Feedback on Zoloft Side Effects and Usage, page 11

About Zoloft

If you use Zoloft, please help others by adding your feedback. What would you tell your best friend about this product? Please remember that we do not give medical advice. That is for your local health care provider, who is familiar with your medical history.

Subj: 10 years on Paxil
Date: 2/10/2007
I have been on Paxil for over ten years! For the last eight months I have been experiencing any number of symptoms that have me extremely worried. Pain in the liver area, feeling like I am in a fog, various bowel problems (including White stools) nervousness, weakness, palpitations and the list goes on. The psychiatrist just keeps playing with the dosages. I take it for OCD and I know they are afraid to help me get off of it after all of these years. I cannot find anyone who has been on it this long and I am concerned that damage is already done. What should I do??? Thank you,

Stan

AskDocWeb: To find out if there is any damage you might start with a liver function test and then have an EKG done to make sure your heart is healthy. Those are the two places we would look for any damage from long-term usage.

Subj: My focus is better
Date: 2/20/2007
I have been using Zoloft since December 2002. I started out on 50mg and am currently on 150mg. I think Zoloft helps me figure things out before these things escalate to an unhealthy situation. In other words, before Zoloft, I made some very bad choices and was very frustrated at my own behavior. My focus is better than it has ever been and I started online college classes two years ago at age 35. I take my dose at night before bedtime but change it up a little if I start to sleep in too late. I still have some depressed episodes but they are not as low or as long as before. Counseling is encouraged because if medicine fixed everything, there would be no therapists. Wouldn’t that be nice…

Tra

Subj: Zoloft side effects
Date: 3/1/2007
I’m taking zoloft 200mg for about 4 month (for treating GAD) and I feel lost, not myself, memory trouble, concentration trouble, feeling that things are unreal. Is this normal? Please write me back. thank you,

Réjean

AskDocWeb: No, that is not supposed to happen. Please report this to your doctor and consult with him about changing to another medication.

Subj: Zoloft causes Hairloss
Date: 3/8/2007
I definitely think that Zoloft causes Hairloss in people who are genetically prone i.e. they have to have the genetics for it to happen but Taking Zoloft may trigger it to happen much earlier and faster. I started taking Zoloft for depression at age 26 and have been on and off it ever since and now I am 33 with majorly thinning hair, I used to have VERY thick coarse hair. It started to come out nearly in clumps about 3 months after taking Zoloft and seems to have triggered my female pattern thinning which is on my Mother side i.e. twin brother, uncle, and grandfather but my mother who is 63 with thick hair still has never taken zoloft.

My hair used to be like hers (i.e. I had her hair not my fathers hair both have thick hair and in their 60’s). I know sometimes the negatives of NOT taking zoloft outweigh the positives of not taking it. But especially for women, permanent hair loss of the trigger to AGA (genetic thinning) is a serious issue and can cause emotional stress and depression. We are all judged on our looks and women that may have started slight thinning in late 30s 40s or 50s are starting to thin in late teens or 20’s if they take Zoloft and are genetically prone to AGA. I just warn people to think seriously about whether they need to take Zoloft or can the depression be managed in another way, like eating right, exercise, new hobbies etc. If it major sometimes there is no choice, I am still on it 50mg per day as I get too irritable and down with out it but want to get off it. The sad part is I think the hair loss is permanent and will keep going as its triggered the pattern thinning.

Jane

Subj: Weaning off sucks
Date: 3/14/2007
I have been taking Zoloft for about a year now, starting w/50mg and working up to 100mg which is what I took for about 10 months. I have been taking it for anxiety/depression and it did help with both. However, it has made me extremely tired, not motivated, and my sex drive has totally disappeared. I have started weaning off, and I am currently on 75mg. Weaning off SUCKS. I felt like a had a horrible flu (headache, nausea, NO energy). I basically stayed in bed all weekend and missed a couple days of work because of it. But it is best to do it gradually no cold turkey. Not a big fan of the drug, would have tried something else if I knew how hard it was to get off.

Becky

Subj: Zoloft for Trauma and anxiety
Date: 3/14/2007
I took Zoloft for Trauma and anxiety but started at only 12.5 mg (half of a 25mg) I had minor side effects, tremors and feeling dehydrated, but it helped my anxiety A LOT! I think it probably saved my marriage. My doctor wanted me to try 25mg so I did for a couple weeks and it killed my libido and made me feel dopey so I went back down to 12.5mg. I have taken it for a year and a half and now feel ready to stop. I have to wonder about these doctors who prescribe 200 mg’s when 12.5 worked great for me. I find that scary. It did what I needed and I feel like I really don’t need it now, but after reading this, I’m definitely going to work with my doctor to ease off of it. I also had been put on another antidepressant years ago and it made me have a nervous breakdown. Thinking back, it was probably too high of a dose. Some doctors are real quacks.

Jo Ann

Subj: Zoloft – 10 years later
Date: 3/14/2007
I just want to comment on this drug, like the rest of you here. In 1995, I was diagnosed with Chronic Depression, which was treated with fluxuating doses of Zoloft – depending on my current mood/ stresses, and a combination of one on one therapy. By the time I was 18 (three years later), I was weaned off Zoloft and therapy. It helped me a lot then, and though my doses were changed often – up and down, down and up – I don’t recall any major side effects.

Now, I’m 28 – ten years later. I have a beautiful three, almost four year old daughter and the sweetest, kindest, most supportive and loving husband/ daddy any woman could ask for. I have a great job. We have a gorgeous new home. My family lives in my neighborhood and I am very close to them as well as my husband’s, whose mother just moved to our town from almost five states away. Knowing my symptoms of depression from the past, I recognize them again now; although, there is no reason or happening in my life to have triggered my apparent depression. I’ve been ignoring it for months, believing I have just been moody, then I started to hurt myself – NOT GOOD! Zoloft worked for me when I was a teenager, although I wasn’t sexually active then, I’m hoping it will work for me again, and I worry about this decreased or no libido side effect as I have a truly amazing sex life. Again, nothing, no one, not unhappiness etc., has caused this. I know I have a brain chemical imbalance, and all I know is I want it fixed so I can be back to normal.

I hate worrying all the time about things that haven’t even happened – borrowing trouble. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing myself as truly hideous when I know I’m not, and actually quite attractive, but it doesn’t make a difference, what I see is what I see and that comes down to self-esteem. I’m tired all the time and don’t even have the energy to play with my little girl – who I’m scared to death is going to hate me or feel unloved. I cry. I ache. I’m late everywhere I go. If Zoloft has helped me before, it’s certainly worth a try to see if it will help me again, hopefully for not as long this time around – hopefully only a few months as I am strong enough this time around to have stepped up to do something about it before it gets out of control. Today is my second day back on Zoloft, I am very cold and have been since last night. Side effect?

J.T.

AskDocWeb: No, Zoloft wouldn’t make you feel cold but there are other conditions might do that, such as;

  • Anorexia Nervosa
  • Autoimmune thyroid diseases
  • Common cold
  • Depression
  • Fever
  • Flu
  • Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Infection
  • Iron deficiency anemia
  • Lupus – cold sensitivity in fingers
  • Menopause
  • Migraine
  • Perimenopause
  • Raynaud’s phenomenon
  • Scleroderma
  • Seasonal affective disorder
  • Thyroid disorders

Subj: Zoloft wonder drug
Date: 3/20/2007
I have had anxiety and depression problems for years. Zoloft has been a wonder drug for me. I take 200mg. a day. I also take 25mg of hydrox yz pam as needed. Besides gaining a few lbs. I have had NO complaints.

Tkay

Subj: Hoping for pregnancy
Date: 3/21/2007
Am hoping to fall pregnant, any problems taking zoloft, and also combined with iron tablets, I gain weight, really tired and depressed if do not take zoloft, I am in my early 40’s.

Marisha

Subj: Zoloft hair loss
Date: 3/25/2007
I have taken Zoloft at two different times in my life. While it helped me tremendously with my anxiety and depression, I can say for certain that I experienced hair loss. After being on 100mg for two months I noticed strands of hair were everywhere. Not just on my brush but, in my car, on my clothes, and on my furniture. At that time it never occurred to me that the Zoloft could be causing this as, no one had reported hair loss as a side effect. I was feeling better so I stopped taking the Zoloft. I also stopped loosing my hair. I just thought that the hair loss was caused by stress from a divorce. About four months ago I became depressed again. I went back on the Zoloft Started feelings good after about three weeks and now, hair loss again. I don’t know guys. I just don’t think that it is worth it. I am so very surprised that this is not listed as a side effect as I just read about anti-depressants and hair loss in a magazine. If you are already experiencing depression, the last thing that you need to add to that are bald patches on your scalp.

Judi

Subj: Withdrawal symptoms?
Date: 4/3/2007
My severely ADHD 8-year old son began taking Zoloft (generic) 3 weeks ago after trying to take his life. This morning, he missed his dose (not his fault), and this evening he began suffering severe chills, even in a warm bath. It looked like he was experiencing some sort of withdrawal symptoms. Is there any known correlation between chills and missing a dose of Zoloft?

Rob

AskDocWeb: We haven’t heard of chills resulting from missing just one zoloft pill. Read more feedback. Zoloft Report – 9 – 10 – Page 11 – 12 – 13 – Last Page 36

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