Prescribed Sertraline for anxiety.. not sure I want to take it.

[JaffaCake70]

Hi

I've been to see my Dr today to speak about the severe feelings of anxiety that have been plaguing me lately. He has prescribed Propranolol (40mg tablets to be taken either twice per day or as and when I feel I need them) and 50mg of Sertraline daily.

Since coming home I've been reading about the side effects of Sertraline and it's made me hesitant about taking them. The main issue being that everything I've read says that in the first few weeks of taking it, the feelings of anxiety can become worse. I'm really not sure I can deal with the anxiety being worse than it already is, even short term. I'm already experiencing sweating, thumping heart, flushes, pain in my eye, some dizziness, bouts of loose stools due to IBS (which are worsened by the stress and anxiety) and severe sleep interruptions (I have a condition called Catathrenia).

I'm so confused and really don't know what to do for the best. I feel that I can't carry on feeling the way I feel and I need to do something constructive to help myself but I'm really scared that these pills could tip me over the edge. I need to be able to function at work, I'm a Supervisor in a busy hospital department (more stress!).

Does anyone have any advice or even just a story to tell connected to Sertraline?

Just for context, I'm 53, nearly 54 years old. I have always been an anxious person but since hitting peri/menopause it has definitely worsened and become unmanageable.

My Father took his own life at the age of 48 after years of struggling with (what was at the time referred to as) manic depression. He had tried lots of different medications in the years leading up to his death but nothing helped. Ultimately he still couldn't cope with life and took what he must have seen as his only way to be free of the torment. I think this is another reason why I'm so sceptical about medication.

Any advice or comments will be gratefully received.

TAKE THE PILLS.

I took them gor years. The first two weeks are the hardest. My advice is to a accept that for the first two weeks you'll have side effects. I was off work for this period, got used to sertralime the went back towork.

I've been on sertraline for some time. I know everyone is different but I just wanted to reassure you that for me at least, I didn't experience the period of feeling worse and it actually worked incredibly quickly with my anxiety symptoms. Obviously nothing works perfectly but I am night and day better on them.

It's very individual though, I was nervous to take them too thinking I couldn't cope with going through a worse patch before getting better. But it wasn't like that at all for me, so it's not a definite thing.

I have IBS too and I think they actually help a bit with symptoms, one GP mentioned to me that they can be beneficial. Getting anxiety under control in itself is helpful with that, and I'm trying low Fodmap which is good but so restrictive. You have my sympathies - good luck with it all!

All I can say is I'm on sertraline and have been very successfully for ten years. They tried other anit depressants and they made me feel suicidal. I also have propranolol I can take up to 3 times a day but mostly I just take when going out as that's me super anxious time and again they work very well for me

Sertraline and propranolol changed my life, honestly.

I’m another one who did not experience any worsening in the first few weeks. I started with 50mg - felt a bit light headed and tired but that was it really.

If you start it and feel truly awful, ask to be signed off work for a few weeks until it kicks in 😌

@JaffaCake70 I'm also 53 and started them a month ago.
I didn't get any worse and feel less anxious.
I take 100mg tablet in morning
I was started on 50mg for first week.

Thank you all. I also become very anxious about taking time off sick from work. I haven't had a day off sick in over 4 years, even though there have been times when I have felt unfit for work, this is partly because I'm first in of a morning so there is no one for me to call if I'm unwell.

Also, I have a manager who doesn't believe in mental illness. I have heard her say some very unhelpful things about staff who have been off sick with anxiety or depression. She refers to anxiety as 'the new back pain'.

I'm thinking that if I do struggle to adjust to these pills, I may have to take a week or two off work until my body gets used to them. I really don't want to tell my manager that I'm taking anxiety medication though.. I feel like she will judge me or think that I'm weak for not being able to cope :-(

That won't help at all, working in an unsupportive environment. I know there might not be much you can do about that, but it's worth thinking about for the future, whether there are any alternative areas you could look at working in with less stress. Your manager sounds appalling.

I was worried about that too, I told someone and asked them to keep a close eye on my for the first few weeks

I was seriously worried about taking it too.

The propranolol will help the anxiety in the short term whilst the sertraline kicks in. I was having terrible panic attacks and it prevented my heart from going nuts and kept it steady. Still not pleasant but way less frightening.

Did get a gippy tummy and felt very tired and a bit sick for a couple of weeks from the sertraline. Lost my appetite a bit (silver linings 🤣)

But on day 15 woke up feeling a shit load better.

Tell yourself your going to take half tonight and see how it goes. Same tomorrow and so on. That's how I got going. Upped to full dose on week 2.

You can pry my sertraline from my cold, dead hands. They have changed my life - the constant whirr of thoughts and going over things in my head that I thought was just my personality turned out to in fact be dodgy brain chemistry. My life is so much better now.

I never felt worse anxiety-wise - I felt pretty nauseous for the first couple of weeks and clenched my teeth a lot, but that was about the height of it.

Good luck, OP.

Sertraline really helped me during a period of anxiety a few years ago.

They made me feel so strange for the first 2-3 weeks - really light headed and spaced out but then suddenly I just felt so calm. The weird thing was I felt quite numb but that was honestly just like a breather for my brain and it was beautiful. I stayed on them for a year and 4 months before tapering off.