increased dose side effects

[Rilo7268]

i recently went from 25mg zoloft to 50mg. this is day 3. im having increased anxiety and feel like my old physical symptoms are coming back and im panicking all over again. i was doing pretty good at the 25mg aside from waking up at night with anxiety and having trouble falling back asleep. i know going up in dosage can cause side effects. dr said she didnt expect id have any. do i wait it out? anyone know how long it will take to feel better? i was at 25mg for 8 weeks.

[Danky88]

Yes, wait it out if you can. It's normal for this to happen when upping dosage. 50 mg is also a pretty small dose. I'm on 100 and am thinking about going up on my next doc visit. It has definitely helped my anxiety get like 80% better, but I'm hoping a small increase in dosage might help the other 20%. Good luck!

[Rilo7268 in reply to Danky88]

its hard to feel like im starting over again. im going to try to push through. thanks for the response.

[Danky88 in reply to Rilo7268]

If it really becomes too much you can always try something else. Best thing you can do is talk to your doctor if you don't think things are working out. I know it sucks to feel like your anxiety is coming back, but you have to believe that it is only temporary.

[Rilo7268 in reply to Danky88]

im trying. i was using the dare method tonight - just accepting the physical symptoms. of course its the weekend so dr is closed. i didnt notice increased anxiety when i started initially because it was so high anyway. thanks for the support.

[Danky88 in reply to Rilo7268]

Youre welcome. I had increased anxiety for the first day or two after starting at 50 mgs, and then again after bumping up to 100 a week later. Both times it went away after a couple days. I know for some people it can last a week or two though. That's the crappy thing about these meds--everyone reacts differently. Something that helped me get through the extra anxiety was cleaning my house. My house got as clean as its been it years those days I was extra anxious, haha. Anyways, it worked for me, so I thought I'd pass it along. I hope you feel better!

[valentin77]

Same with me.I was on 25mg for a while and no problem.

Then 50 mg. and after a few days I felt like hell,like all my worst symptoms had returned 100%. I felt nothing would work for me and I'm not going to get better as even with 50mg I was the worst ever.i took 50mg every day.

After about 3 days of hell the whole trauma started to quickly fade,I felt much better,a day or two later I felt fine,back to 'normal' however then almost immediately I felt much much much better.50mg I was almost cured.

But I know,for me,with Zoloft,that if I up the dose its best to do it slowly bit by bit because it will re activate all my traumas for a period.Horrific.But I also know if I keep with it,I have felt HUGELY better.

[Rilo7268 in reply to valentin77]

i am feeling better today thankfully. getting more sleep probably helped.

[designguy]

I've been on 200mg of zoloft for many years and am in the process of tapering off. I'm currently down to 150mg. With anxiety disorder, any change you make to your dosage is going to continue to be anxiety producing. It's because you are so sensitized to any changes and you are focusing so much on it and then you start obsessing about it and continue the anxiety loop. Learn to accept that this is just part of the adjustment process, that it is temporary and you will be ok. Surrender to it as well as to the anxious thoughts and feelings, which is the key to recovery.

In my own journey to recovery, I mistaken believed that the meds would stop my anxiety, they didn't. What they did was slow the ruminating down and allow me to start feeling better. When I started educating myself about anxiety and learned to surrender, accept and even welcome the anxious thoughts and feelings is when I started my recovery. When you understand and truly accept that anxiety is a paradox, the more you resist the more it persists, you will start to see and experience the key to recovery.

[Rilo7268 in reply to designguy]

ive been trying to accept the anxiety. so far so good. its a process. thank you.

[designguy in reply to Rilo7268]

Hi Rilo, good for you. It sounds like an awful idea but when I started looking forward to the anxiety and encouraging it to bring it on, I started overcoming my fear and resistance to it. I also realized that anxiety is a habit, which means It can be broken like any other habit. It takes time and diligence and patience with yourself but it works.