Is this true?

[Scaredlady]

Is it true that if someone experiences one of the listed "rare" side effects from a medication it is because they have "schizophrenic genes"?

I'm experiencing closed eye hallucinations from Sertraline 50mg which is listed as a rare effect (The first two nights but I didn't experience it last night) and my anxiety fueled fear is based upon a fear of schizophrenia.... Is it true that only someone who is becoming schizophrenic but who hasn't been diagnosed yet will experience hallucinations on Sertraline?

And yes I did read it on google and I'm panicking now massively.

[Pipkin]

Err, no. Some people get no side effects, some people get one or two of the common ones and then a tiny minority get some of the rarer side effects. This is completely random and has no bearing on your mental health diagnosis.

Whatever you're reading is rubbish and you need to stop seeking out problems and just wait for the benefits which the vast majority experience. In other words, stop googling!

Pip x

[Scaredlady]

Thank you so much.

I'm always telling people "Don't Google" and I had a week or so there myself of being able to resist the urge to Google but I broke this afternoon.

[Pipkin]

Your mind will always (always!) jump to the worst case scenario if you look into things too much. Your mind is only trying to keep you safe so this is natural. As anxiety sufferers, we have to accept this and try to let it pass over us. Focus on the positive aspects of your life and try your hardest not to give in to your mind's doomsday predictions. The odds are in your favour that you'll be just fine. Honest!

Pip xx

[Buster70]

Hi can I ask how old you are ? The reason being scizophrenia usually starts showing in teenage years , my dads friend had it and my best mate from school has it , he started getting ill about 17 ish and when he got real bad a couple of years later he never mentioned it to us as he thought what he was doing was completely normal , when I tried citalapram I had the same thoughts " I'm going crazy " ok I'm not right but I see things or hear things other people don't , I had a rough time with ad and I did go through stage were I'd close my eyes and see weird patterns etc , it's not easy to stop the googling is it it's addictive , take care .

[Scaredlady]

Thanks Pip.

Buster I'm a woman of 31, I started obsessing about it when I was 29 but apparently it comes about later in women than it does men. Thanks for the reply and no, it's not easy at all.

[Lissa101]

I get auditory hallucinations when I'm anxious. Not voices or anything, just random sounds or sounds that are familiar to me. I might think I hear my dog barking when he's not in the house for example. Most of the time it happens when I'm sleepy, almost like my dreams are starting before I'm actually asleep. It used to make me freak out but its actually not unusual for people to get these and visual ones too without having anything wrong with them. It doesn't bother me anymore but it did for a very long time.

I'm sure its just a combinatiom of side effects and high anxiety. Fear of psychosis is very common in anxiety sufferers but I imagine its extremely rare. Hopefully your symptoms will lesson when the meds settle x

[MyNameIsTerry]

Where are hallucinations listed as a rare side effect? I can see reference to "seeing things that are not there" in the Incidence Unknown category of one of the sections. In the professional section for psychiatrist side effects hallucinations are recorded as Uncommon (0.1-1%).

However, regardless you have had a big focus on schizophrenia in your anxiety all the way since you joined and this will be something of a Confirmation Bias issue that your anxious mind is trying to use to prove your fear is true.