Sertailne for eight weeks experience
Hi everyone, I've been struggling with panic attacks and severe anxiety for a few months now. It all started when I noticed PVCs, which happened pretty frequently. After doing all the heart tests, they showed 12% at one point. Despite having chest pains, dizziness, fatigue, and daily panic attacks, every test came back fine.
So, I was diagnosed with GAD, health anxiety, and panic disorder/panic attacks. I started taking Sertaline about eight weeks ago. It's been a real nightmare, though; every time I increase the dose, things get worse for the first three weeks or so.
How long does it usually take to see an effect from the medication? I started on 25mg for four days and then moved up to 50mg after about three-and-a-half weeks. Now I've been at 75mg for four weeks, but I've only had a couple of good days without the constant anxiety, which was a few days ago.
I'm wondering how long I should wait before deciding if this current dose is working for me? Any tips or advice from people who have gone through something similar would be really appreciated.
I also take Atarax to help with sleep and during panic attacks. It has helped a bit, at least I don't wake up as much now.
My resting heart rate is down to 53 now-I guess that might be because I stopped drinking alcohol and lost weight from around 90kg to 80kg.
I'm really struggling to connect with my kids-they're seven and four-and it's making me feel terrible. It just maks everything harder, you know?
If anyone has any advice or similar experiences, I would love to hear about them.
16 Replies
I have been taking Sertraline at 25 mg for a month. For the past three weeks, I increased it to 50 mg. Recently, though, I've experienced severe stomach pains and headaches non-stop, along with constant bloating. My sleep has also been poor, with what feels like short, fragmented dreams all the time. I hope these issues will improve soon.
Hey there, did things go south for you once you bumped up to 50mg? Do you deal wiht panic attacks or something like that too? Honestly, I've been reading through so many reviews and I'm now at the 8-week mark on 75mg and still feel way off.
I'm wondering if anyoen else is experiencing something like this too?
I began taking Sertraline in January. I was informed that my symptoms could worsen initially, with improvements taking up to six weeks to appear. The medication has been effective for me, though it did take some time before I noticed its benefits.
I think maybe how long did it take for you, and did you end up adjusting the dosage at all?
So, I've been on this for nine weeks now, plus five days. I'm still hanging onto that 75 mg dose though. Things are a little bit better, but honestly, it's also making me super tired-I think maybe I have some burnout going on too, beyond just the anxiety. So tomorrow I'm gonna bump up to 100 mg and see if it helps with getting rid of at least some of that anxiety. There has been improvement though-fewer panic attacks, which is nce-but man, I am so tired all the time, like, can't even do much of anything anymore.
started 100mg yday, feelin ok, no diff yet. gonna keep updatin cus i know its rly imp 4 ppl startin sertaline
5 days on 100mg. No panic attacks but super tired now. Could be from the srtaline or just exhaustion. Don't know yet.
Sixth day of 100mg here,差点又要抓狂了。好在这次增加剂量后的几天里，我感觉没以前那么糟了。每次换药之后最难受的时候通常持续三四天吧。但这次好像还好，希望我已经到了有效剂量。
已经坚持11周5天啦...
真心希望能听到有人回复，感觉自己不是唯一一个在这种状况下挣扎的人。
The medication seems to be having some effect. The anxiety has decreased, and I haven't had any panic attacks recently. It might be helping on the 100mg dose. However, it's only been ten days, so I'll continue to update my progress. Fatigue and shortness of breath still occur when I'm active. I tried playing golf for about half an hour but felt too tired afterward. At least I drove there and back.
16 days in at 100mg, still not totally there yet, but it's getting a bit better-just not great.
I was wondering how you're doing these days. I've been on Sertraline for a few years too, and the thing that bothers me the most is having strange dreams nonstop and dealing with a super dry mouth all teh time.
Thanks.I'm still anxious but fewer attacks. You knew the right dose though? How much and how long until it worked?
I just bumped up my sertaline dose to 125mg, and yeah, starting from day four, I'm dealing with siide effects like diarrhea-nothing too bad though-and my headache's been way worse than usual. After 18 days on this higher dose, I've felt a lot of anxiety, especially when handling stuff at home or taking care of the kids. But honestly, it's beeen a calmer period overall except for some huge pain today. So I'm not really sure if the medicine is doing much for me or if I just need to wait another 4-6 weeks before considering whether to raise it again. This will probably be my last attempt because I don't want to go above 150mg. Got any advie? I think there's a good chance that some of this anxiety stems from health worries, specifically about those pesky PVCs in my heart.
I've been on 200mg daily for, like, 14 years now-essentially, it's my lifeline. It's totally different for everyone though. For me? No side effects at all, fingers crossed. Lucky, right?
Some people lower their doose to lessen the side effects,but honestly, I'm not sure how long that takes. The worst part is when I get this negative reaction where I feel like crap-sometimes just a few hours, sometimes weeks-basically living hell. But once I stick with my regular family-prescribed dosage,the suffering fades away and I'm back to feeling great
i've been feeling kinda crap for about 5-6 weeks now. had a fam meal yesterday and it was so overwhelming i could barely talk. i even drank 2 beers which is rare for me. sleep was broken with weird dreams all night. honestly dont know what to do next.