Zoloft Question

Post Reply New Topic

I took Zoloft for years and years. I also took the sexual side effects for granted now that I dont take it. I was put on Wellbutrin but my tounge started bleeding. I could handle that but the fogginess that an antidepresssant seems to have lifted. I could think clearer except the hightened mental energy made me a screaming jerk. Plus 30 hours at a time with no sleep wasnot uncommon. I stuck with it for a month before I said no more.
I have more clarity.Plus with the AS diagnosis I understand why things have happened but I'm still social phobic and depressed.
Maybe I should increase the Zoloft dosage?
One theory though is for me for 15 years being on Zoloft made me edgey. AS a result I would talk more as a result I would alienate more people.
Any advice at all?

Stellian: Is Quetiapine an antidepressant? A doctor just told me yesterday that Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) helps with depression, therefore I should probably be taking it (as opposed to not taking it-- I wasn't because it knocked me out and I woke up more depressed than ever because when you're sleeping you're not getting stimulation from outside, which I needed so badly.)


TrueDave, I could have written that post! Except for me, instead of Zoloft and Wellbutrin, it's citalopram (Celexa). 36 hours at a time with no sleep, thinking clearer, heightened mental energy, being more assertive/frank/sociable/outgoing/extroverted/loud/cheery/full of life, and it helps with social phobia and depression though I still have it, especially the social phobia.


I also know someone who is kind of bold and friendly and clear and on Wellbutrin; maybe the Wellbutrin makes him that way because he says he's happy now that he's medicated.

Zoloft is not necessarily an 'aspie drug', it is simply the ssri with the least known side effects and the highest acceptance rate. it just happens that there are a lot of aspies who take it.
Generally, it should take between a few days up to a few weeks to build up to stable levels in your system. while this is happening, everyone will experience their own bodies version of side effects.
some people will gain or lose weight, others will develop different sleep habits, others will simply get happy. no one is exactly the same, which is why it is only 'the most widely accepted', not a total fool proof solution.
When I first started taking it (50mg), it took less than three days to build up, and all that happened is that I got less moody, more happy, more relaxed. sleeping habits changed only in that I was at last no longer insomniac. weight stayed the same. chocolate cravings ceased.

I took Zoloft for years and I can definitely say it did not help at all. All it made me do was lose sleep and make me unable to gain weight (still haven't reached 100 lbs. and I'm eighteen years old). And I'm beginning to think all those black outs I was having was from it as well. That would happen at least two or three times a day daily. My mom took me off of it early on this summer and I'm feeling much better now.

My reaction to neurochemicals has bolstered my belief that I'm either a mutant or changeling. For me, SSRIs are depressants. Neurochemistry appears to be highly variable in humans and it appears that there is little understanding of the effects of many drugs on those with atypical brains.

Just before the first time I was hospitalized for severe depression, my doctor put me on Zoloft. Within a week my depression and anxiety symptoms were worse than ever. I remember telling him that if he was trying to recreate my worst depression ever he had succeeded. In the hospital, another doctor tried the tricyclic antidepressant (which modulate both norepinephrin and seritonin) and , Anafranel in part because he had diagnosed OCD and it was the gold standard at the time to treat that and because of my reaction to Zoloft. That worked well in treating depression and reducing my obsessive thoughts, but the side affects were very nasty. Tricyclics mess big time with my parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in all of my mucus membranes drying out, severe constipation . I could only tolerate it for about a year. He tried an extremely low doses of prozac (5 mg/day) after that. That didn't go well and I quickly stopped taking anything at all.

About 10 years later when my obsessive/compulsive tendencies that lead me to me excessive overwork, insomnia and exhaustion when I lose control of my environment, sent me back into the death spiral again and back to the pharmacy. When the insurance company wouldn't pay for the antidepressant my GP wanted to try, he fell back on prozac. Big mistake. I'm sure it made things worse, but I was desperate. I was only making it through the day with frequent doses of xanax when the anxiety got too bad. After a month, I was back in the hospital again. The doctor there prescribed imipramine (another tricylic) and that helped me out of the pit, but the psychiatrist I say for followup switched me to Seroquel when I complained about the side effects and she decided that I was mildly bipolar. That made me manic in the afternoon, which had its positives, but I didn't like the dangers of that drug, so she switched me to Abilify, which quickly had me in an extremely anxious and depressed state and back in the hospital less than 6 months after the first visit. This time my doctor prescribed Cymbalta, which works on both norepinephrine and serotonin like the tricyclics, but without the serious side effects. That has proved to be a miracle drug for me and despite serious stress lately, I've avoided the death spiral.