Starting sertraline for health anxiety while caring for young children?

[Snownosnow]

hi all, my GP has prescribed me sertraline for health anxiety. I’ve had health anxiety for years and been through some pretty tough stuff ( illness, v sick child, bereavements, secondary infertility and IVF etc) without taking anything but I burst into tears in her office today prior to getting some routine bloods back and she thinks I should try it. I do feel like it’s gotten worse lately despite no obvious triggers.

my problem is I am currently full time minding my two young children - husband can’t take any time off at the minute as it’s his year end crazy busy period - and I’m back to work in 2 weeks after maternity leave.

is this an ok time to start it? I’m worried about my ability to mind the children with side effects or getting worse and ruining my last two weeks off with them or going back to work with my head a mess when I wanted to hit the ground running.

any advice appreciated - very nervous about it. I’ll be on 25mg for 4 days then 50mg.

I'm on sertraline 100mgs . It's a brilliant drug and hasn't had any side effects for me . It also works quickly . You'll be fine looking after children . Take it with food and a cold drink so it doesn't upset your tummy .

Don’t do it , do your research. Horrendous side effects and even worse if you try to come off . Look at the website surviving antidepressants for info. Anxiety does not need a drug the medical and pharmaceutical industry have a lot to answer for. Increased anxiety is actually one of the side effects!!!!

Really? Did you have these yourself? I thought it was one of the tamest meds to take.

You should be fine OP. The side effects can be tough at the start but not generally not in the sense that they can interfere with how you care for your children - and no worse than how much anxiety can interfere with looking after them. You may find by the time you go back to work on two weeks that you're actually feeling better. I have taken it for anxiety but I have a relative who takes it specifically for health anxiety and he always says it's life changing. He felt the benefit of it very quickly and the side effects were minimal and short lived for him. Good luck!

I was on 50mg for six months after my 3rd child (PPD). It really helped because I was struggling so badly, and with counselling I felt much better. I was scared of getting reliant on them and also ended up feeling like a zombie (very numb), so I stopped suddenly - wouldn’t recommend! Felt so weird but I was pleased to feel emotions again. I also got recurrent ear pain as a side effect that never really went away (if something presses on my ear I have to wiggle it to stop it hurting, a little annoying).

Anyway (rambling), I would recommend Sertraline if you are feeling really overwhelmed it really helps - better than being depressed with small children. But I would also recommend talking therapies because you sound like you have been through so much and sometimes having pills is like putting a plaster over a wound (it doesn't help the reasons why you are feeling this way). I would recommend a good bit of exercise even more (jogging with happy music is my favourite for helping anxiety - probably because it makes me too tired to worry! but my knees/back have started to go).

Good luck OP, it is tough with small children and it can be an anxious time.

I took 100mg and I had hardly any side effects going on them and it literally saved my life. My anxiety eased off greatly and my quality of life improved. I had two young children btw.

I was started on 50mg about 3 months ago, it worked really quickly on me and calmed me right down, too much really. I rather enjoyed being a zombie and not giving a shit about anything after being a tearful anxious mess, but it couldn't continue like that. Halving the dose to 25mg has kept the calming effect but I'm more or less functional now.

Do your bloods come back ok? Surely your gp should have checked you’re not deficient in something that can be remedied before medicating you?

I’m on 100mg (was on 50 for a couple of years but then even more 💩 hit the fan in terms of horrendous life events and the GP doubled my dose). No side effects and it’s literally saving my sanity, if not my life. I take it last thing at night to avoid the hideous nausea I’d get if I forgot to eat breakfast/went too long between meals. I’m aware that, if I’m ever in a position to come off it, I’ll need to carefully titrate my dose down to avoid horrible side effects, but that’s fine.

I started it in March after about 5 years of counselling for health anxiety. I did 2 weeks of 25mg now on week 6 of 50mg. The first few weeks were a struggle energy wise, but no worse then being frozen with health anxiety thinking I was going to have a heart attack every time I was alone with my 2 year old.
This past week has been a revelation, I work nights which isn't brilliant for MH in general but iv been able to spend alot more time playing with the baby and have found housework and general day to day living has become so much easier. Fatigue was the worse part for the first few weeks but that was definitely made worse by working nights.

25 and 50mg are relatively small doses. I started on 50 a couple of years ago and am now on 100. The only side effect I had was feeling sick at night for a few days.

As for looking after your children, I was a single mum of 3 when I started it and was absolutely fine.