sertraline

I was prescribed it once, but I never took it. I read a lot about discontinuation syndrome. In any other scenario they call that withdrawal. I'm sure it has been useful for some people but I decided I didn't want to go down that route.

My personal experience with Sertraline was not a good one. I found it made me a lot worse, especially the side effects they seemed to affect my stomach and I have GERD and it made it even worse. I seemed to get a lot of suicidal thoughts with it too. Some meds just don't agree with you and for me Sertraline did not.

Sorry for the late reply!

I looked for a private therapist that specialised in CBT and had knowledge of Autism. To be honest I think I lucked out and got a great one. We did 6 sessions initially which had a mix of talking therapy & CBT and I have since had another 6 or so just talking ones as and when I feel I need it.

I enjoy it as it's a safe place for me to unload my thoughts and worries and have someone give unbiased feedback on it and how to help me. As I say she has extensive history working with Autism so I really felt like she understood me.

My experience of these antidepressants is that they work for a little while, but then don't work and when you try to get off them you get 3 month withdrawal with brain zaps which are really intense and dangerous, so after a while you are only taking them so you don't get withdrawal, much like narcotics.  I say dangerous because I would get brain zaps (reward yourself with serotonin that's not there) when crossing the road and my vision would go blurred and I would feel dizzy. 

Doctors try to put me on them now (off them 10 years) and I tell them that I would take heroin over them because I know the withdrawal wouldn't be as bad.  Never taken heroin but had opiate addiction before, withdrawal was a week in bed with imodium and 2 weeks of being so bored you want to kill yourself, which was better than 3 months of brain zaps. 

If any doctor ever says "discontinuation syndrome" just tell them that's a marketing ploy to not call it withdrawal.  If only tobacco companies thought of it, then we'd have "nicotine discontinuation syndrome" instead of withdrawal...

It didn't do anything to help my teen, and was really difficult coming off it, but Fluoxetine seemed to help a little.

I wouldn't do it if I was you. The side effects are horrible and they didn't ever improve for me, especially affected my digestion which wasn't great to begin with.

I see a lot of people here have had similar experiences. I think you should ask your GP and together you can explore other medications which will be kinder to you. Sertraline is a particularly nasty one.

That's great! Glad it's working out for you. I just had an unintentional 2 day break from mine and I felt rough because of it but back in my routine now and not as grumpy!

So, for me personally it's working pretty well, I now have the motivation and want to do things, it'd not had much affect on my anxiety but I'll take what I can get really. I also had next to no side effects (I now sweat more) but I don't mind cause I can actually attend uni and see my friends. 

Is it possible to be specific about the troubles setraline caused? 

What do you mean ‘it fuelled your adrenaline’?  If it did what were the effects on your day to day existence? 

It reduced my tendency to react too strongly to normal events.

I would feel suicidal when my boss might say something ordinary.

I am most afraid of making things worse.  Setraline seemed to reduce the chance that I would be tempted to make things worst. 

I decided to go back on it as a result of hypersensitivity two days aho.  I presumed the doctor would agree do it.  I found a spare packet and took one.  I repeated this the next day.  
I was surprised when my GP didn’t jump at the chance of putting me back on it. 
I explained that the placebo effect made taking it worthwhile.  Anyway I’m checking in with him in two weeks about my moods and my reactions.

I think I’m rational but I’m also harbouring a beast which is starving for Hope and even one ineffective tablet of setraline was sufficient nutrition to face the uncertain future.  

The reality: I can face the uncertain future without placebo or with placebo. 

Hi there!

I would love to hear what kind of therapy helped you as I’m looking into getting therapy myself. I’ve just started Sertraline, I’m on 25mg. Thank you

I used to take it (now on Venlafaxine after PTSD diagnosis). Side effects were uncomfortable, joint pain and strains, unnecessary weight gain, large appetite and hot flushes. I don't want to worry you I'm just sharing y experience. 

Over the years I've been on Citalopram, Propanolol, Sertraline and Mirtazapine to address my anxiety and its revolting by-product, hyperhidrosis. None of them have had any positive noticeable effect on me which may well be down to my ASD but of all of them, Sertraline caused far more trouble than it tried to solve.

I don't take any anxiety medication at the moment, I just live with it as best I can and avoid triggering situations wherever possible. 

I'm the OP I just forgot my login when I posted the first time 

so just to update I'm going on sertraline as soon as my exams are  over cause I wouldn't be able to cope with side effects in exams. but i am going to try it and see if it works for me. 

My eldest was prescribed an anti-depressant - he told me the first 2 weeks were hellish. After that he felt they helped a bit - but he didn’t want to stay on them for long - so after about 6 months he gradually reduced them - and coming off them was pretty unpleasant too. Overall he said that he didn’t regret taking them - as he felt they got him through a very rough patch. I think if we had a kinder, more supportive society and better talking therapies I don’t think people would need to use SSRIs half as much as we do. There are alternatives to these drugs but they’re not available when people need them. It’s easy for doctors to dish out drugs - and it makes money for pharmaceutical companies. Ultimately though people’s mental health issues are complex and the causes are multifactorial - there’s no pill on this Earth that can fully address the complexity of that. 

I am entering my last month of it and now on the lowest dose (25mg, was on 50mg). In all honesty I'm not sure what it does for me. I certainly had side effects of being tired and such. Generally my mood levelled out I found and felt a bit happier. But this could have been due to the therapy I was doing as well which I think helped the most. 

The plan is to come off setraline after this last month and hopefully be able to exercise a bit more to help regulate myself as the weather improves. 

As others have said. Definitely give it a go and hang in there for the first few weeks. The first few days are weird to say the least

I’m 100% against Sertraline..  it destroyed me.  It fuelled  my adrenaline.

Hi - I was once prescribed an anti-depressant called Cipralex (citalopram) and I had quite a bad experience with it. I know it does help a lot of people - so I think I was unlucky to have such bad side effects with it. I had to stop taking it because it made me feel dreadful. I’ve been told that sometimes the first few days (up to a couple of weeks) the side effects can be bad - but if you can get past that then the side effects calm down. 
I think it’s important to have some support around you for the first few days when you start taking it  - just in case the drug doesn’t suit you. If you do feel bad contact your GP and ask their advice. 
Another thing to bear in mind is that when you come of anti-depressants you can get withdrawal issues - so you need to come off them very slowly.

of course they do help many people - I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. I think it’s important to be aware though (more aware than I was when I took them!). I was totally unprepared and found the experience very scary. Everyone is different - I’ve heard many people say only good things about their experience with anti-depressants.