Depression Blog.com

I have been on Zoloft for about 6 months or so. Before taking Zoloft I had been taking paxil for 3 or more years. I loved Paxil except for one major thing, my weight gain. I excercised and ate
very healthy and couldnt lose any weight for the life of me. So, I finally decided to try something new. I tried Wellbutrin which helped me stop smoking but did nothing for deperssion. Then I decided maybe I should stop taking everything... So I tried to slowly come off the anti- deperssants all together but soon realized that I am just too damn depressed and miserable without them. Thats where the Zoloft comes into play. I started taking 50mg of Zoloft a day.
At first, things were okay... but then they got bad. Now, I have never really had bad anxiety, just mainly depression [which the doctors say go hand in hand] but in my case, they had not. After being on the Zoloft for a short period of time, I started having trouble breathing... on a daily basis. And one day I actually had an "anxiety attack", which was foreign to me, and got rushed to the hospital. In turn my doctor up'd my mg of Zoloft to 100. And to this day I still have trouble breathing. Breathing is now like a task for me. My doctors say its all anxiety.
I suggested that maybe the Zoloft and I were not compatable, but they did not think that was the case. Then how come I have never had breathing problems before?? Im no more anxious now then I ever have been.
And on top of the breathing problems, I wake up in the morning drentched from night sweats, and I have diffuculty sleeping throughout the night. Im stuck between a rock and hard place. Should I go back to paxil and try and deal with the weight gain? Should I be fat and happy or skinny and depressed?
Thats basically what it comes down to for me.

Hello,
I have been on zoloft for a year and a half. I started taking it for Post traumatic stress. I have always been thin and I am 5'8 and weighed 119 before I started to take zoloft I know weigh 132 pounds. I've asked my doctors if the weight gain is from the zoloft, they said no, but after reading what I've read here, it seems that I am not the only one to gain weight with this. My main question is, Does taking Zoloft and Dong quai together give a person headaches. I just started to take dong quai also and Since I started I have had a terrible headache. Also, If I decide to go off zoloft, should I gradually cut down on my dosage, I currently take 50mg 1x a day. And Do you think my weight will go back to normal.

Thanks for your time.

My 50 mg daily dosage of Zoloft was increased to 100 when I became acclimatized
to the 50 dosage. This concerned me somewhat, as I had been finding the 50 mgs
beneficial for some time until I suddenly “needed” more. It left me wondering if
perhaps soon I will “need” 150 mgs, and later 200 mgs etc. However, I admittedly
did mix my original dosage with illicit substances, which may have provoked a
second spiral downward. Anyhow, I seem to be coping okay on 100, although I
continue to drink quite heavily in the later hours of the day (I’m trying to cut
back). My thoughts continue to remain as strange as ever, my moods erratic and
my natural tendencies rather neurotic. These are merely somewhat easier to deal
with. I hope to somehow get off this drug at some point, but I fear that this
will only be achieved when a more suitable medication is discovered. This, in
turn, will occur only when the ‘correct’ psychiatric condition/s has/have been
diagnosed, when and if that ever does ha
ppen…

My father has been on zoloft for close to eight years. I do not have any contact with him (except when he makes desparate attempts to get back into my life - sometimes extremey upsetting and abusive phone calls and visits to my home. I have heard through many differernt sources of the "bad side effects" this drug has and that it has even been taken off the market in the United States due to the problems associated with it. A man at my husbands work place actually attempted to hand his wife (while taking zoloft). He realised what he was doing before it was too late and turned himself into the police. He served 2 years in prision for his crime. I have also heard of other violent crimes that have been committed by patients taking zoloft. Why on earth is this stuff still available.?????

Since taking the drug my father turned from a loving husband and dedicated dad, to leaving our home (permanently) and leaving our mum to support three kids. In the end the bank took our home and we were left with not too mucj at all. Since then I have made several attempts to keep in contact with my father but he is such a different person (a man who no one can stand anymore). He has become obsessive about helping others and insists that we have been brainwashed by our mother (who loved my father dearly when he left) and we all need psychological help. I did get soe depression after the divorce (not because of the divorce but because of what my father continued to do to our family - mental torment).

Is it seen to be dangerous for any one person to be on this drug for such a long period of time. Has any one else had violent and aggressive problems with their loved ones taking this drug? I am so angry at my father's psychiatrist for not properly researching a drug that he is readily prescribing.

Upset and angry - lost my father to zoloft!!!!!

I was on 200mg per day of Zoloft for about 3 years. I gained more than
100 pounds, and have not been able to lose weight. I hardly even
remembered to eat, suffered projectile vomitting, day and night, even
vomitted in my sleep nearly choking many times. My eyes wobbled left to
right rapidly and uncontrolably, my hands shook so severly I could not
eat anything but sandwhiches without it spilling all over me. I could
not hold a pencil to write with. I had an increase of migraines,
lethargic feelings and confusion. My insomnia worsened, I had panic
attacks. I also broke out in hives many times. my doctors [I have
changed doctors sveral times] have ignored my complaints. Sometimes
Busparone and Trazadone were added to my medications. When I decided to
stop taking Zoloft [after 3 years of horrible side effects] I weaned the
dose down over 2 months, and suffered a severe amount of suicidal
ideation. I suffered from jerking head motions and arm spasms for a long
time after stopping the Zoloft. My blood pressure went way high also,
and it never was before. I now have to remain on blood pressure
medicine.

I have been taking 50mg. of zoloft for 4yrs the dr. up me to 100mg. my blood pressure has been running high. The dr. says zoloft will not do that I don;t think he know what he is talking about. Any infromation on this would help.

Hello,
I was taking Zoloft 50 mg. for 2 years for PMDD. UNEXPECTEDLY, my husband recently lost his job, and therefore we lost the insurance we had the day he was let go, and Cobra was REALLY expensive! I was about to refill my RX before he was let go, I had about 1 week left. We could not afford the medication with out the insurance, so I had no choice but to go off. I did take one pill every other day with the amount I had left, which again was only about a weeks worth.
It has been 3 1/2 weeks now with nothing at all, and the dizziness, MIGRAINES, and WEAKNESS, are almost unbearble, if anything I feel WORSE. I dont know what to do. I did call my regular doctor, who said that I need to go off slowly. Well I would, if I could afford the RX. We are talking 150.00! With my husband ut of a job right now, and only me working money is VERY tight. If I really really have to I will get another RX, to wean off of it. Although it has been 3 1/2 weeks, can it last much longer in my system? Is there something less expensive to help with the withdrawls?

I just went off of zoloft, I cannot lose weight after my baby. Is this the reason, being on zoloft? And can going off of it make you feel dizzy, similar to the dizziness with an ear infection.

i didn't have a lot of side effects from zoloft. i too it for two years and it
helped my depression and ended the nightmares. i started having suicidal urges
after the two years and realized it was the drug, which i gradually stopped
taking. my husband feels the medication led to my inability to feel any
tenderness toward him and our children. i admit i do not have the warm feeling
in my heart but i do not get overemotional regarding problems like i did in the past. i seem to be in some kind of vacuum. is there any way i can regain some of the happy feelings without also getting back the low depression? i am losing my husband to this and it is affecting our children.

In August, I decided to wean myself off of Zoloft. I was tired of feeling slightly tired all of the time and feeling like my good moods were always a bit dampened, like I could never feel as happy as I felt like I should. It's hard to explain. The best way I can describe it is when I was feeling really happy, ie. getting engaged, it was like jumping on a bed and my head hitting the ceiling. I knew what it felt like to be really happy on special occasions and I wasn't able to feel like that while on Zoloft. I also never had the energy to exercise. Now that I'm off of Zoloft, I'm gaining weight, which is exactly the opposite of what I thought would happen, since I am exercising because I have the energy to exercise.

Now I've gained about 10 pounds in 2 months while trying to eat better than I ever have and exercising more than I have in the last 5 years. It makes absolutely no sense and I'm frustrated and feeling worse about myself because of it.

Been on Zoloft for only a week ...think I need to stop! Having same other symptoms as everyone else... no sleep - irregular heartbeat - chest pain - dry mouth - dizziness - shortness of breath... Seems like the drug worked after a couple days but NOW my heart rate is constantly high... even when I am just sitting around...just a simple walk around the house makes my heart pound!! Just had panic attacks every once in while before Zoloft! Now it feels like I am having a 24-7 panic attack with my heart rate always high.

I have recently started taking Zoloft, Ive been taking it for about 3 or 4 weeks and I'm having mild sometimes painful head aces. I notice i can't quit shaking or a feeling of wanting to be moving always, I'm tired and wanting to sleep all day. My doctor is treating me for IBS, I'm a 21 year old female, but i was in the hospital and they treated me for PID, and i went to another doctor because i still was going through a lot of pain. I still am so she did test and tryed to treat me for PID, but we had no results so she started treating me for IBS. I am seeing a general surgeon for my stomach pain and pelvic pain. She decided to put me on Zoloft because I'm depressed and sick of being in pain. I do not like the side effects I'm having, i thought it was helping but now i don't. My question is, oh i am taking 50mg a day, but i wont to if i should stop taking it before i cant stop. I'm having a lot of side effects. What can i do??? PLEASE HELP ME....

Having found this site interesting, I thought I'd share the basic outlines of my recent experience with Zoloft.

I am a 32 year old male, diagnosed variously throughout the years with clinical depression, S.A.D., and even a "socio-emotional learning disability." I put more stock in the S.A.D. diagnosis than anything else, since I have noticed an increase in melancholy each autumn through mid-winter for as long as I can remember. At turbulent times in my life, when a "normal" individual might experience some symptoms of depression for a reasonable amount of time, my melancholy has spiraled into sometimes uncontrollable episodes. The symptoms associated with these episodes are: constant despair, nightmares, irregular sleep patterns, loss of appetite, severe panic attacks, anxiety and confusion, apathy and lethargy, circular and self-destructive ideation. When all these symptoms are present at once (as was most recently the case) I am basically immobilized. Although I've never experienced manic episodes, there have been more or less great periods in my life when I felt "naturally" happy, and until about a year ago I thought I had cracked this depression thing once and for all, with the exception of a mild or low-grade depression each autumn (which seemed under control). Meanwhile, the mostly low-grade seasonal depression went untreated basically all my life and I developed more and more destructive routines for coping with it, until I found myself in a kind of denial about these routines and the source of their development. These routines continued as habitual behaviors through the seasons I was apparently not suffering any symptoms of the clinical / seasonal depression, and fed back into the yearly cycle. Finally, I believe this feedback loop adversely affected my work, my relationships, and my physical health. At roughly middle age, with a great deal in shambles, I took the decision to try medication and talk-therapy to try and figure out if these patterns could be halted long enough to clean up the mess and delve back into the many aspects of my life that have given me and my loved ones the most pleasure and comfort.

With all the symptoms present for nearly a full month (and several present for about two and a half months prior to that awful month of total freak-outs), my doctor prescribed Zoloft. I worked my way up to 150 mg, which I take each morning. I've been at the full dosage for about two weeks. At first, the symptoms remained, but I also experienced nausea and grogginess constantly. After several days these side effects disappeared and I felt complete apathy for about two days. That signaled the almost instant disappearance of ALL the symptoms I associate with the depression. The apathy then gradually disappeared and I was able to make great strides forward in my therapy and small steps in other areas of my life (work, relationships). The last symptom to disappear was the loss of appetite, and I still struggle a bit with that. I also recently felt a bit of anxiety and had a little trouble sleeping, but I think that was a "natural" response to life-events.

I do not want to stay on medication of any kind any longer than I have to. I began Zoloft expressly to gain traction in therapy and to test the notion of a chemical imablance. Right now I'm pretty well convinced that I do suffer from a chemical imbalance, which may be genetic, but I am not convinced that the lingering side-effects of Zoloft justify taking it through the less severe episodes. My side-effects now remain a significant drop in sexual desire and what seems to be a slight drop in sexual pleasure (ejaculation / orgasm are less intense). I have read that a low sperm count is a side-effect, and that seems to be the case for me. I also fear that the apathy I associate with the Zoloft will linger in a mild form. However, I can't quite decide whether I'm merely relieved and therefore relaxing a bit after this intense and exhausting episode, or if I'm feeling kind of "flat," which my doctor and some of the people here report as an effect of using Zoloft or other anti-depressants to help deal with the illness.

I have been on lithium, for chronic insomnia, which is similar to zoloft, for a year and a half, and now i have been off it since january 2006 and all the weight i have gained hasnt come off yet. i am 5'6 and my weight before meds was 120lbs, with meds went up to 156lbs or so, i only lost 3 lbs, i am 153lbs now, which is very little. i also had a great metabolicm before, if i got a little bigger sometimes, i would just diet for 3 days and drop 5, or more lbs easily, now i cant drop 1 lbs in months. how do you get to lose the weight after your metabolism slows down from the meds??? e mail me

I have been on Zoloft for 6 months for panic disorder. I started on 50 went up to 100 then 75 now I'm back to 50, because I keep getting "weird feelings" The doctor I was originally on too low of a dose, then maybe too high. The weird feeling is that uneasyness/worried that I am going schizo. Could the medicine be causing this? It is just like a nagging that will be in my head every once in a while. I am terrified that I will start to hear voices or hallucinate. Is this irrational? Is it just part of anxiety? I went to a psychiatrist and he is the one that lowered my dose (orinally I was just recieving advice from my gynocologist) and also put me on trazodone at night. I am VERY sensitive to medication. And only take 25-50mg of trazodone. along with my 50mg of zoloft, i take both at night. I know that Zoloft is not for everyone but just want to know if it could be causing me to feel crazy

I have been on Zoloft for a week, and it has not helped at all. I cannot keep my legs still. I am constantly waking up in the middle of the night, and every morning, I feel like I have to vomit. I have little to no appetite. I was put on Zoloft for anxiety, and from what I'm reading, it's mainly for depression. It makes anxiety worse. I am getting married in June. I cannot gain weight!!!!!!!! I am stopping now. Tonight: no Zoloft pill. I will not take it. I can do this on my own. I have my fiance and I have God. I do not need Zoloft. I feel better already just knowing that I'm about to be drug free. I mean, all I did was google Zoloft and all of these negative testimonies came up. I'm afraid to keep taking it. I'm done.

i have been on zoloft for 8 years i have stopped taking them for 4 weeks know the side affects are so bad i am so moody aswell i just yell at my kids and so moody at work does this stop or do i need to take a stress vitman please help

I HAVE BEEN TAKING ZOLOFT FOR ABOUT 1 MONTH NOW AND IT HAS REALLY HELPED ME WITH MY PANIC ATTACKS AND SLEEPING. I AM ALSO TAKING IT FOR MY OCD(OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER), SO I GUESS WE WILL SEE HOW IT GOES. BUT I USED TO WAKE UP EVERY HOUR BEFORE TAKING IT, NOW I SLEEP THROUGH THE WHOLE NIGHT BEFORE WAKING FOR WORK. I AM ON 50MG.

I was wondering if i should stop taking zoloft after reading all these posts, i to have had the side effects like severe headaches, heart rate and bloodpressure jumps, i also get shortness of breath sometimes like im sighing all the time, wierd stuff, ive only been on 50 mg for about 2 weeks but im not liking it

I have been on zoloft for almost two years... I got off of it before after 4 months, but my depression and anxiety come back. After about a month, my anxiety got worse, so they increased my dose to 100. I have just been taken off of it again. My doctor told me to take 50 for a week then stop. I wanted to stop cause I felt tired all the time like I could sleep all day and I could not focus. Well, the past couple of days after being off of it, I have felt irritable, dizzy, and have had crying spells. I did not feel like this before when I was taken off of it. I don't know if it was because I was on for a longer period of time or a higher dose.

I started on 50 mg. of Zoloft while in the middle of getting back into shape. I kept losing weight by exercising and eating healthy foods until I reached my ideal weight for my height. I did have a few panicky side effects the first week but they went away. It helps my mood and people say they notice I'm not as easily aggravated now. I stayed at the 50 mg. dose even though my doc suggested 100 mgs. Zoloft does what I wanted it to and I can't say I have any weird thoughts or negative comments about it at all after getting used to it. I think maybe the people that don't have positive experiences are more likely to type about it on the internet.

I am currently on 12.5mg of Zoloft and this is day 3. I will most likely not go any higher, only lower. I can already totally feel it, the numbed out feeling I've experienced before with Paxil but slightly different.I don't like taking anything- that's been my battle as an artist and these pills definitely flat-line emotion/decrease empathy. Granted, sometimes life can dish out more than a mind/body can process so before I can save up enough money to go on a meditative pilgrammage I have to function somehow. Here is my point:
PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE HOW STRONG THIS SHIT IS...TRY TAKING THE SMALLEST DOSE POSSIBLE UNLESS YOU'RE IN A DEPRESSIVE/ANXIETY RIDDEN STUPOR! GO TO FUCKING PSYCHOTHERAPY, NOT JUST TO GET MORE MEDS BUT TO REALLY WORK ON YOUR SHIT BECAUSE A PILL CAN'T FIX YOU OR THE WORLD AND GOD HELP US WHEN EVERYBODY HAS BECOME AN APATHETIC, LAZY, PILL-POPPING GREEDY ASSHOLE! (I know I'm not out of the woods yet)

Been on Zoloft for about 3 weeks now. Initially I was put on 100 mg and that made me extremely nauseous and shaky, also couldnt sleep. I started cutting them in half and it did lessen all the side effects but now i keep getting headaches and my blood pressure is unexplainably high when it was fine a month ago before starting this. ofcourse the doctor tells me "just keep taking it". Unreal they could care less how you actually FEEL, they just want you to take it and shut up, if it kills you OOOPPPSSS!

yes my wife has been on zoloft for about 9mos about 2wks ago she attacked me in our living room for asking my daughter to leave (her step)my wife has never been a violet person as long as i have know her until that night.she had stopped taking about 2 wks before because of the weight gain.

My Doctor put me on Zoloft for post partum depression after the birth of my son. I was only on the medication for a few months before I started packing on the pounds. I have gained over 30 lbs on that stuff! I asked my doctor over and over if he thought it was a side effect of the meds, ((I believe it was, I have never gained weight so rapidly) He insisted it was not a side effect. After doing some online research, I fould forum after forum with people having the same problem. I have weaned myself off the drug, but I believe it will take me twice as long to lose all this extra weight I have packed on. I wish my Doctor would have been more educated on the negative side effects of these meds, before handing over an RX

I am on Zoloft. Sometimes I feel ok but other times i still feel really depressed amd like the medication isnt helping. What should i do?