Quote Originally Posted by Dazzlar13 View Post
I do put it down to the emotional blunting from sertraline and duloxetine earlier.
Possibly. Some ADs may have that affect on some people. Switching to another AD will usually resolve the issue, however, some prefer the blunting.

I have noticed I have more vivid dreams also.
I suspect the dreams don't actually change. That they are just as vivid most of the time, but ADs may lighten REM sleep enough for them to intrude into conscious awareness. I used to have some beauties on imipramine. The full DeMille extravagances in widescreen Technicolor with surround sound...well if DeMille was on crack, some were really weird! Haven't taken it for over 25 years, but I still miss them.

I see the recommend dose is 125mg and my doctor is only increasing it 25 mg every 2 weeks and I'm a big guy as well coming in at 260lbs. It's going to take a while before I get the full effect.
Patience is a virtue and that applies double where ADs are concerned. Better to go slow to minimize the initial side-effects than to rush it. The usual effective dose range is 100-200mg, but a few may need more. I was on 350mg for a while.

Body weight doesn't matter much. Antidepressants have no direct effect on anxiety, or depression in the way say aspirin has on a headache. They work by stimulating the growth of new brain cells (neurogenesis) to replace cells killed, or prevented from growing by high brain stress hormone levels. The therapeutic response is produced by these new cells and the stronger interconnections they forge, not the meds directly, and they take time to bud, grow and mature. For a more detailed explanations see: Depression and the Birth and Death of Brain Cells (PDF) and How antidepressant drugs act.