[lissa71]

Hi, I'm new here and excited to find a forum where I can talk about mental health stuff. I'm writing this post because I've been on Zoloft for two weeks and am not sure how I feel about it. In some ways it has helped me, but it's also had some weird side effects. Below is my experience with it so far (Warning: this may be long lol):

25 mg: I started out with 25mg a night for the first 3 days. Soon after taking my first dose, I had this weird feeling that I needed to laugh. I wasn't thinking of anything funny, but still felt a strange urge to. I tried to go to sleep, but soon realized that wasn't going to happen. I felt like I needed to do something active, so I tried to do some yoga. However, I weirdly got bored from it only 5 minutes in and stopped (and this very rarely happens).

Beyond the hyperactivity, I also had a couple other weird side effects that night. I started shivering and my heart seemed to be pounding in my chest. Despite this, I eventually managed to get to sleep, and the first 3 days on Zoloft were very nice. I felt a lot better than I had before starting the Zoloft, and was happy that it seemed to be working.

50 mg: I upped my dose to 50mg on the fourth day, as I was instructed to do by my doctor. I was a bit reluctant to do this since the 25mg seemed to be working well, but decided to try it anyway. Since then I've had mixed feelings about the Zoloft. Some days I'm happy with how it's working, but other days I'm not. In terms of positive side effects, it's helped a lot with my anxiety and stops me from letting negative emotions get to me as much. But I've also had some negative effects, which I'll outline below:

Sleep: My sleep has been very weird on Zoloft. Sometimes I'll feel drowsy on it, which has helped me go to bed early some nights. But other times it seems to prevent me from going to sleep. I've started taking Zoloft in the morning as opposed to before bed, but it still affects my sleep. Last night I couldn't fall asleep until 6am, and the night before that I kept waking up during the night.

What's more, I also have started seeing hallucinations when I wake up. Once I woke up and saw a pillow floating next to my bed, which needless to say was very odd. Another time I heard what sounded like music. These hallucinations did go away very quickly, but they still make me wonder whether I may be at risk of having a psychotic break.

Emotions: The other thing that really worries me is how Zoloft is affecting my emotional state. Sometimes it seems to help me to feel more positive, but other times I just feel numb. For example, today I basically feel like a zombie. I want to cry due to certain things that are happening in my life, but am unable to. I also feel like I can't get excited about much of anything. While it's a relief that my negative emotions aren't as powerful, I'm not liking this empty feeling I have.

So basically I'm not sure what I think of Zoloft so far. I'm told it takes 4-6 weeks to reach its full therapeutic effect, so I feel I should continue taking it for now. But I guess I'm just curious about what other people think about it. If anyone has had similar effects, did they get better? Thanks in advance for your responses!

[emijec]

it doesn't take 4-6 weeks to kick in in terms of how it will make you feel. I think it's different for everyone. I experienced the same sleep patterns as you but I had trazodone to help me sleep. I'm not sure a it the halluconations but I often wonder if it's vivid dreaming and you just wake up and there's an overlap of consciousness and unconsciousness there. but I only experienced that with celexa not Zoloft.

I had severe jaw clenching and apparently that didn't happen to many people. Zoloft can make you feel zombiefied, but I guess that can be good or bad. it was good for me because I would much rather feel nothing then feel negative all the time. I was tired of the invasive thoughts, the obsessive thoughts, the feeling up one minute and down the next.

I think all these drugs do is just numb you. it's like dimming the lights.

[Skeezyks]

Hello lissa71: I see this is your first post here on PC... so... welcome to PsychCentral... from the Skeezyks! May you find the time you spend here to be of benefit. I seem to recall having been on Zoloft for a short time some years ago. I don't really recall anything about it in particular. If it were me, & I were having the experiences you describe, I would be talking with my prescribing physician. Good luck!

[Nike007]

Hello. The first few nights I had night sweats. I also had extreme fatigue because of Zoloft. I wanted to pass out in the day. I took it originally in the morning, but switched to night because of fatigue side effects. It didn't go away. I also had mental foginess which was weird.

Thought that's what I experienced, I would probably tell your doctor about side effects and see what they think. Maybe waiting a bit will be fine and these are initial side effects, who knows, but some of these side effects seem unusual to me. Hope you find the dose and medication you need .

Social anxiety disorder, GAD, OCD, and panic attacks

Lexapro, 10 mg

[Pikku Myy]

I was on Zoloft for over 7 years it worked well for me. I do recall having really bad side effects for the first month or so, but then it leveled out. Good luck