Hello Fancy. Welcome to DS. Positive reinforcement available. ^It^ will be okay. The ^It^ keeps changing but somehow ^it^ always works out.

My advice is to keep sharing the load here. With a bit of stabilizing support the answers are easier to find. It helps to know you are not alone with ^it^.

Welcome aboard. Listening. . .

Thank you - I just want to be "me" again!! I keep working so hard to get there and not having much success!! I love my life - -I just want to get back to feeling normal - not with bad anxiety again -- not with a drugged feeling again. I desperately need to know this is going to be okay!!

I had the same problem when I first started on anti depressants and anti anxiety meds. this was years ago when I was 16 i am 27 now. I felt like nothing would help because I would see a doctor tell my story (which in a way would produce anxiety stress and trauma) I would try one med and it would make me feel worse then I would try another and it would make me feel okay but super sluggish or weird side effects. i just couldn't find a happy medium. it is so hard to be patient and take the medications and see if they help but once I found the right combination of medication I started holding down jobs. I started leaving the house more. I even started going back to school to get my ged. I went to a mental health place and worked with a counselor and a prescribing doctor together in order to find the correct daily medications that help my depression anxiety and bipolar disorder. I know it is super hard right now but you got this!!

With zoloft, it's important to keep your hydration up regularly all day long.

The symptoms you describe mean the zoloft is working effectively and you need a bit more regular hydration to minimize those symptoms.

Best wishes as you find your better balance.

Thanks - that helps! I have gone to counseling since the anxiety started after I turned 40. I am now 59 - good grief!! The counseling has helped me to not overreact to the anxiety, but when it comes to the medicine side effects it is really hard to know what is anxiety and what is side effects and what is not an acceptable side effect! I sure wish it was simpler to find the right medicine that will work for me. I hope I find my correct medicine and dosage soon!

I'm no doctor, but from what you wrote it sounds like you do good on 50 mgs of Zoloft. Two different times you have been on 50 mgs of Zoloft and that seemed to work for you?

You could ask them if you could stay at the 50 mgs. You don't always *have* to increase doses on a medication if you are doing good on a certain dose that works for you. You can stay at 50 mgs Zoloft, if they think that is okay.

More is not always better... when it comes to medication doses.

You're going to be okay.

I know this is a bit crazy but does it help when you close one eye? Sometimes our vision is dominated by one eye that is associated with the opposite brain hemisphere. That hemisphere may have been damaged by trauma. Which means when you switch to the other eye (cover one eye) the untraumatised hemisphere presides and the anxiety is lessened. This is what I did when I had anxiety attacks. I covered my right eye and breathed deeply until I calmed down. Hope this is helpful

Slowly ease off on the medication. Sometimes side effects are worse than the cure. Practice meditation several times a day. Listen to music and avoid triggers at all cost. You will feel better but will require a lot of effort and will take time. Hope this advice helps.

I think you will just need to find the meds that work for you--I also had a hard time with anxiety while on zoloft--it worked on my depression and I felt better--but I was constantly chewing on the inside of my cheeks. Lexapro seems to work reallllly well, and yeah I went through the zombie stage--but it eventually went away (my body adapts to meds quickly)-- everyone seems to react differently to different meds...keep seeking!