I started taking Zoloft last Tuesday for anxiety and I feel that it is making me even more anxious.... Has anyone else ever felt like this and if so how long does it last? I am driving myself crazy thinking about all the side effects. I had a terrible panic attack at work today were it was like I could not focus and my chest, arms and back felt like they were burning.....Lovely!! Has anyone ever had that happen to them with a panic attack?? Any thoughts would make me feel a lot better! Thanks! :)

I'm not a professional. But here are some thoughts.

Given that you just started last Tuesday, it's probably just your body getting used to the medication. I remember each time I bumped up the dose, it seemed to really affect my body -- I felt like I had the flu. Then after a few days my body would get used to it and I would feel (relatively) better.

My experience, for what it's worth... I took Zoloft for my anxiety for about 6 months. In the beginning I drove myself crazy about the side effects, so been there, done that. I was pretty much beside myself about what was going on. My psychiatrist told me that Zoloft is pretty stimulating... which makes me question it for anxiety, because we all know how stimulating anxiety can be! But it did seem to take the edge off of mine.

Anyway, he had me titrate up to 50 mg (took two weeks to get there) and I felt like I was walking around on speed, I was shaking and trembling. So we went back down to 25mg and that seemed to work fine. I then titrated down to half a 25 mg pill for awhile and that worked really well too. Another psychiatrist told me that she had a patient who was doing quite well on 12.5 mg of Zoloft. So keep that in mind... not everyone has to be on the same dosage for this stuff to work.


Good luck.

CarrieLynn