Hi everyone, really hoping someone can advise...
I had terrible health anxiety and depression for years before Sertraline changed my life. I stopped taking it when I was pregnant and, under my GPs instruction, started it again immediately (literally within an hour) of having my baby - my GP was concerned the baby blues would have a severe effect when they set in if I wasn’t on it. Long story short it caused all sorts of terrifying auditory symptoms from people sounding like robots when they talked, to severe ringing and perception of background noise that wasn’t there. It was beyond awful and completely ruined my birth experience. I was advised not to take any more and within a week the symptoms cleared.
Three months later I was feeling very low and my GP advised that I try Sertraline again. She felt the painkillers etc from birth alongside all the hormones etc had affected the medication but that this time I’d be okay. Wrong. I took it twice (half a tablet) and my ears rang solidly for three months.
I’m now feeling very down again, my marriage is falling apart and I feel very lost and alone. I want to try meds again but am terrified. I guess my question is, has anyone else experienced this and if so have you found an alternative that worked for you? It’s hard for the doctors to confidently prescribe something as, whilst there has been some research into this, they aren’t sure exactly what causes the ringing so it’s a gamble to try a different type of antidepressant as it could have the same affect and I just couldn’t take going through all that again.
Thanks to anyone who’s able to help.