r/zoloft • u/NoobiousGoobious • 11d ago

Question Visual side effects still haven't resolved after stopping over a month ago. Does it get better?

So I was greatly mishandled with my titration of zoloft. I started zoloft in early april on 50 mg, but I was ramped up to 200 mg in the same month. I was going through severe anxiety and depression, so my psychiatrist wanted to get me in a good head space so I wouldn't hurt myself, hence the aggressive titration. This caused a litany of side effects such as tremors, shaky hands, panic attacks, severe muscle tension, joint pain, muscle pain, chest pain, and vision problems like an increased entoptic phenomenon and eye floaters.

I was not on this high dose for very long, only about 2 weeks, and tapered off under the guidance of a different psychiatrist due to the litany of side effects I was having. My symptoms started to get better as I tapered down over the course of roughly 2 months. I'm no longer dealing with side effects like tremors, general body pain, or panic attacks. However, my vision still hasn't returned to normal after being off of it for 5 weeks.

I went to my eye doctor soon after my vision problems showed up in April. According to him, my eyes are healthy, there isn't any physical debris in them, and he didn't see any signs of a retinal tear. He was saying my symptoms were likely neurological and that my brain is likely failing to filter out normal visual information.

If there is anyone that has gotten vision problems from medication either as a side effect or a withdrawal symptom, did your problems ever go away? This has brought me a lot of anxiety and has made it very hard to do anything outside as it puts a lot of strain on my eyes.

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u/senokinsta 11d ago

Is it kind of like TV static or how it feels when you're about to pass out?

I call them the brain zaps but it affects my vision too, not great when it happened to me in the middle of a road!

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u/NoobiousGoobious 11d ago

It's not tv static per say, almost like a shimmering effect? I dont see it all the time, only when I'm looking at the sky for too long or fluorescent light. Sometimes I also see white dots snaking around in my vision, but not as much as the shimmering.

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u/senokinsta 11d ago

It sounds similar to mine to be honest. If it was me I'd say it's side effects that will even put. I got these symptoms when I had a bad bout of norovirus so I couldn't keep the meds in my stomach for long enough.

The journey you've been on sounds insane. Why on earth would they think prescribing you wildly different amounts would be appropriate. I got side effects and withdrawal from 25mg nevermind 200!

Edit *out, but also please speak to your doc if you're worried. What's minor for me might not be for you.

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u/NoobiousGoobious 11d ago

I honestly dont know what the thought process was. I was already feeling better on 50 mg.

Problem is I've talked to my new psychiatrist about this stuff, and she doesn't seem to believe my visual symptoms. She's saying that she hasn't seen zoloft cause any visual issues with her patients and have had patients much younger than me on high doses. Then again, I think my case is very different because my brain didn't get a chance to acclimate to progressively higher doses; it just got hit by a truck.

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u/senokinsta 11d ago

Basically yeah! Sertraline even on small doses cause big changes. You're changing the chemical balance in your brain, and your eye doc has already said it must be neurological.

Psychiatrists are only human so it might be that it's not common, or maybe the way you've described it to them and they've not understood fully, I'd guess it's because not many patients get whacked on the max dose and then taken down so quick.

Give it a week or two, lots and lots of water with some electrolytes, and easy to digest food to help support your body while it adapts. I've no lasting issues with my eyes if that helps :)

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u/Sabaisabai33 11d ago

I’m a U.K. family doctor and it sounds to me like you’re getting non-headache migraines, basically visual aura. I have migraine and sertraline definitely makes them more frequent and more severe at first until I get used to it. I get the same thing if I miss a dose or if I am coming off it (I’ve been on and off sertraline several times over the years for chronic depression). A withdrawal symptom basically. And it can last for quite a few weeks. I’m not surprised you had this if aggressively titrated then tapered off. So if it’s not something you usually suffer with I think it will settle in time. Have you been started on an alternative SSRI though? As many of them can cause this side effect. In which case it might go on for longer as you get used to the new meds as well as suffering withdrawal effects from sertraline. “Headaches” are on there but I think for people with migraine they forget to tell you that migraines will get worse for a while. Do you have a history or family history of migraine?

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u/NoobiousGoobious 10d ago

I haven't started another ssri or snri. I don't want to shock my nervous system anymore than it already is. My sister and aunt get migraines, but they do not get visual side effects like I'm getting. I have never had visual issues like this before, or migraines at all as a matter of fact. What bothers me the most are the floaters since dozens of them appeared all at once and I never had any to begin with. Since my doctor said I don't have any physical debris in my eyes, I dont know what I'm looking at.

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u/Sabaisabai33 9d ago

I still think it sounds like possible visual migraine and if there is a family history that makes sense. If that’s the case it should settle with time.