Sertraline Review dont think I could cope without it!!

[Kitcat47]

Had to go to the doctors this morning for a review of my medication I'm taking. I have been taking sertraline for over 2 years. He wants me to stop taking them. I really dont think I could cope without them. He suggested CBT. I've been taking anti ds on and off since my mum passed away. I did stop taking them whilst trying for baby but after LO was born I had Post Natal Depression. I dont know what to do.

If your unhappy, you could ask for a second opinion?

I know lots of people who have been on them for years and years.

Ask to see a different GP and say strongly you are not ready to stop yet.

See a different GP! I knew this was going to happen! They tightened the rules on z-drugs, any benzos and strong pain relief so that they are nigh on banned in favour of CBT and other psychological methods, the next target is people on longer-term ADs.

Did he prescribe more? Pick up your script and ask to see another GP.

Can you get a second opinion? I've been on sertraline for 13 years with a couple of short breaks for pregnancy.

don't worry, my doctor asks me to stop taking them regularly. I say no and carry on! I would recommend CBT though (on top of the meds, not suggesting you stop), it did the world of good for my anxiety

I told him I dont feel like I could come off them and he said he will review it in 12 months again. @datasgingercatspot like you said they are trying to promote CBT instead of taking sertraline.

That will be the next push, to get people off ADs. YY, 'psychological support'. It's great to have on top of it but a lot of people need ADs long-term, particularly for conditions like OCD.

I honestly believe that, for some of us, antidepressants vital. I have been clinically depressed since my mid teens (although it was undiagnosed back then - but I was having suicidal thoughts, which seems pretty definitive to me), and have been on antidepressants, on and off, for years now.

In that time, I have tried to come off them a number of times - and each time it goes OK at first, but I always end up sliding back into depression again, and going back on the medication.

My GP has said to me, in the past, that they'd like to look at getting me off the ADs, but I am not going to agree to this. No way.

I believe that, for whatever reason, I lack serotonin, and that is what causes my depression - and unless they can create a treatment that cures my lack of serotonin, I am always going to need SSRIs, in order to get my levels back up to normal, functional levels.

I compare it to hypothyroidism - my mum has an underactive thyroid, and needs to take thyroxine to get her levels of the thryoid hormone up to normal and keep it there. But no doctor is ever going to suggest that she 'tries' to live without the thyroxine - but because our illness is mental rather than physical, we are fair game for the 'try without it' message.

OMG this is so disgusting that they get people addicted to drugs by shoving them onto people like smarties, and then when you are addicted, they pull the rug from beneath you! See also HRT, and disability benefits. Put people on them, let them live happily on them, then decide it's not do-able anymore, and not cost effective, and take them away and make people go without them.

Makes me SOOOO angry!

See the head of the Medical Practice if you need to @Kitcat47 Don't be fobbed off. You will come off sertaline when YOU are ready. Maybe that will be never.

Would they take asthma meds, diabetes meds, or epilepsy meds off people? NO. So why they think it's OK to take ant-D tabs off people just baffles me!

Although.......... They have tried to fob me off in the past with a cheap and nasty version of my seretide (purple) inhaler. I asked why and they said because this one is cheaper... and it saves the NHS money. For context, I had suffered from asthma for about 10 years, and it was getting quite bad. I was using a ventolin (blue) inhaler a month, and I'd had several asthma attacks. So around 2012 the doc put me on seretide.

Within 6 months, I felt like I didn't have asthma anymore; it was magical! From then on, a blue inhaler lasted me 5-6 months.

Fast forward to 2017, and the new practice nurse put me on this new cheaper alternative. It only costs £7, compared to the other one that costs £22. I said 'well is it any good though?' She said 'of course it is.'

I had my doubts, and I thought 'how can it possibly be as good?'

It wasn't. Within a few months I was using a blue inhaler a month again.

So I went to the senior doctor and told him I was upset and angry at being fobbed off with clearly inferior meds, and this was my life they were messing with. He apologised and changed it back.

Totally, SDTG. One of my children has OCD and he needs ADs.

@LittleYorkshireLass they're not addictive. People don't want to stop taking them as they are so beneficial to some people's mental health.

Psychologically addictive, though?

I am also worried about coming of the same AD. I was in a very bad way when I started to take them and I believe they saved my life.

@notreallybotheredaboutausernam they are the definition of physically addictive, they alter your brain chemistry and stopping suddenly causes major problems.
It's true that they dont have the sort of effects that would lead people to use them incorrectly, the way that opiates and benzos do, but absolutely they still create a physical dependency.

I have been on sertraline for a couple of years.
It's usually a fight to get anything from my doctor. No idea why....??
I had a "lovely" 3 weeks recently, with no painkillers for arthritis, no sertraline, no diabetes (t1) meds, no finger prick thingies.
Now, they are talking about stopping arthritis meds. To quote the doctor "oh, you will be fine with a couple of paracetamol "