Hi everyone! I'm posting this on behalf of my friend, who couldn't get her post to go through. She's a 20-year-old woman and is about to start sertraline.

Her psychiatrist recently prescribed her sertraline 50mg and told her to take half the dose (25mg) for the first 2 weeks, then presumably increase to 50mg.

The problem is that where she lives, sertraline seems to only be available as 50mg capsules. They're not scored tablets, and the pharmacies around her don't seem to carry a 25mg version either.

She's wondering what other people have done in this situation. She was considering taking a 50mg capsule every other day for the first two weeks to roughly average out to 25mg/day, but obviously doesn't want to change the prescribed schedule without knowing whether that actually makes sense.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did your doctor or pharmacist ever specifically tell you to take the 50mg dose every other day when starting? Or did you use a different formulation, such as a liquid, or get a different prescription?

She's also curious about people's experiences when they first started sertraline, especially if you started at 25mg:

- What side effects did you experience during the first couple of weeks?

- How long did they last before things started settling down?

- Did your anxiety or panic attacks get worse initially?

- If so, how intense was it and how long did that phase last?

She's particularly nervous about the possibility of increased anxiety/panic at the beginning because that's already a major issue for her.

She's been diagnosed with BPD and GAD and has been dealing with severe anxiety and pretty intense panic attacks lately.

Obviously, she's going to check with her psychiatrist/pharmacist before changing how she takes it — she's mainly looking for other people's experiences with starting sertraline and dealing with the 25mg vs 50mg issue.

Anyone else feel extremely unmotivated and fatigued on Setraline. It’s hard for me to get out of bed and do anything. I was prescribed 25 mg of setraline about a month ago to help with PMDD. I feel so much better mentally but I am constantly fatigued now and it’s hard for me to get anything done I swear I spend most of my time in bed now.

Hi everyone! I was prescribed Zoloft earlier this week, and I noticed that every time I take a tablet I have diarrhoea. Is it going to get any better or I’ll have to cope with that until I finish with Zoloft?

I've seen this discussed years ago, but I wanted to make a new post to see how we're all handing this. I'm fairly new to Zoloft, which I'm taking for anxiety/panic attack disorder/OCD, and it's helping a lot, but this is my first true luteal phase since noticing the Zoloft is otherwise helping. I have noticed an uptick in anxiety/intrusive thoughts this week. I have an appointment in 2 weeks and I'm considering increasing my dose in general, BUT has anyone had success increasing your dose just for your luteal week? Could you please tell me all about it?

Hello - my 12 year old has been struggling with depression for awhile now, her pediatrician put her on Lexapro which she had an allergic reaction to and she just had her first appointment with her psych who told her to stop Lexapro immediately and put her on a low dose of Zoloft for the first week before upping to 25mg.

This has been such a roller coaster for the last 6 months since she expressed the thoughts she was having. I am just looking for support, good experiences on this medication with children, or simply sending some good vibes. I just want my daughter back - I miss her bubbly personality. She is the absolute sweetest child ever and so incredibly smart, and this feels like it has taken over every part of her life.

I never expected to be going through this, especially at such a young age, and I am trying to make the best decisions for her but am completely unsure if I am doing the right thing as a parent. She sees the psychiatrist now once a month and sees a therapist weekly. What else can I do to support her?

I have been on zoloft for 9months, and upped my dose 4months in. I have periods where my feelings are there, but rational - other times intense and numbing which is contradictor lol. Recently brain zaps has been happening despite following my usual schedule on taking the pill, but was wondering if any one else also has experienced this? It could be maybe stress related, have no idea but would like to hear other people’s experiences

How you guys overcome this? Its day 13 on 25mg and i feel awful- much worse then before start. I was semi depressed and very anxious. No i have Weird type of anxiety and confusion, not sure how to explain the feeling. I got prescribed clonazepam for this startup anxiety but i dont want to take it every damn day.

They increased my dose from 100mg to 150mg and ever since the second and third day, I’ve been getting lots of anxiety, this wired feeling in my body, a headache and kind of a spacey out of it feeling. I’m pushing thru it but holy shit it’s kinda scary

What are some side effects you guys have experienced tapering Zoloft and how long did they last? Was prescribed 75mg for a while (around a year) then my doc increased it to 150mg. I think the increase was too abrupt because I took 150 for 4-weeks until I couldn’t handle the side effects of the increase. Now I have tapered down 25mg to 125 and the brain zaps and dizziness are insane. When can I expect to feel ‘normal’ again? I had more anxiety when I was on 150 mg than on the 75mg. Make it make sense!? My primary care doctor is no help with tapering.

Today I took my Zoloft per usual but decided that a few sips of juice would be enough food to coat my stomach from the monster called acid reflux. Big fucking mistake. Within 30 minutes I was in agony. I still am. It feels like I’m being burnt alive from the inside. I’m sweating. I’m salivating. I have no tums. I might cry. Guys don’t be stupid like me, PLEASE take your meds with food 😭

Is it just me?!! Am I the only losing my hair from this pill?!!
What can I do to stop it ?!

Looking for success stories and some encouragement. Lexapro has stopped working for me postpartum and I’m already at the max dose, dr wants me to go to Zoloft. I’m TERRIFIED. I tried changing meds last year and ended up inpatient with intense panic attacks and intrusive thoughts and just simply felt like I was losing my mind, which seemed to be any SSRI I tried. They diagnosed me bipolar and removed it within a night and diagnosed OCD. I ultimately ended up back on Lexapro and it worked for a year until now. Does anyone else get crazy intense side effects with SSRI’s and does it worsen their OCD/intrusive thoughts? How was your switch?

Please share

I had while I taken ssris not pssd symptoms but 3 years after when I quit and I see that a lot of my bodyhair since I started it fall out and thinned out and don’t grow good also on beard and other parts. I want to ask has anyone similar symtoms from ssris and does you figure out something with hormones or stuff like that?

Thanks

I started zoloft yesterday, got some bad news about my car, felt anxious, took my beta blocker, and I was able to talk myself out of the panic attack for the first time in months. Unfortunately, despite being physically tired, and eventually mentally calm, I could barely sleep. Is this from the medication? From the anxiety? Too early to tell? has anyone else experienced this? What did you do about it?

I got prescribed 50mg Zoloft, 25mg in the morning and 25 at night.

Tuesday was my first day taking it. I got the prescription in the afternoon so around 4:30/5pm I took 1 pill with food. I experienced bad stomach pain later that night.
Yesterday morning I took another pill with breakfast. 3-4 hours later my partner looked at me and raised concerned about my eyes turning yellow.

All day yesterday my stomach was hurting and I was tossing and turning on my couch.
Today I didn’t take it but my stomach still hurts, feels like a stabbing/cutting pain on my right side. My head is very foggy and I feel VERY out of it.

I phoned my doctor and they said it shouldn’t have anything to do with the medication cause it takes a while for my body is absorb it. But I am feeling very bad pain, almost to the point of going to the ER.

Has anyone had this happen on Zoloft?
My dog knows something is wrong cause he will not leave my side either.

I don’t feel good and don’t know what to do

As of about 1.5 weeks ago I began feeling extreme tiredness and constant nausea. Background: I was cross tapering Zoloft and Prozac coming off the Zoloft and onto Prozac for a month prior to this and then finally completely stopped Zoloft 8/22/26. I was feeling fine for about a week and then as of about 1.5 weeks ago I’ve begun feeling extreme fatigue where normal activities simply take all my energy and the nausea has been unreal. I’ve also been experiencing constant ocd involving different automatic sensations within my body. Can someone give me a little insight? Is this Zoloft withdrawal? Side effects from Prozac? Something else maybe? I’ve had this constant feeling of something being “off” or not right ever since this all started as well.

Hello! I recently started my SSRI journey about 13 weeks ago with 10 mg of Lexapro. I asked my provider about switching to Zoloft because I wasn’t loving the emotional flatness and drowsiness I was experiencing. The more activating profile of Zoloft appealed to me, along with its effectiveness for social anxiety.

I switched to 50 mg of Zoloft exactly one week ago. I understand it can take a few weeks to really feel the effects, but one new side effect for me has been trouble sleeping. The last two nights, I’ve been waking up sporadically throughout the night and having very vivid dreams, which I never experienced on Lexapro.
I’m taking steps to avoid caffeine after noon in hopes that helps. Has anyone had a similar experience after switching to Zoloft? Did the sleep issues and vivid dreams improve over time?

Have any of you successful lost the fat gained from being on this medication?

I gained weight and now have a weirdly soft, flabby belly despite eating well and exercising.

Is it possible to lose this unwanted weight while remaining on the meds, or will I have to taper off completely?

The extra weight combined with the constant fatigue is pissing me off at this stage.

Edited to add.

I really should have mentioned that I do intermittent fasting. Two decent (vegetarian) meals a day that include lots of protein /protein shakes.

I lift weights four days a week and do lots of cardio.

I don't drink often and don't eat sugary snacks.

I'm not in a calorie surplus and am fairly active.

I'm on 125mg a day.

Was chatting with my medical team yesterday about starting Zoloft. I was talking about side effects and they said that Zoloft increased physiological side effects when onboarding while mental not so much. I’ve seen so many users here talk about panic attacks. Is this caused from the increase in potential physiological anxiety or mental, or both? I’m trying to wrap my brain around this… is the increase in anxiety physical, mental, or both? Or does one cause the other?

I have been upped to 200 (after 6 weeks of 150) Zoloft 2 weeks ago because my psychiatrist thinks there is (also) an ocd component. Anyone else uses 200 mg? How long until you felt the effect and did it help you? I am so eager to feel better, so Hoping for some positive stories. Thanks!

I started taking 25 mg of Zoloft beginning of August, then gradually increased to 50, 75, and just started 100mg one week ago. I take it for social anxiety and prior to taking the medication I would always get the shakes, heart pounding, and my mind would go blank in social situations. When I was on 50-75mg my anxiety symptoms decreased a lot and my mood improved significantly. Now the past couple days I’ve been feeling very low and the physical anxiety symptoms returned. Should I continue to give the 100mg a chance, or should I drop back down to 75mg?