Sertraline - Thinking Of Giving up.

[reddevil]

Hi all,

Well, today is the two week mark that I have been on 75mg, which previous I was on 25mg for two weeks, 50mg for four weeks and as mentioned, two weeks on 75mg (8 weeks in total).

I have phoned my doctor today and explained I'm feeling more anxious and depressed and I feel no better with being on Sertraline.

The doctor was nice and said he can see me tomorrow at 4pm and his next plan of action is to increase Sertraline from 75mg to 100mg.

Can there be much improvement of a 25mg increase?

I'm basically thinking of giving them up because I'm walking around all day will full on anxiety and I'm tired of it all.

I wake up with the shakes and feel more anxious, which I'm not sure if its the side effects.

Can side effects come 7 weeks of taking them as I was fine until I went from 50mg to 75mg?

Red

[reddevil]

Hi,

Well, I have just got back from seeing my doctor and he has told me to increase the Sertraline to 100mg and then see how that goes and then take 80mg slow release of Propranolol.

He said he did not want to give me anything stronger like Diazepam because that would just introduce another problem.

Red

[reddevil]

Hello all,

Today is my 7th day on 100mg and my anxiety worries are still the same.

I was wondering how long does an increase of medication take to make effect?

Thank you for your time if anybody can help?

Red

[Tufty]

Hi,
I've only been on Sertraline for a week but have been on other SSRI's. I was fine on the Sertraline for 4 days but since day 5 I've had increased anxiety and panic attacks. After my experience with other medication I know this is normal, with Escitalopram it took only 2 days to get the anxiety but with Prozac it took over a week, they are all slightly different. The side effects normal subside after about a week but the positive effects of the drugs sometimes are not apparent for a month. Sertraline should have a quicker effect than Prozac but I would leave it at least 3 weeks before any increase or decrease in dose.

Take care
Sam

[Lissa101]

I was on Sert for around 6 months and I found it really helped my anxiety eventually. I had side effects for around 3 months and the foggy head feeling never really left me which is why I'm now discontinuing x

[reddevil]

Thank you for reply.

I was wondering what mg you was on how long the dose took until it started to help with your anxiety?

Thank you

Red

[TJSMITH]

Hi red
I been on it 7 months its very slow to work and you don't really notice until you look back.
I still have bad days but on the whole 98 percent me again. I'm on 100mg it took 4-6 months to get to this point but I wanted to give it 6 months and pleased I did.

[reddevil]

Tjsmith,

Thank you

Red

[Gotagetthroughthis]

Hi reddevil

You need to stop increasing the dose, your doctor hasnt even given your body and brain a chance to get use to any certain dose yet. If you keep increasing it so frequently then it just prolongs the side effects as you have to adjust to having more of the drug in your system again.

In your first post you said you were fine untill you went from 50mg to 75mg, so you were probably starting to settle and get used to the 50mg dose and then your docs gone and put you up to 75mg which has caused you to feel bad again.

It takes a long while to fully get used to the drug and the certain dose. I settled on 50mg after being on it for about 2 months, I did go up to 75mg and I started feeling ill again so I just went back to 50mg and stayed there and thats when I really started to see improvements.

If I were you I would either stay at the dose you are on now for much longer than you have been or gradually drop the dose down slighty and stick with 75 or 50mg, just dont keep chopping and changing, it just prolongs the side effects and anxiety.

Some doctors really aggravate me, they don't seem to have any clue what they are doing.

Hope you start to feel better soon

[Tufty]

Good point GTGTT and one I will keep in mind. I think I'll get better faster if I get on the biggest dose and keep increasing until I get there, this is despite knowing that I respond well to low doses All rationale thinking goes out the window when it comes to anxiety. Sam