different for everyone but it was very overwhelmingly bad for me so I stopped asap. It felt like my anxiety was eating me alive but I had no symptoms at the same time? It was like everything I felt was in this weird cloud of dread and cycling thoughts. I felt like I was in a haze and I barely even remember anything from that time now. I also developed bad insomnia immediately so I barely slept and that probably led to everything feeling ten times worse. The worst part for me was the intrusive thoughts. I had so many of them all the time, going around and around in my head and it felt like I couldn’t get a break from anything. I guess I just don’t mix with SSRIs and that experience has turned me off them completely because it was so scary!
That being said a friend of mine is on it and she’s absolutely fine with no side effects. It just depends on the person and unfortunately the only way to know is to take it.
Thank you for sharing.
Some people seems to be really affected by it, I can imagine how strange it felt dealing with anxiety without the familiar symptoms. When you taped down these things disappeared? I'm already experiencing some insomnia so if it gets worse with the meds I'll probably freak out. I'm sorry for the intrusive thoughts too, fortunately they're more uncommon to me lately (it still happens but less than it used to). It looks scary just hearing to be honest.
I hope you found the right med!
Yeah it’s wild the stories you hear. Honestly I was so scared by my experiences that I went of meds altogether so I’m just trying to work through my anxiety with therapy. It comes and goes and I have good times and bad times but I feel like meds aren’t for me and that’s okay!
Hopefully these stories haven’t scared you off if you feel meds are right for you!
They did scared me, but not that much that I would stop taking. And yes it's not for everyone... I want it to work for me so much, it would make things a lot easier. Good luck for us!
Rather than "change who you are" I would argue that the right meds will enable you to be who you are meant to be. There's probably better ways of wording that but on my meds I feel like myself and I'm not being changed by my anxiety and depression.
Thank you for sharing.
I think you expressed exactly what it is, I can count so many times that anxiety stopped me from acting the way I wanted because of the fear of judgments (specially in real life - internet kinda makes it easier to me). I hope that it works for me.
Something I learned is that every brain is different and reacts to these drugs differently. Also, because you are prescribed a drug now does not mean it’s the one you will end up being on long term.
A psychiatrist is amazing because they will walk you through any of these symptoms, listen to how you are feeling, then change your dosage or drug based on how your brain reacts. There were drugs that made me feel like a zombie, and some where I barely had any reaction. It’s a process, not an off/on switch.
If you’re anxious that you might not have anxiety then you have anxiety.
Also 50mg is like the lowest possible dose.
I’ve been on Zoloft (sertraline) for three years and aside from like day four or five when I first started it I never had that numbness / lack of focus. At least not more than normal.
But that fourth day? We’ll let’s say my kitchen sink flooded into my basement and ruined my x box and I couldn’t have cared less.
So if that happens to you, just know that it passes.
Thank you for sharing.
The more I think about it more I'm convinced. I certainly was anxious when I writed that post... people here cleared my mind about most of my doubts, but I'll just know with time.
I'll write my experience to know later, but your reaction to the basement episode is surprising. If it happens, I'm motivated to wait until it passes.
I kid you not my wife was like losing it like “what are we gonna do?!?” About like the ceiling tiles and the x box and a few other things.
And I’m just like “meh. It’ll be alright”.
As though it hadn’t just cost me a bunch of money lol
I haven't taken it for anxiety, only depression really. I'd like to say that it's a fairly low dose and you will notice improvements.
It's scary to start meds. I thought I would change into a new person but in reality, it let me be who I wanted to be. I didn't need to think or fake it anymore. I didn't achieve some happiness after taking it but it let me exist without second guessing my actions.
Sure, you might not be the happiest person but it'll let you live your life without second guessing yourself nearly as much.
In reality, your anxiety is hurting you. This can help to mitigate that. I'd say that's a fair bargain ❤️
Thank you for sharing.
As you could see I was fearing that too, turning into someone I don't like because of them. What I didn't saw is that I don't like my actual self too, so I'll probably just get better mentally. I was second guessing myself at the moment I posted this (doubting my own anxiety), so it'll be great help. I hope it helps!
I take medication for my conditions and weed causes those to not work as well. I spent years smoking myself into a coma to avoid my anxiety and grief from my brother passing away.
It took time to heal but we are getting better over here. I don't abstain but limit my intake.
compared to the many, many depression meds I have tired, sertraline was a a good one for me. Very little side effects. I will admit it didn't help my anxiety though. Helped with depression, but anxiety it didn't touch.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm relieved that the side effects aren't that bad. I'm taking more for anxiety, but I hope it helps... everyone's different etc so I'll know with time.
Honestly, it affects everyone differently. I personally didn’t like sertraline but I know lots of people who are on it and it works for them.
Don’t be afraid though. Chances are if it’s been prescribed to you then the psychiatrist believes you need it. I’d recommend trying it out and if after a month or so you don’t like it, ask your psychiatrist if you can stop taking them. (Make sure you tell them though, you really shouldn’t quit cold turkey. You have to ween yourself off them)
My stance would be: if your anxiety is really affecting your everyday life and personal relationships and therapy alone isn’t helping much, medication is a good thing to try. You’ll be okay! You got this :)
I’m on sertraline, currently working in a tech field full time, momming, and getting my masters in data science at night. It helps me a ton and I don’t feel like my concentration is poor, but everyone is different.
Thank you for sharing.
Some people said that it actually helped them, some said that it doesn't affect... I'll know with time. And congratulations for balancing your life!
Thank you. I’m not going to say I don’t struggle at times, but I use the meds and I talk to a behavioral therapist to understand my own brain better and help myself get through tough times and adapt. I’ve actually had to go up in doses a few times since COVID hit because I couldn’t stop crying and fell into depression. But, therapy and sertraline together have helped me get past it. You can do it. Don’t be afraid and don’t tell yourself you’re making your anxiety up in your head. You deserve to feel better!
I've now been in 150mg of sertraline for about 4 months, but overall I'm not sure I feel any different, I've tried multiple different medications but none seem to help rn.
Todays my first day taking 50mg.
And like you, I’ve been terrified to take them.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve tried everything else, and this is my last option. And like a lot of people have said, we won’t know how they will effect us until we try them.
I just pray I get it easy. Good luck!
Outside of killing my libido Sertralin had basically no bad side effects.
Little advice from my side...if you take something take it to a degree where it doesn't eliminate your symptoms completely so you can still work on handling it yourself and stop or reduce when you feel comfortable or strong enough
You aren’t going to know until you try unfortunately as it seems to be different for everyone.
My experience was that it worked really well, and I went up to 150mg a day… and then I developed a very rare side effect and had to come off it.
Those months I had of anxiety free life were great, but if I am honest the withdrawal (which is still ongoing) means that I wouldn’t try SSRIs again (even if they were an option). Instead I am trying other things (CBD, cold water therapy, talking therapy) and trying to find what works for me without synthetic drugs.
But again, this is my experience and you might have something completely different.
Thank you for sharing.
It seems to have worst side effects in higher dosages. I hope you're being able to deal with anxiety without drugs. I think I'll stick to 50mg (and tell the doc that's my preference). I'm kinda scared of negative side effects but most people said that they were little and dissappear soon (in small dosages like mine).
Everyone is different. I've been taking sertraline for years and if anything I can concentrate better because I'm not dealing with the racing thoughts that come with my anxiety.
It’s a very individual choice I put off taking it before my wedding as I was worried about side effects and worried about feeling numb around that time. I started taking it after and wish I had done sooner. It has changed my life for the better. I used to wake up with paralysing anxiety and now I wake up happy to be living another day and excited for the future. I can get on with life better and am more motivated. But this is just my experience of course. You won’t know until you try it but if you’re finding life very hard at the moment, it may be something to try but it has to be your choice of course. I echo what others have said in that if you decide to start it you need to stick with it for about two months to really notice the difference. Well for me anyway it took that long to settle but I didn’t have bad side effects either.
Thank you for sharing.
Most people said it changed their lives and they just regret not having started sooner. I'm motivated by the good stories (even if there's a lot of negatives), I hope it works well for me too! I really need that motivation, specially without anxiety eating my brain. I made my choice and I'm taking it, I'll make sure to stick to it for the necessary time. Good luck for us!
Taking 150g daily for a while now haven’t noticed any negative waking up with a tight beating like crazy chest was the first positive I’ve noticed and just being more social but I don’t think if it was the sertalin as I was on other meds and couldn’t tell you but I was super low energy
A little late to the party but for me they have worked brilliantly, i have been on them since the middle of june and they have made it possible to live my life again, i was struggling to leave the house but now i am a student living by myself. I will give you the other side of the picture though, it makes me need a poo in the morning and not one you can hold in and i have to take it with food. and well as the side effects on the leaflet puts it difficulties achieving orgasum.
I have done them before and actually started today again, hence why I’m on this page. I took them earlier for anxiety and depression, it made me feel good and not overwhelmed by everything. After a while i started to question my feelings, if it all were fake and so on.. so I stopped.
I’m starting again cause my anxiety is starting to take over day by day, the benefits for me is I get ultra focused. Otherwise my head is always going 110% and I’m very quite around people cause I can’t talk about the weather and so on.. and that gives me anxiety on top of all the other stuff.
With them I become confident, im more in the moment and in the conversation that I am having, you could say I’m numb from one perspective but I see it as I am more at ease and in control of my emotions to some degree, at least so it doesn’t control my every thought.. I can zoom out if I want to and I can deep dive when I want to.
It’s different for everyone like a lot of people have pointed out, and yes.. it is scary cause I’m not really myself, cause being myself means having anxiety and overthinking about everything to a point that it almost cripples me.
I try to see it as I’m myself but 2.0, I get to choose my focus with them and that is awesome.
I don’t get mad at everything.. usually I have a hell of a temper, with them I am able to calm myself before my mind and my thoughts have spiraled.
Can only speak for myself, it’s not all great but the good absolutely “weighs” (not sure if that’s correct, English is not my language) out the bad.
Add- i will try to use them as a tool for getting my shit together, start working out, eat nutritious food so that I can feel like this without them. Diet is everything.. but it’s hard to be on top of everything when you feel like you do (people who need medication/sertralin for various reasons).
Go easy, go slow, give it some time and then evaluate with yourself, people around you that may notice things about you that you don’t and with your doctor of course. You can always stop and go back to normal.
It took me a couple months to get used to the Sertraline but I was post partum and also dealing with high-anxiety medical stuff (almost died) so it may have just taken me longer. I changed my diet drastically and added vitamin D, B6 and then the Sertraline felt too high and I'm starting to taper off now.
I take Propranolol (beta blocker) and Seroquel in small doses as needed now and that helps a bit with some of the side effects.
Hi!! Yes, I am. Actually I was in the psychiatrist today, and he increased my dosage. Now I'll take 2 pills of 50mg. I think it's working, I'm not overthinking as I used to be. Thank you!
I’m on 25mg only took a few but stopped bc I was so insanely nauseous I couldn’t continue. I’m the same way- I thought maybe I wasn’t depressed and maybe trucker myself (though I literally have pmdd and become super suicidal so ik it’s not just me tricking myself) it kind of freaked me out from the meds. Despite having such a low dose I scared myself out of them quick and I’m more worried than now so I’m kind of holding off until I rlly become anxious or depressed again cause I’ve also just been sick the past week so that could have to do w why my side effects r worsened.
Truth is its different for everyone and you won’t know until you try. What I will say is that it will be ROUGH when you start but that should start to improve after a week or so. I’d also say try and still with it, even if you feel worse, for at least 4 - 6 weeks as it can take that long for the medication to reach full effect. I gave it 6 weeks and I am coming off as I don’t like how they have made me feel personally, but again I am positive they do a lot of good for a lot of other people
It may be rough. Lots of people don't have any side effects. I didn't and my husband didn't. I got nothing for a few weeks then one day I woke up and nothing was as overwhelming as it used to be.
Yeah, I've seen people saying that they experience too much side effects and also none. So it was suddenly that it helped you? Almost like an miracle, I'm grateful that it worked for you two.
I wouldn't say it was a cure all but I just ended up being able to cope a little more with my day to day life and the anxiety just stopped being as overwhelming. I'm not on it any more but I did take it for 10 years.
Thank you for sharing. Can I ask you how they affected you negatively? Anything related to your concentration? One of my biggest worries is that it may affect my concentration/focus skills and my academic performance in general, because it calms you down and makes you feel less worried about everything. I don't know if it's worthy the first rough weeks too when I probably can overcome it by myself. I'll start taking if it gets worse, I guess.
Didn’t affect concentration. But it did make me gain weight and killed my sex drive and I was so hyper-focused on that stuff that it ended up making me anxious about things I wasn’t anxious about previously.
Sertraline fucked me UP but I got a genetic test afterwards and it turns out my body just has a hard time metabolizing SSRIs, so I take an SNRI (desvenlafaxine) instead. You’ll never truly know until you either try something or get a genetic test, but they’re pricey and my insurance didn’t cover it.
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They did impact on my concentration yes and I became quite forgetful. Always felt zoned out and essentially in a constant state of disassociation in addition to higher anxiety overall. Today is day 3 of tapering on 25mg and after today I will probably stop them.
This 100% Sertraline did make me feel numb, but I was taking it for depression and anxiety, and it let me just not feel; but after my whole life of feeling like I felt everything so intensely, I was grateful for it. Took it for a year or so and then tried others. I just have trouble with feeling like my emotions control me though.
Thank you for sharing. That's my fear. I don't want to have my personality changed because of this, and I don't want to lose concentration and feel numb... some people said that it works better when taken only for anxiety, but I don't really know. Did you experienced any loss of focus in that year? How you're doing with the new meds? That's a problem I have too, I hope sertralin helps me with it.
Sounds like it may be the anxiety talking :p For real though, you can't know until you try. The problem is, with these medications, you have to wait for 1-3 months to truly see if the medication is going to be a good fit for you. Right now, it's keeping me sane as a grad student who's living alone for the first time and dealing with financial stresses and cognitive overload. Zoloft helps reduce the noise in my brain and enables me to focus on one thing at a time.
Thank you for your response. And lol it probably is :S After reading all the feedbacks I'm convinced to give it a try. My doc said that it should start working by 3-4 weeks. I'm interested in your point of view tho, other people said about reducing the noise but what captured my attention is the focus part. Do you believe that your skill to focus is better now than it was before? Or it just changed, like before you couldn't focus on only one thing and now you can? It's better that way for you?
A side effect of anxiety is impaired concentration. So sertraline, an anxiolytic, should technically help improve you focus and stay on task as you won’t be as distracted by excessive worries and anxious thoughts. Start low and go slow, as far as the dose goes, if you’re apprehensive. Just discuss with your doctor—they want to help you, not add more problems to your life.
Wow, I didn't knew this. Thanks for the info! As i said, I've read a lot of people saying that it made them lose focus and everything before taking it. If that's so, I have much less to worry about. Other people suggested that too - I'm thinking of taking half of the pill for the start.
A lot of people do that. They start with half a pill and increase to the full pill after a couple weeks or so if tolerating well by that point (meaning no significant adverse side effects). And if it doesn’t work out and you don’t tolerate it, you can always stop taking it (and tell your doctor/check with them as well). You don’t really need to worry about withdrawal effects when you’ve only been on it for a couple of weeks. Don’t take my word for it though—as always, discuss with your doctor who is there to help you! I’d also maybe discuss with them trying cognitive behavioral therapy with a therapist, as that can be very, very helpful with anxiety. Anyway, hope this helped and hope things work out!
I actually took sertraline for the first time as a grad student, and at the time it was the greatest thing. After I started taking it, I got up the energy to break up with my alcoholic boyfriend, move to a sweet studio apartment, and finish grad school. I was only on it for maybe 6 months because after a while, I felt ready to feel things more deeply. I really needed a break from all the anxiety, and these meds did the trick. It’s funny bc now, it’s almost two decades later, and I got my first sertraline from the pharmacy today. The anxiety feels different than before so like OP, I am really doubting myself. And I have personally had such a good experience! But I’m on the internet reading about sertraline than just taking it. Ah, my brain. Anyways I’m glad it sounds like it’s working for you! Grad school can really suck but hopefully you can finish. Lots of fun opportunities on the other side :)
Im a scientist, and started with SSRI during my PhD. Never regretted it, and did not make me less concentrated. If anything, it made more productive and successful in science because I wasn't debilitated by anxiety and worrying. I travel the world alone now, give science talks to 100+ person audiences and I am never going to stop taking antidepressants.
Wow, thank you for your response! I'm more and more relieved now, specially seeing a scientist speaking about it. I know that it's different for everyone but most people here are saying that it actually helped them to be productive so I'm giving it a try. Also, congratulations for your success!
Had a similar experience. Changed my life for the positive! For the first time in years, I felt "normal". No lack of concentration or numbness at all.
I took a minimum dose for only 8 months. Now it has been 7 months since I stopped the medication and I have no lubrication at all, I am unable to get aroused, I have 0 libido, I am not able to feel anything romantic no matter how slight and sometimes I find it hard to feel other emotions. This is called PSSD (and there are other symptoms and much worse than mine), it doesn't happen to everyone, but I wish I had known before I started taking those damn pills and trusting doctors who then wouldn't believe me that I had these symptoms and would abandon me to my fate after ruining my life at only 23 years old. And no, I don't have depression or anxiety and that's not it. Do what you want, it's your life, but it has chemically castrated me and thousands of others at the very least (r/PSSD). I wish I had never taken it.
Thank you for sharing. I'm so sorry to hear that, I really am. I heard little about it but it seems to be affecting many people. These doctors are a bunch of a$$holes sometimes... I'll look at the reddit and learn about it. Maybe it's not worth the risk after all.
If your anxiety/depression isn't ruining your life, it isn't worth it imo. Find another way.
I think it's ruining my life without my knowledge, I always think that it's not thad bad but it is. I'll try to see how it does... a little scared but motivated too. I hope nothing like this happens :(
Chances are you'll be okayy, so don't be too afraid. There are millions of people who take these drugs who do not develop these severe symptoms that stick around after coming off the drugs. I am just of the opinion that doctors need to be informed of the longterm risks and pass these along to the patients to receive consent that they accept these risks. That is all.
Same here I'm 22 and it's fucked me up aswell, brain fog, feel weak, low sex drive wish I'd never taken them
my sons both take setralime. For over 2 years. I have seen nothing negative from them For taking it. And they are on pretty high doses (ages 16 and 18).
Thank you for sharing. That calms me down a little. Other people here also said that it had more pros and cons for them, so I'm considering giving a try if my anxiety gets worse.
Not a doctor, but I'll share my experience with that med so far (few weeks): - It is starting to help with anxiety. - Hurt my stomach the first few days. What finally helped was drinking plenty of water after the pill. - It does feel like my existing concentration problem got worse, but I think this is more because "SSRIs can make ADHD worse" (undiagnosed. Again not a doctor so take it with a grain of salt) - My libido dropped significantly (I'm a guy), found out that this particular side effect was relatively recently reframed as "Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction" but I'm hoping that's not the case.
what dose did you start on?
Any improvement in libido getting back to normal? I took my first pill today! I'm nervous about sexual sides and weight gain, but hoping to dodge them (or at least not suffer anything permanently if i have to stop the meds!)
Libido feels like 70% of original, but performance regained up to 85% of original, but I'm guessing mileage can vary for anyone. Speaking of variation I had depression many years ago and the SSRI I got for it didn't cause this particular side effect.
When faced with such a decision, I often try to reframe things like…”Am I willing to try Sertaline for six months?” You don’t have to make a lifetime commitment to any single solution.
Thank you for your advice. That's true, sometimes anxiety makes things look eternal when they aren't.
I took that for anxiety for about 6 weeks. I wasn’t depressed before and it made me very depressed, numb as you mentioned, and gave me suicidal thoughts. I stopped taking shortly after. But everyone is different.
Thank you for sharing. I'm sad to hear that. I hope it works for me, but I'll only know when I try... May I ask, did you found a better med then?
I have been suffering with GAD for years and tried like 5 different SSNI and SSRI meds and none of them worked for me. They all made me feel depressed and crazy. Also like most of them made me sweat profusely lol. But I recently went to a new psychiatrist and he says he thinks I have adult ADHD that he wants to try to take care of. So I’m now taking adderall. It kinda helps with my anxiety because it helps me focus and keep my mind on track. I talked to him about buspar at our last session and he said we are going ti give it a try soon. I could give update in a few weeks after my apt if it’s working for me or not. I have used Xanax and kpin for anxiety brfore but it’s not the best. It’s very addictive.
What about anxiety? Did Sertraline helped?
Honestly after about 5-6 psychs and therapists and whatnot, I finally found a psychiatrist that helped me and prescribed me an OCD/anxiety/antidepressant. He said it was a SNRI that was mainly for ocd and anxiety, not depression. Because I’m not depressed. I’m just like not happy. I never have been. He said it’s not really a medicine that is often brought up or considered before like lexapro or buspar or even worse, a benzodiazepine. Which most def works. But it’s not a good fix and it actually doesn’t fix anything at all long term. I can’t remember if the sertraline helped with anxiety. I’d say not since I wanted to kill myself after about 4-6 weeks. But not I am prescribed Fluvoxamine and adderall. 30mg XR in the AM and 10mg IR for if I feel groggy and anxious mid afternoon at work. I take 2, 25mg tabs of Fluvoxamine before bed everyday and have been for the past 6-8 months. It does help with my anxiety. But like it’s hard to explain how it helps. It’s not instant at all. It takes 2-4 weeks to feel any affects. But it almost just shuts my emotions down and makes me not obsess or over worry about anything anymore. But that’s where the adderall helps. My brain doesn’t create the right amount of dopamine and with the adderall and the Fluvoxamine it levels me out and slows my brain down and helps me not focus on what other people think or do. Of course I still have anxiety often. But I’m learning to cope with it. I see a therapist regularly, I express my emotions now, I have finally built a relationship with my parents and family. I haven’t seen many downsides tbh besides losing sex drive completely. Like I haven’t had a hard dick in like 3 months. Haven’t thought about sex. Nothing. And I used to be a pretty bad porn addict. Like several seshes per day type shit. Not no more. There are ups and downs. But the pros weigh out the cons for me.
So which SNRI is that? Fluvoxamine is an SSRI right?
Hi there, sertraline user here. As some people have said it effects everyone differently. I heard of a lot of the same things you did and I too was scared to take it because of that. For me it’s working really well. I’m able to go to work every day and focus on what I need to do. My focus is actually a lot better because I’m not constantly worried about my anxiety. Best advice I can give you is try it out and see if it works, if it doesn’t you can talk to your psychiatrist and try something else. Medication is a lot of trail and error. You’ll eventually find something that works for you. I hope this helps :)
Thank you for sharing. I'm definitely giving a try, specially after so many good advices here in the comments. If it helps me focus then I just have things to win honestly. I'll make sure to keep in touch with him too. It helps, thanks again!
Of course :)
Everyone reacts differently to medications, but having anxiety about taking an anxiety medication is pretty normal. I imagine you have anxiety about lots of things if you're getting medication for it.
Thank you for your response Yeah, you're right... thinking about it, having anxiety about taking anxiety medication is a bit funny tho lol the irony
sertaline was hell. try it just in case because everyone’s brain chemistry is different. my personal experience was it made me smell really weird sulfur smell 🤮 which is why i stopped. i have a phobia of smelling bad so it was triggering me ( a few antidepressants cause this). also made me really hot i’d be sweating in a tube top in december 🥹 made me feel constantly bloated and i wanted to eat everything in sight! i usually only eat once a day but on sertraline i was non stop hungry . it made me very anxious and dissociative as well. also it made me irritable i would randomly get mad all the time. my bf took it as well and experienced the same thing. this is one of the only anti depressants ive taken that makes me not like myself or feel like im on something. i only lasted like two weeks taking it so if it doesn’t work out don’t be hard on yourself. hope it works out for you!!!
Thank you for sharing and for your support. I didn't knew it could make you smell bad, I'll probably be annoyed by that too! When I asked about gaining weight my doc said the opposite, that in fact it reduces the appetite, but yeah it depends so it's hard to know. The anxious and dissociation seems to be the worst part of it tho. I'm sorry that you experienced so many negative effects, I hope it works for me too.
Unfortunately people who don't really experience side effects don't put much online review wise. It's always the negative reviews you see and it freaks people out. I read somewhere that typically, severe side effects of medications happen to less than 1% of the global population. And some of those are because they abuse alcohol or other really bad drugs or are really ill and they take alot of medications and interactions may happen. After a 10-14 days hopefully you'll feel the positive effects from it. 4-8 weeks the medication should be at 100% in your system. At that point the doctor can adjust it or add a medication. I take 2 medications for panic attacks and they work great together.
I (28F) have been on sertraline, 100 mg, for the past ten years. I have never had any negative side effects from sertraline, it is generally a very well tolerated drug, but obviously this varies for everyone. Prior to sertraline I was on paxil for almost ten years as well and had no issues with side effects either, so I do think my body handles SSRIs very well. I did very well in school and my career so far, and I never thought that my concentration was impaired. Try it for a while, and give yourself enough time to get used to it. 50 mg is a pretty low dose.
Thank you for sharing. I'm relieved to hear that. Yeah, I've seen some people saying that they experienced some really bad things, but I'm hoping to be like you. My main concern was having my concentration impaired, so I'm glad that it's not that common. Congrats for your success too! I'm giving it a try, I thought that 50mg was higher than it seems.
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Thank for your response. So, for you, nothing changed? May I ask for how long did you take them?
Just a heads up to PLEASE do your research regarding the link between sertraline and severe bruxism. I had to get my jaw replaced with a titanium joint. And it’s all attributed to sertraline use.
Thank you for sharing. I'll do my research... specially because I experienced bruxism as a kid. I didn't knew it could be so severe, sorry for that. How you're doing now?
I resonated with you saying you think you made yourself have anxiety. I have always felt like this too. I tried several medicines and sertraline was the one that stuck. I have been on it for many years (8 or 9 I think) and have gradually upped my dosage. I now take 150mg a day. I never really noticed any side effects besides decreased sex drive. I honestly feel I concentrate better now because I’m not in a constant state of panic. It did take about 1-2 months to help though. Best of luck and don’t be afraid to change if it isn’t working
I prescribed a different anxiety medicine and I was worried that I would be a different person as well. I'll describe what happened to me to the best of ny ability. I always walked around in a fog, always felt nervous and angry and after about 1 month and a half I felt way calmer. I could focus a bit better (I had trouble focusing on the smallest tasks) and it felt like a giant cloud was lifted in my brain and I could see what was actually happening around me. I found I had been overreacting to things that i should have been laughing at and whatnot. If you are concerned about whether or not you actually have anxiety then try the pills still. A doctor wouldn't give them to you for no reason and generally anxiety symptoms are pretty easy to pinpoint. Especially with physical symptoms
Thank you for sharing. That worry was frightening me up. As you pointed, I hope to get better too. I identify with a lot of the symptoms you had, specially nervous and anger over minor things. The doc probably is right, the truth is I was anxious when writing this and it made me believe that "it wasn't that bad", so maybe I wouldn't need them. Now I see that I do.
I totally understand by what you mean. Anxiety is very hard to tolerate though and you'll see after a while that you can live a life not worried about every little thing. Because I was there 3 months ago and I had a really hard time accepting them and I also posted here asking generally the same things and saying I was scared. You'll be okay and if you need feel free to message me if you are worried or have any questions :) I'm obviously not a doctor, but I am a friend and I am here!
Living a life without worring about everything? can't even wait! I was having a hard time too but I'm more calm now, reading all of the comments really helped. That's so sweet, thank you so much again!
Of course! :) I'm excited for you as well, if I could go back 10 years I would've told myself to get on anxiety meds sooner. I'm almost 29 now and I wouldn't want you to wait that long. I'm rooting for you!
I also had a lot of anxiety about taking sertraline. I ended up taking it for 2 days, then freaked out and stopped taking it. Don’t feel like you have to take it if you don’t want to. Only you can decide what’s right for you.
For me personally, I did not do well and was switched from SSRIs completely within a week because they gave me suicidal thoughts. If you have any thoughts of that nature, CALL YOUR DOCTOR, do not continue taking it hoping those thoughts will go away. With that being said, my mom and my boyfriend have both been taking sertraline for years and have never had any negative side effects. It works well for a lot of people, just wasn’t for me. It might take a while for you to find what works, but you can ask for something different at any time if you don’t like how a drug makes you feel.
Yes, that and serotonin syndrome are the big life-threatening risks. They are rare, but everyone who takes it needs to make sure they've read the leaflet and know the signs of those two issues so that they can get medical help right away. The other risk appears to be loss of sexual function, but I have never been able to find any statistics on how common this is, it seems that research is lacking. Curiously, I had the opposite effect!
Dear friend, as a sertraline user and at the same age as you (18yo and 3 month old male), I think maybe I can give my insight here. Basically I had extreme anxiety issues since around 8yo, but I live in a Third World country where people usually dont talk much about these issues. Also, I was always interested in medicine, so I researched a bit when I was 14yo and saw that taking SSRIs before full growth and full sexual development could in some cases lead to stunted growth. That would be taking SSRIs before 16-18. At your age, you are fine and almost fully matured. So, 2 weeks after I made 18yo I got prescribed 25mg of sertraline daily. In the first 20 days, I felt nothing at all, but after that ALL my symptoms got better: Sweaty palms and feet: It has been over 60 days since I had this, and before taking meds I had constant sweating. Insomnia: I was always restless at night, constantly worried about med school admissions, my health, the violence in my neighborhood etc. Now I sleep like a baby. Focus: I could not concentrate much, specially regarding reading. Now I easily read tons of Bio and Chemistry books and my overall performance improved by around 34% regarding comprehension, grades etc. Appetite: Anxiety made my stomach very acidic and I was usually without hunger during morning and at lunch. Now, I am WAY hungrier. Lastly, some sites claim SSRIs can cause sexual dysfunctions etc, especially erectile dysfunction in males. I have never had sex, so I cant say to you what I think about it. But as a young male, frequent erections happen as often as before taking SSRIs. So I would say for me, nothing changed. Basically, sertraline changed my life for the better without a single problem or negative aspect. Again, this is just my experience. I would say I have never been as happy as I am now. So yeah, for me it was like a gift from God. Sorry for the long text and poor english (it is my third language), but this topic was pretty similar to my life experience, so decided to go deeper. Good luck and wish you all the best!!
Echoing what others say here, it is different for everyone, so I can only speak to my experience. Like you, I was scared of what the meds would do to my personality, so I avoided them until I basically had a very public panic attack at work a couple of years ago and got my butt to my GP as soon as I could (which was a couple months after the episode - hooray for American healthcare!) My GP put me on sertraline, and it made a huge difference, to the point where my only regret was not starting sooner. I also take buspirone now, since the stress of ::gestures vaguely at the world since March 2020:: caught up to me, and it actually helps the sertraline work better for me. Again, your mileage may vary (my husband's does, as he's on Lexapro), but it is definitely worth a shot.
Thank you for sharing. It seems that anxiety itself makes us to question even the meds. It's good to know that I'm not alone in this about the fear of personality changing tho. If your only regret was not starting sooner I can assume that the side effects (like less concentration or difficulty to focus) are little compared to the pros, right? That's my main concern rn, but I'm more and more convinced to try it. Besides, what motivated me to seek help was also a panic attack where I could only breathe through forced "yawns". The problem is that we take too long to realize how much anxiety affect us.
Yes, that has pretty much been my experience. If anything, I've been more productive and confident since I started, as opposed to constantly second-guessing myself and feeling paranoid about what other people thought of me all the time. I have had a few side effects, like weird dreams and some digestive stuff, but I'll take that over constantly feeling anxious.
Perfect, meds are really life changing then. I also need that productivity/confidence boost. The second-guessing myself and paranoid thoughts are definitely one of the things that are lowering my academic performance, so I'm giving it a try. I don't know which side effects I'll have but I'm pretty sure they'll be nothing compared to the harms of anxiety.
Best of luck! Thinking back on it, I wish I'd gone to my doctor for this back when I was your age (God, I sound old!) But it was the early '00s, and there was still a lot of stigma around mental health then.
The big problem with these drugs is that is so hard to quit these and the withdrawal can last a long time. Talk to your doctor about this
SSRIs have a wide pool of side effects so different people will get very different ones. I for become suicidally depressed to the point where I started abusing my painkillers just to stop the emotonal pain I felt on them. That shouldn't scare you away though. I'd KILL to find a medicine that works, and you still have the chance that I don't. It'd be a waste not to try it, and remember you can always quit it if it isn't tolerable for whatever reason, it's not some permanent decision. I went from suicidally depressed to normal (for me) in literally 1-2 days.
I’m 60, and sometimes it crosses my mind that maybe I don’t really have depression and anxiety. Then my brain refresh’s my memory.
I took sertraline and got off it after a year. It didn’t help me but you won’t know until you do it. I was on 100 mg. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to antidepressants. just make sure you’re doing in person therapy. Honestly tele-health in my experience isnt ideal. Therapy for me is more effective in person.
Thank you for sharing. I'm giving it a try, hope it works for me. 100 mg seems a little high tho. I'll try to continue doing therapy, is a bit hard for me because of my routine but it definitely helps. In general, I think that the "physical contact" is very necessary in therapy, it's so different from talking to someone behide the scream.
My daughter is 17 and takes 100mg of sertraline and it works wonders for her. If you have any adverse reactions let your doctor know so you can monitor it and decided if it is or isn’t the med for you!
I hesitated for years with medication. I tried a few and had bad reactions including the numbness/fog you're worried about. Could never push through that part and had such awful health anxiety with every medicine tried. I finally stopped medicating with alcohol in 2020 and began Sertraline 50mg late 2021 and it's been absolutely fantastic. I had an initial sleepiness and felt pretty lethargic but I reconvened with my doctor and began taking it at night and it's been great. I am far less prone to anxiety within my day to day life now. Sure I have good and bad days; I'm having a bad one today but because of Sertraline my default state isn't anxious. I'm still me in all the good ways; I didn't have some personality change or anything drastic. I'm just far more focused and able to work now. Obviously it's different for everyone but my side effects subsided about the 1 week mark. I began it in the holidays and basically set aside a week for it where I just hung out at home, did some light walking and was super kind to myself. It wasn't too bad at all OP It might help you a lot Feel free to send a PM if you want to talk more in-depth. I'm happy to help :)
Thank you for sharing and for your support. These two reactions worries me so much. I'm so happy to read that your experience was this good! I plan to take at morning but if it didn't work I'll talk to my doc too. Hope your day gets better also. The focus part is what keeps me more motivated. I really need this to work. If it goes like it was for you I think I'll be fine soon. Thank you so much!
What was ur dosage? How long you took it before it started working?
I am the opposite of what you described, I feel like it helps me concentrate a lot more and makes me able to look at situations objectively and not let me anxiety and emotions get in the way. I don't get a numbness like I did on lexapro
Hello! I have been on sertraline since I was 8 (23 now). Personally, the medication saved me! It can have its side-effects like all medications, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t experience them. However, it’s non addictive! I was on the 200 mg dose for years, and have managed to reduce it to 50 mg now. I feel really no side-effects now. It’s different for everyone, but feel free to message me if you’d like to talk more :)
Thank you for sharing! I'm glad to hear that! A lot of people said the same, that it saved them. My doc said that it's not addictive too, I'm excited to start. Thank you for the support!
Of course! You got this :)
I’ve been on sertraline for a few years now! It’s been amazing for my anxiety and I’m sure it could be for you too. My only side effect at the beginning was lots of drowsiness (however I’m on a fairly small dose so it could be different for someone else). In terms of the numbness feeling, I think that once we stop having so many constant anxious thoughts it feels numb to not have thoughts racing through our heads all the time. Based on how it’s effected me, I feel like it’s actually made me far more productive because I tend to worry about less things that could impact my ability to get things done efficiently. Give it a shot, I think it’s worth it
Thank you for sharing. I'm pretty convinced to try it. Taking the first dose today! Maybe that's it. We're so used to chaos that when the piece comes we don't know how to feel about it. I need this productivity boost.
The problem is this medicine has different effects on everyone. For me I started out on 20mg and slowly went to 50mg and both times taking the first dose made me dizzy after that the only side effect I had was no anxiety. I never gained any weight, I would say I’m less emotional than I was before but nothing to the extending of feeling nothing. Honestly you never know until you try it.
Thank you for sharing. I'm convinced to try it now. I hope it helps me too! Really want a life without anxiety.
I take 100 mg of setraline everyday, rather than “change who you are”, they just make you you without anxiety. At first, expect some side effects and the medication not really working(for me it was nausea but it’s different for everyone), however once youve been taking them regularly for a couple of weeks/months, the improvement is insane, it’s like you cant really remember how it feels to be anxious, oh and also the side effects definitely dont last forever, as long as you take it with food(one bite of food, take it, another bite of food), the side effects should be very minimal/negligible
Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I mean I thought they could make me less focused and mess with my performance at school but I was probably exaggerating. I really want the feeling of not being anxious so I'm giving it a try.
Ok so here’s the deal. You don’t have to take it forever, if you don’t like it after a couple months(6 weeks I think for full effectiveness) you can stop. What do you have to lose from trying it?
Thank you for your response. Well said. There's a lot of good things to take off from it, I decided to give it a try.
I’m on 200mg of sertraline. It’s a very weak anti anxiety pill. All it really does to me is give my mind some resistance when I’m getting anxious, giving me more time to use my CBT skills. They haven’t changed who I am, just allowed me to do more.
How long you took it before it started working?
A bit over a week. It’s not the most powerful but the few side effects are good.
I mean I defo feel much better after taking it for a while. Much happier and confident. I think it’s a med you have to stick with.
I am on the same dose as you, been taking it for 6ish months. First week was horrible, but after that it was great. No discernible change in my concentration. Sexual desire did go down slightly however, but not a lot. My only piece of advice is to take it. Don't be afraid.
I’m in this EXACT situation. I took one pill and felt awful for 2 days (YES EVERYONE I KNOW YOU HAVE TO GET PAST THE SIDE EFFECTS AND KEEP TAKING THEM TO SEE AN EFFECT) but I even had to force myself to take one pill and I’ve realised that actually I don’t want to be on medication for it and I’m going to talk to the doctor about talking to somebody instead.
Hi, I'm on sertraline for the same reasons. I started at the lowest dose possible (half a tablet a day) and upped the dosage until I felt like it was enough. I did have a period where my dosage was too high. I felt like a sack of potatoes and I felt numb. When I lowered the dose I was fine again. I would advise you to just try it. **Please keep in mind that your anxiety can get worse after you first take it but it will get better.** I'm very sensitive for side effects so when I get new medications I always take two or three days off. Some of my friends quit after a week because it made them feel worse at first. I'm glad I pushed through tho. Try it for a longer period of time to make sure it does it's thing. Sertraline doesn't work right away. (not for me at least) I haven't had any concentration problems (except for the first few days). But I also have autism so something that clears my mind helps me. If you decide to try it, please tell your psychiatrist if it works (or if it isn't working). Don't skip days or adjust your dose on your own. It was worth it imo. Please note these are my personal experiences. Also english isn't my first language so sorry for any spelling errors ;) I hope this helps a little :)
Thank you for sharing. Other people said the same, that they raised the dosage and experienced worst side effects I'm giving it a try, I've taken my first pill today. I'll stick to the necessary time. I'm motivated to push through it too. I just hope it makes me better and doesn't affect my concentration, that's my biggest concern as you could see. I'll make sure to talk to him! English isn't my first language either but I guarantee it helped me. Thanks!
hi! im basically the same person as you lol i always pushed myself to the limit and i did my assignments as soon as i can, im very focused as well as an overachiever. im also on sertraline for my anxiety and im honestly very thankful for it. first week was rough, palpitations, my anxiety getting worse, jittering. but the next few weeks, i started feeling better. i had a big project to be presented a couple of weeks after taking my meds and i was waaayyy calmer than expected because i was dreading that day all year. unlike pre-meds, i also give myself more breaks. i always let myself do something fun before/after homework because I realized that thinking more and more tasks are coming so i need to do it right then and there was irrational and we all needed a work life balance. yes, sertraline is not a cure for anxiety but it definitely helps me function better. things that used to trigger me before dont have that much of an impact on me anymore. i used to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep (i used to only get 5 hours esp the weeks leadig up to my psychiatric appt) but now i sleep better (7-8 hours) . from DAILY breakdowns to having almost none. it also made me more sociable for some reason lol def happier and better with sertraline ++ my psychiatrists advices :)
Thank you for sharing. Good to know that there's more people like me on this. You described me perfectly in the assignments part. That's why my doc prescribed me sertraline too. I have to learn how to give myself a break without feeling guilty tho. The work life balance is so accurate, I think like that as well, that if I didn't do it as soon as they appear I couldn't do anything else. I started to taking it today and I'm really excited for a change.
Late to the party OP, and seeing as you already said you’re up for trying it, good luck. I’m on 37.5mg, and been on 25mg up until last week. I have a background in psychology, so I went into trying SSRIs knowing about the tough parts Still, knowing and experiencing are 2 different things. And experiences vary hugely between person to person. The side effects can be quite shitty, but if sertraline is the right med for you, when it works -it works well. My own personal experience is that I feel better now than I have in my whole life. I am making decisions better, focussing on work better I am on (now) 37.5mg of Sertraline, and been on it for 2-3 months (I think? I’ve stopped counting). It took 6 full weeks for me to feel the good parts consistently. Because I like data, I kept a week by week (daily as much as possible) record of my experience and if you feel like it you can have a read. I read similar posts on the Zoloft sub to set my expectations. They’re a good bunch there and it’s a good support system to have when you start off (as is this sub)
Thank you for sharing. I really want to be able to make anxiety-free decisions and focus better on my things. I'm motivated to wait, a lot of people said that and I know I have to (even if it's difficult for anxious people like us). I'm interested into reading if possible and I'll take a look into the Zoloft sub. Other person here suggested me to write my experience too.
Head to my profile and you’ll see all the posts I’ve made. It was quite therapeutic to write them -hopefully they help Take care and good luck
I have taken it for 15 years with virtually no side effects and my only regret is that i hadnt started it sooner. My experience with zoloft is that it is a very mild medication that does reduce anxiety significantly. It will not change your personality or make 100 percent of your anxiety go away, but for me it substantially reduces obsessive thoughts and reduces my body's fear reaction. I felt slightly off and mildly dizzy for a couple days when I first started taking it but nothing after that. I also think I had to take it in the morning at first - it gave me a bit of insomnia if i took it at night (that stopped quickly). Definitely worth trying for a couple months and nothing to be scared of. once it starts working you will probably realize the fear was just anxiety talking. You can always stop if it doesn't work for you. Also, please be aware zoloft will make you get drunker faster with alcohol. Alcohol is bad for anxiety anyway, but it took me by surprise when I first started zoloft in my early 20s. Finally, trust in cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapy seems ridiculous when you are young, but cbt really helps anxiety. When you get anxious thoughts your mantra should be: my body is having a fight/flight/freeze reaction and it will pass. My thoughts during this period of stress are not me and can be ignored.
Seems common practice that the therapist will refer you to a psychiatrist after first meeting. To me it seemed weird mine did that without even talking much and trying to work on things first without medication. For me just therapy alone seemed to work good enough, you can always try that first then add medication once you get more comfortable with your therapist and if it seems like you still need a boost. Just what worked for me, I am also very anxious/hesitant about taking any medication. Good luck!
Sertraline changed my life in the best way possible. It's worth trying.
Uplifting comment here! I started Sertraline about 2 years ago (at 23 years old). Previous meds helped a little but I still had anxiety and the panic attacks would not go away. Sertraline gave me back my life. When switching meds, the first weeks are always a bit rough... but it was worth it. I also had basically no side effects. Now I can eat, sleep, study/work with entusiasm (I'm currently a PhD candidate). Also no effect on my sex drive (I know it is a common side effect). I just wanted to say: please do not be discouraged by all the negative experiences. I know the health anxiety is real, and all the negative experiences tend to reinforce your fear. But I suspect there may be some bias here - I guess that many people that follow this subreddit are having a bad experience with anxiety and related madications... But there are also many many success stories like mine, that maybe are less represented in this subreddit. (It's just something I thought... does it make sense?) With that said, absolutely do your research and ask all the questions to your doctor. You have to be informed about all the pros and cons. I really hope Sertraline will be the right one for you, if you decide to take it. Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing. Some people told me their negative experiences, but a lot more said that it works for them and changed their lives. And it makes a lot of sense, people tend to talk more about things that didn't worked out for them (specially in a reddit about anxiety). I'm doing my research, I hope it'll be the right for me too! I've decided to take it, so best of luck to us.
I was on that same dosage for quite a while. I didn’t notice any side effects although it did affect some of my blood tests. It is different on everybody of course. I think if your psychiatrist proscribed it, you should give it a shot, you can always tell them if it is affecting you negatively and they will help you. As I said, I didn’t feel anything wrong, and it did help me to get better.
Thank you for sharing. I hope it works for me too, after all the thinking I'm giving it a try. Thank you your advice! I'll make sure to follow it.
I started taking it four years ago in addition to Lexapro. I did take it titrated by upping the dosage slowly. I am a systems analyst and I did not see any impact on my focus and concentration other than improvement since I could stop the running thoughts which did prevent me from focusing. Best of luck and check with the psychiatrist if titration Is an option.
Thank you for sharing. I'll do my research, never heard about it before. Also, relieved to know that it didn't affected your focus and concentration, a lot of people said it improved so I'm excited to try it. Thanks again!
Don’t take it. All it does is make you fat and more depressed and anxious. Try taking magnesium supplements first!
I started that recently and my symptoms (nausea, diarrhea, dry heaving, could barely eat) were so bad i lost 5 lbs in one week and had to stop and i’m only on 25 mg, i didn’t feel different in a bad way personality wise i’m giving it one last try soon but good luck we both need it
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I recently just started taking to two years ago. I've been through a few, wellbutrin and Lexapro. I had a really bad reaction to Lexapro but after I started of the zolft(50mgs) I felt like my old self before I was depressed with high anxiety. You're having the side affects I was told I was gonna have (diarrhea, anxiety attacks, ect) but I'm detoxing from methadone so it kind of counteracts the diarrhea and I have an mmj card fir my anxiety. But overall I couldn't be happier once my body got used to taking them. But everyone is different. I hope the best for you and that everything works out!
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As for concentration, i definitely feel it has helped with my concentration a ton!!! I used to never be able to study but now i can sit down for hours and it wont really matter. I suggest taking it at night if you’re worries about it, but i suffer from ocd and it has insanely helped me
Thank you for sharing. That calms me down so much. That was my biggest concern. I hope it helps me too!
Yeah it really helps me, especially when combined with cbt and meditation
I've been on a low dose for over a year and I've been pretty happy with how it helps me. I still get panicky, but it's way less severe and my anger is way more under control. I'm also pregnant and feel comfortable taking it after getting the ok from multiple doctors. You can always wean yourself off of it if you decide you don't like it. Medicine roulette isn't super fun, but you'll be glad you took the time to figure out what works best for you. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing and for the support. I'm definitely trying. I hope it helps me to deal with my emotions too and I'm relieved to see that it's mostly a safe med. Good luck for you too!
I was on Sertraline for about two years and I wish I never had. It made me feel numb, and more anxious than I had ever been previously. I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I switched to lexapro after talking with my doctor few weeks ago and I feel so much better. I actually feel happy, instead of feeling nothing.
Thank you for sharing. Sorry for your experience. It seems to work different for everyone, so it's hard to tell if it's going to work for me. I'm happy to know that Lexapro is working for you, I hope to feel better too!
I was afraid to take drugs for the same reason when I was younger. I've taken over a dozen different ones since, for both depression and anxiety, and while I've experienced many side effects this one specifically was never one of them. Also, just something to think about... Perfectionism is sometimes a symptom of a less-than-ideal upbringing and a way for kids who are under stress and don't feel like they have the emotional connections they need, to control their environment. It may not be the worst thing to give up some control and sometimes just let things unfold as they might.
Thank you for sharing. That calms me down a little. Your view about perfectionism actually got me thinking. I've always felt like this, but I didn't knew the reason behind it. My thoughts were that it was anxiety's fault, but it can pretty much be what you said. Maybe giving up some control will be the best.
You're welcome. Good luck with everything.
I do understand your worry, a lot of people will have some adverse effect at least. We are similar in being perfectionists, always want to do my best,etc. Although imposing myself with impossible expectations has taken me down the road of burnout—depression and anxiety. I’m not saying this is your case but we perfectionist tend to fall down that rabbit hole if we don’t balance everything else in life. I’m taking sertraline 100mg for MDD with anxiety. started with 50mg and went up in dose over the course of months. For me the most important side effects were nausea, which by now I don’t even perceive any more. Personally, anxiety (and ofc depression) were rendering me almost useless. I had anxiety to start any work for fear of failure. Sertraline has worked for me. Some months into treatment + therapy + healthier habits and starting to feel capable of studying for the most important exam in my career.
The key here is quality of life. If you want to be able to do the things you want, you should take something to make you do that
I took zoloft for many many years. 150mg to be exact. It helped me tremendously. Only side effect I had was a little bit of dry mouth. No problem. Sipped water all Day or chewed gum. Wasn't that bad. This is one drug that saved my life.
Thank you for sharing. I'm taking it now, I hope to feel better too! Good to know that negative side effects didn't occur to everyone.
Pshh 50 mg is nothing, but then again medication is ALWAYS subjective to the individual. I take 200mg everyday and it still doesn’t feel like enough some days but you might react differently. It’ll be an adjustment to make from suffering everyday to taking the medication. For me when I started suffering from anxiety I felt lost, like I didn’t recognize myself anymore. When I got on medication I finally felt like myself again, like I was back to normal how I was before I had it. So it might have that effect on you and not necessarily become something u don’t recognize. I’d say try it and be consistent about it. Sertraline, along with other SSRI’s take a good couple weeks before you feel the full effect of what’s it like to be on the medication and you can see how you have changed since then. But as soon as you take it the first day or any time you take it, you can feel it around a half an hour later. I know it might be scary but there is nothing to worry about, the medications goal is to help you not hurt you. Maybe right a journal or take notes and just observe yourself over the next month of consistently taking it to see what’s different about yourself. If at the end of the month you don’t like how you feel, try something else, there’s tons of different medications and therapies out there to help you if that’s what you want. Remember, the hardest step was asking for help in the first place. YOU GOT THIS!! 🤟
Thank you for sharing and for your support. 200mg seems to much for me, but as you said, everyone's different. I'll follow the tip of writing about it, and I'm giving it a try with some time. Asking for help was one of the hardest steps for me too, I'm glad we did it! I really want know how it is to be anxiety-free.
Hey that’s awesome yeah definitely keep some sort of notes! Yeah no 200mg is not something you’d take at first, doctors always start u off small. And hey if the 50 mg isn’t strong enough after a month or it’s just not doing the trick then talk with your doctor and they might try you at a higher dose. Hopefully the 50 mg will be enough for you though! Keep ur head up though, it’ll get better! I NEVER in a million years thought it would but it did, and it will take some time. If u need to talk we are here for you, we’ve all gone through it or are currently going through it. I’m always open to dm if u need help or further advice. I’m glad you went through the uphill battle, admitting you need help is the single HARDEST step. It’s all downhill from here, in a good way.
I'll definitely talk with him about it if it's not working. I'm hoping that is enough too, and I'm giving time to it. Thank you you much for the support, I had some hard time accepting that I needed help but here we are!
Definitely the best thing you can do now, is monitor yourself. Monitor everything, trust your gut, and reach out to your medical professional as soon as something needs to be addressed. Everything will get better now I believe in you! You don’t need to thank me lol, just trying to help. I wish you all the best throughout your journey, good luck!
Everyone's different so what works for some may not work for others, I had a really positive experiemce, I was on sertraline for years and it worked amazingly for both my anxiety and depression kept me really stable, then I was recommended vitamin E, I think it was to improve my energy levels and it interacted with the sertraline and totally messed me up to the point that sertraline no longer worked, so I had to move to a combo of pills which work ok but no where near as good as sertraline was, and I have to take them more often which is hard to remember to do. The only way you'll know is to try, if there not right then go back to the doctor but if you dont try then you won't know weather they're going to work for you. You need to take them for at least 4 weeks though to see if they will work. I'm not gonna lie sometimes there's an adjustment period of a couple weeks where it can feel like there not working or the side effects are really unpleasant but push to the 4 week mark, because the side effects can go away ! The only sort of down side I found was if you have an alcoholic drink, then they can make them feel stronger so if you have say a single vodka coke it feels like you had 5 so if you do have an occasional drink while on them be prepared and don't go mad. (I know your not supposed to drink on anti depressants, but I like an occasional glass of wine with a meal)
Now they were fine for me in mood corrections until they started to cause me heavy insomnia, it would make stay awake for days solid without any switch off. Then when I tried to come off them after being on them months, they’d give me flue like symptoms and higher blood pressure/nose bleeds. I tried to come away a couple of times. I’m the end I stayed in bed for a month and suffered it out… I started to sleep again, I seemed to have been left with a strange dizziness type thing (which has slowed right down now) but went through a bit to come off them. But I’m the end I came off them. Would of stayed on them if it weren’t for insomnia.
Thank you for sharing. Interesting, some people said that it made them sleep better. I hope that insomnia doesn't occur to me, I was having some because of breathe problems related to anxiety before taking.I'm sad to hear this too... it's different for everyone apparently. Good luck finding the right med tho! I'm trying sertraline today.
Personally for me (only 25mg dose however), there were zero side effects, and it really helped me.
Thank you for sharing. I started today. I hope theres no negative side effects too!
Best of luck :)
Just fyi- perfectionism is a form of anxiety.
Thank you for your response. That clears a lot of things, really makes sense now.
I genuinely can’t tell if this is sarcasm or not. Point being you made it clear in a lot of comments you have really good concentration/motivation and perfectionism and you don’t want to lose that— I’m simply pointing out that may be the anxiety the professional noticed and prescribed you something to help for? And the anxiety seems to be fighting to stay alive with all the doubt about trying a medicine that may or may not help. That’s what anxiety and depression and all these things do.. fight us to stay around.
No, sorry, it wasn't sarcasm. It occur me a lot of times that perfectionism may be an anxiety symptom, but I wasn't sure. I'm sorry if it looks like I was making fun of it - I swear it wasn't my intention. I recognize that I was also anxious when writing this, it's true, that's the reason I was was doubting probably. Sorry again, and thanks for the clarification!
No need to apologize! SSRIs didn’t work out for me. I’m glad I tried just so I know I didn’t leave the option out there but in the end they weren’t a fit. I felt like I was recognizing a little anxiety in your comments and just wanted to voice that hey- don’t let the anxiety win this one. It makes total sense to be doing the research you’re doing, the nerves are completely normal! Basically I just wanted to be a small reminder that said “hey that anxiety is on the no side of the line- don’t let that voice be the loudest simply cause it’s familiar”
It is very individual. All I can give you is my own experience. I am also very perfectionistic and can be highly focused on performing well. It has had no effect on my concentration in that way, I can still hyperfocus when I need to, and my cognitive abilities are not really changed. I'm able to drive as far as ever without any additional tiredness or loss of competence. My brain is fine in that way. I would say it's better, because the anxiety was more of a hindrance than a help in getting things done. It turns out my real motivation for getting things finished was not actually anxiety but satisfaction in a job well done and my self-image as someone who does things well. That's unchanged. In fact the only cognitive effect I notice, now that I'm completely past all the acclimatisation effects, is that my thoughts are a little more "free-floating" than they were. I've always been a little vague and daydreamy, and I'm slightly more so, and slightly more inclined to lose situational awareness when I relax. More likely to wake up not knowing what day it is, randomly forget the time of year and have to think about it, that sort of thing. But it does not affect my focus when I'm "switched on" - it just gives me a more complete ability to "switch off", maybe slightly more than I intend to! I can control it, though, is they key point. In fact I have very few side effects generally now. A very very slight reduction in coordination which makes me a little clumsy, but not seriously so. A slightly increased tendency to vertigo when tired or stressed, but I had that tendency anyway. In general I feel normal on it, like myself, more so than previously when I was in a hell of negativity and worry.
I've been taking Sertraline for years, and I have had no noticeable bad side effects. for a while I had extremely vivid dreams, and guess I still do, but not nightmares.
I take sertraline and I have not experienced numbing, personality changes, or difficulty in concentration. It changed my life in profound ways and allows me to find happiness and contentment. It did drastically reduce my sex drive, and that's a bummer. But I can still reach orgasm and enjoy sex. I just don't think about sex much anymore, so my partner needs to be the primary initiator is all. Worst case scenario, you take it and you don't like how it feels. Your psychiatrist can help you try other options until you find something that suits. Trust me, it is so worth it. I have generalized anxiety disorder and persistent depressive disorder if that makes any difference.
Thank you for sharing. That's good to hear. I'm giving it a try, I don't have much to lose and everything to gain. Everyone here said it's worthy too, so I'm convinced that it'll be better that way. I want to be anxiety-free so much.
Zoloft seems like a bad starting point if you’re not currently taking meds. It is a little more hardcore then the other SSRI’s that are available - venlafaxine, desvenlafaxine (i had a bad experience with this one)
Pretty sure it works. I stopped taking it because it made me manic. Joyous way to find out you’re bipolar.
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"I'm afraid" is anxiety.
I have been taking 50mg of setraline for 7 years at this point. The first week or two feels a little weird, but I have felt great ever since. I still feel like myself, just less anxious
It’s different for everyone but it was very overwhelmingly bad for me so I stopped asap. It felt like my anxiety was eating me alive but I had no symptoms at the same time? It was like everything I felt was in this weird cloud of dread and cycling thoughts. I felt like I was in a haze and I barely even remember anything from that time now. I also developed bad insomnia immediately so I barely slept and that probably led to everything feeling ten times worse. The worst part for me was the intrusive thoughts. I had so many of them all the time, going around and around in my head and it felt like I couldn’t get a break from anything. I guess I just don’t mix with SSRIs and that experience has turned me off them completely because it was so scary! That being said a friend of mine is on it and she’s absolutely fine with no side effects. It just depends on the person and unfortunately the only way to know is to take it.
Thank you for sharing. Some people seems to be really affected by it, I can imagine how strange it felt dealing with anxiety without the familiar symptoms. When you taped down these things disappeared? I'm already experiencing some insomnia so if it gets worse with the meds I'll probably freak out. I'm sorry for the intrusive thoughts too, fortunately they're more uncommon to me lately (it still happens but less than it used to). It looks scary just hearing to be honest. I hope you found the right med!
Yeah it’s wild the stories you hear. Honestly I was so scared by my experiences that I went of meds altogether so I’m just trying to work through my anxiety with therapy. It comes and goes and I have good times and bad times but I feel like meds aren’t for me and that’s okay! Hopefully these stories haven’t scared you off if you feel meds are right for you!
They did scared me, but not that much that I would stop taking. And yes it's not for everyone... I want it to work for me so much, it would make things a lot easier. Good luck for us!
Rather than "change who you are" I would argue that the right meds will enable you to be who you are meant to be. There's probably better ways of wording that but on my meds I feel like myself and I'm not being changed by my anxiety and depression.
Thank you for sharing. I think you expressed exactly what it is, I can count so many times that anxiety stopped me from acting the way I wanted because of the fear of judgments (specially in real life - internet kinda makes it easier to me). I hope that it works for me.
Something I learned is that every brain is different and reacts to these drugs differently. Also, because you are prescribed a drug now does not mean it’s the one you will end up being on long term. A psychiatrist is amazing because they will walk you through any of these symptoms, listen to how you are feeling, then change your dosage or drug based on how your brain reacts. There were drugs that made me feel like a zombie, and some where I barely had any reaction. It’s a process, not an off/on switch.
If you’re anxious that you might not have anxiety then you have anxiety. Also 50mg is like the lowest possible dose. I’ve been on Zoloft (sertraline) for three years and aside from like day four or five when I first started it I never had that numbness / lack of focus. At least not more than normal. But that fourth day? We’ll let’s say my kitchen sink flooded into my basement and ruined my x box and I couldn’t have cared less. So if that happens to you, just know that it passes.
Thank you for sharing. The more I think about it more I'm convinced. I certainly was anxious when I writed that post... people here cleared my mind about most of my doubts, but I'll just know with time. I'll write my experience to know later, but your reaction to the basement episode is surprising. If it happens, I'm motivated to wait until it passes.
I kid you not my wife was like losing it like “what are we gonna do?!?” About like the ceiling tiles and the x box and a few other things. And I’m just like “meh. It’ll be alright”. As though it hadn’t just cost me a bunch of money lol
I haven't taken it for anxiety, only depression really. I'd like to say that it's a fairly low dose and you will notice improvements. It's scary to start meds. I thought I would change into a new person but in reality, it let me be who I wanted to be. I didn't need to think or fake it anymore. I didn't achieve some happiness after taking it but it let me exist without second guessing my actions. Sure, you might not be the happiest person but it'll let you live your life without second guessing yourself nearly as much. In reality, your anxiety is hurting you. This can help to mitigate that. I'd say that's a fair bargain ❤️
Thank you for sharing. As you could see I was fearing that too, turning into someone I don't like because of them. What I didn't saw is that I don't like my actual self too, so I'll probably just get better mentally. I was second guessing myself at the moment I posted this (doubting my own anxiety), so it'll be great help. I hope it helps!
I take medication for my conditions and weed causes those to not work as well. I spent years smoking myself into a coma to avoid my anxiety and grief from my brother passing away. It took time to heal but we are getting better over here. I don't abstain but limit my intake.
I'm sorry for your loss We're going to heal.
compared to the many, many depression meds I have tired, sertraline was a a good one for me. Very little side effects. I will admit it didn't help my anxiety though. Helped with depression, but anxiety it didn't touch.
Thank you for sharing. I'm relieved that the side effects aren't that bad. I'm taking more for anxiety, but I hope it helps... everyone's different etc so I'll know with time.
Honestly, it affects everyone differently. I personally didn’t like sertraline but I know lots of people who are on it and it works for them. Don’t be afraid though. Chances are if it’s been prescribed to you then the psychiatrist believes you need it. I’d recommend trying it out and if after a month or so you don’t like it, ask your psychiatrist if you can stop taking them. (Make sure you tell them though, you really shouldn’t quit cold turkey. You have to ween yourself off them) My stance would be: if your anxiety is really affecting your everyday life and personal relationships and therapy alone isn’t helping much, medication is a good thing to try. You’ll be okay! You got this :)
I’m on sertraline, currently working in a tech field full time, momming, and getting my masters in data science at night. It helps me a ton and I don’t feel like my concentration is poor, but everyone is different.
Thank you for sharing. Some people said that it actually helped them, some said that it doesn't affect... I'll know with time. And congratulations for balancing your life!
Thank you. I’m not going to say I don’t struggle at times, but I use the meds and I talk to a behavioral therapist to understand my own brain better and help myself get through tough times and adapt. I’ve actually had to go up in doses a few times since COVID hit because I couldn’t stop crying and fell into depression. But, therapy and sertraline together have helped me get past it. You can do it. Don’t be afraid and don’t tell yourself you’re making your anxiety up in your head. You deserve to feel better!
Thank you so much. We can do it! I definitively was anxious when posting this but I feel more calm now. We deserve to feel better.
I've now been in 150mg of sertraline for about 4 months, but overall I'm not sure I feel any different, I've tried multiple different medications but none seem to help rn.
Thank you for sharing. I'm sorry to hear this... you were trying sertraline for anxiety too? I hope you find something that helps you.
Todays my first day taking 50mg. And like you, I’ve been terrified to take them. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve tried everything else, and this is my last option. And like a lot of people have said, we won’t know how they will effect us until we try them. I just pray I get it easy. Good luck!
Outside of killing my libido Sertralin had basically no bad side effects. Little advice from my side...if you take something take it to a degree where it doesn't eliminate your symptoms completely so you can still work on handling it yourself and stop or reduce when you feel comfortable or strong enough
You aren’t going to know until you try unfortunately as it seems to be different for everyone. My experience was that it worked really well, and I went up to 150mg a day… and then I developed a very rare side effect and had to come off it. Those months I had of anxiety free life were great, but if I am honest the withdrawal (which is still ongoing) means that I wouldn’t try SSRIs again (even if they were an option). Instead I am trying other things (CBD, cold water therapy, talking therapy) and trying to find what works for me without synthetic drugs. But again, this is my experience and you might have something completely different.
Thank you for sharing. It seems to have worst side effects in higher dosages. I hope you're being able to deal with anxiety without drugs. I think I'll stick to 50mg (and tell the doc that's my preference). I'm kinda scared of negative side effects but most people said that they were little and dissappear soon (in small dosages like mine).
I wish you the best and I hope it works for you.
Everyone is different. I've been taking sertraline for years and if anything I can concentrate better because I'm not dealing with the racing thoughts that come with my anxiety.
Don't take it.
It’s a very individual choice I put off taking it before my wedding as I was worried about side effects and worried about feeling numb around that time. I started taking it after and wish I had done sooner. It has changed my life for the better. I used to wake up with paralysing anxiety and now I wake up happy to be living another day and excited for the future. I can get on with life better and am more motivated. But this is just my experience of course. You won’t know until you try it but if you’re finding life very hard at the moment, it may be something to try but it has to be your choice of course. I echo what others have said in that if you decide to start it you need to stick with it for about two months to really notice the difference. Well for me anyway it took that long to settle but I didn’t have bad side effects either.
Thank you for sharing. Most people said it changed their lives and they just regret not having started sooner. I'm motivated by the good stories (even if there's a lot of negatives), I hope it works well for me too! I really need that motivation, specially without anxiety eating my brain. I made my choice and I'm taking it, I'll make sure to stick to it for the necessary time. Good luck for us!
my focus was actually increased on medication. I just couldn't orgasm anymore u.u
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Taking 150g daily for a while now haven’t noticed any negative waking up with a tight beating like crazy chest was the first positive I’ve noticed and just being more social but I don’t think if it was the sertalin as I was on other meds and couldn’t tell you but I was super low energy
A little late to the party but for me they have worked brilliantly, i have been on them since the middle of june and they have made it possible to live my life again, i was struggling to leave the house but now i am a student living by myself. I will give you the other side of the picture though, it makes me need a poo in the morning and not one you can hold in and i have to take it with food. and well as the side effects on the leaflet puts it difficulties achieving orgasum.
I have done them before and actually started today again, hence why I’m on this page. I took them earlier for anxiety and depression, it made me feel good and not overwhelmed by everything. After a while i started to question my feelings, if it all were fake and so on.. so I stopped. I’m starting again cause my anxiety is starting to take over day by day, the benefits for me is I get ultra focused. Otherwise my head is always going 110% and I’m very quite around people cause I can’t talk about the weather and so on.. and that gives me anxiety on top of all the other stuff. With them I become confident, im more in the moment and in the conversation that I am having, you could say I’m numb from one perspective but I see it as I am more at ease and in control of my emotions to some degree, at least so it doesn’t control my every thought.. I can zoom out if I want to and I can deep dive when I want to. It’s different for everyone like a lot of people have pointed out, and yes.. it is scary cause I’m not really myself, cause being myself means having anxiety and overthinking about everything to a point that it almost cripples me. I try to see it as I’m myself but 2.0, I get to choose my focus with them and that is awesome. I don’t get mad at everything.. usually I have a hell of a temper, with them I am able to calm myself before my mind and my thoughts have spiraled. Can only speak for myself, it’s not all great but the good absolutely “weighs” (not sure if that’s correct, English is not my language) out the bad.
Add- i will try to use them as a tool for getting my shit together, start working out, eat nutritious food so that I can feel like this without them. Diet is everything.. but it’s hard to be on top of everything when you feel like you do (people who need medication/sertralin for various reasons). Go easy, go slow, give it some time and then evaluate with yourself, people around you that may notice things about you that you don’t and with your doctor of course. You can always stop and go back to normal.
It took me a couple months to get used to the Sertraline but I was post partum and also dealing with high-anxiety medical stuff (almost died) so it may have just taken me longer. I changed my diet drastically and added vitamin D, B6 and then the Sertraline felt too high and I'm starting to taper off now. I take Propranolol (beta blocker) and Seroquel in small doses as needed now and that helps a bit with some of the side effects.
Hi Op, are u taking the sertraline ? How did it work for u?
Hi!! Yes, I am. Actually I was in the psychiatrist today, and he increased my dosage. Now I'll take 2 pills of 50mg. I think it's working, I'm not overthinking as I used to be. Thank you!
Im glad it worked out well for you :)) i guess im going to give it a try
I’m on 25mg only took a few but stopped bc I was so insanely nauseous I couldn’t continue. I’m the same way- I thought maybe I wasn’t depressed and maybe trucker myself (though I literally have pmdd and become super suicidal so ik it’s not just me tricking myself) it kind of freaked me out from the meds. Despite having such a low dose I scared myself out of them quick and I’m more worried than now so I’m kind of holding off until I rlly become anxious or depressed again cause I’ve also just been sick the past week so that could have to do w why my side effects r worsened.
How is it now after 4 months?