any zoloft users?

[incognito]

im considering taking zoloft to control my anxiety. (more shit flyin around at the moment than a parliamentary meeting)

was wondering if any members here use this product? and have u found it beneficial? side-effects? i wantto take it as ive heard it doesnt zonk u out and i need to keep my head on straight to complete my tafework, and for upcoming court BS.

seems my head just churns with so many thoughts that i find it hard to focus on one thing, its always on a million at the same time. i tried cognitol, i found it only seemed to enhance my anxiety.

im hoping zoloft will only be a short stay, and i can get off it once my legal shit and tafe is over.

id really like to hear from other 'users' for lack of a better word.

[XipeTotec]

a friend of mine was on that. I was under the impression that it isnt prescribed much any more.

[Legba]

I was given zoloft a few month bacc. the dr said it would take a few weeks to start working but i had problems, headaches and such, after a few days. dr switched me to another ssri.... same shit happened. I wouldnt recommend tryin it j. it seems to be a hit and miss thing with these synthetics.

[ThunderIdeal]

my brother took it after quitting meth. it might not zonk you out but he didn't do shit while he was on it.

[Shroomeup]

Years back they prescribed it for me due to an anxiety disorder which I later found out was due to smoking weed. Ha, go figure.

But this stuff really fucked with my head. I felt like a bloody robot or somthing. No happiness no sadness pretty much emotionless. Plus the fact it was a struggle to blow your load. if you know what I mean. That was actually pretty fun for awhile untill it was near impossible.

I'd stay away from it if I was you. Maybe look into some natural alternatives. If its more anxiety attacks and not a constant problem maybe benzos could help?

I dont seem to get any anxiety at all these days after this one time I ate some funny looking mushrooms. Hmmm

[incognito]

ha thats interesting. i was almost hospitalised due to anxiety after eatingsome funny looking mushrooms not that long ago!

anyways iwill be speaking with my doc and outlining the fears that have been presented to me from people ive talked to that have been prescribed. especially wandjina god love her! thanks heaps guys.

[faustus]

i was on zoloft for about 3 years, for depression, generalised anxiety and social anxiety. i'm on aropax ATM, and unfortunately, expect to be on it for the rest of my life.

side effects (common to all SSRIs): it takes longer to come, gave me insomnia (though some people say it helps them sleep), loss of motivation (but not as bad as the loss of motivation you get from depression).

it takes 2 weeks to kick on, during which you may see your symptoms get worse.

i can only speak from my own experience, but i've often found the change in consciousness produced by SSRIs quite interesting. after you start taking them, you'll start to notice subtle changes in your thought patterns. subtle, but definitely there. the voice inside your head will become quieter, and you'll be less reactive to aversive events. eventually, over time, these thought patterns will predominate your consciousness, and the old style of thinking will seem foreign and unfamiliar. it's kinda fun, except as shroomeup said it makes you a bit robotic.

[Shroomeup]

and the old style of thinking will seem foreign and unfamiliar.

Yeah true I feel that way aswell. They may have helped in some way though im not sure. They pescribed me Paxil not long after just because I mentioned the mild anxiety. It just seems wrong how willingly they prescribe theses brain chemistry altering drugs these days for anxiety

I tryed the paxil for a few weeks but when I tryed to stop because it justdid'nt feel wright I would get what felt like brain pulpitations which scared the fuck outa me.

I did have some issues at the time but these doctors prescribing these drugs and there effects on me was making me feel like I had major problems which wasnt the case.

I say fuck antidepressents.

[wandjina]

It just seems wrong how willingly they prescribe theses brain chemistry altering drugs these days for anxiety

shit yeah, they're handing them out like tic tacs....it seems you're not even allowed a bad day anymore without being offered 'medicine'.

i can understand wanting to medicate some ppl with severe clinical depression or anxiety disorders, but many GPs are prescribing psychotropic meds for relatively minor complaints, or anxiety/sadness well within normal human range of experience.

ramon made a good point re 'downregulation' at AE...and the same can be said for any drug...getting off them may prove very difficult when your endogenous supplies have been 'supplemented' for prolonged periods.

and the same would seem to be true re serotonin....ssri withdrawal can be excrutiating, for me it was, and some of the side effects are scary shit

dizziness or light headedness

nausea and/or vomiting

headaches

lethargy

anxiety and/or agitation

tingling (paresthesias), numbness or "electric" shock-like sensations in the head or limbs

tremors

sweating

insomnia

irritability

vertigo (dizziness)

diarrhea

more here including

'anticholinergic rebound'

http://bipolar.about.com/cs/antidep/a/0207_ssridisc1.htm

[tobydoo]

It just seems wrong how willingly they prescribe theses brain chemistry altering drugs these days for anxiety

Don't even get me started on this..... & every other kid in the U.S. MUST be on ADD cocktails. Don't misunderstand me, there are places for these meds. in fact my daughter takes dexedrine for ADD ...HOWEVER, with absolutely no help from our physician, I began a little experiment with B vitamins, omega 3, diet & other natural suppliments and low and behold, in a matter of 1 month she is down to the lowest dose dexedrine (down from 15 to 5 mgs. every OTHER day instead of every day) and is doing far better than on the higher (daily) dose of dexedrine solo. I mean emotionally as well as scholastically, more well rounded.....shit, ya can't accomplish that with nutrition and balance.HELL NO! aaaarrrrggghh.....Doctors.

And you wanna talk about depression...? Anyone ever heard of Kanna or Sutherlandia? These are not simply some questionably potent etnobotanicals of dubious benefit. Are the drugs companies ever going to allow this little secret out? well, maybe if they can figure out a way to synthesize it, ruin the true nature of it and sell it for $10.00 a pill. Am I wrong? I could rant on this shit for hours.

[Guest Øskorei]

As stated below... have you tried Sceletium powder (snorted) for moments of anxiety ? It really does the trick for both myself and my partner when used on an 'as-required' basis. Also, think carefully before going on a pharm drug program, in some people it can create a sense of nothingness within, where you're no longer anxious/stressed/depressed, but you're also not happy & active. The term 'Zombiefied' comes to mind. Each person's reaction is different of course.....

There are also reports of otherwise highly sexually active males losing the ability to get a hard-on, even for months after stopping the dosage on drugs in this family. Not very cool at all for the male ego.

[planthelper]

jono, first of all those prescription ssri's all suck, and second a ssri is not realy the smoking gun for a anxiety problem.

i have tried effexor and citalopram, and both gave me realy bad side effects, and i could not reach climax either, did you know that for some people the inabilety to reach orgasm even stays after discontinuing those pills?

somehow those pills felt never pure or clean to me, why does citalopram give me a bad migrane and many of those already mentioned side effects, whilst sceletium powder never did any such thing. ssri's pills and even sceletium powder can trigger panic attacks and it has happend to me, and jono i seem to remeber that you are no stranger to panic attacks.

gaba can help with anxiety, but too high doses can even produce anxiety, some companies tell you 3g of gaba is a single dose, which is rediculous, because 0.5 g is already far too much for me personaly.

you could try 5-htp, it chills me out, and makes me far less anxious.

sceletium powder is a natural ssri and very good, but i find that sometimes it makes me anxious for a while, like straight after taking it.

my best trick would be for you to try smoking caapi, it chills me out within seconds!

but like with depression, i feel the cognitive aproach is the best, try to controll your enviroment, unwarppe all thos frightening thought patterns, into something no frightening, and learn to stopp a panic attack, right at the beginning, in my case, i fully bring myselfe into the here and right now, once i realise it starts to pull me into the tunnel. look at a bird sitting on a tree, have a close look at a stain in the kitchen which you promised youreselfe to clean up a long time ago, the more trivial the thing is you focus on the better! and look into all those controll your breathing tricks, breath in to the count of 4, hold the breat for 4, and breath out on the same count. i simply always make sure to breath out for longer than breathing in and holding the the breath a while in the betweens.

my guess is, that in a few years time, all the medical papers will report that ssri's where not as effective as made out, and that messing with those receptors, can make things worse. we know that if you stop ssri's you have to do it gradualy, because of the risk of serotonin syndrome, this i guess happens because taking ssri's for a prolonged periode will have increase the ammount of the uptake receptors, in short my pseudo sientific opinon says, don't take anything for long if it can change your brain chemistry.

edit: never mix ssri's with maoi's (caapi)

never mix ssri's with 5-htp,

or ssri's with st, johns wort (hypericum)

but maybe, if very carefull try a "puff" of caapi after a dose of 5-htp.

Edited April 11, 2008 by planthelper

[tobydoo]

The term 'Zombiefied' comes to mind. Each person's reaction is different of course.....

There are also reports of otherwise highly sexually active males losing the ability to get a hard-on, even for months after stopping the dosage on drugs in this family. Not very cool at all for the male ego.

Zombiefied!! Boy you hit that square on the nose!! Along time ago my Dr. Put me on some God awful anti depressant due to and accident/ trauma related depression I was having. 3 days later I called and asked him if he mis understood me and thought that I sais I was TOO happy. God, I had this horrible pall on my head, couldn't think straight, was more depressed than ever.....And I hear people tell me about these side effects all the time.

And the hard on thing....Right on again! Forget it with pharms!! Extremely frustrating if you're a person who happens to like sex. And talk about another thing to add to your depression! Kanna on the other hand has similar chemical properties / actions as viagra (wiki). Kanna is a beautiful anti depressant. But as with all things you must be careful about the other things that you're taking. B complexes/ Kanna (pill form Kanna) seem to be good with me. And also worth noting is that you should be careful with too high a dose with Kanna. Not more than 200 mgs/day for an anti depressant dose. Less is more with this plant.

Another thing that is really nice (Don't know if you can get it freely in your part of the world) when taken OCCASIONALLY is Phenibut, about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon. There is a slight addiction/ tolerance potential similar to benzos though so you need to give youself some 'off' time with it. I call phenibut the 'politeness drug' . Makes some people annoyingly chatty as well ! Take it, you'll see what I mean!!

[Guest Øskorei]

Kanna (pill form Kanna) seem to be good with me.

Right on with all you said eh! You should try Kanna in powder form, instead of pill. The anti-anxiety is pretty much immediate via insufflation dose. I would think that a pill form would take a while to kick in.

[tobydoo]

Yeah, I do get the powdered form from sceletium.com in Capetown. I just put it in 00 caps. It seems a little more subtle and long lasting and I don't tend to get that agitated feeling as much as up the nose. But hey, ya know, whatever works for a person! I just think Kanna is amazing in comparison to most raw ethnobotanicals in that you don't have to tincture it (you can) or extract it in some form to make it truly effective !

[tobydoo]

I'm currently awaiting an order of Sutherlandia from african botanical. Am anxious to see how that is combined with Kanna. Sutherlandia seems to be a pretty amazing plant as well.....Something about that S. African soil eh?