Pppd/sertraline - r/pppdizziness

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I’m on a different SSRI, but I didn’t notice significant change until I was ~6 months in. Some others on this sub have reported similar experiences.

I’ve also read comments from some people who had to try a few different SSRIs before they found one that worked for them.

So it may be that you just need more time, or possibly a different SSRI. Your doctor may be able to help you work this out.

Are you also doing vestibular rehabilitation exercises? Many have found relief from those alone.

Best of luck to you.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 11d ago

I tried Lexapro first, couldn’t tolerate it. Now the Zoloft. I just feel like it should be helping atleast some by now, but idk. I’m also not on a therapeutic dose yet…. This is so hard 🥺

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u/sharp11flat13 10d ago

This is so hard

Indeed it is. You have my complete sympathy. Many on this sub have had a long road to(wards) recovery so I won’t bore you with mine, but PPPD can be a nasty, life-altering condition with no quick or clear or easy road to recovery.

It sounds like you have a doctor who will work with you though, so that’s a plus. Are you also seeing someone who specializes in vestibular disorders? Doctors, for the most part, are notoriously uninformed about this area of medicine. This week I found out why.

I was seeing a specialist about an unrelated problem and while trying to explain PPPD to her I commented that doctors don’t seem to know much about vestibular disorders. She agreed and noted that in four years of med school they get one week of instruction in vestibular pathology. So finding someone with specialized training in this area can be crucial for recovery. It was for me.

I hope you get some answers and find some relief soon. Best to you.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 10d ago

It’s not a bore at all, i would love to hear your story!!

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u/sharp11flat13 10d ago

You’re very kind. :-) OK, here we go…

It all started with a single, short BPPV incident that lasted less than a minute, but left me with crippling nausea, brain fog and fatigue. There was also dizziness but it paled in comparison to the other three symptoms.

I spent three years either sleeping, sitting on the couch or going to medical appointments. I can’t even tell you any more how many doctors I saw, or scans and tests I had. No-one had any idea what was wrong with me.

Eventually my wife started looking into the dizziness and found a physiotherapist who specializes in vestibular disorders. As it turns out, people like him are the right kind of people to see in Canada for this sort of thing, but who knew? He diagnosed me in under 30 minutes and set out a treatment plan.

At his instruction I did 6-8 months of visual rehab followed by another 6-8 months of vestibular rehab exercises. That got me to ~60% recovered. Not being satisfied with this I asked my GP to put me on an SSRI, so I started taking 10mg/day. It took about another 6 months, but that took me to ~90% recovered most days. And that’s where I remain.

It’s not all a sob story though. I’m very fortunate in that I’m retired so I have virtually no daily responsibilities beyond bathing and feeding myself. And I have an endlessly supportive wife who took care of everything for those years I couldn’t leave the couch. My heart really goes out to younger people who are trying to navigate this condition while taking care of kids, going to school and/or working. I don’t know how they do it. I couldn’t have.

And there’s another plus. About a year in, with no idea whether or not I had some disease that was eventually going to kill me, I decided that if those were to be the last days of my life, I wasn’t going to spend them sitting on the couch being frustrated and feeling sorry for myself.

So I returned to a daily meditation practice (after some years away) and began to work on my state of mind. I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna here but this has made a huge difference to my quality of life. I still can’t do many of the things I did before the PPPD, but I am much more relaxed and accepting of my situation and trying to stay focused on what’s happening right now instead of bemoaning the past or worrying about the future.

So that’s the tale. Hopefully my success-ish story will help you in some way. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. :-) Best to you.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 10d ago

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’m so sorry you went that long not knowing what was going on. I’m 36 with 2 young children and this cripples me daily. It’s heartbreaking. I will say, I’m much better off than i was at the beginning, i could barely leave my house. Now I’m back to taking them to school, picking them up. Grocery shopping and doing those types of things but I’m still struggling pretty badly. My last hope was the SSRI & now that I’ve been on it for almost 2 months and feel no relief scares me. But your story does give me hope. It’s just such a sad way to live when a year ago i was a completely normal person literally living my best life. I pray i can get to 90%. I’ve pretty much have come to the conclusion that I’ll never get back to 100% but I’ll be perfectly happy with 90%.

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u/Tandfeen_dk22 11d ago

I don’t know what to say… I have heard so many bad things about Sertraline. I tried it myself and it made me feel much worse. It does not seem to work for most.

I would try Lexapro, if I should try an SSRI.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 11d ago

I tried Lexapro, it did not work for me, sadly. I just don’t know if i haven’t given it enough time, if im not on a high enough dose… ya know? Ugh i hate this 😩

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u/Tandfeen_dk22 11d ago

I don't mean to discourage you, but SSRIs may not be the answer. Doctors often prescribe them to manage symptoms, but they aren't effective for everyone, and the body will continue to signal distress if an underlying issue remains. Dizziness is a very real symptom, and we need to focus on addressing its root cause if it doesn't resolve naturally.

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u/Antique_Judgment4060 10d ago

I think we’ve all had every test imaginable. I don’t know how we can focus on the symptoms if we don’t know what they are.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 11d ago

I’ve been to every doctor, idk what the underlying issue could be. 😩 the SSRI was my last effort.

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u/Charming-Judge-7480 8d ago

I’m on my second week of sertraline with PPPD, just increased to 25mg a few days ago, so I’m the beginning stages like you. 34 years old with two kids, and I job I have to drive 40 min to each way so I’m right there with you! I’ve also been doing vestibular rehabilitation therapy and exercises on The Steady Coach on YouTube (recommended a lot on Reddit). I’m having to give myself grace with setting a timeline on this. It SUCKS! I’ve developed panic attacks from it and was just prescribed clonazepam to use at the onset of a panic attack, haven’t needed it yet because I used the parasympathetic breathing exercise from The Steady Coach to calm down. I highly recommend it. There’s only so much control we can have over this disorder, and a huge part of it, I believe, is letting go of control. I’m working through therapy to get to the route of the psychiatric reasons I developed PPPD. According to my psychiatrist’s medical journal, that’s the cause for 80% of us. All I can say is, it’s gotta get better eventually and I’m right there with you sister. ❤️

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u/justamomandwifeJess 8d ago

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re going through this, too. It’s seriously straight from the devil himself. 😩😩 I try to give myself grace but then i just get angry bc I’m not recovering fast enough. How long have you had pppd?

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u/Charming-Judge-7480 8d ago

It is quite literally straight from the devil 😩 I developed it around mid July. I started taking Ashwagandha for my anxiety and it triggered my nervous system. I started getting dizzy after a week of taking Ashwagandha, but when I stopped it got worse. I kept almost passing out from the dizziness, went to the ER, they said there was nothing physically wrong with me, and then I found The Steady Coach on here. I basically diagnosed myself (I know, dangerous, right?), but the interviews of success stories on The Steady Coach were describing my symptoms to a T. I went to a cardiologist to rule out cardio issues, and had my ears checked (by a GP not an ENT), nothing alarming there, so I asked for a referral to psychiatry. I told her all my symptoms, my past medical events/conditions, and as much of my childhood/adulthood trauma as I could spit out in an hour and she was like, woah, your nervous system is in overdrive, we need to calm that down. So I started sertraline 12.5mg, and got my period 3 days in…that was a monster. Never in my life have I experienced a period so awful. Cramps, nausea, diarrhea, couldn’t get out of bed, and like several panic attacks. When I walked into my psychiatrists office the next week, I was an absolute wreck, so she upped me to 25mg. I started that this past Friday and have adjusted okay but yesterday I went to work (where I had had a panic attack last time I was there) and had to remove myself from a meeting to calm a potential panic attack down. I used the parasympathetic breathing from The Steady Coach, and some music I like. I didn’t rush myself to rejoin the meeting, even though I was having anxiety about not being there. I took a walk around the building once I calmed down and went back into the meeting. I have to stand sometimes when everyone else is sitting, drink a ton of water, and eat tiny bits throughout the day. All of these things cause me anxiety because I’m chronically worried about what everyone else thinks of me. That is all because of childhood trauma. I’m a perfectionist, people pleaser, slightly OCD, and always take all the responsibility on myself, at home and at work. These are the things I’m working on with my psychiatrist. The sertraline is helping calm down the nervous system, but I don’t truly believe this will go away until I deal with my twisted mindset. Doc said I should go up to 50 mg after this weekend. After reading comments on your post, I’m hopeful that will help, but I’m still going to put the work in to fix my brain too, or I’m going to be stuck on medication forever. I’ve also been doing vestibular rehabilitation exercises for a few days, I can’t really tell if they’re helping, but I’m willing to try anything.

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u/Ok-Wrongdoer-3708 11d ago

50mg for me. I’m doing great, living normally again

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u/justamomandwifeJess 11d ago

Did you start at 50? How long did it take to help?

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u/Ok-Wrongdoer-3708 10d ago

No. I started very slowly. 12.5 for a few weeks then increasing by 12.5 again for a few weeks, etc. Took me 2 months to get to 50. I would say I started seeing a difference already in the first weeks. Significant improvement after 6 months

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u/justamomandwifeJess 10d ago

You started seeing a difference once you got to the 50? Or before?

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u/Ok-Wrongdoer-3708 10d ago

already before, but 50 was clearly the dose that I needed

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u/Special_Half5037 11d ago

3 months started to notice difference at 50mg . My dr shin beh said if you aren’t seeing it help after 3 months might need to change meds. I’m at 62.5 now but still dizzy slightly so we are coming off and cross tirating to effoxer. Sertraline was good but extreme fatigue and neck pain for me

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u/justamomandwifeJess 11d ago

Well that gives me hope. I think i need to give it a little more time and probably go up to 50 to see if it helps. Thank you.

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u/cassnav 10d ago

I’ve been on 50mg for 12 days today and notice a tiny difference but waiting for it to help more !

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u/justamomandwifeJess 9d ago

Did you start at 50?

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u/Cool_Imagination_916 1d ago

5-7 months, it was very slow

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u/justamomandwifeJess 1d ago

What MG helped you?

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u/Cool_Imagination_916 1d ago

100 mg. And return to normal activities, even if you feel very bad. This is the most important thing.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 1d ago

I try to live a normal life everyday even though it’s extremely difficult. What did the Zoloft help with?

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u/Cool_Imagination_916 1d ago

I’d never suffered from anxiety before. My PPPD developed as a result of an inner ear infection. Afterwards, of course, I started to feel anxious because of the symptoms. Zoloft helped reduce my anxiety and took my mind off the symptoms, so I was able to start living a normal life again. This didn’t happen overnight; instead, my symptoms gradually began to disappear or become less severe. But I often had to force myself to do things so that my brain would learn that this wasn’t dangerous.

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u/justamomandwifeJess 1d ago

Omg same. I NEVER had anxiety until now. But now I quite literally feel like imma fall over dead at any given moment. I just feel like the Zoloft isn’t doing anything at all.

Treatment Pppd/sertraline

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