Nearly 6 weeks sertraline and feel worse than before

[orangeandlemons]

I am really a lurker on here, but am getting increasingly desperate, and would appreciate any advice.

I suffer anxiety but not really depression. I have just been through 3 different medications all of which made me feel worse. Was put back on sertraline which I have taken before with no ill effects, but this time i feel awful.

After the first week had I had terrible off the scale anxiety for 3 weeks. also had awful dark feelings in my stomach. These disappeared exactly 4 weeks after starting, but the horrible anxety has carried on and on. Sometimes I have felt stupidly happy, and motivated, but mostly I feel scared and very very down. I have seen consultant who advised sticking it out for full 6 weeks. Will be 6 weeks on Friday, but haven't taken them today, as feel so shit. Have asked for another appt. Cannot face changing, as have had so many awful emotional side effects on every tablets
I've been on, but can't face staying on these.

I guess I could say I have had some heightening of mood at times but wasn't really depressed in the first place, but mostly I feel much much worse, and now have self harming thoughts. The anxiety is so bad it makes me cry. Last week was quite a good week but have really gone down since then.

I feel much worse than before I started on them. Any advice?

Hi
I can only talk from my own experience of AD's which is that it has taken 3-4 months each time for me to see any sustained improvement.

In the first few weeks I have had severe side effects and worsening of symptoms - and it really is a case of literally getting through each day. (including the terrible negative thoughts etc.)

This is absolutely not the experience for most people and I wouldnt want to put anyone off trying medication they may need.
But it may be in your case that you are one of the people where the start up is very tough. (And i dont just mean the first couple of weeks - but the first 2 - 3 months).
Its great that youve made an appointment to chat through. is it worth just keep taking them till you get to that appointment - rather than just stopping?

i guess the decision re. whether you give up on them needs to be based on how bad your symptoms were in the first place. And whether other options might help your anxiety more.
Hope you get some good advice at your appointment.

Hi,

Thant's quite interesting. The general advice is wait 6 weeks. I think they have had some effect as an anti-depressant, but it is like my body has just stopped trying to respond to them and given up. You have given me a bit of hope.

I am on list for CBT. Trouble is I usually respond quite fast, so this is really weird. Last time I was on sertalne I was back at work 4 days after starting it. I think my poor little brain is fried from taking so many different meds. My doc has hinted that she wants to up the dose, but just cannot deal with the terror of that at all.

Thanks for your help

What was the dose? If your doctor started it on too high of an amount, it will be too much for your body to handle at first... You gotta wean yourself up to a higher amount...

50mg.

I think they have started to kick in a bit. Still up and down but less so. Feel happier, but still kind of fraught and tense., and what I call my black ghost comes and sits in my stomach every early evening

I had a terrible over reaction to escitalopram too. perhaps srri's aren't right for me any more. Doctor offered me paroxetine, but I just cannot face all that emotional hell again.

Am seeing consultant next week. Usually Ad's kick in in about 2-3 weeks for me. This has been like 6 weeks in the hands of the Spanish Inquistion.

Yes it could be that SSRIs don't suit you. I am on an old fashioned AD (imipramine) a tryclic drug that GPs don't prescribe very much as they think the SSRIs are safer (they say with fewer side effects) but I think it really means that they are not fatal in overdose, whereas the tryclics are.

CBT is your next best option, as well as trying another group of meds.
The reason being is that anxiety feeds on anxiety and CBT will give you a means of stopping the cycle.
Also as well as treating it with the anti-d's,have they discussed something like xanax with you. I know they are highly addictive and all that jazz but they are also good for taking the edge off any anxiety you may be feeling.

I have diazapam, but am too scared to take them very much. I have taken the older ad's before, and I have to say they do seem to agree with me more in the start-up. They just make me EAT. I was on amitriptilene , but it stopped working very well, hence he current nightmare.Years ago I took prozac with no bad side effects, but am allergic to it now.

It is now 6 and a bit weeks of sertraline, and I still feel breathless like I'm having an asthma attack all the time, although I know it is anxiety.

The black ghost settled in at about 3.15 today, bit is departing as it always does about this time. I wonder if this is realted to when I take the meds (morning) It is always the same pattern every day at the same time

I wish ad's would work straight away

What does of diazepam are you on O & L - I was prescribed 6mg per day in 3 doses of 2mg. A conslt psych prescribed this after I had been hospitalised for 3 months for severe depression, to be taken alongside the ADs. I remember a nurse in the hospital saying "Oh Dr X will have you on these for ever" - I was worried because I know they are addictive and in the 70s GPs were just prescribing them routinely and doubling the dose somtimes, so many women ended up like zombies, and there was a big hue and cry about it (quite rightly) because stopping these major tranquillisers was really difficult.

I talked to my CPN about my fears, but she said it was such a small dose that if it didn't do me any good, it wouldn't do me any harm and my GP has confirmed that. I have however stopped the middle of the day one and if I'm ok I don't take the morning one either.

I'm interested in your "black ghost" and the time he (must be a he!) descends - how does he behave or more like how does he make you feel.
Mornings are always worse for me and I usually get better as the day proceeds, though sometimes not till evening.

2mg, as needed. But seem to prefer to torture myself than take them

The black ghost . Well if you have suffered depression, you must be familiar with this nasty. A sort of black, malignant terrfying shadowy thing with wings (the wings are important, as it flutters) that sits like a malevolant entity or shadowy thing in your stomach. Resided between 2.30 and 6.00pm today, but has spooked off ready for another haunting tomorrow It is quite interesting how people describe their depression. How would you explain yours?

Mood definitely up, but anxiety still hideous. How long have you been on the stuff then?

2mg is a very small dose, so I think you should take them. My severe episode was 2 years ago (Easter 2010) and I've been taking the diazepam (morning and night) for most of that time. I had my first severe episode of depression in 1995 following the death of my dearest and closest friend at the age of 46. I was on psych ward for 3 months and prescribed imipramine. I made a complete recovery and was back at work within a month of discharge. I stayed on the meds for 14 years and had no MH problems at all. Then I came off them (very slowly) over 10 months (with the help of a psychologist) but only off them for 4 months and a 2nd severe episode descended, and I haven't fully recovered - ups and downs - more ups but never know when the downs are coming or how long they will last.

Hmm my depression doesn't feel like it is anywhere in my body. I feel empty, flat, and an absence of any emotion, cry a lot, no interest in anything, want to hide away, dread anyone other than my DP and a couple of close women friends seeing me. The anxiety goes along with it and makes me scared of everything. (In a state the other day because the window cleaner came and DP was out and I couldn't unlock the back gate and couldn't face the window cleaner seeing me in a state.) Don't want my sons or dils o see me - feel ashamed - I know that's not rational but then depression isn't rational is it.

I'm thinking about it. Mood wise I feel better every day, and it is sort of working against the anxiety, but it also makes me sort of nervous and breathless, but am getting less scared so feeling braver. However the ghost still came back for 4 hours today.

I have had that bleak gery ethereal feeling too. Like grey dead clouds.

Are you still on medication? Which one? Imipramine reduced me to a state of terror in 11 days, I just couldn't tolerate it

Yes I'm still on meds - double the dose before I stopped - now on 200mg per day and will stay on it for the rest of my life as I am certain that my 2nd episode was caused by coming off them after so many years.

Isn't it wierd how different ADs react differently on different people.

Glad you are getting better every day moodwise, and feeling less scared. Hope the ghost shortens its stay with you in the near future and then spooks off for good and all. Mind that's one of the other damn things with depression isn't it - it's sometimes 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Just as I'm beginning to believe my "blips" (as the medics call them) have blipped off they descend on me again.