Sertraline is making me "numb" and indifferent.

[Meilo]

Hi guys,

I am suffering from Dystymia and SAD and have been taking Sertraline 50 - 75mg for over a year now. It helps with psychosomatic*ailments and moderately attenuates the anxiety & fear. My problem with Sertraline is: It makes me an apathetic zombie, indifferent to life and very unmotivated. I have sleep disturbances, the sleep is unrestful. I've also lost quite*a bit of weight and am more agitated. Besides that I have hot-flashes and palpitations on a regular basis. My pdoc said that I will have to live with the sides and that he can't do anything about it. He*advised me that I should try to get used to it...

My question: is there something*that I could use to augment the Sertraline and make it all more bearable for me?

Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate that!

Greetings, Meilo

[Meilo]

anyone?

[KK77]

This is a difficult question because it involves trial and error and the dreaded Medi-go-round. I was on Sert for nearly 5 years and felt "apathetic" and flat too. In the end, it stopped working for my depression.

I don't know whether you have tried augmenting Sert with Mirtazapine, which can sometimes work, or trying a completely different class of AD. I switched to Venlafaxine, which has helped with the apathy - but only moderately.

And this is the core problem: Most meds come with the problematic issue of side effects, so it's a matter of weighing up the pros and cons for you as an individual.

[Meilo]

This is a difficult question because it involves trial and error and the dreaded Medi-go-round. I was on Sert for nearly 5 years and felt "apathetic" and flat too. In the end, it stopped working for my depression.

That's what I am afraid of: the SSRI carousel. My doc is an SSRI fanboy and doesn't acknowledge other antidepressant classes.

What antidepressants did work best for you?
`

I don't know whether you have tried augmenting Sert with Mirtazapine, which can sometimes work, or trying a completely different class of AD.

Mirtazapine is on top of my antidepressant-to-do-list, but my current doc is afraid of Mirtazapine ("bad, dangerous stuff!").

What I would like to try: Clomipramine: psychotropical.info/clomipramine-potent-snri-anti-depressant/

[MadWomanintheAttik]

I am presently on sertraline and have been for over 14 years. In the beginning, like the first few years, yeah, it made me sort of apathetic and indifferent to a lot of things, although this didn't seem to be a bad thing for me because I was the type of person that would overreact to everything, whether it was sadness, anxiety, etc. My feelings are a bit dulled now, and yeah, it's a little difficult to get hyped up about something like other people do, but living with panic attacks and anxiety was much worse than this.

My current battle is figuring out if the generic sertraline is causing me side effects versus when I was on the name brand zoloft. I don't remember having as many issues on the brand name.

My psychiatrist prescribed xanax for me to take with the sertraline. I've honestly only used it once because I was deathly afraid of using it because I have a pill phobia. Anyways, I used it for that panic attack that I would have called 9-1-1 for but instead forced myself to take it and within 10 minutes I was calmer, and within 30 I was myself again.

I'm not sure if xanax is the type of medication you are looking for but it can be taken with sertraline and does help with panic.