Sertraline handhold

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi all,

I thought it would be nice to have a place for those of us who are starting the AD journey.

I'm a full time single parent of a beautiful 9 year old, going through perimenopause and just lost my job! So I'm just feeling very overwhelmed and anxious.

My doctor has prescribed me sertraline, to start with I need to take 25mg and up to 50mg in a weeks time.

I took my pill yesterday around 11.00 and then a few hours later was on the loo and feeling exhausted so went to bed for an hour. I felt better later but had a headache most of the night.

I've decided to try it this evening instead as it makes me too drowsy, but now I'm worrying it'll keep me up all night 🤪

I do have concerns that this will dull my ability to feel joy, emotion and work!

I know it's early days and it gets worse before it gets better.

Good luck to others going through this journey x

@BearPear do you find you are motivated have any energy?

This is what I'm concerned about.

I've taken time off from job searching for a few weeks, just to get through this period. But I need to be a parent and don't want to be numb to life. That to me isn't living.

I'm on day 5 of sertraline! For the first few days I got a super dry mouth and night sweats.

I am already far less tearful than I was, but I do feel quite vacant. I'm not really hungry but have been making myself eat a little.

I take mine after lunch.

I don’t think I have any less energy but my interest and motivation are reduced

I’m a bit worried about the tiredness and lack of motivation too, but I think it’s too early days to make a judgement about the sertraline. My mental health practitioner said to give it 6 weeks to fully feel the effects.
it could be that we just need a rest after struggling with depression/anxiety for a lengthy time, and the tiredness will pass (I hope so anyway!)

Well I slept really well last night since taking the pill to taking it during the day. So that works.

The issue I have is I take the pill around 7.30 am and then I'm finding around 10.00ish I'm asleep and in this weird stupor where I can't motivate myself to do anything. I'm shattered. Then around 5.00/6.00pm I'm feeling more normal when the pill I'm assuming is waring off!

It's not hit me today (yet) so I can get stuff done.

I'm speaking to my doctor today to see what they say. You could be right it might be just that my body is completely exhausted from years of anxiety and stress that I'm needing to sleep, but I feel numb with it which I don't like. I want to feel some form of emotion. I'm only on 25mg and won't be going up.

The doctor who prescribed the sertraline to DD kept insisting on the fact that you take a while to get used to the medication and that you need to give it time before assessing whether it’s working or not. He said at least 8 weeks but I know there are different opinions about this. He also said there may be ups and downs in the beginning and that you need to try to look at the overall trend of how you’re feeling not day by day - obviously this isn’t always easy to do.

Apologies for being on this thread when I’m not taking it myself but DD is only 17 so I have to go with her to all her appointments and we’re right in the middle of all this at the moment.

@NoraLuka ok that's interesting.

Tbh I did wake up feeling pretty good today, I am finding I'm laughing more. But I also dread taking my pill every morning because I don't want to sleep my day away 😛😛😛

So today I didn't have the same exhausting feeling 3-4 hours after taking the pill whoop whoop! I actually feel pretty good, my motivation seems to be there a bit more now and I've been ordering Xmas presents while watching This Morning 🤣

Small steps but I feel that things might be getting better 😊

That’s great to hear @Cherryblossom200 , I hope things continue to improve for you.

I had a horrible night, feeling sick and like I had the flu again (I don't) and I woke up and decided that I've had enough.

I'm no longer taking sertraline and I'm fine with it. I don't think I was horrendously depressed. I was exhausted with what life was throwing at me and couldn't sort out my thoughts so I ended up in a bad place for a bit.

The side effects of sertraline were too much for me, I know it was early days but feeling numb, emotionally devoid, exhausted, detached, ill and just odd wasn't for me.

I don't regret taking it though, what sertraline did do is make me sleep which I clearly needed. It gave me a holiday from my head, which I needed as well. But now I'm ready to go back to me, and I'm feeling pretty good about it 😊

Good luck to everyone else on it, I hope it works for you 😊

I hope all goes well for you @Cherryblossom200

Thanks @miffmufferedmoof good luck with everything 🙏