Beyond help!

[nayia]

I am in the worse state I've ever been. I've had the crisis team out to my home and psychiatrist. I am not eating, the thought of food makes me panic and feel sick, I have been told it's part of my OCD and GAD but I don't believe them ie psychiatrist and doctors. I don't sleep, I lie in bed all day, I have no energy. The only thing that made me feel good were lorezepam but they've been stopped and now I'm on Sertraline but they're rubbish at 2 wks now going from 50mg to 100mg. I'm not getting better, just being told to force myself to eat and ride it out till they kick in but it's not happening.

[LouiseHannah]

If you're not eating that could be one of the many reasons you are lacking in energy. In order for you to get better you need to eat, otherwise you'll make yourself worse. I've had sertraline and it takes about a month to kick in in order to adapt to your brain chemistry. Try a few days of eating and maybe even going for a walk and see how you feel.

[ItsNick]

I just started the same med on THU. From what I've read and what the NP said, you have to wait a few weeks to a month for it to start working. I just posted a thread on Zoloft in here and it got positive replies.

[ServerError]

Hi nayia. Your anguish and suffering comes through loud and clear. I really do sympathise with you and I also know how you feel. Before I go on, I want you to know that your post could have been written by me. I've experienced everything you're feeling. While no two people are the same, I want to tell you how I'm doing now, in the hope that it can give you some... well... hope.

First of all, your issue with food is almost certainly being caused by your anxiety. It's common to experience a loss of appetite and even to fear eating, which it sounds like you do. I went from being a food lover to repulsed by the mention of the word in a matter of days. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. I didn't want to die, but I wanted to somehow drift away. But now my appetite is back to normal, and so can yours be. It's tough, and you do have to do some of the work yourself, even if you hate the thought. Right now, you're teaching your mind that eating is something to be avoided. This doesn't mean you should force yourself to eat a three-course meal. But make sure you get something down you. My improvement came when a psychiatrist at hospital brought me a meal, then left me alone with it. I didn't want it, but I ate it. Then he came back and told me he was testing my ability to eat and was happy enough that I could get food in me. The next day, I felt my appetite. I'm not saying it will be this quick for you, but the point is, I proved a point to my anxious mind, and my appetite began to return.

I too have had both Lorazepam and Diazepam in the past couple of months. They helped me immensely. I honestly believe that, if they could find some way to avoid the tolerance issue and get rid of the awful withdrawal symptoms they cause, benzodiazepines could save so many anxiety sufferers so much pain. Alas, they can't do that.

The good news is that Sertraline can be very effective. I have a great pharmacist who has more time than my GP to talk things through with me and he has great faith in the medicine. Naturally, as with all anti-depressants, different people respond differently, so they don't always help everyone. But you'll find plenty of positive posts about the drug on this forum. The downside is that it can take time to work. 50mg isn't always enough, so you carry on feeling awful, then have to wait for the higher dose to kick in, and then, when it does, you feel worse at first. I was bumped up to 100mg and began to lose my ability to feel emotion, to enjoy anything or to take any interest in anything. These are all anxiety symptoms as well, but me and my doctor both feel that the Sertraline was what really did it. However, after a while, I started to feel the clouds lift. Oh, I'm not 100% perfect, but I'm doing better. I can't help but think this is in part down to the Sertraline. It's a good medicine, but you have to give it time. I know somebody with depression who was on Sertraline for about three months before it started to help him! I know that's not what you want to hear, but it shows that these drugs can take time to do what you want them to do. In the meantime, you have to give yourself a break and be kinder to yourself. The person you were is still there under everything you're feeling.

As I said, everything you say in your post, could have been written by me. I still have anxiety. I still have health anxiety (I'm about to create a thread about what's bothering me today), but I'm doing much better. The reasons are simple (for me anyway): patience, believing the doctors, taking my Sertraline, being kind to myself, refusing to give up.

This may or may not prove helpful, but I hope it does. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk further.