Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My primary care physician put me on Setraline (Zoloft), an SSRI, in early January after a serious bout of health anxiety.
Thankfully, taking the medicine has been life-changing.
Anxiety runs on my dad's side of the family, and my oldest sister suffers from it from time to time.
As a youth, I recall becoming overly anxious a week or two in advance of the first day of class -- sometimes to the point of tears. I had trouble coping with uncertainty and always feared screwing up/making mistakes -- whether it was bombing a presentation at school/work or getting lost driving to a remote area.
In recent years, several events have triggered anxiety:
- My old car hydroplaning in the rain a couple of times, which nearly led to accidents (thus prompting me to buy a new car)
- The stress of searching for/buying a property (two deals fell through and it took about 15 months to close on our condo)
- Witnessing the deaths of a childhood friend (he died of a heart attack at 30 and also happened to be my sister's husband's brother), my aunt's husband (who I considered an uncle growing up), my grandmother, and my father-in-law
- Having to rush my wife to the emergency room -- she had so many gallstones that her gallbladder nearly ruptured
- Health issues of my own -- thankfully, none are serious, but I had a tendency to fear the worst
- Feeling insecure in my marriage and sex life
- My wife and I have been trying to start a family, and I harbored fears that having a kid would ruin our relationship (and my life)
It wasn't until the Zoloft started to kick in that I realized I'd likely been depressed as well. Take a gander at my posting history here and you'll find threads in which I'm constantly reminiscing about my college years and the time I met my wife. I know that harping on the past is never a good sign.
I no longer feel as edgy, fearful, or gloomy as I once was. I am more confident in myself, thinking positively and staying in the moment.
When my doctor asked me about two weeks ago how the Zoloft was going, I reported the good news. He says he recommends I continue to take it indefinitely, as weaning myself off might cause a relapse. I'm happy to keep taking what I now call my "chill pill."
It really makes me wonder whether my anxiety has prevented me from achieving more success -- both personal and professional -- up until now. Too late to worry about that, I know, but the good thing is that I'm only 35 and the future sure looks brighter today than it did last year.
Have you taken Zoloft or any other anti-depressant? If so, to treat what? And how did it go for you?
Yes. Depression is prevalent in my family; the only member who didn't seem to suffer from it was my mother. Everyone else (grandparent, father, all siblings) to varying degrees. Not sure which medications worked for everyone. A couple never tried anything to manage it, they just stayed miserable year after year. The family situation wasn't difficult;, no tragedies (well, one, but it happened fairly late in our history), divorces, substance abuse, financial or other behavioral abuse, nothing.
After some trial and error starting off with diet, exercise, different meds in my 30s, I settled on Zoloft (in addition to counseling) for a number of years and it did help me quite a bit. It didn't create a uniformly happy person, it didn't create an uncaring zombie, it took the worst edges off. It created an emotional buffer zone within which I could do the other necessary work.
I am obviously a lot older than you are OP, so have a different perspective. After retiring from a stressful career I decided to try life without it. By that time, and with a major anxiety producer removed, it has gone OK. A lot of it is because I now know myself and my thought patterns well enough to detect signs of trouble early, sit down with myself and put a stop to it.
I don't berate myself about succumbing to depression, but it certainly would have been nicer not to. I don't feel guilty or like some weak, lesser human being because I took a medication (but it took time to get to that point. Who likes the realization that they aren't a superhero that doesn't need any assistance?). I do suspect I would have been a lot less productive/successful if I hadn't. Time spent buried in your own misery is time you don't get back. So, looking back on all those working years I get some satisfaction from doing what it took to persevere. I also could have refused the cancer chemotherapy I had in my mid thirties and just died young instead of taking advantage of what modern medicine could offer and sticking around for a few more decades.
I consider anti-depressants tools. They have their place in a multi-pronged approach to managing life with depression. Any single one doesn't work for everyone, but that should be understandable. If all depressed humans were built on an assembly line maybe. We aren't. A drug on its own can't solve the entire issue. You have to learn and understand yourself, not expect a chemical to make everything hunky dory.
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-25-2020 at 05:10 PM..
This is a difficult topic. I've been mostly on some sort of anti-depressant since I was your age or a little younger, which is 15 years. I'm not on Zoloft, but tried it among the many. It didn't do anything for me as I recall. I ended up getting a dna test a couple of years ago that matched me to a good one. BUT I don't want to be on it forever and you shouldn't either. Now I sort of feel stuck since depression runs in my family and I've been clinically depressed probably since around age 14, maybe younger. Whats hard to separate is whether its been mostly situational or hereditary. I only recall being truly happy (or mostly) from around age 28-34 or 35. The rest of the time it was always career or relationship/personal problems that led me to depression.
As Parnassia said, they are tools and I don't think most people should be on them forever, but we're a pretty unhappy society. I don't know what the solution is. For me, I think it would be having a family of my own, but I'm not certain. You need to decide for you if this is going to be temporary or permanent with the help of a therapist and also a Psychiatrist, since therapists can't prescribe them.
Some like to believe they can never be completely free of depression, they are wrong.
Its nothing new, the answer has been with us for thousands of yrs.
But it doesn't come in a pill.
Some like to believe they can never be completely free of depression, they are wrong.
Its nothing new, the answer has been with us for thousands of yrs.
But it doesn't come in a pill.
Maybe not for some...but yes, pills can be a welcome answer. Like others, I come from a very depression-prone family (both sides), that and bipolar. My dad's brother shot himself, my dad was bipolar as were his two identical twin sisters. My dad made numerous suicide attempts before getting electroshock therapy and eventually on lithium. One of his cousins killed himself when he was somewhat older. My mom also had major depression and at least one suicide attempt - her father had killed himself.
So, when I was a teenager and really depressed...and later when I was kinda suicidal...I finally figured it out! Therapy was not a big help for me...but with so many issues and suicides on both sides of my family it seemed there were some pretty obvious biochemical problems and maybe I should see a psychiatrist. After trying several, I landed on Wellbutrin and have been doing okay. I would never consider it a "happy pill" as some derisively call it - because I'm still not what I'd call happy - but I can get out of bed...hold a good job...be in a relationship.
I'm not thinking every day that I'll try to get off this horrible medicine that I'm "dependent" on - I wouldn't stop taking my thyroid hormones and I won't stop taking my antidepressant either.
I've been on Prozac (fluoextine) Zoloft (setraline) and Lexapro (escitalopram). The only ones that was complete rubbish was the last one. Prozac was the most effective but it made me very inhibited (almost exarcebated the inappropriate speech in autism).
It also drove me to suicide attempts.
The interesting thing about anti-depressants as I've heard reiterated on other internet forums is that they're not "happy pills". They give you a motivation but that can lead to something positive or negative. That's why it can increase suicide risk. Depressed people typically don't have enough energy to even complete suicide so taking something like Prozac can still keep the depression there but give someone the energy to act on negative thoughts.
This is a difficult topic. I've been mostly on some sort of anti-depressant since I was your age or a little younger, which is 15 years. I'm not on Zoloft, but tried it among the many. It didn't do anything for me as I recall. I ended up getting a dna test a couple of years ago that matched me to a good one. BUT I don't want to be on it forever and you shouldn't either. Now I sort of feel stuck since depression runs in my family and I've been clinically depressed probably since around age 14, maybe younger. Whats hard to separate is whether its been mostly situational or hereditary. I only recall being truly happy (or mostly) from around age 28-34 or 35. The rest of the time it was always career or relationship/personal problems that led me to depression.
As Parnassia said, they are tools and I don't think most people should be on them forever, but we're a pretty unhappy society. I don't know what the solution is. For me, I think it would be having a family of my own, but I'm not certain. You need to decide for you if this is going to be temporary or permanent with the help of a therapist and also a Psychiatrist, since therapists can't prescribe them.
I think that is a good point about doing the GeneSight that checks your DNA. Medications work differently for each person and some people have good luck on the first try and lots of people have terrible luck with multiple medications. My mom has told me she has had horrible luck and I have only tried 3... get night sweats with all I have tried. I am on a very low dose of Effexor now and it seems to work ok, but I still get really hot (probably made worse by the GERD foam wedge I use). Prozac caused stomach issues, drenching night sweats, and insomnia, and amitriptyline, which I used for migraines, caused my base heart rate to increase by about 15 beats per minute.
My issue is more anxiety like the OP’s, and I get into the anxiety/headache loop cycle, where I get anxious and then get tension/migraine headaches. It is very frustrating. I have TMJ too and when I get really anxious, the whole left side of my head/jaw hurts. I suffered from health anxiety pretty badly starting in late 2018. I think it was some sort of hormonal issue related to birth control and going off of it, but it was really bad. That has mostly ended, but the other anxiety issues still happen related to work and other issues.
I tried Prozac back in the early 90's when it hit the market. Did NOTHING...so got off it. Went for 10 ugly years with anti depressants, and many doctors as I believed it was THYROID and no one believed me but believed their lab numbers. It was thyroid as on D.O. helped me in 2002...the long depression LIFTED and never to return. When a lowness started to hit me in 2006, found it was Vit D deficiency.
Thyroid desiccated support and Vit D has saved me from the toxic drugs.
I think that is a good point about doing the GeneSight that checks your DNA. Medications work differently for each person and some people have good luck on the first try and lots of people have terrible luck with multiple medications. My mom has told me she has had horrible luck and I have only tried 3... get night sweats with all I have tried. I am on a very low dose of Effexor now and it seems to work ok, but I still get really hot (probably made worse by the GERD foam wedge I use). Prozac caused stomach issues, drenching night sweats, and insomnia, and amitriptyline, which I used for migraines, caused my base heart rate to increase by about 15 beats per minute.
My issue is more anxiety like the OP’s, and I get into the anxiety/headache loop cycle, where I get anxious and then get tension/migraine headaches. It is very frustrating. I have TMJ too and when I get really anxious, the whole left side of my head/jaw hurts. I suffered from health anxiety pretty badly starting in late 2018. I think it was some sort of hormonal issue related to birth control and going off of it, but it was really bad. That has mostly ended, but the other anxiety issues still happen related to work and other issues.
Look into working with Inositol for your ongoing anxiety. There are many calming supplements for this issue.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
