Anyone else experience this?

[Bookist]

I had to stop taking HRT in 2019 because of an early breast cancer diagnosis. Since then I have taken 100mg of Sertraline to help with hot flashes and insomnia and it works brilliantly 85% of the time. My mood is always calm and upbeat too. But several times a year my mood suddenly crashes and I feel horribly low and grey for a couple of weeks or more, just existing like a robot. Then just as suddenly it disappears and I'm 100% again.

I am still having fairly regular periods despite being 53, but these mood dips don't seem to have any correlation to my periods? I know that Sertraline doesn't just stop and start working either, so I feel really puzzled as to what is happening?

tiredness ebbs & flows, too
Life is just crap sometimes?

I mean, if you're feeling like this now, so are a lot of people - post holiday period, still dark out, cold and wet, lots of viruses, loads of work to get on with... sometimes you just have to ride it. I like knitting or crocheting... makes me feel productive but can do it while watching/listening to something else or chatting. That and exercise helps. I know getting out is meant to help, I'm not convinced, but I do a bit of stomping around for a stupid walk for my stupid mental health... it never makes it worse at any rate.

That's true about tiredness. But otherwise my life is lovely, hardly any crap at all. I'm convinced it's some sort of chemical change because it comes on so quickly almost like a sneeze. Then it disappears just as fast. It's so peculiar and I don't know anyone IRL that experienced anything like it?

Thank you for your reply. Bizarrely I really love these dark midwinter days and I'm retired so it's not the back to work blues. It's so odd that it comes and goes out of nowhere. I do keep busy during these lows as it helps a bit, but really I feel like a robot doing stuff. Like there's a total disconnect between me and the rest of the world. I'm sure it's something chemical but no idea what?

This is going to sound insane, but I'm on Sertraline too, and OCCASIONALLY my prescription comes back as a different brand of medication than usual. I've noticed that they don't seem to work as well as the normal brand. GP has said it's nonsense as it's the same drug - but I also get similar effects in that different brands of painkillers work differently. It's not a placebo effect as it took a little while for me to notice that the moods correlated with the brands.

I know it sounds ridiculous but is there any chance you're taking a different brand for a few weeks before going back to the normal one, and would this correlate with the low moods?

Now that is very interesting! I've never taken much note of which brand of Sertraline I get from the pharmacy to be honest. I will definitely start making note from now on and see if there's any correlation, thank you.

Oh I hear you about enjoying the winter days but I still think they may not be 'good' for us - I love being alone but I know that much as I love it my mood and ability to do things drops the longer I am alone. It's trying to find that sweet spot. And I also noted you said this happens at other times of the year too. Could it be that being retired you don't have much sense of purpose? I feel like that if on holiday for too long and when I was a SAHM - I felt like I wasn't part of the community, out on my own.

I do hope you figure it out though.

Yes, it happens through out the year, no rhyme nor reason to it. But it definitely feels like something just switches in my head with nothing to do with outside influences. It would really make so much sense if I was just very sensitive to a change of brand in my meds.