Zoloft is not helping me, I feel hopeless

[may775]

I was on celexa for about 11 years and I went back into my depression and anxiety filled days. I saw the psychiatrist and she prescribed me zoloft. I started gradually increasing my dosage of zoloft until I reached 100 mgs about 2 weeks ago. It has been a TERRIBLE month and I do not see any improvement, if not a worsened symptoms. Could this be that zoloft is not as helping me? When I wake up in the morning my life is literally a living hell! What is the cause of this suffering? Could it be the zoloft? I also have been prescribed Ativan and it does not help much, when I initially take it I also feel worse. I am really struggling and need hope and help.

[remar]

They say it can take up to six weeks for these meds to start working. You're pretty close to six weeks and doing worse. This med may not be the right one for you. Maybe you should give your Dr a call to say that you are not doing well and actually feel worse. There are several other meds to choose from.

[cj29]

Whenever I was switched between SSRIs, I did notice some side effects for a couple of weeks.  They took about a month or so to subside, however, we all react differently to medications.

Does your psychiatrist actually sit down and discuss your anxiety with you?  I only ask this because, for me, my psychiatrist prescribed me the medication while I went to see a psychologist to talk about the anxiety and how to confront it.  I also believe that we can become very distraught when our anxiety 'returns' after a period of relative calm, but even though it is extremely frustrating, you have the knowledge that you previously gained the last time you went through this and that is very powerful in my opinion.  

Keep your head up and be proud that you are choosing to confront this.  It takes a lot of courage to do so.  I know it is hard to do, but don't get down on yourself during the bad days--we all have them---you WILL get better.  

[missymovigil]

I have a question and being fairly new to this site am not sure where to start posts. I have had multiple diagnoses within the last three years. The first one was for depression at which I started taking fluoxetine 20mg. I did fine for over and decided to stop taking them. Everything was going good till my grandmother passed away and I went to say goodbye and saw her dead body. Instantly after that I started having problems while I was at work. I would start getting dizzy, nervous, shaky, and would hear a loud buzzing noise like those buzzing light fixtures. My heart would feel like it was trying to break out of my chest. Obviously I was then diagnosed with anxiety disorder. However, within time I started to have extreme fears of death.. not so much about myself but worries about my kids and my loved ones. I think this is some sort of post traumatic stress disorder but the doctors still have not looked into that even after I've asked them if it is possible. The weird part is I rarely have these issues when I'm not at work. I love my job and they have done everything to stand by me through this but I have been strongly relying on fmla and short term but will no longer have if I return to work from the paid time off they have provided me. I do not take meds for the anxiety and do not wish to as I am breastfeeding. I was doing fine for most of the time I have been off of work until I recently got a call about possibly returning after seeing one of their doctors and all of a sudden I'm getting attacks almost daily. I started to fall asleep tonight when I started to feel like I was falling and then all of a sudden my teeth started chattering uncontrollably, which is new. I'm not afraid of work but I'm afraid of being unable to leave if I need to...  afraid of having to choose to leave or be fired. I hear about anxieties about all sorts of different things...  is there one associated with working like I've described... btw this is the only job I've really cared about or felt lucky to have.