zoloft - tell me about the good the bad and the ugly

[mammakanin]

surprised anyone? diagnosis is depression. i've been prescribed zoloft.

i've read all the literature. what i want to know are personal experiences. what are your experiences with it? the good, the bad the ugly. but hopefully, it is mostly good... ???

it surprised me, as citra - something (my mind is failing me) is the one in the literature that is recommended for mdocs to prescribe first, so that is the one i have read about the most. but there you go. did the research, and i got something else...

[Indigo 'n dye]

Ddéjà vu, all over again! Zoloft quite literally saved my life. I have had minimal side effects and consider it to be my AD of choice.

[Ptolomy]

I've been on zoloft for about a year, except we just call it sertraline here. I don't really have any side effects now, but it made me slightly hyperactive when I started it. I started it for ocd and then increased it for depression later on. It evened out the real spikes of ocd, but did nothing for the day to day brain ache of it. I think it evened out the mood swingyness of my depression too. No more being in the morning and sobbing in bed in the afternoon. I kind of miss having such heavy emotions though, things don't affect me so much now. This is probably for the best though.

I've not really had any of the ugly from it, except the one time I went to stay with a friend and forgot two doses in a row. That was a disturbing morning, until I realised what had happened. I couldn't keep still, and everything seemed terribly wrong in a vague sort of way.

[weordmyndum]

It really didn't do anything for me, but my depression is very treatment-resistant. I took it in the mornings, and it made me a little bit restless/hyper-alert for a few hours...but no effect on my depression.

[tryp]

I like it okay. It gave me a solid three months remission before it crapped out. Just raised it to 200 and waiting to see what happens.

Side effects were pretty mild. Anorgasmia that lessened after the first couple months, decreased sex drive, and some agitation.irritability while getting onto it.

Overall I like it.

[Guest Kane]

Zoloft made me horribly sick to my stomach and caused vomitting the entire 9 weeks that I took it. I stated at 25mg, then 50mg, and then 100mg. Nothing worked, also coming off of Zoloft should be done VERY gradually as it can be very painful and troublesome if you come off of it too fast. Maybe this drug does that to you, maybe not. I'm taking Celexa and it is serving me much better. Hope that this helps.

[Artemisia]

Zoloft was good to me. I wish I'd stayed on it. (When I restarted it after a break of several months, it didn't work again.)

The side effects I noticed were anorgasmia and sometimes sweating for no apparent reason.

[mcjimjam]

Zoloft has really kicked my anxiety to the curb! I used to have panic attacks w/ depersonalization pretty regularly and had to take Valium when I got anxious. Since I have been on 50mg and above I have not experienced a single panic attack! I no longer feel that I need to have a bottle of tranquilizers somewhere "just in case". I think it has also helped with depression and made my emotions and anger more manageable although I have had break-through depression (I've been on Zoloft for about a year now). All in all I'd have to say it is my favorite antidepressant and I've tried most of the newer ones. It is comparable to the other SSRI's for depression but in my case far superior for anxiety/panic.

I didn't have much in the way of side-effects until I was on a high dose (150-200mg) where I experienced dry mouth and diarrhea.

Hope this helps.

[raincloud]

I was prescribed Zoloft when I was a teenager. It worked remarkably well for about three months when it completely crapped out. I turned into an emotionless zombie, which can be either good or bad depending on your point of view. One caveat -- every doctor in the world will tell you that it isn't addictive and there is no withdrawal, but I had TERRIBLE withdrawal if I even missed one dose. I'd start crying uncontrollably, which was weird because I would still be an emotionless zombie. I did some Googling and I'm not alone with that.

But these meds work different for everyone, so you'll never know until you try!

[NullChamber]

http://crazymeds.us/

look for Zoloft on the left. it's a pretty comprehensive overview.

[Guest Burman]

Don't cold turkey of Zoloft, it drove me crazy. I was in full blown mania at the time and thought that I didn't need to take it anymore.

[Anna]

Was on 25 mg of zoloft about 3 months and liked it, side effects sweating (there is a great deoderant for that) and trouble sleeping, more.

Doc just took me off it, I don't think it was necessary but hey, whatever on that. He's the doctor. I'm still ok, and I'm stressed right now so probably wisest as I am BP I of extremely manic type. I was actually EXTREMELY hesitant to take it, SSRIs and I have NOT been friends in the past.

It worked fast for me, no irritability, but maybe it just gave me the "pop" I needed to get out of depression and back to stability on depakote, which is now showing literature to decrease episodes in both directions for BP dx, interestingly.

Anna

[dancesintherain]

It was sadly like a sugar pill for me (honestly no improvement in symptoms after a good two to three month effort). But it has worked well for many others, as the comments suggest.