New to Sertraline - advice and guidance

[LDHarv]

Hello,

So I started taking 50mg a day of Sertraline on the advice of my GP after I was diagnosed with server health related anxiety. Basically a constant ache in my leg for a few days turned into a feeling of a weak left arm, muscle twinges, fatigue, cramp in foot and legs, fingers that feel stiff and my health anxiety went through the roof! Especially when I kept googling these symptoms and trying to link them to ALS (MND over here). Two GPs now have said it’s fine and they don’t think it is serious and especially not MND (one GP even said it’s not, the other was very confident) but still I have worry and anxiety 24/7 (and all the pains, aches and symptoms above).

Anyway, since I’ve started taking the drug things feel even worse (3rd day now). I wake up each day in a very dark and down mood, I feel very tired though I’m sleeping fine, I feel sick all the time, I ache tons, I feel like I can’t swallow things well (though I can eat) and my want to eat is down. I’ve got a headache (dull) most of the day. Does this sound like anyone else? Just feels like I’m getting too many of the side effects mentioned! Thought it might just be a bit of sickness but I feel awful!

Any help, support or replies are super appreciated. This is my first time on any drugs and trying to sort this HA out.

[sparkles71]

Hi LDHary
I’m on 25mg at the moment & my body aches mostly legs & bottom feels a little like sciatica but it isn’t the aches are there all day but definitely get worse a couple of hours after I take the sert, it feels a little easier today & I’ve started to eat a little over the past couple of days. I’m on day 7. I hope this helps to put your mind at ease a little it is awful but hopefully gets better I will be increasing in a couple of days.

[LDHarv]

Thanks for the reply. It’s the sickness, not wanting to eat, low mood and headaches that are bothering me - especially as the rest of my symptoms (which everyone has put down to anxiety) continue and new ones come up. Hard to break the circle of health anxiety when every single day feels tough right now.

[LDHarv]

Hey,

So finding this rough going. Every single morning I wake up super down and in a lot of ache like pain? Anyone else feel this way at the start? On day 5 now.

[yappie94]

Yeah I pretty much went through the exact same side effects you a mentioning, this is my second time around starting up again, and I find it’s 2weeks of bad and then the third week it improves massively then 4th week i found the side effects had dropped of completely and during the fourth week I jumped up to 100mg as 50mg didn’t cut it for me