Most antidepressants take up to six weeks to build up enough in the system to start working. Have you considered Effexor or Pristiq? They are “sister” antidepressants that are geared for treating anxiety along with depression. I have taken both and they do help. Please keep in mind that no one responds the same way to any medication. Also keep in mind that any medications can help somewhat with symptoms, but cannot correct the disordered thought patterns we develop in life. That’s up to us to correct.

Please see a psychiatrist for all of these medication changes. They are medical doctors who all they do is anxiety and depression medications.

Did either the Paxil or Lexapro work for you, before they "pooped out"? You could have just needed a slight dose increase.

Zoloft is generally a good drug, but everyone is different. And if the Paxil or Lexapro was helping you at one time, I would talk to the psychiatrist about that.

It is hard to find a medication that helps. If I found one that kind of helped and I was functioning okay, then I would work with that medication, possibly just a dose increase.

You may also need to take a benzodiazepine, which is a fast acting anxiety reducer. Ativan, Xanax, Valium, Klonopin. However, these are addictive, so best to not get started on those, if you can manage okay on just an SSRI medication.

Medication, in conjunction with therapy, are very helpful in combatting anxiety.

My story about Zoloft: a visit with my GP led to him taking over prescribing my psych meds. I was on Zoloft. I kept questioning whether Zoloft was causing my weight gain. So he took me off of Zoloft and put me on Wellbutrin. I didn't even think to make sure that Wellbutrin was for OCD as well as depression. Wellbutrin made me cry over everything, a cute baby, a problem with my cat. Not only that, but my OCD was sneaking up on me. So my GP ordered Abilify too. I hated Abilify! My OCD got so bad that I had to go out on disability for 6 weeks. Turns out part of my problem was my thyroid medicine, which causes me to have symptoms of MS when I lose weight. Before I went out on disability, I saw a psychiatrist who prescribed several different meds. When I returned to work, I couldn't speak right. I tried scheduling depositions and I could hardly say the word. Eventually, I got demoted. I was never the same. I lost my job. Got a new job. I was still seeing my psychiatrist until we had an insurance change. I ended up with a nurse practitioner. Right away, she took me off of Zoloft and put me on Luvox. Big mistake. I nearly had a nervous breakdown and begged to be put on Zoloft again. The nurse has made other mistakes but she is the one who suggested that I go on permanent disability and got the ball rolling. Sorry so long.

I’ve ran the gambit of antidepressants and side effects. There are some that cause weight gain. But then again, each medication affects everybody differently. I’ve had seizures, hallucinations, weight gain, something akin to manic episodes, just to name a few. A combo of Zoloft and Buspar led to hyper excitement, but I’m taking Buspar now with Pristiq and no problems there. It’s really a hit or miss trying to find the right med and/or combo. The thing is that our symptoms can get better and worse when taking meds. It’s not so much the meds don’t work as it is our symptoms get worse because we aren’t working along with the meds. A good example is while on Pristiq, my depression was pretty severe, then I started therapy again, educated myself thru research about anxiety, started meditation and learned other tools for anxiety and my depression along with my anxiety improved without any medication change. I’m now in recovery mode, have been able to lower my Pristiq and Buspar to half of what I normally took with no problem. I’ve been able to maintain my progress and still continue to recover. Meds cannot change the thought process, internal fears that need to be addressed, etc, etc, The real change has to come from within ourselves, by confronting the fears, thoughts, etc. That’s when lasting recovery can occur.

One of the biggest things with zoloft is to only do tiny increases in dosage and to keep hydrated consistently.

Medicine trials need to be journaled daily and all details written down so a combined effort can be made to reset the dosage of medicine and the effects can be compared.

Best wishes as you find the better balance.

I am currently taking klonopin .5 mg 3 to 4 times a day. My biggest thing right now is constant shaking. Also it's like my balance is off from the Anxiety. I tried to ride a scooter the other day and couldn't even stay on. I was so tense the whole time. Sometimes when I walk down my steps my legs feel so shaky. When I was on the Paxil and lexapro they both worked great but pooped out at the max dosage. When I took those I felt so good and had no bad thoughts at all. Lexapro stopped in December and tried to add lunesta. That didn't work either. I tried effector and that made it worse. Worst part is I feel like I am running out of options.

Hi Evnflow123. First, is your handle a Pearl Jam reference by any chance? I'm a Gen X'er who graduated high school right as PJ was taking off with their Ten album so their "Evenflow" song is the first thing that popped into my head when I read your handle. The second, as a father of two, was the baby bottle stuff. (Ok, sorry. I just had to get that out of the way) :)

My view on meds is that everyone needs to trust their own instinct on how they think their meds are or are not working well. YOU are the patient, so YOUR OPINION MATTERS MOST. It's a learning process for everyone, but their are tons of resources out there to help you get better at understanding yourself and how your meds are affecting you. Self-awareness is so important.

For example, if you haven't already, you can do a search (I use Duck Duck Go because they don't track everything I do) for "zoloft + anxiety + rapid heart beat + constant panic" and it will bring up lots of stuff from people who have posed the same question. You can read through lots of posts from others who have had similar experiences and you'll be surprised how much you can learn in a short period of time. It may even help reveal a possible interaction with another med you're already taking. I've done this over the years and I've learned so much more about myself in the process.

It pains me so greatly to read far too many questions from people who are just trying a new med and somehow woke up at 3 a.m. on their neighbor's lawn (a real example I read) . That's an extreme example, of course, but you'd be amazed how many people will have experiences on those lines and yet still ask "should I keep taking this?" If you don't know already, if you wake up on your neighbor's lawn the first week you're trying a new med, at the very least you should probably talk to your doctor immediately about that. If they tell you to just keep taking it for a few more weeks, maybe you should question that opinion and seek another doctor's opinion. Don't ever be afraid to do that.

Nobody knows you better than you. Your doctor is a highly trained professional, but they don't see and feel what you experience like you do. Do not be afraid to tell your doctors EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL! And if you don't think they're hearing what you're trying to tell them, say it again, and again, and again, until they do hear you loud and clear. Or seek another opinion until you feel someone is hearing what you're trying to tell them. YOU ARE THAT IMPORTANT! DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT! EVER!

It's very helpful to think of our mental health conditions like keys on a piano and the meds are fingers that work by pressing down on different keys trying to find just the right tone. When one, or more often a combination of them, hits just the right tone, we'll know it and we'll start to feel really stable again. But some meds just don't hit the right "keys", per se, and so the result is messy sounding - it might improve something a little, but it's hitting too many of the wrong keys and those are like the bad side effects. I mention this analogy because it's been so helpful to my understanding of how different meds work, or don't work, with my condition.

All of this difficult at first, but I promise you that the more you work at it, the better you will become, and then the better your treatment will become. Self-awareness is key. And if you're a high anxiety person, you're probably very self-conscious like I am (I'm bipolar 1 with LOTS of anxiety). Well If you're self-conscious, guess what? You're also very self-aware already so you already know you better than you think you know you.

Look, I'm not a doctor of any kind, and I'm not pretending to be. But I am a person like you with a serious mental condition that needs serious medication and treatment to manage it properly. These meds are supposed to provide a good measure of stability for us. I think if you ask yourself "is this making me more stable?" you can trust the answer you come up with.

As always, feel free to disregard anything I've said here. I'm a HIGHLY opinionated person and I feel so much empathy for people like us who face so many challenges finding the right treatments so we can get our lives back on track again. I often come across as too over-bearing or pushy with my opinions and that's not my intention at all. But I also have a lot of experience with this stuff, so I want to help others know what I've learned so maybe more of us don't have to spend so many years searching for just the right treatment to make them whole again.

I want to apologize for the above post. As I re-read it this morning, I realized I am really overstepping my bounds. I am currently in a hypomanic phase and, though it's a very nice one, I have a ton of energy and am wayyyyy to expressive like I always get when I'm really up like this. The never ending typing is a dead give away.

So again, please accept my apology for all that. I'm actually starting an in-person bipolar support group in my area and this is valuable lesson for me to dial it back more so I don't do more harm than good.

I hope I didn't offend anyone too much.

OOPS! I need to retract that last post above. I meant that for another thread. I do apologize for going on and on up there though. I am anything but succinct.

Male or Female? If Male, and Chemical Castration is appealing to you... by all means, continue ingesting Zoloft.
If Female... You won't miss your testicles much

Thanks Oysterbay for the confidence boost. Jeez

Evnflow123 -- I caution all men taking Zoloft, as I did for a year. It completely killed my sex drive, which made me feel even more emasculated, inadequate, and depressed than I already did. So heads up on that if you're male. But maybe it won't affect you that way. As for myself, I then switched to Wellbutrin, which didn't diminish my libido or cause other nasty side effects that Zoloft did. Unfortunately Wellbutrin likely caused me to faint and have a seizure. I haven't yet found meds that work well for me, and come with little or no negative side effects. But I do wish you well.