Hi Friends,
I had two panic attacks recently. Came out of nowhere. Have been stressed out about a friend who died with cancer and then others who have recently been diagnosed. I'll admit, I have a little cancerphobia.
Went to doctor and he put me on paxil. Couldn't take it.I have been on zoloft for approximately three weeks. 25 mg for anxiety. I take my meds at night therefore sleep well. During the day I am continuing to feel jittery and anxious. Around 3 or 4 in afternoon I start feeling much better. Is this normal? I also have very little appetite until late in afternoon. I have lost around 6 pounds which is OK. I talked with doctor after jitters continued and I went up to a whole dose of 50 mg. Bad idea . I was in a dream world all yesterday. It was very frightening. I guess it was the depersonalization that people are talking about. Are these symptoms normal?

Thanks so much
Donna

They were normal for me. I had those exact symptoms when starting Zoloft. Eventually your brain chemicals balance out and you do not notice it anymore. In fact you forget about it. I was on it for 2 years and then stopped. That was a bad idea because a few months later all my anxiety symptoms returned with such a force I felt like I couldn't breathe. Now they have me on Effexor because I was told once an SSRI is used for a long period of time it looses it's effectiveness.

Just work through these couple of days and the adjustment process. After a week or two tops you will not notice it anymore.

Good luck!

Thanks for your imput. You have made me feel much better. Hope all is going well for you.
D

completely normal symptoms =)

I agree, completly normal. My jitteriness and nervousness when I first got on Zoloft for my panic attacks was pretty high, so my doctor put me on Ativan (Lorazepam) 'as needed' for the first two weeks, which my dosage was upped to 50 mg. It made all the difference in the world, made my taking the meds a lot smoother, and after a few weeks I just stopped taking the Ativan and stayed on the Zoloft, no problem. After 6 months of being on it, I can tell you, it's really made a difference and brought me back to a normal thinking level, I feel like "myself" again (whatever that means :) and I really believe in this medication and its ability to help people. I speak from personal experience, don't be too scared and give it a try. Good luck to you.

Thanks Tim 007 and Springgoddess...

I see no occurence of depersonalization with zoloft, that in the passed I experienced with paxil

It has been very effective for anxiety in myself.

I did experience a sexual side effect :( (Not only do we have to deal with the nightmare that is anxiety, but now we get to deal with the most embarassing thing that could possibly happen to a man)that was reduced greatly upon lowering dosage :)