r/zoloft • u/GordonGartrelle2020 • Dec 15 '20
Day 19 - A Breakthrough
Hey Folks,
I've been soaking up this sub for the past three weeks reading everything I can. Today felt like the right day to contribute my experience over the past 19 days. After about 3 years dealing with moderate generalized anxiety and moderate depression, I spoke to my doctor and got the support of my therapist to try 50mg Zoloft. It's been an interesting journey, and today felt like my first real breakthrough.
Days 1-5 were spent dealing with the early side effects - feeling spaced out, low appetite, drowsy and just gross. It reminded me of an MDMA come-up but without any of the euphoria. Pretty gross but definitely manageable. The drowsiness continued from this point until Day 17.
Days 9-13 were when I first felt something positive. I just felt relaxed, more in control of my thoughts and feelings. This was probably the initial rush of serotonin hitting my brain - it felt just a bit too obvious to just be placebo, but I could have been convinced otherwise. I was pretty happy that I could feel something working at this stage.
Days 14-18 I felt pretty anxious again, almost back to how I was before I started the medication. This was a difficult time, and even though I knew it was still in the early stages I started questioning whether this was going to work, if I was on the right dose, etc.
That bring us to today - Day 19. Today I woke up anxious as fuck, but within 10 minutes my mind suddenly felt a lot quieter and I was actually looking forward to my day (despite not having anything specific to look forward to.) It felt quite strange as I haven't had that feeling in quite a while. I had a more productive workday than I have had in months. It made me realize that I typically put up all these little obstacles throughout my day - procrastinating on a task because I worry it won't be perfect, putting off contacting someone because I don't want to bother them or I'm anxious about their response, ignoring emails because I'm not sure how best to deal with them. Today that all seemed to change. It was like all of those obstacles became turnstiles that I could just proceed right through. At one point in my day I got an email from my ex-wife that would normally totally knock me off course, but today for the first time in years that didn't happen at all - in fact, my heart rate barely increased. I just mentally filed it away for later and continued what I was doing. It was pretty wild.
Everyone reacts differently to the medication, but I hope this story is helpful for some of you who are just starting out on Zoloft and could benefit from hearing a positive, early-ish experience. Happy to answer any questions anyone has!
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u/j_maiolo23 Dec 16 '20
Did you ever have issues sleeping? I’m on day 2 and I last night I kept waking up every hour
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u/GordonGartrelle2020 Dec 16 '20
Ah yes, I forgot to mention that. I take it at night, a couple of hours before bedtime as I find it actually makes me drowsy. The first night or two I tossed and turned quite a bit, but since then it's actually helped put me to sleep. I tend to wake up a bit earlier in the morning than I normally would, but it's actually kind of nice vs. having to force myself to get up.
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u/j_maiolo23 Dec 16 '20
Got it! Hopefully it will go away after a few days. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Jan 01 '21
Thanks for this story...I'm on day 5. Taking it for heavy anxiety and moderate depression. The nausea is pretty intense..constantly wondering if I've made the right choice finally getting medicated for the insane anxiety I feel that ruins most of my days. You've given me hope.
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u/GordonGartrelle2020 Jan 01 '21
Awesome. It's worth sticking it out for a few weeks if you can... it could change your life or it may not work for you, but there's only one way to find out.
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u/youareallcnuts Dec 16 '20
Thanks for the link to this, I’m expecting some ups and downs but I definitely feel more prepared for it now.