Published on 12, July, 2020
hi, my doctor wants to start me on 50mg of sertraline for a few months for depression and anxiety. I've done some research into it and the side effects, however most ND people seem to have had negative effects. are there any autistic people on here that it has actually been helpful and worked for?
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
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.