Sertraline - please help

[Yubaa]

I’m late 30s and suffered with anxiety all my life. It’s been pretty horrendous. Somehow I’ve managed to hold down a job and on the outside it looks like I have my life together. But I have huge bouts of anxiety which tips me into anger and sadness. I’m sick of living like this.

I have always resisted meditation, I suppose because that in itself makes me anxious. I also now have a toddler and I’m a single parent and I worry that taking sertraline could give me side affects which could in some way impact my child.

Ive tried talking therapies, cbt, etc and the worry and intrusive thoughts and anxiety remained.

ive been prescribed sertraline but I just don’t know what to do, has anyone had any experience please?

I take 200mg sertraline. I think I’ve reached a point now where it isn’t doing much but for years it changed my life x

I've been on it for ages. No side effects for me. The thing to remember is, if it doesn't work or has unpleasant side effects for you, just go back to your GP and try something different. You've really got nothing to lose by giving it a go.

It could be worth you trying magnesium which can be very effective for anxiety.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16542786/

If it doesn't work for you, your GP will either increase the dose or try you on a different type of AD.
Some people find magnesium effective but you should take it as well as Sertraline, not instead of it.

Please just take it. I cannot begin to explain how bad my anxiety was. Sertraline works wonders for me. I am now rationale, calmer and a lot fatter! Give it a chance. I wish you well

I'm in the same boat really. Doc wants me to go on an AD (I assume sertraline) for anxiety but am hesitant because of possible side-effects. I'm not used to being medicated. I've heard wonderful things about it though.

In the past month my anxiety has caused me to worry about so many things-that I have bruxism, receding gums to the point of needing a gum graft(!) I have a major tooth theme going on right now. Kidney stones, swimmers ear (just from washing my hair) multiple sclerosis and heart attack and blood clot are running themes. It's mad but I'm getting lots more little niggles than I used to so not totally out of nowhere. Could be age though. I'm used to depression but anxiety is SCARY.

Ecitoprazolam or lexapro calmed my noisy intrusive thoughts..

Sorry to hijack the thread, but everyone's experiences here seem unanimously positive.

I have a Sertraline prescription that's been waiting for me to collect for a week (and i dont know if im going to bother) because I've read so much about negative side effects including suicidal thoughts, insomnia, weight gain, a dulling of the personality and total loss of sex drive and ability to orgasm.

Has anyone experienced any of these?

I also read it tends to take 6 weeks + to start feeling any improvement, but lots of posters are sharing that they felt an improvement within a day/couple of days.

This thread makes me want to jump in and start taking it, but I'm worried it's just heavily biased.

OP your post is like I wrote it, word for word, two years ago. Please do know and do believe it DOES get better. It will get better.

I always suffered with anxiety, always. It stifled my life in a lot of respects. I'll give you an example, I stayed in a shitty rental for TEN years because even the thought of me getting a mortgage just filled me with anxiety so much I couldn't cope. I was imagining the craziest scenarios, reading about rates in the news and convincing myself it's so risky having a mortgage, I was convinced we'd get repossessed. We have two good salaries, permanent jobs, and no kids. It was 100% only my anxiety.

Obviously it wasn't just the above, that's just an example.

Eventually I was prescribed sertraline, like you I was terrified of taking it. The tablets stayed in a drawer untouched for two years.

I was resisting taking them but it became clear I had to try something aside from therapy, and I had all sorts of therapy.

Back to my lovely GP I went. And, thankfully, she convinced me that it's absolutely safe to take it. I started on the tablets, had no side effects whatsoever. I have now been on 100mg for about two years.

Omg OP will you believe me if I tell you that sertraline changed my life? I am not riddled with anxiety anymore. It still feels surreal to me but it's true. The anxiety that I had almost 24/7 since I was 15 is now gone. I happily bought a house. Instead of having palpitations when walking past a real estate agents, I now stop and have a nosey on the window. I do normal stuff!

I'm still the same person. Sertraline isn't a lobotomy. It doesn't change your personality. Please do go back to your GP and discuss your concerns. You CAN benefit from medication. Your life CAN improve. Please speak with your GP again so they gently alleviate your fears.

All the best, honestly ❤️❤️ Feel free to ask me anything if it's helpful, looking back at my reply it's a bit all over the place 🤣

Ok, I think I had a small bit of weight gain over the years I took it but my BIL (consultant psychiatrist) pointed out that it was more likely that the absence of anxiety burning through my energy and calories was the reason rather than the medication directly itself. Fair point I think.

I think it definitely dulled my sex drive but not as much as the pill and coil have done in the past.

I had horrendous insomnia before I took it, not after.

honestly the side effects paled in comparison to the suffering of being anxious all the time. That’s why in hindsight I’m so positive about the medication.

I worried about that too! Honestly OP I'll say it again after reading the full thread, all your posts is like I wrote them word for word. Hugs ❤️

Sertraline CAN and likely WILL help you. There's a small chance it won't agree with you or it won't give you all the benefits you need. You will be prescribed a different SSRI in this case. It may be a bit of trial and error in the early stages of starting a tablet. Hasn't your GP explained all this? This is very very normal and they know this process. Having said that, my own experience with sertraline was it worked perfectly straight away and without any side effects. So I never needed to try a different SSRI.

You've asked others how they feel on it. If their anxiety is gone. And you struggle to fathom it. I can share my experience, surreal as it still feels to me. I am anxiety free. I'm not talking about normal anxiety - I'll still stress about being on time, missing a deadline, missing my flight. But I'll normal stress. I do not crazy stress anymore. I do not do any ruminating. I do not catastrophise. I do not obsess for example about my manager looking frowny today so she definitely hates me and I'm getting fired. Even my horrific, crippling fear of flying has improved. I still shit myself at turbulence, but I enjoy mooching around the airport before boarding - whereas before I was literally a ball of nerves and anxiety. I dreaded the holiday weeks before it, purely at the mere thought of a plane.

Ask away if you want to know more.

Hugs! ❤️

I was the same OP. I resisted medication despite encouragement from my husband and family as I was scared of the side effects. Eventually it was a conversation with my very kind boss who convinced me. Not sertraline, but I started citalopram. It took a few weeks to kick in with some mild side effects, but after 6 weeks I can honestly say it has changed my life. I am me again - and I had forgotten who that was. Even physically I feel like a whole new person. Its the best thing I've ever done. Give it a try.

@SeekingYourAdvice

Yes, I was also absolutely convincing myself that I'd be utterly stupid to take this tablet as the potential side effects were terrifying.

When I eventually started taking it two years ago, I agreed with my GP that I'd snap the 50mg I was prescribed in half, and take only 25mg while sitting at the GP waiting area. My GP encouraged me to do it like this as I was so convinced I'd bloody drop dead the minute I swallowed the thing 🤣🤣🤣 I laugh now but I was so utterly terrified of it then!

Don't be disheartened if it doesn't work, there's so many anti depressants that some will work for some people but not others. I tried around 5? Including setriline and none of them worked for me personally but I have since been diagnosed with ADHD and medicated for that which helps, apparently a lot of anti depressants don't work for people with ADHD! X

It's part of your anxiety to be anxious about taking medication. if you look for people who have had negative experiences on any drug, you'll find them. But you'll also find lots of people who had positive experiences. Nothing is risk free.You have to decide whether you're at the point that you don't like your life the way it is and want to try something that might make a difference or if you are okay to continue on as you are and not make any changes. What helped me make the decision was hearing from other people who are on it, mainly school mums in my DDs class, and also the fact that my own counsellor told me I should take it. She said that whatever the trigger, I would always live with this anxiety and find something else to be anxious about because I was hardwired that way, and recommended I discussed medication with my doctor.

if I am honest it may have wiped my sex drive. But then I didn't have much of one to start with so who knows if it was the sertraline or just me and a combination of being an exhausted middle-aged woman with a stressful job and young children? And awful as it sounds I would rather be anxiety free with a low sex drive than live like I was before when I was miserable and it was affecting my relationship in other ways.

For me, it worked instantly. I would try it under medical supervision. I hope you feel better soon xxx

About sex drive - I genuinely can't say it's reduced it, as it was pretty bad to begin with. I still had sex but not very often due to the anxiety and depression. Since being in sertraline I have had way more sex than before. But that would be my mood and my mental health improving and hence feeling like having sex again.

About weight gain - I gained a couple kilos. The context is I was exercising obsessively before. I was meal prepping excessively before. I was a healthy weight, but at the minimum end of the range of the BMI scale for example. Size six petite clothes, I had to take them in a little bit. Now I'm an OK size 6, sometimes size 8 maybe? Again, this "weight gain" was because my mood improved so I was eating a bit more intuitively and I stopped punishing myself with excessive exercise.

@Yubaa
i could have written this exact post 18 months ago. I was constantly anxious, horrible intrusive thoughts, flashbacks to awful things I’d seen at work and I was angry and deep down sad all the time, and I thought exactly the same as you that I didn’t trust the sertaline to work, but it has helped me beyond words. I’m still sad but that’s grief related and separate to the anxiety and obsessive thoughts I was having about something awful happening to my children. I can relax in public places and my mind isn’t racing constantly anymore, that scared voice telling me something terrible will happen is pretty much gone.
I had a few symptoms, dry mouth, nausea but they were short lived and worth the huge positives it’s given me.
It’s definitely worth a try!

I know it's not my thread, but thanks for your replies to my comment above. I'm collecting my Sertraline prescription today and will start with a low dose (as suggested by my doctor). I've been anxious my entire adult life and I'm pretty exhausted by it, although I'm so happy with the rest of my life, so it's worth a shot.

A previous PP asked if this thread is biased. I would say yes-its attracted lots of positive responses because of the title/contents of the OP. If you put up a thread on SSRI side-effects or withdrawal issues, you’d get a raft of different responses. Which is to say, everyone’s individual experiences are valid, but aren’t necessarily representative.

For contrast, I’ve had awful
side effects (not saying this is the norm) and am going to have to taper off over the next year. Been in bed for the best part of a month with severe withdrawal effects. Absolutely not saying my experience is the norm/average but side effects can be nasty and persist even once you’re off an SSRI, and serious withdrawal is a recognised issue that affects a sizeable number of people. So far as I’m aware, there isn’t good research on likelihood of serous side-effects or withdrawal issues, but unfortunately they do impact some people.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go ahead, just weigh the pros and cons. I wish I had been told about the potential issues before I started them, to make an informed choice. These can be valuable drugs but these aren’t sweeties.

It’s also important to address issues in your life that might be causing the anxiety (e.g. DV/unresolved trauma) and for many people their anxiety only really significantly reduces when they change their behaviour, e.g. with the support of a therapist. I’m really pleased that for some PPs they took the medication and their anxiety was much better without doing anything else. I don’t think this is the norm though. I think it’s best to manage your expectations and not expect this as if that doesn’t happen you may feel even worse.

I wish you all the best with whatever is the right decision for you x

It sounds a bit weird I know, but I'm happy for you and glad you're doing this. I recognise myself so much in this thread and my heart breaks for anyone still living with anxiety. There is help available, medication works even if you end up needing to try different tablets/dosages.

Psychotherapy also works for me, although I can engage better with it now than before I was on medication. CBT was pointless for me. It actually pissed me off and did nothing for my anxiety. I found a counsellor who uses a psychotherapeutic approach and this works very well for me. My GP has advised that the best thing is medication plus therapy, so you might consider this in the future if it's something you'd find helpful?

Any questions, ask.

❤️

Just to say about withdrawal as it's important to clarify - sertraline is not an addictive medication. It does not cause addiction. But it is a powerful medication that if you're on it for a while and for a high dose, you need to taper off slowly (GP will tell you how) if you want to come off it. You can't just stop taking it. But it's important to stress that it's not an addictive medication.

@Nocd39

Good informed comment, however I slightly disagree and I'll explain why. In my experience, every healthcare professional I spoke with, even the GP who prescribed me sertraline, were so cautionary, almost down trodden with it, that as I said I didn't dare actually take it for two years - until I found a lovely GP. They were so pessimistic about it almost, really hammering the cautionary tales and playing down any potential benefit as pot luck. To this day I am in disbelief. They were saying those things to someone who was REALLY STRUGGLING. The Internet is also filled with cautionary information. I find these threads very important and helpful.

Having said that, obviously it's powerful medication that patients should follow exactly what it says on the tin with them, and listen to their GP. Ideally it would be good if at all possible if you can look for a GP with an interest in mental health, as like I've said I've had awful experiences with several until I found my current GP. Or look for a good GP, someone who cares, who takes the time. I know however how fucking difficult and rare that is.

Seems to me that you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, in giving the medication a good try