I can't take sertraline but I have to

[LostTheWill29]

I started sertraline last night, only 25. Felt fine all night and all day but suddenly I feel so sick. I'm taking them mainly for health anxiety and feeling sick is a huge trigger for me. I'm due to take another one now but I can't even eat, so I don't know if I can keep taking it and do days, never mind weeks of this. But I feel so pathetic as everyone else manages it. I can't cope with feeling paralysed with feeling ill but this is the whole reason I am supposed to take them. I just don't think I can cope taking them. I've tried cbt 3 times but it doesn't help.

I keep thinking I wish I didn't have children because then it wouldn't matter if I was here or not. I don't feel suicidal now because I wouldn't want to leave them without a mum but I have been up and down my whole life and I can't help thinking I wish I had killed myself when I was a teenager before I had children to worry about. I think maybe I've been like this for so long I don't even know if I want to change. I just want to shut myself away and be alone, never go out and do things but I can't because of my family. And I know that's not normal or reasonable but I don't think I can get better.

I know it's not the sertraline talking because I have only had one tablet, and only 25. Its just me. Its always been me. I can't talk to anyone else because they don't get it and also I think I'm just boring my husband and frustrating him because I can't take the tablets to make myself better.

Can you ask for an antiemetic to counteract the nausea?

I thought I'd googled it and couldn't take one with it but I can't remember where I saw it now as I've googled so much about it

I take mine right before bed. When I tried taking them in the morning it made me feel a bit sick through the day.
Taking it before bed meant I’d sleep through the worst part of the side effects.

It really was worth it. Sertraline changed my life for the better.

Please contact your GP surgery - there are options. Antiemetics, starting with half a tablet, etc.

You might find it is easier if you take your sertraline immediately before bed, then have lots of small snacks during the day.

Have a chat with the doctor or a pharmacist, you’d need to choose the right one for you but can take them together.

Nausea/head fog/feeling rubbish is a very common side effect when starting sertraline. If you can tolerate it, you’ll begin to feel better soon as you adjust to the meds.

You can and will feel better x

edit: are you on 25mg to get you used to the side effects? It’s below the treatment threshold, 50mg is the lowest treatment dose I believe.

@LostTheWill29 please please be kind to yourself. The first week on sertraline is the hardest. Dh takes it following the death of his teenage son, and he struggled with the nausea. He has found taking it about 8pm after a meal makes a huge difference to the nausea and after about 10 days he realised he wasn't experiencing it anymore.

Please persevere with it!

And if you need to talk, we are here to read and try and help where we can

I'd also suggest experimenting with the time you take it. It made me so tired and if I took it just before bed I couldn't function before lunch time the next day so dinner time was best for me, whereas I've seen others take it in the morning because it disturbs their sleep. The first couple of weeks are really tough but it's worth it if you can figure out a way to take them that minimises the side effects.

Thank you for all the replies. Your kindness made me cry again!

I'm just eating some toast and a banana and will take it before bed. Yes, I'm on 25 to build up to 50 because I was so worried about the side effects. I took it after dinner last night to try and sleep through any side effects but didn't start feeling sick until about 4pm today.

I'd just talked myself into eating and didn't feel very sick but suddenly I feel like I'm going to vomit right after eating again. I had convinced myself to make the second tablet but now I really don't know if I can again. I hate this so much and I'm on day 1. How do you all push though this?!

Just by knowing it will get better I think. It's hard but temporary? Also although SSRIs take a while to take effect for depression they seem to start working to take the edge off anxiety sooner and once the anxiety is lessened then coping with anything is a bit easier. With that said, sertraline was not the best one for me and I got on much better with citalopram. Also, it is really important to keep telling yourself that anxiety causes nausea as much as any tablet does. So if you convince yourself it will make you feel sick it's inevitably going to make you feel sick. One thing that helped me was telling myself I can do/tolerate anything if it's for my kids. You can do this. And talk to GP about anti emetics tomorrow too. Hugs.

Also if you didn't feel sick till 4pm it is quite likely that there was some anxiety about taking the next tablet in there. The peak level in your bloodstream would have been earlier in the day.

I have taken it, as DH managed to convince me that I was happier yesterday and I could be feeling so anxious because I was due a tablet. I don't think it quite works that fast, but he tried and it worked.

I will ask about anti sickness tablets tomorrow and remember that about doing anything for my children. It definitely is similar to pregnancy sickness and has reminded me I'm absolutely done in that area!

Massive well done my lovely!!

I have struggled with anxiety most of my life so I absolutely get how you are feeling. But you should be so very proud of yourself for pushing through it. And yay for your dh supporting you.

It is a huge step but each day gets that little bit easier.

@Ihatelittlefriendsusan you are so kind. Thank you.

It will take a while to settle down but then you’ll feel much better. I’m on 125 and no longer feel any sickness effects x

Got to pharmacy and ask for Buccastem / prochlorperazine. It’s an anti-emetic. BUT only sold OTC if you say it’s for migraines otherwise it’s not licensed.

Keep with the sertraline it will change your life

Keep coming back here to talk!

You have a whole community of support

Oh, OP, I sympathise because I hate feeling sick (I have fairly bad emetophobia) and Sertraline made me feel really sick and panicky for the first couple of days too.

It did start improving quite quickly, though, and as soon as I felt that it was getting easier I was much less anxious about it - still not happy with feeling sick, but knew I wasn’t going to vomit, and was able to push through. It was only really bad for the first day; day 2 wasn’t quite as bad, and by day 4 it wasn’t really bothering me. After a week or so I no longer felt sick at all.

I basically spent days 1-3 in bed crying because I was so anxious that I wasn’t going to be able to handle it, and that there was no other possible solution. Neither of those things was true, but it felt that way.

First I’d say, if you can easily block out a couple of days in your diary to take it really easy and have no responsibilities, just do it. I find that part of my anxiety around being sick is to do with being unable to do the things I need to do, so if I can remove responsibility then it really helps.

Secondly, If you find it’s taking too much out of you to stick with it, speak to your GP or pharmacist. They might suggest breaking the tablet in half and only taking half for the first couple of days, and then maybe half in the morning and half in the evening for a few more days until you’re used to it. Or they might prescribe an anti-emetic. Or a different antidepressant (different people react differently to the various types).

Ive found Sertraline a real life-saver; hopefully you will too, once it settles down. But don’t be afraid to tell your GP if it’s not working for you; there are other things they can try.

Well, I found sertraline did not agree with me at all. The bastard doctor made me stick it out for six weeks saying oh it will settle down. Six weeks of hovering close to the toilet 24/7 and throwing up so often I lost over 1/4 of my body weight, was severely dehydrated and my stomach was so raw, I’d vomit up blood and bile even when I had no food left to vomit.

I would personally ask for a different antidepressant/antianxiety medication before you are put in a position of having to wean off to start something else.

I would not go the route of anti-sickness tablets on top.

@LostTheWill29 Have you tried Pepto Bismol for the nausea?

there's lots of meds out there - I wouldn't use one that made me need another prescription med on top. How bad is it?

Hi, Fellow sertraline taker here. on a different dose to you. i was warned it wont work for everyone, but since the initial vile settling in period, ive found its more positives. would it help if you reframed it as a source of help, not a must take? and where the emetophobia creeps in could you not line your stomach with something simple like a digestive biscuit first and then take it. im really sorry if thats insensitive, i just wondered if it would be worth a try.

Thinking of you today x

Hi I hope you are feeling ok. I had a rocky start wth sertaline and almost stopped . I managed to stay on but had a rough few weeks but then settled completely. It was life changing for me and I am now off them completely. Wishing you the best xxx

Hey @LostTheWill29, just dropped by to check on how you are doing.

Thank you for checking in, and sorry for not coming back to this post sooner.

I am ok. I will be taking my 6th tablet today, and it's been better then I expected but I now have anxiety over increasing it to 50 when it is time! I have felt sick on and off but nothing too bad since I wrote this post. I've had headaches, tiredness etc and felt on edge a lot but it's hard to know if those are side effects or just the treatment. I have been VERY aware of any body sensations, which has been hard and have felt "shakey" and "off" and have struggled to know if that is just in my head or not.

I've been taking it in the evenings, and it hasn't really affected my sleep yet. I mainly just feel so guilty that I've not been myself and it's the summer holidays, but I haven't done much with the DC. I'm trying to reframe it that I wasn't myself anyway and the anxiety was paralysing me, so hopefully a few weeks of being a bit bored will mean things are better in the long run.

Also, it's been so hot here which has been hard!!

Thank you all for your support and advice, I hope you're all doing well too