Should i take sert now or after exams?

[xninax]

Okay so today after more than a year, i finally managed to go to the doctors again over my depression/anxiety and he prescribed me Sertraline 50mg, so i guess that 1 step towards the right direction. but the thing is I've never been on antidepressants before, I've read the leaflet so i know what to expect, i guess I'm just anxious that it won't work and I'll be stuck like this forever :weep:....

anyways so i got an exam on sat but because my anxiety has worsened very quickly over a year, my studies have been seriously affected, soooo i would like to know when it would be better to take these antideps, now or after exams? considering i've never been on these before and the poss side effects that may come.

any advice would be lovely and very much appreciated :yesyes: xx

p.s i was stalking on the citalopram forum and someone rather cool wrote a suvival guide on taking cit, i would love to know is there something similar written for taking sertraline?

[vicky23]

hi I've been on sertraline for a long while now and when I started taking it I was in thr grips of bad ocd so I can't remember what it made me feel like on first taking it but the first week does seem to be the worst in terms of side effects, they tend to wear off after a week I think so maybe if you could hang on til after your exam it'd be beneficial. You don't want to be feeling nauseous and drowsy during an exam, and the meds do take a while to be effective anyway so you wouldn't really notice a difference in terms of positive effect on Sat
That's just my opinion though someone might think differently :)
whatever you decide I hope it brings you relief and your exam goes really welll

[xninax]

Vicky23 - oh really? sounds like it's going to get worse first before it gets better :unsure:... hmm your're prob right, after exams would be best and i've hanged on for at least 5 years, whats one more week hey lol? thank you so much for the advice :hugs:i feel a little more at ease now! xx

[Tyke]

I agree with Vicky. I hade side effects from Sertraline for about four weeks quite badly. Straight away I had insomnia, diahrroea and loss of appetite. They took five weeks to kick in. Well worth it in the end, but everyone is different and there's no knowing exactly how it will affect you, but you are extremely unlikely to feel any benefit in the first week (they usuallysay give it 4-6 weeks to start working).

Tyke

[Cat80]

I would wait as well. I am 3 weeks in on 50mg of Sertraline. I am still feeling sick most days, not sleeping well and like a zombie because I am so tired all the time. Hopefully the side effects will wear off soon and I will feel the positives, nothing as yet though.

[xninax]

thanks for the replies guys, even though i'm feeling crap today i'll try to stick it out one more day :(

hope you're all doing well xx