Tell me about Zoloft.

CinemaGoddess

It's what the doctor prescribed and I'm starting on it tonight.  If you've taken it and you want to share, what was your experience? 

kthxbai.  

CinemaGoddess

I have a call in to a therapist I saw a few years ago to see if she takes my insurance.  If she doesn't, I'm going to call the doc I saw today and ask for a referral.  

CinemaGoddess

pobrecita said:

That is awesome, but therapist =/= psychiatrist. I saw both for a while.

Now I only see my psychiatrist once a year just to check up on things. If something changes he tells me to come in, but so far nothing has.

Yeah, I know.  I wanted to go to someone I've gone to before to see if she can help or, if not, refer me to someone who can.  

CinemaGoddess

stebnie said:

I took Zoloft for a while about three years ago.  It helped me almost immediately, no lie.  I felt more like me.  I don't think I really knew how bad I had gotten until I saw how much better I felt when I took it.

We started TTC a few months in, and my doctors all said it was safe for pregnancy, so I kept on it.  I got pregnant and miscarried at about 6 weeks, so I was looking for something to blame.  I blamed the Zoloft, even though it likely had nothing to do with it.  Anyway, this caused me to decide to stop taking it and I went cold turkey.  That sucked.  I had nausea/dizzyness so bad for maybe two weeks.

In short, it was a lifesaver (certainly a marriage saver), but don't quit cold turkey.

Oh man.  I'm so sorry for your loss.  

I'll remember about the cold-turkey thing.  It says not to stop it without doctor's knowledge in the pharmacy hand out but it doesn't say why. 

nordeast

I second the part about not quitting cold turkey. I did and the withdrawal is nasty. Nausea and dizziness here too. I like it, it helps, and my husband noticed a difference in a couple weeks.

CinemaGoddess

I'm on my husband's insurance so I'll have to see if the EAP program extends to me, too.  

I'm not concerned with my employer finding out.  I'm thisclose to telling them in a very loud and scary voice that they're part of the reason I'm going to a therapist and taking ADs.  

[Deleted User]

CinemaGoddess said:

I'm on my husband's insurance so I'll have to see if the EAP program extends to me, too.  

Yes.  It should.  

rin89

I took it for a couple years. It takes a couple of weeks to get to a therapeutic level. Other than some minor headaches, I had no real side-effects and it worked well to help me manage my depression.

CinemaGoddess

I'll just use you guys as my therapists/psychiatrists. 

jk. 

kind of

MyMorningCoffee

I was on it for a while. I had an awful year of anxiety and depression before doing anything about it, so by the time I reached out, I was almost a a breaking point. It did take a while to kick in, but I also felt like it was the first good thing I did for myself in a long time, and that alone made me feel better.

I did have issues with dosing at the beginning. I was on a very high dose and I was in an absolute fog. I couldn't feel anything, even happiness. Then I was on a dose that was too low, and I was just miserable again. It is really important to keep in touch with whoever writes your prescription so if dosing issues arise they can be identified quickly and corrected. I saw a therapist on a regular basis and followed up with a psych periodically. 

OrangeBird

Lurker here.  Zoloft made me very tired at times, especially in the beginning.  However, it helped substantially with my depression.  If you don't notice any change after a few weeks, you may need to tweak the dosage or try a different antidepressant.  What works for one person may not work for another.  I have an extensive family history of depression and have found that among my family members on antidepressants, each of us are on something completely different (and what worked for one sometimes had horrible side effects on another).

I'll also echo the statements from others that you should never quit cold turkey.  Very bad idea.  Being off the medication for a few days and then getting back on it is like starting all over again (waiting a few weeks for effects to kick in, feeling the initial side effects, etc).  Make sure you get your refills called in ahead of time and reach out to your prescribing doctor well before you run out of refills.

ks3pink

I take Zoloft and love it. It works great! That said I would take it in the morning, not at night, as it tends to give a boost of energy. I took mine late a couple weeks ago and couldn't sleep that night. I've been on it for 4 years, started at 50 mg, went up to 100mg during my pregnancy due to stress from work and then went up to 150 mg last year, again due to stress at work. Maybe I just need a new job. lol. No, I need a new boss!

hellopartyof5

Another lurker lol I was on it for 3 or 4 years. It was great once I got past the first week or 2. During those first couple weeks I just felt off and like I was in a fog. Once I got through that I felt great. I still had random bouts of some depression, but nothing compared to what it was before. My anxiety was markedly lowered too. Much like PPs have said, give them a few weeks to notice the good effects (crap my brain won't work and I can't process if that's the right affect/effect - I'm blaming pregnancy) and if it makes things worse talk to your dr immediately. Good luck!

ToastieSimons

I took Zoloft for a year for anxiety.  It was okay.  It was very sedating for the first few days but after about 2-3 weeks I noticed a marked improvement.  After a year I didn't really notice an improvement in my anxiety anymore and decided to go off of it.

Weaning off of it was the worst experience of my life.  My brain was obsessed with suicide.  I didn't want to die, I just wanted to think about ways to die, if that makes sense.

After 4 weeks it finally cleared my system.  I lasted about 3 months before my anxiety started to ramp up again.  I started back on Zoloft, but a higher dosage.  1 month later I was miserable.  I felt sedated, loopy, I was in a fog.  i made stupid mistakes. I describe it like pregnancy brain.  I put glasses away in the fridge all the time, put opened jars of pickles in cabinets, and was just thoroughly exhausted.  I felt like my brain wouldn't work fast enough.

I switched to Cymbalta for this reason and because it has a good history of helping musculoskeletal pain.  My dr said his wife takes it for migraines and it works great.  I noticed a huge improvement immediately.  within 1-2 days the fog lifted and I felt more like myself. It has really lessened my anxiety without making me feel like a zombie.

aerotigergirl

I'm on Zoloft now. I started taking it when DS was about 7 months old, because my primary care doctor thought I had PPD and also suspected Hypothyroidism. So, I started Zoloft and bloodwork results confirmed Hypothyroid so I started a different medication for that. Unfortunately, one of the symptoms of hypothyroid is depression (or at least a set of symptoms similar to those of depression) and so it was hard to tell if I actually needed the Zoloft or if I just needed to get my thyroid back in check. Eventually, after I talked to my doc, I weaned off the Zoloft just to see if I actually needed it. I took about a month to come off of it entirely, and even then it wasn't pleasant. I was shaky and I had these "zaps" occasionally that felt sort of like little electrical shocks throughout my body. Not fun.

After being off of it for a few months, I found that I was again a raging bitch. So, I must have needed it! I started it again in January and I've been on it since.

One side effect that I had that I didn't see anyone else mention is that it made me grind my teeth. I have this tendency anyway, but especially during the period where you're building up to a therapeutic level, I found that I ground my teeth even more than usual. I also experienced this with Lexapro.

katlizabeth

I haven't read responses, but I felt it started to help me at like 1.5 weeks. I got very dizzy and nauseated for the first 2 weeks. I also lost my appetite for about a week and had difficulty sleeping. But, I started feeling awake during the day, instead of constantly thinking about when I could nap or go to bed. Good luck to you.