Setraline for anxiety and obsessive & intrusive thoughts

[Stardust123]

Hi, doctor has just prescribed Setraline for anxiety. Been suffering for 2 years now and my anxiety started with a major life change, this has led to me cutting contact with a family member. I am still suffering with anxiety which, particularly around thoughts, obsessional thinking all around one topic. Been very emotional last few days and been taking Micronor for the past 3 weeks, but decided to come of it. Does anyone have experience of Setraline for anxiety/obsessional (intrusive) thoughts. And did it help. Have tried Prozac and Citalopram without much success. Also have usual anxiety tummy, doom feeling, feeling of anxiety sitting on my shoulder all day. etc. Thanks all.

So sorry you are feeling like that. The impending feeling of doom is awful to live with. I have had paroxitine, citalopram and sertraline in the past. I can honestly say that the sertraline was the best for me and helped me get my sleeping sorted out. The side effects can be pretty grim though but try and get through it. Make sure you are on the correct dose. The starting fose is usually 50g. Whatever you do don't just stop taking them, you need to wean yourself off gradually. It will take between 6-8 weeks to get the full benefit.

What really worked for me was cbt therapy. I paid privately for a short course and it was worth every penny. I had had several years of different therapies but this was the best.

Good luck and feel free to ask anything else.

Sertraline has saved my life. I tried citalopram for anxiety, panic for almost a year without any success. I switched to sertraline 50mg in September and the effects were immediate. No side effects at all.
Good luck

Thanks for the comments, have been on it about 4 days now and I've noticed an improvement, so hopefully that's a good sign.

I've taken it for a year - it has helped a lot with my intrusive thoughts & massively reduced the number of panic attacks I have. I'm still very anxious & quite obsessive but much better on it than off. 150mg did dent the anxiety but I couldn't shake the drowsiness, another thing I noticed was that about 6weeks after I started I began to feel depressed - that went quite quickly but was awful at the time. My doctor said that
was reasonably common when treating anxiety disorders.

Same as funny fish. It has changed my life. Prozac made me worse. Good luck.

I totally agree. .im now on 200mg of sertraline and for the first time in ages im feeling happy and much less anxious. .I can't stop singing! And its so wonderful to actually have positive thoughts instead of complete desperation and saddness. When you have severe anxiety its frightening as you have no control over the thoughts that are taking over your life. .good luck with your medication, I hope you get to a happier place :-)

Dh takes it and is a different person.

Hi I have taken sertraline as I have suffered anxiety, I found it to be very effective as I was getting depressed but it was down to anx & stress. Cannot fault it, i have been off it around 3/4 months with no relapse, things have been much better since taking it. Good luck

Sorry forgot to check back, i have taken it twice. Once for post natal, 100mg pday i felt very tired first week but that subsided, things got easier and i stopped being obsessed with what others think & i stopped counting, which i had started doing more & more. I gradually got better & reduced the dose & stopped taking it. I was then diagnosed with ME and fibro earlier last year and anxiety as a result of pushing myself too much and worrying what others thought, started to come back, i was pilling on the pressure to keep up with everything & ended up admitted to majors for a day with palpitations & chest pain, sertraline sorted this out but I only took 50mg this time & felt euphoric for 2 days then levelled out, I got back to my normal self within around 3/4 months & started to come off them. All in all a very good reaction and experience for me.

I came off it quickly & easily because I was ready. Obviously my experience will differ from others. Wishing you good luck x

Just wanted to say thank you all, I'm sorry it has been so long, still on 50mg and have felt better but I think I may need to up the dosage. Thanks all once again ! x