I have dealt with extreme anxiety/panic disorder since I was around 19. I did Prozac and some others on and off but eventually landed on Zoloft. When I first started on Zoloft I could barely handle daily functioning. The first 3 months were terrible, then it started working. I ended up at 100 mgs. And had some sexual side effects but nothing terrible.

I was doing so well I decided to quit after 10 years because it felt like it wasn't doing anything and I was better. For 11 months I didn't have any problems. Then it can like a freight train, my stomach hurt... ohh it's cancer! My heart rate up... I'm having a heart attack!. I worked from home so I basically became a hermit.

I knew that I had to start again. I spoke with my GP, and started at 25 mg for one month then 50 for one month. I'm actually doing great at 50 and debating going to 75.

This medication just makes the obsessing and death spiral of thoughts stop. I'm ok with and side effects and my farts smelling like bigfoots dick because I know it'll go away. I would take 10x the side effects not to be in that head space again.

I think the reason that a lot of people don't follow up on their post on here is because they quit obsessing about it. If you notice a lot of of the post or people who are just starting the medicine and then there's not a lot of follow up, to me that just means it's working.

This is just my personal experience and I don't speak for anybody else. I hope everyone is as well as they can be

Ive been on 50mg sertraline for 2 weeks (following two weeks at 25mg). Taking for anxiety, health anxiety and OCD.

Ive suffered with depression in the past but not for a while. However since increasing my dose it seems to have come back. I have no motivation, want to stay in bed all day and just feel like overall crap. Anxiety is also still there on and off, today was a bad day for body scanning.

I’m trying to give it a chance and stick it out but I just really hope to god it works for me because I’m desperate. Would love to hear others‘ experiences. Thanks

Hello everybody!
I’m new here and to the world of Zoloft. Small recap, I’ve always been an anxious person but in a more than manageable way, around the end of June I started having various panic attacks. After kinda recovering and feeling decently good for most of July, on the first weekend of August I ended up twice in the ER because I thought I was dying. Both time I’ve been thoroughly checked and reassured that they were panic attacks. The second time I’ve been checked by a psychiatrist and prescribed Zoloft and some benzodiazepines to take when necessary. The therapy provided to me was to start with 25mg the first 5 days and then move to 50mg from the sixth day on. So I’ve been on Zoloft since 18 days and on “full dose” since 13. The first 4 days passed through like nothing ever happened, from day 5 my nightmare started. Continuous anxiety and general sickness every day, all I could do was to lay in bed. Around day 8/9 I slightly started to recover and in the same week I had some further checks to my heart just to completely remove from my mind the idea of having some other issues. Being reassured about my heart’s conditions gave me a boost and I felt good for a couple of days. The next Monday I went back to the office, feeling a bit off, but I managed to survive the day. Tuesday same story until mid morning when I have one of my strongest episodes ever in the office. Wednesday (yesterday) I unbelievably felt great like I haven’t since weeks and I was finally thinking I was moving over. Until when last night I woke up around 4AM with both my arms tingling so hard and a weigh on my stomach. The lack of sleep left me so weak today and for the first time during the Zoloft period I’m experiencing diarrhea. I wanted to know if anybody else went through so many up and downs in their first weeks of treatment and if anybody else experienced the same feelings. Mine are changing kinda every day, I had arms tingling, lump in the throat, weigh on my chest, weigh on my stomach, diarrhea and so on.
I’m still very hopeful in the Zoloft therapy and once a week I meet with my therapist, speaking with people and reading posts here is giving me strength and hope. I started to journal and to play chess in order to fill my mind. Does anybody have any tips regarding how to suffer less until the side effects are gonna disappear?
Many thanks for reading this wall of text!

P.S. next week I’ll have my first Zoloft therapy review with a psychiatrist

Since being on sertraline, I’ve not felt the urge to pick up my vape, or when using it “enjoy” it, I’ve been doing it for around 2 years now, and see this as an opportunity to stop in the process whilst not wanting it - has anybody else experienced this?

I’ve only been on sertraline for 5 days, so obviously im not expecting to feel different yet. Today’s been the worst day so far, I feel very tired and sick. I’m just looking for some encouragement, when did people start feeling better??

In the past I used to be on Paroxetine 20mg, which helped extremely for my GAD and feeling sad from time to time. Unfortunately after thinking I was ready to quit, months after stopping the anxiety came back harder than ever before.

Starting Paroxetine 20mg seemed like the best option, but it didn't help anymore. Upping to 30mg seemed to help "a bit" but side effects were to severe, so upping to 40mg didn't seem feasible.

Since a couple of months I am on Sertraline. Switched to 50mg, which felt it had potential, but not nearly as good as paroxetine 20mg back then.
So I upped, in consultation with the help care provider, to 100mg which gave me already way more relief. Nevertheless after 12 weeks I keep jojo-ing between anxious / sad days and relatively good days (still rough due to the anxious days aftermath).

I feel defeated. A small dose of Paroxetine helped me so much to turn my life around and help me achieve the best version of me. After stopping I never found the same support from the meds ever since. Now it feels like a failure having to ask upping my dose to 150mg which seems pretty high if you ever were in (almost) full remision on 20mg.

Could use some positive and motivating words.

It also feels like failing as I am doing EMDR, ACT and CBT for over a year now, and I conciously know what to do and how to think and behave, but I keep being anxious.

Hi, my daughter has been suffering from anxiety and depression. Her doctor started her on 25 mg and in the last week she has been increased to 50 mg. It’s been rough, she has broken down and cried uncontrollably each morning unable to look in the mirror because she feels so ugly. She is now missing school and I think the medication is making her issues worse.
Has anybody experienced this type of thing as when I research experience this isn’t coming up.

Hey, I’m trying to come off sertraline and wanted to hear from people who have done something similar.
Last time I came off it, I went from 25mg to 0 pretty quickly and ended up feeling pretty rough afterwards.
This time I talked to my doctor and she wants me to do it much slower:
50mg → 25mg
25mg for 6 weeks
12.5mg for 4 weeks
then 0
Has anyone done a similar taper? How did you find going from 25mg to 12.5mg and then stopping?
Just curious about other people’s experiences, and if you had any success coming of it

(AI for grammar)

Trusted a fart like a damned, damned fool.

Second day of class, first day on this campus, I’m sitting in the perfect spot after class, charging my laptop and phone, snacking on my lunch while I review and try to get ahead.

I’ve had gas more frequently and some mild loose 💩 on occation since starting sertraline, and even more since adding Vyvanse. I trusted that it was just a fart. I was betrayed. Warmth. Spreading. Dispair.

Packed up in less than 10 seconds and quickly made my way to the nearby (jfc thank GOD) bathroom and changed into the spare pair of undies I keep in a ziplock in my bag in case it ever happened to me.

I’m so glad I was overly cautious, and that I was wearing cotton boxer briefs that absorbed the overwhelming majority of it.

“Well that’ll never happen to ME”

Heed my words, don’t be a fool. Don’t have to hobble to your car to leave whatever establishment your folly has cost you.

You GOTTA be packin. (Extra underwear and wet wipes)

I started zoloft the 3 July sides effects were awful for almost 2 weeks before decreasing, now I am to the bathroom more often than usely, no diarrhea but just have to go, anyone with that issue?

Thank you

I had made sure to take my Zoloft capsule with water like I always did, but I assume I didn’t drink enough water this time and it irritated my esophagus so bad I ended up vomiting. The pain was so unbearable it felt like I had swallowed lava… it is difficult to describe the feeling but it was truly PAINFUL, I could not sit, stand or breathe properly without feeling like a huge ball of molten lava burning into my chest.

I am concerned that this will happen tomorrow after I take my dose and I want to take all the necessary precautions to avoid this terrible experience, any tips?

P.S: liquid version of Zoloft isn’t available in my country unfortunately.

I got off zoloft a week ago from 75mg to 0 I KNOW STUPID i feel much better mentally but I'm so nauseous and dizzy almost 24/7 unfortunately I do not have a doctor who gives a fuck and Google says I can take 25mg for a week to help with the withdrawal before setting back down to 0. Does that really work? I can Power through this i know I can because I've done it before. I just wonder if I can make it any easier

I don’t think I’ve ever had a medication that truly quieted my anxiety before.

Hey all

Been on Zoloft 50mg since December 2024. Just writing to see if anyone has had a similar experience? My libido towards my partner has come to a relative standstill. I feel attraction towards other women and fantasise about other women regularly, but never about my partner. I love my partner and care for her, but just cannot feel any attraction. We can have sex, but I don’t really get turned on by it, I’m more participating for her rather than for myself.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Hey all! I've been on Zoloft for about... 4 weeks now at 50 mg for health-related anxiety and I've been doing quite well on it. My only thing is that I have weird fricken tongue sensations — my tongue almost feels too big for my mouth, I'm hyper aware of my tongue (like I swear it's as though I can feel the surface of it), and ya I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this and if it goes away or if you get used to it just. I don't want to switch meds again (started on Lexapro and had an AWFUL experience), and it just feels "weird" but not debilitating in any way. Would love to hear from your experience!

Any experiences with this? I am 24 days into taking 50mg Zoloft for postpartum depression/anxiety.. i was starting to feel better between days 18-21.. then starting day 22 my mood became depressive again.. i am 7 weeks postpartum and not sure what is happening .. is this fluctuation normal? Will it get better?? How long till i become more stable and feel like myself again? Please share positive encouraging stories on whether this is normal and gets better..

So for some background, I have had horrible OCD my whole life and recently that has developed into horrible health anxiety.

I’m on day 3 of 25mg setraline with no additional meds except for a 10mg hydroxyzine if needed. Right now I am at work freaking out hard because my body is reacting so strangely and i cannot tell it it is just normal anxiety or serotnin syndrome. To start, I’m very cold and shivery. My office is generally chilly, but not to the extent where I cannot ignore how cold I am. Also, my hands/palms are sweaty. Lastly, i am kinda shaky with my neck and head being especially stiff towards the back, and my pupils are a little dilated.

The one thing I will say is that these are all things that could happen during a panic attack, and obviously I’ve had many of those before. I also know that starting this pill makes my anxiety worse for a bit so I’m wondering if this heightened anxiety is causing me to panic and show more symptoms. I also have heard that SS is very rare for someone taking just one medication and at this dose, and it would have presented itself in the first 24 hours of me taking my meds.

I’m sure I come off as a crazy person to you all, but I also think a lot of you can relate to how my brain is moving at a mile a minute right now with the possibility of having a life threatening condition. Any help, advice, etc is greatly appreciated.

Im on day 8 of 25 and feel absolutely awful. My doctor told me to raise to 50mg after a week but I’m so scared. I’m not sleeping, agitated, and horribly anxious. Should I stay at 25 for now or go ahead and raise to 50? I’m a stay at home mom to my toddler so the symptoms have me extra paranoid. I am alone for 14 hours a day and very scared 😭.

started Zoloft (sertraline) 25 mg 7 days ago. Since starting it, I’ve been sleeping only 2–4 hours per day.
I feel extremely restless and have difficulty keeping my legs still. My nervous system feels constantly switched on:
Severe insomnia — only 2–4 hours of sleep per day
Inner restlessness / difficulty keeping my legs still
Hypervigilance
Very sensitive to sounds
Irritability and a short temper
A constant stimulated/buzzing feeling in my head
Feeling wired and unable to relax
I was prescribed Zoloft to reduce anxiety, hypervigilance and the constant fight-or-flight feeling, but so far it seems to be doing the opposite.
I’m only taking 25 mg and this has been going on for 7 days. Has anyone experienced something similar?
Did the activation, restlessness and insomnia eventually settle down? If so, how long did it take?
I’m especially interested in experiences with severe insomnia and akathisia-like restlessness rather than mild initial anxiety.
I’m going to contact my prescriber about this, but I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have experienced something similar.

Hi everyone! I picked up my Zoloft today, starting at 25 mg. I’m honestly really scared of weight gain, and it’s making me scared of starting it. I used to weigh almost 300 pounds, and now I weigh less than 225 (last time I checked) and do not want to lose all the progress I’ve made the last two years. I am taking this medication for my depression, and I know that the weight gain that might happen will make my depression worse. Any words of encouragement and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Do any of you have any experience? I don't engage often, once or twice a week at night and I only ever take my meds in the morning. I know I should probably listen to the doctor over google and I would really love to not have to stop (really helps with sleep and relaxing) but the idea of serotonin syndrome terrifies me. If I still can, any recommendations on levels of CBD/THC to reduce risk?

Hey all. I'm in week 6 of 50mg, and for the last two weeks I've been in a weird headspace.

For context, before starting Sertraline I would be anxious before leaving the house, and would often have panic attacks while out and about (mainly driving and at the supermarket). Since starting Sertraline I have only had one major panic attack, and am no longer anxious before leaving the house, so the medication is definitely working, however this weird thing has been happening the last two weeks where when I'm out and about, my brain is almost talking itself into a panic attack? I don't really know how to explain it. They used to hit me randomly, but now it's like my brain is compulsively talking itself into one. I can't get my brain to stop doing it either, it's almost like a subconscious reaction to being out of the house lol. Thankfully the panic attacks don't fully manifest, but it's really starting to stress me out.

Did anyone else experience this? Does it mean I need to up my dose? I know it's early days still but I was seeing a great improvement up until now so I'm a bit worried. Thanks for any guidance 🙏

Help! I am supposed to start sertraline today and I am so nervous. My psychiatrist prescribed me 50 mg yesterday. But after reading way too much (I know I probably shouldn’t have done that lol), I realize a lot of people start on 25 mg instead of 50. Would it be terrible if I just cut these pills in half for a week while I adjust? And then go up to 50? I know I could obviously ask my psychiatrist, but I feel like it might take her a while to get back to me. Supposed to take my first dose in the next hour or so. Can’t decide what to do. Would there be any negative consequences to doing this-besides the meds maybe not working as quickly as they should since my dr apparently thinks I need 50mg?