tell me about your experiences with sertraline/zoloft?

I was prescribed sertraline, 50mg. I was told to stick with it for at least 2 weeks as it would get better and help (and the full benefits would take months). Initially it gave me some visual disturbances, throughout made me feel sick, dizzy, couldn't move my eyes or head other than very slowly, couldn't concentrate on anything close up like a book and felt totally spaced out and disconnected. I felt far too out of control to drive and a sliced my finger open cooking. All the things that were making my life a bit better - driving to see other people, exercise, reading, gardening - were impossible. I was incapable of working - I'd not been very focused before but this was much worse. I just lay and gazed at the ceiling.

After 12 days I had to go back to the doctor and we halved the dose but at 3 weeks I gave up because I still felt awful taking it. On the plus side it has given me some better motivation to work through my problems without trying anything else because I don't want another 3 weeks like that. But that's just me, it works for lots of people.

Absolutly ****ing awful. I was on 100mg for 6 months. So while it made me manically happy to the point it was kind of worrying, the side effects were pretty bad. I shall list them for you.



And my psychiatrist at the time told me this was either normal or psychosomatic (all in my head). Despite all that they did help me turn my life around from what was truly my lowest point but I would never use them again and I took myself off them, just went cold turkey one day.

omg hi, welcome back?

100mg? that's a really high dose, i'm only supposed to take 20mg a day, but he wants to 'review' the dose in a couple of weeks. happy sounds good but jesus that's a lot of side effects. :<

Just dropping by for one last time, saw this thread and thought I would give you an honest review.

Give it a go and see how it works out, I have heard that it can really work for some people without so many side effects.

Who tf prescribes 20mg lol

I thought minimum was 50, it was okay after 2 weeks but those first 2 weeks… man that is despair.

my shrink, apparently
just checked my prescription again and it actually says 25mg. is 50 a minimum dose then? that's weird. maybe it's bc of my weight, idk. or bc of my history with antidepressants
are you still on it?

You may just be recommended 25mg but I’ve never heard of someone given a dose that low.

and no not anymore, I was on for about 8 months.

Ha ha.

It gave me really odd intrusive thoughts along the lines of ‘She looks like pig’ and ‘pigs taste nice’. I am vegetarian and I am not some kind of sociopath, you don’t need to be worried.
Some people are initially prescribed a lower dose to test if they can tolerate the drug, before their dose is titrated upwards. That’s what they did for me at least.
I don’t think that it did much for me at all. I stoped taking it over a year and half ago. During my first year off it, I was really unwell however I’ve been Ok for the last 6 months.

I'm just recently on 50mg a few weeks ago and besides some dizziness at first which may have been caused by it or just suggestive I haven't had any issues yet. Have an appointment in a couple of weeks to see how it's working.

im on 100mg. it has helped me so much but i do get really weird dreams and need to sleep alot. i also shake at random times for no reason since ivebeen on it....

Sertraline saved my life. It takes the edge off my depression and helps me to function a lot better than I would otherwise. Have tried to come off it in the past but I don't last that long without it Been on it on and off for 10 years! No side effects in my case

I was originally put on Lexapro and Lorazepam, which didn't help me - I pretty much skipped half of the entire school day every day because of how long I was sleeping, and I was still very miserable. However, I've been put on escitalopram as well as Sertraline. Has been working great so far - I no longer feel like a shell of a human being. I guess the problem is that if it doesn't work for you, change it.

Personally i hated the stuff, for some reason it gave me headaches and made me constantly hungry, much preferred (as far as you can like any of these ghastly meds) Prozac or Citalopram.

give it a go though, its a very individual experience with these drugs with some being horrors and some being wonder drugs depending on your personality and how it works for you. Its not especially difficult to switch off it anyway so theres little harm in giving it a shot