Hey guys! Can someone tell me about their experience with using Zoloft (sertraline)? Was it helpful and how long your Zoloft course had taken?

Haven't taken it, but have tried others in the same class. Everything works differently for everyone. For me at least, SSRIs and SNRIs are garbage. The side effects outweighed any possible benefit (though I felt like there was none). I'm now on Wellbutrin and it agrees very well with me. Again, something you have to work out for yourself. I am, however, aware of a couple medicines that have worked decently well for me in the past, which are classified as oddball antidepressants but are also approved to treat anxiety. One is buspirone (you probably heard of it), the other is Trintellix (pro: none of the nasty side effects of others. Cons: really expensive unless you have good prescription drug coverage.) But, there is also GoodRx if you need help paying for it and the company who manufactures it offers a discount as well. I'd still be on it if it hadn't made me tired the way it did, but that was seriously the only negative for me.

I’ve been on zoloft twice. Most recently since April. The last year has been pretty bad on the OCD front, and I’ve found that it’s helped me a lot. I’ve had some side effects, but they’ve been nominal.

Taken for 6 years until recent switching between zoloft/luvox. Very helpful but only as I increased the dose, which I regularly had to do. I had little to no side effects but I found it did not help much with severe agoraphobia/panic disorder. It did help the OCD somewhat, but I have found (and so has a friend of mine) that Luvox is truly a miracle. Also, coming off of it is horrible when you're at a high dose - it took about 1.5 years of lowering it for me to finally wean off.

I forgot to mention it is also considered to be very safe!

Basically any of the textbook side effects of SSRIs and SNRIs is what I dealt with, including more depression/suicidal ideation, more anxiety, a feeling of emotional numbness, and a lack of sexual desire paired with an ability to orgasm. If you don't feel well, the likelihood of those feelings improving over time is slim to none. Effexor, for example,made me very sick right away and continued to until I discontinued (with help from my doctor) use of the medication. Never stop taking anything cold turkey. Be honest with your doctor so they can develop the best plan possible for your care. If you don't like something or don't feel like it's helping, it's your prerogative to find an alternative. I stress this because I felt like I used to get bullied, so to speak, into trying medicines I wasn't comfortable with and then when I spoke up about the symptoms, I was sort of told to just wait it out or deal with it until something else can be done. That is in no way compassionate care and you deserve to be treated with the same level of respect and care as someone dealing with any other ailment, physical or mental, because really those are correlative and causative and for a doctor to ignore that in pursuit of their own interests is someone who doesn't need to be practicing medicine

Thank you for response! So, all of these drugs actually make you tired as a side effect except for Wellbutrin? Can you also please tell me what were your side effects during taking SSRI. I’m asking ‘cause it’s actually my friend is taking SSRI and she got so sleepy and tired after she started taking it. I’m just concerned about her state

Thank you all so much for such a great feedback, your experience and advice helped me a lot

I’ve tried sertraline specifically and it made me really snappy and just boosted my mood swings/ hormones to a whole new level. I had to stop. I just wasn’t myself. I was only on it for a month or so. But my symptoms showed up within a few days. It was like saltiness was just overflowing out of my body. Would not recommend unless you just want to use it to have the courage to tell people what you really think of them. Lol. All jokes. But seriously would not recommend