Feelings of disconnect continue

[Mongea]

Good morning,

I’m on 100 mg of Zoloft and Ativan three times a day (total of 1.25). Every morning I wake up it feels like I’m disconnected from myself. This feeling has now continued at times during the day.

I’m currently attending an intensive outpatient mood program at the Mayo Clinic. The therapists here say it’s still the anxiety, but as I increased my dose of Zoloft this week, the feelings have worsened. I’m left with trying to figure out if it’s the Ativan, Zoloft or anxiety. My concern is if I keep increasing the Zoloft, will this disconnect keep increasing?

Any similar experiences?

[Kkimm]

Hi Mongea

It is hard for me to understand what you mean by feeling disconnected. It does sound really horrible and I really feel for you. Are you able to explain it in a bit more depth?

I would say the nearest feeling I had to it was feeling unreal, light headed and possibly as if I was not quite there. This definitely was a result of anxiety in my case and I believe it was largely worse before I took any medication at all. I had an increase in the feeling I think for the first few days on medication but not after my increase of mediction. I would say I never had the feeling again at all after about 3 months into medication.

I have never taken Ativan which is a benzodiazepine not an antidepressant. I once or twice took Diazipam which is the same sort of drug which made me a little less anxious when trying to fly again for the first time. It also made me feel a bit strange.

I really hope you will start to feel better soon.

Kim

[Mongea in reply to Kkimm]

It’s especially bad in the morning. It’s a feeling of not really being here. Almost as if I don’t know who I am. It typically improves throughout the day and can be completely gone by the evening. The doctors keep saying it’s the anxiety but I didn’t feel this way prior to the meds.

[Jordanfrolic]

It’s the Zoloft I am 99% sure. It’s a side effect it happened to me I felt really weird I know exactly what your saying. I was on 200mg give it some time and it should go away. If you have been on the Zoloft for a while consider talking about changing the medication it might not be working for you. But if you did just start I can bet it’s the Zoloft. I felt that exact feeling and it is anxiety related for sure

[Mongea in reply to Jordanfrolic]

I’ve been on the Zoloft for about six and a half weeks. Just increased to 100 mg a week ago. So did you feel the disconnect was the anxiety or a side effect of the Zoloft? Did you only find relief at 200 mg?

[Hidden]

Yooooo this happened to me!!!!!! I’m on 25mg! Week 2

[Mongea in reply to Hidden]

Still feeling mornings of disconnect at 150 mg after 3.5 months.

[Hidden in reply to Mongea]

So question. Are your dreams crazy vivid? I feel like I get stuck replaying them or my head still feels crazy tired. That leads to more disconnect!

[Mongea in reply to Hidden]

The dreams have gotten better. They were pretty bad for awhile there. I definitely know the more I think about the disconnect, the worse it gets. I’m not a huge fan of the way I feel on the Zoloft... but I’m really not interested in changing meds at this point.

[Hidden in reply to Mongea]

That makes me feel better. I legit thought I was going nuts!

[Mongea in reply to Hidden]

You’re not going nuts! I participated in an outpatient clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN back in February. I learned that the disconnect feeling can be a way for your brain to protect you against the fight or flight hormones that you experience with anxiety. Best thing to do is let it come and float through it- don’t fight it. I also jump on the treadmill or do yoga to try to ground me during those moments. A cold ice cube in your hands, a shower, something to reconnect yourself.

[Hidden in reply to Mongea]

That’s the best advice ever! Thank you so much! As we discussed, I’m banned from google now hahaha but from the research I did, horrible things come up that have disassociating as a symptom!