Anyone taking Zoloft (sertraline)?

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Hello

I was wondering if there is anyone taking Zoloft (Sertraline/Serlain) for their social anxiety and fears and how it is going for them. I started four weeks ago and it is starting to have some effect on me. My obsessive thoughts are easier to control, they dissapear faster and I seem to be able to block the primal fear better (although not totally) I am on 50 mg.

There are other forums about Zoloft but I am interested in knowing the effect on people like me in the spectrum because I do think we react differently to meds than nt's. Thank you!

I take 50 mg/day and I really like the effects. It's significantly reduced my anxiety and given me more ability to identify panic attacks as they're starting.

I am worried about raising the dosage as my doctor suggested because every time I go on a "normal" dosage with any kind of anti-depressant, bad things happen.

Thank you for your reply Verdandi.

I understand what you mean about the dosage. My doctor suggested raising it to 75/100 mg but I am also scared of ruining the good effects it has so far. I tried other antidepressants but they all ended up having a bad effect on me.

I used to take zoloft for more than 10 years because I also had diagnosted schizoaffective disorder. It made me less depressive but it has some negative effect -I guess it actually killed my sex drive(which in my case is not so negative).

It has killed my sex drive as well but my priority is to be able to control the fears and the anxiety... so I guess that I exchanged one for the other

It has killed my sex drive as well but my priority is to be able to control the fears and the anxiety... so I guess that I exchanged one for the other

I was on this for a few weeks and all I got was constipation.

I take it! Its been over 9 months, maybe 10 months. I prefer being aware of my OCD thoughts and habits rather than controlled by them. I still have racing thoughts at times, but at least I am able to see that they are going wild and that I don't have to let the thoughts take over.

I am more able to notice when I am not taking appropriate care for myself.

I worked up to 100mg once daily, and then when she had me try 150 (one and a half) daily, I went backwards in progress and was super depressed again, so backed off to 100 mg daily and that has been the best for me. It just depends on the person.

Hope that helps!

I am taking it for depression, not for social anxiety, and I guess it's working okay. It hasn't made me any friendlier. I take 75 mg. Ten years ago I was on 175 mg and had a manic episode. It's hard to say about my sex drive because I'm perimenopausal and all that stuff's starting to change anyway. But I'm having trouble affording even the generic version, so I'm having intermittent dizzy spells between paychecks.

i take it. it mainly keeps me from screaming. (there is still the screaming that gets out when things get too extreame, but without it id be screaming at "everything")

i used to take it....went all the way up to the maximum dosage....didn't get a whole lot out of it.

am now taking prozac at 20mg...i think it is beginning to work better then zoloft did...

with any antidepressant though give it 6-8 weeks.

Took it for a few days. Even was able to sense when the drug kicked on in my brain. Definitely an interesting sensation. Then a couple of days later I started having evil thoughts, like killing people. lol Told my psychologist, who told my internist, who had me come in and explain myself. He took me off of Zoloft and put me on Paxil -- a much better SSRI for me.

I took it for about a year and it helped a bit with my anxiety but again killed my sex drive so Im off currently looking for something else.
I was on 50mg a day but in the end I dont think the loss of drive period was worth the minor positive effect it gave me...

It was just hard to even get out of bed when on it, not depression or anything just. why bother right.

I take sertraline. I'm on 150mg/day and it's mostly effective. I haven't suffered any noticeable side affects and it helps me stay calm for the most part. If there's a situation in which I'm having trouble coping to begin with, no amount of medication is going to stop the meltdown. But I've found that sertraline keeps me from having meltdowns over minute things.

For example, if I forget to take sertraline for two days, any unusual sound, smell or touch will be enough to cause a screaming, head-banging meltdown. If I take sertraline every day, it takes something huge to cause such a meltdown. Like getting a $5000 bill for a procedure that my insurance company swore was covered, but then wasn't because some employee, somewhere, didn't fax the right paperwork to the right department in a timely fashion. I don't think any amount of any kind of medication could have prevented the resulting meltdown.

Anyway, I've had good experiences with sertraline.

Zoloft is, in my opinion, what led me to develop idiopathic hypersomnia. It also did zilch for my OCD and panic attacks. But then again, neither did Lexapro or Prozac. The SSRIs just are useless for my brain, but they help many people. Just another example of how psychiatric medications are still such a crap shoot of "trial and error." Anafranil is my OCD/anxiety wonder medication, but for some, it's Zoloft.

And, Verdandi, if you are experiencing positive effects on the dosage of Zoloft you're currently taking, why in the world does your doctor think you need to increase your dosage?! I'm only on 100 mg of Anafranil (I started out on 50 mg for a year or so), and that is an extremely low dose for OCD. But that's all I need at the moment, so why increase to what the "typical" dosage "should" be? If you're happy with your current Zoloft dosage, I think you should definitely voice this to your doctor and ask what the point of increasing the medication is.

I was taking it until about a week ago.

It was giving me what I now understand to be "akathisia." It basically felt like someone was dumping acid down my spine and my skeleton wanted to jump out of my skin and dance around the room. Further research on my part revealed that a minority of people experience akathisia on Zoloft. Of course, my stupid brain had to be in the minority group.

Other than making me spastic, it worked pretty well.

Currently, I'm on Prozac. I'm not sure I care for it. So far, it's making me extremely drowsy and VERY spacey. It actually feels like I'm a little drunk. I'm going to give it the requisite four weeks to see if it improves, but I'm gulping three cups of coffee a day just to stay alert and focused enough not to accidentally kill myself. If SSRIs don't work, my psychiatrist wants to try risperidone, which I'd rather not as any med that lists "sudden death" as a potential side effect is not my cup of tea.

BTW, ever since starting SSRIs, I'm perservating and obsessing over special interests at a level I haven't experienced since I was a kid. I'm totally enamored with LEGOs and model-building. I think about it all the time and it's getting harder and harder to be able to switch my focus to "necessary" things.

Is that weird, or does that make sense to someone???