Zoloft Question

Ok, my dear, sweet sisters.

I did it. Took my first zoloft today, or rather 1/2 of one. This is supposed to help with pain and the resulting depression. The depression/stress/pain seemed to be feeding on each other. So here I am.

I'm on 25mg for 8 days and then 50 mg for a few weeks and then I see my on the 30th to chat about how its going. I am so nauseated, especially at the site of food. My question is, does this pass and what is the typical time frame? I had nausea for months at a time in other situations and lived to tell about it. So, I know I can make it. Just would like a light at the end of this particular tunnel. I don't see me upping to 50 mg next week if the nausea continues this bad at 25mg.

So, shoot straight. Wanna know what I'm in for so I can look forward to something better.

Thanks, as always, for your kindness and support.

s

Dear Michelle,

I haven't taken Zoloft but have taken Elavil... and it took a few weeks for my body to adjust to the 10mg dose... mostly I was extremely tired. I tried to up the dose to 20mg and the tiredness never went away... I did that for about 3 weeks before going back to the 10mg and staying there. It helped me sleep which I was having trouble with due to the pain.... and it helped with some bladder symptoms I was having but it didn't seem to do anything for the pain... maybe because I couldn't take a high enough dose.

I hope you are able to give it a good try to see if it will work. Hopefully the nausea will subside...



Sarah

I took zoloft and it made me nauseuous for the first 2 weeks, then it tapered off. I had to start with 25mg and work up to 50mg. My Mom takes 25 and that's all she can handle. Some people are able to tolerate more.

When it made me nauseous I took it at night and ate a little something with it.

You can also ask your doctor for some phenergan (I have 25 mg tablets that I cut into 1/4). That helps ease the side effects until your body adjusts to it...at least it helped me. The phenergan makes me sleepy though.

Okay...to answer your question...I felt better after 2 weeks, and then took it for 5 years.

Hope you feel better soon,

Rita

Rita & Sarah:

Thanks for the replies.

Rita:

2 weeks isn't bad at all. I can do that. So do you remember if you increased to the 50mg during that 2 weeks or was it later on?

I had decided to take the zoloft in the morning to hopefully avoid insomnia. I need my sleep. Maybe I should rethink that. Hmmmm.

I had nausea with both Celexa and Lexapro, and it hit hours after taking the med. I found eating helped if I could make myself do it. It lasted just a few days.

I have taken Zoloft also. I also took it at night. The worst side effect I had from it is it made me very tired and sleepy for the first 2-3 weeks. I was fortunate and didn't have the nausea. I started at 25 and went to 50 after a week.

I went to 50 mg after the first 2 weeks...as soon as the nausea wore off a little. I felt it again for another day or two, but it was fine after that. I found that later (maybe a year or more) when I tried to bump it up to 75mg. I was extremely nauseous and didn't want to deal with that anymore, so I stayed with 50mg, which worked fine for me and I don't think I really needed an increase from there anyways.

It helped me to take it at night because then the worst of the nausea was during the night, when I was sleeping anyways. It didn't interupt my sleep, but it can do that for some people. My Mom said it makes her tired, so she'd rather take it at night. I didn't notice it making me tired or keeping me awake.

My goodness...I do tend to babble too much! lol

HTH,

Rita

I take 100mg at night. I found that for me, I had problems sleeping if I took it in the morning. I will admit that I had no nausea from taking it and was up to 100mg in just a few weeks.

As far as Elavil goes, it took 8-12 weeks for the drowsiness to wear off after I got up to 75 mg (25mg 3X daily). After that I slept great at night and was full of energy the next day. If you take increases at night it might help you to assimalate the increased doses without interfering with your daily activities. If it works for you, do not stop. I did and when I tried to go back on it, it no longer worked for me. To bad as nothing has worked as well since.

General rule is a minimum of 2 years on anti-depressants before you start to come off of them. You want your body to have stabilized to the new "baseline". If a med works for you, but not quite enough, talk to your doctor about increasing the dosage. New studies say this is the way to go instead of changing meds. Also it is best to consult with a mental health professional to have such meds managed. It is their specialty.

Thanks for all the helpful info! I will take it all into consideration.

I woke up this morning nauseated, so I am not sure that taking it at night really will help me. If the nausea decreased after 7-8 hours, then I'd think, hmmm perhaps I should try to sleep through the nausea.

I did not sleep well last night - about like I do if I drink 2 or 3 glasses of wine in the evening.

In fact, yesterday, I felt like I had 1-2 glasses of wine in me ALL DAY LONG. I hope that wears off too.

I really had to convince myself to take that 2nd (1/2) pill this morning. Hopefully, I just need to give it some time. Its such a tiny little pill to pack such a punch!

Thanks for listening!!!!!!!!!

s

Hi Michelle

I don't have any experience with Zoloft or any drugs like it, but I just wanted to send you a GREAT BIG
I hope you start feeling better soon.
Shelley