Posted by John k on July 17, 2001, at 11:07:02
I have been using Zoloft for more than two years, without disabling side-effects. I _have_ had the "normal" side-effects: sexual dysfunction, fatigue, etc but it has been a small price to pay compared to the great help it has been with my depression.
However, a half year ago I started to withdraw the Zoloft (the only medication I took) since I believed I could make it on "natural" methods (exercise, meditation, light therapy). That back-fired after one medication-free month and I got acutely depressed, and so I started taking Zoloft again. Over one month I increased the dose back to the previous 175 mg per day, which worked better and better for a few weeks.
Then, in the beginning of May, I got some sort of cold and was feeling ill in the way one normally feels when having a cold. And after a few days the coughing and wheezing disappeared and I didn't have any fever. But I still felt awfully bad. And it just got worse. I was so fatigued that I couldn't do anything (I wasn't clinically depressed though) and I felt awfully restless and had a feeling of enormous pressure in my chest. I also had headaches and nausea.
Naturally I turned to a doctor who took it seriously and performed all kinds of tests. All were normal except for a slightly low cortisol. And I was told there was nothing pathological going on even though I felt the worst (physically) I ever had. No one had any explanations to give me and I have continued feeling worse during the last two months to the point where I was thinking more seriously about suicide than I ever had while being depressed years ago.
And now, finally, it has struck me that all the symptoms I have are listed as possible side-effects of Zoloft in the PDR. So my question is,
Is it possible to develop completely disabling side-effects from an SSRI (specifically Zoloft) after some time of therapy, when one has tolerated the medicine just fine before? Aren't the side-effects supposed to come first, followed by the primary effect kicking in? And if my problems are side-effects, what can I take instead of Zoloft? I need higher serotonin levels (I have tried noradrenergic and dopaminergic ADs and they had awful effects on me) but shouldn't the other SSRIs give the same problems? Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for any input!John
poster:John k
thread:70468
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010714/msgs/70468.html