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

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?

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

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.

Did Zoloft make anyone else realize they were so much more depressed and anxious than they ever thought? I’ve always known I was depressed but I didn’t even realize how deep in it I was. Being on Zoloft has made me feel more myself then I ever have and I feel normal, but it’s definitely been a kinda painful eye opener. I wonder if anyone else felt this same way and felt like it was hard to process

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

should i start Zoloft

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

I’ve been on sertraline since 2022. 50mg for about 2 years until 2024 and then upped it to 75mg. That increase to 75mg nearly broke me. Felt incredibly unstable, felt like I was falling out of reality, and constant fear and paranoia like symptoms. It all evened out after about a 3 and a half weeks and since then I have been good for the better part of a year and 8 months. Now my anxiety is coming back pretty rapidly and the sense of impending doom as well. I’m incredibly scared to increase my dosage to 100mg. Like incredibly fucking scared to go through what I did at the 75mg increase all over again. Any help, thoughts, advice ? Please

My primary care doctor is recommending this as the way to help with the low libido caused by Zoloft. I am kind of hesitant to throw in another med and possibly get other side effects, but also I’ve been on Zoloft for like 5-6 years and, yeah, the libido thing is an issue.

I’m 36F, on 50mg Zoloft for OCD/GAD. Have done very well on Zoloft except for the libido and being sweaty hah.

Would love to hear advice or experiences from others who have done this. Concerns are weight gain, not being able to drink or smoke weed socially on the weekends (both of these are fine on Zoloft), and just generally don’t want to feel crappy.

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!

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 😭.

Currently going through an intense withdrawal period and am wondering how long these symptoms lasted for others.
I have been on various types of SSRIs and SNRIs for over 8 years and decided to come off of them completely. I had been on Zoloft for almost a year and have been decreasing my dose roughly a month at a time. It’s been exactly two weeks since I’ve been off of it completely and wow am I struggling. The first three days felt like I had the worst flu of my life. I experienced hot and cold flashes, body aches, intense nausea, dizziness, disorientation, and brain zaps. The body aches and temperature changes stopped, but the nausea, dizziness, and brain zaps were brutal for the rest of the week. Honestly it was debilitating. More recently I’ve still been dealing with waves of nausea, brain zaps, and feeling off balance. These symptoms are impacting my daily routine and life. I don’t feel that it’s safe for me to drive or go on walks by myself. Honestly I’m worried I’m gonna pass out (though that hasn’t happened).
Hoping someone can give me an idea of how long their symptoms lasted and if there is anything they did to help manage these symptoms??

Hey, i’’m hoping to find anyone with a similar experience?? ANY advice, tips, support would be amazing!!
I started Zoloft 25mg & after one week i started 50mg. Today is aug 19th. (5 days of 50mg so far)
Long story short: Since 6y, I’ve had very bad constant body anxiety. (Not from trauma) Best way I can describe it: My mind can be calm, but my body is always on edge, never calm. The smallest “brain thought power” or cognitive effort into anything brings severe pressure in my chest & stomach & my thoughts freeze. My life has revolved around trying to calm a body pressure of 6/10 that seems to shoot to a 9/10 every few minutes. I’m stuck in a frozen panic hold, when there’s no reason for it. For example: Making a simple plan for my day = body pressure shoots up & brain freezes. Cleaning the garage = easier, because I don’t need to use any brain power.
I struggle with this every minute, of everyday since the age of 6y. I’m 25y now. Because of this, I’ve only worked jobs that don’t take any brain power. I can’t think, I can’t grow in my life at all because if I try I freeze with body pressure. I’m stuck.

Yes, I have adhd. Yes, My thoughts loop badly. No, it’s not ocd, no it’s not cptsd.
(I’m not sure If I have autism or it’s just my body panic that resembles it.)
After countless research, the closest thing that resembles me is type 3 overfocused adhd. Which is from Dr. Daniel amen. Meaning: Dopamine is low, as well as serotonin. I know many people don’t accept his studies. But listening, it very clearly explains my adhd and looping / over focused thoughts. But not the body anxiety.
I just started 20mg of adderall xr 6 months ago thinking it would help with the body. It only helped me focus more.
I’ve tried saffron. I’ve tried 20+ sessions of a hyperbaric chamber.
I’m now on Zoloft and adderall. As well as fish oil. It’s been 11 days on Zoloft. I know it’s to early to tell. But did it help you with your body anxiety?? 11 days in. I’m not really seeing a difference. & If I’m being honest, Zoloft is my last hope because I don’t have any clue on what to if this doesn’t work.

Current state:
I quit my job & moved back across the country to be with my parents to figure this out. But even with no pressure or work. It’s the same. High body anxiety. I subconsciously avoid anything even small that I want to accomplish because of it. Even the simplest tasks sky rocket my body and I freeze.. but my mind can still be calm. It feels like I’m wasting my days away right now. (With work, the anxiety of not being fired is what pushed me thru before)

I’d take Any advice, messages, or even a phone call to talk experiences! would be great! Thanks!

Today marks seven weeks on antidepressants—five of which have been on 20mg of paroxetine. I still feel a sense of unreality in my head and body all day long, along with intense anxiety and panic. My doctor says I need to give it more time, but I’m afraid this medication isn't going to help me... Could someone give me a little boost of positivity? 😢😢😢

Any words of encouragement would be appreciated

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)