I’m coming up to the three-week mark of being on Sertraline (which I think is known as Zoloft in the US) and thought I would share how things are going. I wanted to share this as I was feeling apprehensive when I was first prescribed it, and I went online looking for other people’s experiences and oddly didn’t find an awful lot, and the stuff I did find seemed to be from people who had terrible experiences.

For me, it’s been fine. I wanted to share this because I want the perspective for myself but also if anyone else is looking for information like I was, maybe this could help.

I’ve been feeling quite anxious and depressed for about 18 months to 2 years, and I tried (and still do) a load of things to try and help like journalling, yoga videos on YouTube, going for walks, meditating, making sure I get enough sleep, and doing relaxing stuff like reading, colouring, puzzle books, listening to podcasts, having a bath etc. All of this helps me cope I think, but I didn’t really seem to be getting better. The worst part - outwardly speaking - was feeling teary all the time to the point where I would start crying in the car park at work and not be able to stop and, well, no-one can work like that.

So my GP gave me a month’s prescription for 50mg of Sertraline and I’m now three weeks in. My GP told me that I could feel worse before I feel better as the tablets take time to properly take effect, and that common side effects are getting headaches and feeling nauseous, although these tend to go away after a couple of days.

You can take these tablets at any time of day but you’re supposed to try and be consistent, so I thought I’d aim for 7:30 each morning, where I’d have less chance of forgetting.

I had a week off work when I started taking them (not part of the plan, just when my time off happened to be) which is lucky as I don’t think I got any headaches but I did get… let’s say… stomach problems two hours after taking the first tablet, and this lasted the rest of the morning. I had the same… issue… the next morning although not quite so bad, and I think things got back to normal steadily after that. It’s hard to gauge in a way as the anxiety can mess with my stomach anyway but it seemed to be back to the way things usually are after that third day.

I think I did feel a little nauseous for about a week but nothing major. It mostly seemed like I had a bit of an aversion to the smell and taste of coffee (I usually have 2 cups a day), so I found myself drinking less coffee, which was probably a good thing because I also found that drinking a cup sent my energy levels skyrocketing that first week!

I had a little bit of a dry mouth but nothing too annoying, if anything it probably prompted me to drink more without having to think about it. I also think I felt a little less hungry this week maybe, but again I could probably benefit from eating better so I don’t think this was a bad thing for me.

But wow, they say that it’s supposed to take several weeks to take effect so I think this was a combination of a week off work plus placebo effect, but I felt better from that first day! I felt like I had energy to get things done. I was on top of housework. I needed to get my hair cut and making the appointment was fine, and I didn’t stress about leaving the house to get there on time. And I managed a little small talk while I was there.

I spent my time off doing relaxing things and for the first time in ages I actually felt that I benefitted from them. I finished that week off feeling like I actually did have a week off work, something that I hadn’t felt in months and months.

Week two and week three have been tougher as I’ve been back at work. All of the side effects seem to have disappeared at this stage, and coffee’s effects seem to have returned to normal. I feel as though I have more energy though, so I’ve cut down to just one cup a day now because why not.

I do feel as though I can think a little more optomistically now though, I’m not bursting into tears over small things, and not feeling as though everything has gone terribly wrong all the time. I still feel stress at work, I still get to Friday evening and feel wiped out and ready for my weekend, and I did have one morning where I had a few tears in the car before work but I recovered before I headed in so even that was a big improvement. This feels like ‘normal’ levels of stress to me?

I know these things can take four to six weeks to really start taking effect. I’m sure a lot of my experience here has been down to having a nice week off and probably some placebo effect but honestly, I’m glad I started on the tablets. I don’t think I’d be feeling awywhere like I do know if I hadn’t. I think I’d still be ‘muddling through’ but still living under that cloud. I am pretty hopeful that this might actually be the way forward.