Sertraline 16 days in

[zuleika]

Hi. My 12 year old started on Sertraline 15 days ago and is still suffering from anxiety, intrusive thoughts, suicidal feelings etc. Has anyone had a similar experience? It's really hard to keep motivated, she says she feels even worse than before, which I barely thought possible.

Hi there

First off, you might want to ask MNHQ to get this moved to the mental health board as there will be many more knowledgable people on there.

With sertraline it can make you feel worse before you feel better. I think it's around 3-4 weeks when it starts to "kick in". I think it's a case of persevering but that's easy for me to say - I'm not in your dds shoes. Is she under care of a consultant or GP? Can you ask them for support?

We've moved it now.

My daughter felt worse for about 3 weeks before she started to feel better. Her GP did tell her that this might be the case. After about three weeks she started to feel a bit better each day.

I hope your DD feels better soon

I still felt anxious and had anxious periods for first 4 weeks so did take a while to properly kick in. I also increased my dose (after speaking to GP) which helped.

My experience with sertraline is that it does get worse before it gets better. The medicine needs time to build up in the system and sometimes dosage tweaks are needed. Sertraline also carries a risk of an increase in suicidal thoughts with teenagers so keep a close eye on her, just incase.

Whilst the medicine is building in her system, the best thing to do is to focus on getting her eating well, getting some gentle exercise each day, getting her into a healthy sleeping routine and socialising as much as you can. I know first hand that these things feel impossible when in the grip of anxiety/depression, but encourage her as much as you can and keep reminding her that how she is feeling just now is temporary, not permanent. Point out any achievements, no matter if it's just eating a biscuit, she won't be able to see when she is doing positive things.

It might help to get David D Browns book Feeling Good and reading it with her, help her with the many exercises it contains. In his book, he says that most depression is self limiting, which I found comforting even if the jury is still out on that as a whole.

One of the biggest issues with depression/anxiety is ruminating, dwelling on your thoughts. Try to keep her gently busy, be it a little bit of baking or a craft activity, or just a little walk.

Look after yourself too. It's so easy to get lost in trying to help and care for someone with mental health troubles, especially when it's your child. You need to make sure you take good care of yourself so you can care for her.

What with covid, climate change, the Russian invasion, it's hard for adults to cope, let alone our children. Do your best to help her see the good in the world too.

With sertraline, in general from the many people online and offline I know who take sertraline, by around two weeks some begin to have a better period of time in the day and this gradually increases over the weeks. It's totally normal to have a good day and a stretch of bad days in the beginning and unfortunately for us women, AF can cause a dip each month too.

Hey,

I was put on sertraline at 14 and it made things worse for me personally, I went from crying everyday and not getting out of bed to becoming a person myself nor my parents could even recognise. I was like a zombie, yes I didn't cry anymore but I had no emotion at all which I feel was worse for everyone witnessing and myself as I went about searching for ways to actually feel which lead to experimenting with drugs and revising a previous self harm issue. Sertraline doesn't work for everyone but that doesn't mean there is no hope you just need to keep communication as honest as you can with her doctor it is so so important as sometimes the wrong medication especially SSRIs can do more harm than good. In the end I came off it and with the right support became much mentally healthier and happier that I think I would have done on sertraline. I am now 27 have a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful children, a mortgage and my past is just that, my past. My mums heart was breaking back then as I'm sure yours is too, but please know it does get better and just be there for her as she navigates this. Tell her this won't last there is so much more to life than what she's going through right now and hold her tight x

Thanks everyone, this is all very encouraging, even the experience where it didn't work. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. My DD's psychiatrist called us back yesterday (out of hours, bless him, I could hear the janitor asking him to finish off!) He listened carefully to everything and said to try for another week and then he'll review and consider whether to maintain, increase the dosage, or change. I'll follow the advice here, it's really so helpful. Thanks xx

@zuleika

Thanks everyone, this is all very encouraging, even the experience where it didn't work. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. My DD's psychiatrist called us back yesterday (out of hours, bless him, I could hear the janitor asking him to finish off!) He listened carefully to everything and said to try for another week and then he'll review and consider whether to maintain, increase the dosage, or change. I'll follow the advice here, it's really so helpful. Thanks xx

Glad to hear you're feeling more in control of the situation. Sometimes it helps to just get your worries out even if you haven't found the answer yet. Hope your dd starts to feel better soon.

Thank you

Day 15 of sertraline and anxiety has heightened today, just posting in the hope we. An check in on each other ☺️

Of course. I think I can PM you ~ will try.