I need your honest opinions on Sertraline

[Elisabeth3468]

I have been battling anxiety and depression for a while now. Kick started by a second baby, less money , an extremely tragic family bereavement which the grief seems to be getting worse. My baby is now 1. I have been offered anti depressants over 4 times and declined. I believe I didn't need them and prefer self help. I joined a gym and a spa and try my hardest to go.
I am sometimes ok for a week and then get these very dark spells. I can be angry and shout and I do scare myself sometimes where it comes from. I feel like my brain is going to explode.
my mental health has impacted my physical health, I've caught so much this winter and been unwell. I've lost lots of weight due to lack of appetite. I can't face work yet and I was meant to return after Mat leave but have been on sick. I did return but shortly after just couldn't cope. Baby doesn't sleep great so lack of sleep doesn't help.
anxiety is debilitating it's even stopped me driving now: I can't get behind the wheel without an intrusive thought. I have an amazing supportive partner but he does feel exercise, sun and time alone would be more beneficial. But he will support my choice.
I want to feel happier, i am trying my hardest.

I am scared of the side effects of sertraline-
weight gain?
loss of sex drive or inability to enjoy sex?
dizziness etc?
please enlighten me.

16 weeks in combined with solution based therapy the best thing I’ve ever done I wish I’d taken them sooner. Bit spacey and anxious for the first three days. No plans to come off these ever.

DH has been taking it for a few years now. He had quite a hard time deciding to go ahead with it but a few threads here helped him decide and frankly, he doesn’t know how he’d have got through the last few years without it. He’ll stay on it for a while longer yet, until we sell our house and get ourselves sensibly downsized and warm and cosy; I’ll continue to deteriorate but that will be all he’ll have to contend with (except his own growing elderliness and frailty).

I am sorry you feel like this.
It worked for ages for me (50mg) for depression , but then anxiiety became an issue and despite upping the dose it did not help!

I am now on venfalaxine which addresses both issues. I too do exercise and other enjoyabe things, but the meds give me the ooomph to do them !

I did not find weight gain an issue with it . Indigestion was though if I did not have it with a meal.

ADs are deffo a trial and error thing though - one does not suit everyone x

Saved my sanity. Best thing I've had for mh

Are you getting help for yourself @Jux as you matter too?

It honestly makes no difference, it reacts differently to every single person who takes it. Try it out, if it's not right you can change.

Yes obviously but nice to hear others experiences

@CashewTiara, I have MS and I’m surrounded by health professionals all of whom are helping, but what we need is to live in a much smaller house which is warmer and cheaper to run! They can’t do anything about that! Ì’m OK, thanks for checking, though, it’s appreciated.

Similar for me

Ive been on it years, its great stuff! No side effects and keeps my depression at bay.

The drug itself doesn’t cause weight gain - it’s not that kind of antidepressant - but it can increase appetite.

I’ve been on Sertraline for a few years, and in the past I’ve taken other antidepressants. The only real side effects I had from Sertraline were mild nausea for a couple of weeks and after that, nothing really. No issues with sex drive, no weight gain (I actually lost a lot of weight after I started taking it because my mental state improved enough for me to start eating healthily and exercising).

I had loads of side effects with Citalopram and Seroxat, but not with Sertraline.

Hi. I was on it for about three years.
It really helped me. I certainly didn't gain weight.
It definitely helped me with anxiety and intrusive thoughts. I found that my sleep improved and I was less tired.
When I decided to come off Sertraline, my GP gave me lower and lower doses, over a period of six months or so.

think it's worth trying. If you have bad side effects it's absolutely fine to go back and try something else rather than giving up completely - I was so, so ill on sertraline, and had very similar side effects on mirtzapine, but then barely anything on citalopram. Also found it very easy to come off. There's no reason you can't do the exercise/sun (chance would be a fine thing!)/therapy/time alone etc as well, but why not make it as easy on yourself as possible?

DD has been on it for about 2 years, from age 17. I had resisted agreeing to this because of concern about side effects, but it has made a huge, positive difference. She has actually lost a bit of weight and doesn't report any other side effects. Started very low dose, gradually increased to 100mg with weekly checks-ins from GP.

I have been on sertraline twice and the "journey" was the same:

Initial effects: severe nausea and vomiting - had to take a few days off work. Insomnia for a few days, as in not sleeping a blink. But I didn't care, i was a bit of a zombie. Once the nausea wore off I had a complete loss of appetite for a week or so.

Eventually after a couple for weeks the permanent side effects came: constant desire to eat, loss of libido, brutal night sweats, pretty much inability to orgasm, sore breasts / breast growth (bizarre I know), no sensation of thirst, emotional indifference. I put on about a stone and a half per year. The compulsive eating was the worst, I had to fight the urge to eateateat every minute of every day.

It took a good two years after coming off it for the compulsive eating to subside and for me to recover my sensations of thirst. I'm slowly losing the weight.

It did stop any intrusive thoughts / ruminating straightaway and overall made me a bit meh... indifferent to everything

It just made me incredibly hungry! Fortunately, my job means that I struggle to keep weight on, but shopping and eating at that time was a very expensive habit.

I felt nervous of potential side-effects (I'd tried a different anti-anxiety medication before, which just made me feel incredibly ill and dizzy), and a bit ashamed, before I started taking them. In the end, I was told that the pharmacy was having trouble with obtaining any, so I came off them cold-turkey style without any serious issues.

Hope you get on well with it op. I was similar position to you. 2 young kids, 2 year old hasn’t slept since she was born and i was so exhausted i constantly wished i was dead. Had a breakdown. I was determined to get better naturally and also had therapy but nothing worked. Sometimes life throws shit at you and you need something extra to help you cope.

Start with 25mg. I only had a bit of a dry mouth. Wish i’d started it earlier. I play to stay on it until i get more sleep and my home life is a bit less stressful.

I restarted Sertraline this year. No weight gain and actually losing weight because I'm not comfort-eating. No side effects. I find it helps to take it with lots of water and follow up with some yoghurt.

I love the dreams! I’ve had no issues with it. Coming off is really hard. I got withdrawal brain zaps about 3 months later which was annoying. I went back on it after about a year as I was tearful at everything. And wasn’t my self at all. I’ll say on it now.

I came off SSRIs because they hugely affected my ability to enjoy sex.

That made me utterly miserable and years later it’s never quite fully recovered. The willing is most definitely there but these days it’s more of a whimper than a bang (sorry TMI).

What helped was the children getting older and sleeping better, walks outdoors, Brazilian jujitsu, an extremely loving, kind and patient DH and gradually coming to terms/making peace with the fact that my parents really were a bit shit.

My ability to express emotions has always been lacking (they come out in very odd ways, or at random during films), but the drugs just flattened them completely.

I would try everything possible to avoid having to go on them again, but do understand that they can be really helpful for many.