Husband struggling with sertraline side effects any advice?

[Needafriend5]

He's only been taking them for a week so far, he's been suffering a lot of side effects. Nausea, extreme tiredness, brain fog, dizziness are the main ones.
He's got to double his dose tomorrow and I'm worried. The doctor signed him off work for 2 weeks whilst he's adjusting, but at the moment he just can't function.
He is the breadwinner of our family and works in a senior position in charge of a lot of people. He needs to be sharp to do the job. He could never work like this and there's no way he could drive. I'm presuming these side effects could go on for weeks?
It's so tough, taking something to help something but causing lots of other things. Feel very sorry for him right now.

Any positive stories of side effects subsiding quickly?

They are very intense at first and just have to be endured but should settle. Maybe speak to the GP and delay increasing the dose.

2 weeks of side-effects for DD when she started on them. But totally, completely, worth it.

Some people find them easier to take at night. They do ease after the first week or two.

I started on 25mg and slowly increased the dosage. This made the side effects easier to cope with.

He doesn't HAVE to double his dose tomorrow, it's important to know that.

What's he been started on?

Honestly the best thing is to knuckle down and get through it. The side effects are really horrible for a few weeks, but then they give you your life back!

50mg now 100mg. He can't stay awake!

He might well need to be signed off for longer than 2 weeks op. It's not always a quick fix. I was off work for 2 months whilst I got used to sertraline and got over the worst part of the depression and side effects of the meds combined. Even then it was a struggle to to return to work and I was only doing 3 days a week back then.

It also might be that this isn't the right anti-depressant for him. When my dad died, my mum needed to try 3 or 4 before getting one which worked for her and I can't take SSRIs at all because of my reaction to setraline.

What time of day is he taking them? Is it morning? I think I was told to take them at night so the exhausted portion if I had that side effect was at night.

Bless him. My DH is 200 and the side effects were awful at first. I did keep having to tell him that the time spent adjusting was an investment and that we could only be in a good state as a family if he took his mental health seriously. He also was stressed about being able to do his job but at the end of the day health is more important. The side effects are definitely made worse by some lifestyle issues though. Alcohol for example has more powerful effects and stomach upsets are common. He shouldn't let his Dr encourage him to move faster than he's ready for as it is hard to step down. I'm 100mg for the last 6 months (house of sertraline here!) and seriously groggy in the morning but pic up once I have had (a lot of) coffee!

He needs to delay upping the dose until the first lot of side effects have subsided. He may need a break of longer than two weeks to get on top of things.

Please could I ask how your husband is doing now? I had all of those side effects (and more!) after taking just one 50mg dose of Sertraline, and it scared me so much that I stopped taking it completely! Has he improved?