That sertraline makes me realise how mental I've been for the last decade (at least)

[glassecase]

Honestly never felt better, well maybe pre-18 years old.

Amazing stuff and I don't feel like I'm 'on' something.

It's lovely to hear so many positive stories - I wish I'd had this thread when I started taking Sertraline a bit over a year ago. I wish we talked about it more. I don't have depression but have Generalised Anxiety Disorder which was becoming unmanageable. I couldn't sleep, would worry obsessively about things and the smallest irritant would give me RAGE.

The first couple of weeks I had an hour or so of nausea a couple of hours after taking the tablet, but that was my main side effect and it disappeared fairly quickly. It took me about 8 weeks and going from 50mg to 100mg before I felt the full effects - and then I realised that I just felt like myself again, but without my brain constantly chattering and dreaming up potential catastrophes. (And without the constant, boiling rage). I was waiting for some some feeling of euphoria, but it wasn't like that at all. And my DH and friends all said, oh, you're back.

It makes me sad that I've spent years and years thinking that my brain just worked that way, when actually it was clearly just crap at processing serotonin. I take other meds for a physical condition, and I think of this as being just the same. I don't feel embarrassed or guilty at needing it.

For people who have a prescription but are worried about taking it, give it a try. Tell someone close to you that you're taking it and they can keep an eye on you, but remember that serious side effects are really rare. And if it doesn't work for you, talk to your GP about your options, which may be a different drug.

Thank you OP for the thread, and good luck and to everyone who's struggling.

I had HORRENDOUS GAD & Health Anxiety for nearly 20 years.

Acute anxiety, insomnia ruled my life. I literally tried everything. Sertraline was the last option.

It has literally changed my life. I am normal (whatever that is). I react normally to stressful situations, I laugh, I get cross, I assert myself.

Yes I loved it and I’ve recommended it loads on here. I recently came off it having been on it for a few years.

I was given it for anxiety (quite severe) but realised I must have been a bit depressed because it changed my outlook on life, particularly feeling more optimistic.

@PumpkinPieAlibi
I haven't taken desvenlafaxine but I imagine it's similar to the parent compound venlafaxjne which, imvho, is the worst anti-depressant of the lot. I had basically no positives from taking it and an absolute gamut of side effects, nausea, muscle spasm, almost complete loss of sexual function... Only took it for about 3 months more than 5 years ago, so experience limited. But the anti-depressant effect of stopping it was more noticeable than starting. Unfortunately it's difficult to get a prescription for it here, but bupropion (atypical but basically an SNRI) is MILES better if he doesn't respond well to SSRIs.

@LindaEllen I don’t think I felt too different after 3 weeks. I was still feeling heightened anxiety, trouble sleeping and a clenched jaw. I can’t say I’m on top of the world now, after 2 months, but I feel stronger and ready to face the challenges I have. Over busy Christmas period I’ve not noticed the change day by day, but took some time to reflect and realised it. I’m on 100mg a day and just starting pack 3.
I’d put off going to the doctors for years. In fact I’d been and tried before and been told I’d soon feel better, years ago. My surgery is doing email consultation so I got to write it all down, was so much easier. Now I’m just hoping I can stay on them until I feel the time is right. The doctor was talking only 6 months but I already feel I won’t be ready.

@Bicnod i sleep fine as long as i take it very very punctually every day. as soon as i fuck it up i start getting weird dreams. but i am a good sleeper anyway.

@PumpkinPieAlibi your poor DP - is he just under the care of a GP or secondary mental health services? Secondary services deal with more enduring mental health conditions and may be better placed to help your DP. Your GP can refer. He will then be under a consultant psychiatrist and in my experience, that is far more suitable for patients like your DP. The psychiatrist I work under is brilliant and it’s been my experience that sometimes it takes a concoction of medication to achieve results. I would always wait 6 weeks to see how a patient has settled on a medication, it’s usually after that point that doses are tweaked, or changed. He might find Duloxetine suits him better for example. In cases where people have severe depression, ECT is an option too.

Would be wary of suggesting Pumpkin's DH has a good chance of getting to see an NHS psychiatrist. Unless you're psychotic or actively suicidal or possibly very treatment-resistant, mental health teams are very reluctant to take you on these days, and it doesn't sound like he's necessarily in that position at the moment — he's only just reached the point of trying an SNRI, has had a couple of mild side effects but it's not been long enough to know how it'll go. Not that I believe it's right that things are this way, but that's how things mostly are with mental health services right now.

Any medication can cause side effects but if you’re having a side effect that’s causing you issues you can change medication. I was on amitriptyline a few years ago. After a while I had what I can only describe as reverse vitiligo. In that I am a naturally pale person all over and I started getting patches of very tanned skin all over my body. The GP was baffled, sent me to a specialist who was also baffled, neither linked it to the medication. It wasn’t listed as a side effect in the leaflet.

I just suddenly clicked one day that it started around the time I started taking the meds, trawled the depths of the internet to find it is actually an extremely rare side effect of amitriptyline. There is a name for it but I forget now what it was. I switched meds and over time the dark brown patches are receding. I still have some, but no where near as bad as it was.

Point being no one could have predicted I’d have this very rare side effect. I was unlucky. I don’t have any side effects at all with my current medication. So no one should be put off by scare mongering over side effects. Chances are you won’t have any and if you do you can change to another anti depressant and the issue will be resolved.

@HeadphoneProliferation I understand what you’re saying, but I work in secondary mental health services and regularly accept patients like pumpkin’s DH.

Side effects shouldn't be panicked about, but should be taken seriously (speaking as someone who has diabetes from taking a medication I was given to help with my anxiety).

@OliverBabish services also routinely turn away patients like Pumpkin's DH, depending on the specifics — I was concerned by your phrasing, "Your GP can refer. He will then be under a consultant psychiatrist" which could get someone's hopes up way too high.

@HeadphoneProliferation but that’s how it would go - and most of the time does go. I think that’s a blanket statement to say services “regularly turn away” patients like pumpkin’s DH. I cover a vast area - every area is different in terms of capacity but generally, we do accept far often than we say no.

It changed my life. 3 weeks after taking it something clicked and I felt like I had finally woken up.

He may be under services already, of course — that would be preferable, obviously. Sometimes the criteria used seem a little arbitrary, and of course they vary a lot from place to place.

Honestly, when I started citalopram for anxiety and panic I genuinely thought I hadn't been depressed for a couple of years, and then when it properly kicked in I realised how wrong I was! Just because I hadn't been critically, crisis-point depressed in a while I hadn't realised that I was still feeling lower than I should have been, it's been an absolute game-changer for me

@OliverBabish "Regularly turn away" is a blanket statement, yes, but is not the same as "always/almost always turn away", which is how you seem to be interpreting it. It's also true: many mental health services reject significant numbers of referrals on paper, and a further percentage are sent back to the GP after a single assessment appointment with a nurse. It's extremely misleading to tell people who are suffering that they can go to their GP, who will refer, and then they will get expert input from a consultant psychiatrist.

It's also the case that Pumpkin's DH is clearly already being treated, and if this is by the GP, then the GP has likely already considered whether it's worth a referral. Though it can't hurt to prod them.

@HeadphoneProliferation no referrals are dismissed on paper, that’s not how it works.

Perhaps not at your trust? Because I have a letter that proves my local trust very much does 😂

@HeadphoneProliferation I thought this might be the case from your posts. Secondary mental health services are generally risk adverse, and so, yes, across my trust, all referrals are assessed. This is best practice. I stand by what I said in my post to pumpkin - I was describing the process. I can understand why you’ve taken offence as you didn’t receive the care that you felt you needed, but generally, the process does work as it should.

Oh, you think I've taken personal umbrage? No, I'm currently under secondary services for my bipolar disorder; the specific refusal I'm referring to was due to an error by my GP in their first referral (the one refused on paper as not meeting their threshold) leaving out a piece of info that makes it clear I fit criteria. I mentioned it purely because it's concrete proof that paper-only refusals of referrals are a Thing.

I'm speaking more from experience of many, many friends and acquaintances having GP referrals returned on paper, or receiving a single assessment with a nurse before being discharged back to GP.

(I'd moved area and needed feeding back into the system by the GP, because for some reason the transfer of care didn't work out.)

This is becoming exhausting. Okay, headphones.

Perhaps your trust is able to provide all the help that people need — I just feel that the tone of your posts risks giving people false hope, by promising them help that may not be available to them, and wanted to sound a note of caution.