Zoloft Experiences, Please Share

[DutchDenHaag]

Hello Everyone ,

I sense my experience with anxiety is common to many people. My ‘first meeting’ with anxiety came during a major transition period, taking from familiar surroundings to isolation, and stressful self -imposed ‘targets’ ( uni). I experienced severe panic attacks for a final year of study, disbelieving that ‘it was happening to me’, it went untreated.

Things got better after that, but after such a prolonged period of stress, things never were quite... well, normal. And, 25 years later I don’t have great deal to complain about, there have been up and downs.

The panic attacks subsided though were never resolved and I avoid the worst trigger points completely. My general anxiety levels correlate directly with the stress that I allow in my life, and it’s kind of being this continuous ‘intimate relationship’ that I have to balance.

I’ve tried many things, actually almost everything you could contrive, to free myself from this ‘compromise with anxiety’. I’d never tried anti-depressants, until today.

Nothing particularly bad happened lately. Yes my anxiety has been high lately, but it’s been higher before and I usually hit back with my moderators ( exercise to exhaustion, avoidance, withdrawal !). I just wanted to try something that might help, so after 6 months of research I returned to the doctor and agreed on this new course of treatment.

I’ve had 2 courses of 12 sessions of CBT in the past and they helped, but didn’t resolve the anxiety.

I’m interested in people’s experience with SSRI’s. Particularly with people that have long term history of anxiety that finally decided on this option.

Thanks for reading my post and I wish you a safe journey, regardless of the road you are travelling

Dutchie

[designguy]

Hello Dutchie, I had chronic anxiety disorder for years and initially started out on Prozac and then switched to Zoloft. My anxiety still persisted and I tried a number of therapies as well as the medication. I added Buspar and Klonopin, a benzo, which helped some. I was also diagnosed with cptsd and my anxiety still persisted. A few years ago I did a genetic psychopharmacology test, mine was from Genesight, which was very beneficial in determining which drugs were the best for me. It turned out that both Zoloft and Buspar were not effective for me. I tried one which was effective which is Pristiq and it really helped and I was able to discontinue the Klonopin. The test was paid for by my insurance and I definitely recommend getting one if you can. There are so many drugs and classes of drugs on the market that getting help narrowing it down specifically for you is really beneficial.