Just starting Zoloft and don't know if I can keep taking it.

[vanilla1969]

This is my second day on Zoloft and I must say I don't feel right at all, my whole body feels like it wants to clench up. Clench feeling in my head and neck. Sometimes it also feels as if I want to jump out of my skin, I am so unedge and it's making me more nervous. Don't know if I can do this.......

[Jules1963]

Sorry you're feeling like this it's a common reaction to starting some anti depressants. Are you taking it for depression or anxiety? Also did the doctor prescribe any other meds like Ativan to help with the start up side effects?  I felt like this when I started lexapro and my doc gave me Klonopin that eventually weaned off. Good luck

[vanilla1969]

My internist prescribed it because my psychiatrist had put me only on Lorazepam and my internist said the benzo is only a cover up to the real problem and gave me Zoloft. Just a few minutes ago I got the choking heavy chest feeling, I am not liking this at all.

[insights]

Just a few minutes ago I got the choking heavy chest feeling, I am not liking this at all.

what dose are you on?

Ian

[vanilla1969]

50

[w0rry_n0t]

I just started taking Zoloft again (i was on it for 3 years and stopped taking it a year and a half ago) a week ago. My dose is also 50 mg, but they started me at 25 for the first week, and just today I moved to the full 50. It made me on edge and very uncomfortable the first few days as well. I know this post is a few days old, but I hope you see this. The adjustment period is always really hard, I know. I've had several panic attacks in the past week, some only lasting a few minutes, others all day and night. I see you also have access to atavan. I am not allowed to have a prescription for that (history of substance abuse), though I wish I could. It would have been very helpful, and still be, during the next few weeks while my body and mind get used to the medication.

Have you had any other issues? Feel free to send me a message if you'd like, and we can talk about the side-effects we are each having. I would love to discuss this with someone else who just started as well.

[insights]

50

This is often too high a starting dose for those with anxiety. It would have been better if you'd been started on the 25mg starter tablets, and even then you may have needed to cut these in half to avoid intolerable side-effects. I suggest you ask the internist if you can cut the 50mg in at least half, and preferably a quarter, and then increase the dose by the same amount every 7-10 days until you get to the target dose. DO NOT do this without asking as there may be reasons why s/he wants you at 50mg asap. Pill cutters are safer and more accurate than using a knife to cut tablets. Most pharmacies stock them.

Ian

[laineyk]

I am a zoloft veteran...YES it can make you so much more anxious in the beginning (reason why a lot of ppl quit ) but once you get to a therapeutic dose it will subside.

Take the ativan as needed it will help, once zoloft kicks in you will easily come off the ativan.

may I ask why you have changed SSRI's so many times?

[vanilla1969]

Started feeling better or felt I didn't need it anymore, this was before the anxiety bug bit me. I didn't start having anxiety until 2011 but I have always had a short temper and yell and screamed all the time at my kids. Never got the funny feeling with the other anti-depressants (before my anxiety) and was just wondering because of the anxiety does it make us more susceptible to notice the changes in our body.

[w0rry_n0t]

I feel like I am more sensitive right now, emotionally and physically. My sense of taste is stronger, as well as my sense of smell. And when I do get anxious, it is worse than I had been before I started. I've only been taking the full 50 mg for a few days now (since Thursday), and I was having some restless leg syndrome the first week.

Have you considered calling the doctor and trying to see what could be up? You just might not be on the right medication, if it's making you feel that uncomfortable, then talking to your doctor or the internist again is you're best bet. They are the ones who know everything and what is best.

In my opinion, if you started feeling like those side effects have decreased since you last posted, maybe you should wait another week and see how it goes? It can take a few weeks for you to start feeling any positive effects from it. If nothing has changed, call your doc and go talk about other options or increasing your dosage. Like Ian said though, don't stop taking it or change your dose on your own.

Do you think you might just be nervous about taking it? The very first time I started an anti-depressant (Citalopram for six to eight months until I was switched to zoloft), I remember being anxious about how I would react, worried it would change my personality or make me a zombie. I was also worried about having one of those rare side effects and becoming suicidal. I monitored my behavior and feelings in a journal three times a day, when I woke up, after I got home from work, and before going to bed. It helped me realize that I was worried for no reason, but I do understand if you are feeling uneasy about being medicated. It can be a scary change when you're used to feeling one way to wake up and feel like a new person (in a good way).

I hope you're doing okay and I hope this helps a little bit. You're not alone!

[Happy sailing]

Good replies..
However, I am with Ian on this one.  My first trial of an SSRI I was SOOO sick etc.. It was a 20 mg dose, which is an average to "lower" dose, as I understand it.. awful.. So now I am trying it St 2.5 mg - 5 mg to start.
I am NOT a doctor, nor an expert and very new to these kinds of meds etc.
So, this is just from my personal experience.
I am finding the side effects a lot less and I AM finding a positive effect, even though I have only been trying the SSRI for 6-7 days now.
I do NOT plan on even going up to 20 mg at all.. I might just stay at 5 mg.. Especially if it already IS having a positive effect.  This is something I will be discussing with my doc further.

I don't like the idea that you have to do trial and error to see if one will work as opposed to another.
I am more like worry_not in the sense that I am REALLY NOT into the meds thing and have concerns about negative long term effects on our brains etc... However, our brains are resilient and DO heal, and I guess there are times it becomes a "no-brainer" choice    LOL!!!  Like when it seems they can help and makes thing better and more manageable than hell without them!!   But meds are relative to the person and situation.. 

Anyway.. Hope this helps?? 

[vanilla1969]

Thanks all to your replies; I'm going to start back on 25 mg by cutting in half. Cried to a co-worker yesterday who after I confided in her about what I'm going through said she was also on Zoloft and stopped taking hers because of the side effects then she played with it by cutting the dose and found that it worked much better. Before the anxiety bug bit me I remember several years ago she had her lungs collapse due to anxiety (she is also an asthma sufferer) so she needed it for her health. At that time I was like what lung collapse cause of anxiety I had never heard of that but now since I'm a sufferer now I can understand how.  She said it also saved her marriage.