switching meds

[cardfan1]

hey gang.
i guess first off i just want to vent a little... it's like my mind and feelings will tease me just enough some days to make me think i might be getting better, then BAM!, i feel like crap again. i'm so sick of it. it's getting to the point where i don't even want to try to feel better because i'm just gonna be down in the dumps again the next day. and i'm tired of dragging others down as well. It was nice to have loved ones to talk to at first, but I am really starting to feel like that my depression is always an underlying topic. I'm tired of seeing those around me suffer. they try to help and they can't. I used to be an easy-going pleasant guy that made people laugh. Now I have to try so hard just to be me again, but i don't want to fake it. i really want to make them smile again. i'm just tired of it and i'm scared to think of how long this is going to go on. okay, done with the rant for a minute.

Anyway, the real question i have is I am switching medications to zoloft. Anybody have any experience? I first took it yesterday and it gave me a couple side effects - nausea, just felt a little wierd. does it really get better?

your thoughts are always appreciated. God bless!

in Christ...

 

[cyberlizard]

steve again - zoloft aka sertraline. A commonly used SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor).

Do not switch meds quickly. Almost all meds used in psychiatry require cross-tapering, i.e. we reduce the dose of one whilst increasing the dose of the other.

One rule of thumb is that an SSRI requires around six weeks to reach steady state levels sufficient for others to notice an quality improvement and really up to 12 weeks for a global improvement that you yourself you notice.

email me and I will send you some assessment tools to help you monitor you mood and symptoms.

Steve

 

[AWorkInProgress]

hey gang.
i guess first off i just want to vent a little... it's like my mind and feelings will tease me just enough some days to make me think i might be getting better, then BAM!, i feel like crap again. i'm so sick of it. it's getting to the point where i don't even want to try to feel better because i'm just gonna be down in the dumps again the next day. and i'm tired of dragging others down as well. It was nice to have loved ones to talk to at first, but I am really starting to feel like that my depression is always an underlying topic. I'm tired of seeing those around me suffer. they try to help and they can't. I used to be an easy-going pleasant guy that made people laugh. Now I have to try so hard just to be me again, but i don't want to fake it. i really want to make them smile again. i'm just tired of it and i'm scared to think of how long this is going to go on. okay, done with the rant for a minute.

Anyway, the real question i have is I am switching medications to zoloft. Anybody have any experience? I first took it yesterday and it gave me a couple side effects - nausea, just felt a little wierd. does it really get better?

your thoughts are always appreciated. God bless!

in Christ...

Hang in there bro. I know the feeling thou about feeling good then BAM.

Remember they love you and they are trying to do for you what you would do for them. Stay focus and don't give up, answers will come.

Medication, I have no experience so nothing to add there.

 

[GryffinSong]

I wish you luck with your new med.

I'm in a similar situation, in that I've been on two meds, but feeling spacy, or foggy, or something. I happened to run out of one of them a week or two ago, and after a few days figured I might as well just keep trying without it (but still on my other) and see what happens. I don't advocate simply quittings or changing meds without doctor's supervision, but so far I seem more aware/awake/alert. Balancing meds, and getting the correct ones, feel so frustrating sometimes.

Anyway, hugs, good luck, and I hope, Steve, that you won't mine me sending you an email for those assessment tools too.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

Do not switch meds quickly. Almost all meds used in psychiatry require cross-tapering, i.e. we reduce the dose of one whilst increasing the dose of the other.

The scary thing about that is that back when I was taking meds, ALL the doctors that I went to would switch me abruptly and not do what you just described. I ended up in the hospital one time because of that.

The last psychiatrist that I had was the only one who did take his time tapering my meds and he was the one that managed to get me completely off meds in 2005.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

By the way, Zoloft was one medication that I did feel good on, but I got taken off it after only being on it for 2-3 weeks because the doctor decided I didn't need it. My parents were pretty mad about that at the time.

I never had any nausea with it. I do think it increased my appetite.

 

[cyberlizard]

it beggars belief really what some doctors do. despite being highly qualified and obviosuly intelligent they do some bizarre things.

i find one thing that makes me laugh in my job is that every six months we get a new batch of SHO's (seniour house officers) (these are doctors that have not yet specialised), and every time, it is like doctor says to nurse. What do you think we should prescribe. every so often I lose the plot with them and tell them it is their job to know what to do... but we usually end up doing their jobs for them.

the funniest thing was a ward round with me (nurse), psychiatrist, two sho's and a patient. Psych says prescribe 1/4 mg of lorazepam. I say you can't do that. he says I can i am in charge. Again I say you can't and again he says I can. I was just about to argue the toss when I had an idea. I got up went to the clinic and came back with a 1mg tablet (lowest dose it comes in) and I say to him 'let's see you break it into four'. Half went under the chair and the rest got stuck under his thumbnail. The SHO's did not know what to say, and all the psychiatrist could say to the SHO's was 'let that be a lesson to you that we are not always right'.

to this day I have not let him live it down.

so just remember all psychiatrist are human. if they intimidate you, just imagine what they look like naked. Put's it all in perspective.


Steve