# I'm afraid to take zoloft



## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

This has been the first time i have been perscribed a drug for my sa and i have a big fear that it will give me suicidal thoughts to the point where i actually kill myself. I have had suicidal thoughts before, but i was never even close to acting out those thoughts. Will it just be the same but more often? and should i be afraid?


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## Stevep27 (Nov 20, 2009)

I am afraid of that too. I don't like the feeling of not being in control of my thoughts


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

I took Zoloft for about 4 yeras at 200 Mgs a day. Prior to taking Zoloft I was activly suicidal, but after being on the drug I was not.

Why would you think an SSRI would make you suicidal?


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

hensley258 said:


> I took Zoloft for about 4 yeras at 200 Mgs a day. Prior to taking Zoloft I was activly suicidal, but after being on the drug I was not.
> 
> Why would you think an SSRI would make you suicidal?


 Because it said so in the side effects


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## CopadoMexicano (Aug 21, 2004)

all SSRIS have a black box warning and if youre already suicidal but dont act on your thoughts than theres nothing to worry really except the ocd.


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## XxArmyofOnexX (Aug 13, 2007)

What would you mean by "acting on your thoughts?"


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## albert3366 (Mar 22, 2010)

dont take drugs, and kill SA the old fashioned way like me


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

glueinmyshoe472 said:


> Because it said so in the side effects


Yea, these meds come with a warning about potential side effects, but that by no means is an indicator that you will get one, two or even any of the side effects. As far as Zoloft goes the one side effect that is almost universal with everyone that takes the drug is a change in sexual libido.

For men this usually presents itself in difficulty ejaculating and in Women difficulty reaching orgasm (or should I say it takes longer)

Now if a person is under 17 there is some evidence that SSRI's can cause them to feel more suicidal, but with adults it's very rare.

In fact so rare that of the hundreds of depressed people I have talked to that are or used to take Zoloft none ever said suicidal tendencys were caused by it.

Oh, it may make you a bit constipated though. (I used to hate that)
Zoloft (Sertraline) has been around for about 20 plus years. It is time tested safe. How much effectivness and relief you get from the drug is another thing. It may work great for you or it may just not work at all.

4 to 6 weeks before you will know anyway. Try not to worry yourself so much about it. It's a pretty mild SSRI and you should be fine. Don't let your anxiety alter your choice to try it.

If it makes you feel better, there are people on this forum that take meds which can cause instant death if they eat the wrong food.


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

XxArmyofOnexX said:


> What would you mean by "acting on your thoughts?"


 i mean since i have thought about killing myself acting out my thought would be actually killing myself


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

hensley258 said:


> Yea, these meds come with a warning about potential side effects, but that by no means is an indicator that you will get one, two or even any of the side effects. As far as Zoloft goes the one side effect that is almost universal with everyone that takes the drug is a change in sexual libido.
> 
> For men this usually presents itself in difficulty ejaculating and in Women difficulty reaching orgasm (or should I say it takes longer)
> 
> ...


 Instant death? woah... but thanks a bunch this really helped. and im seventeen so the fact that it may cause suicidal thoughts is still on my mind. i have not taken it yet


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

glueinmyshoe472 said:


> Instant death? woah... but thanks a bunch this really helped. and im seventeen so the fact that it may cause suicidal thoughts is still on my mind. i have not taken it yet


Oh so your pretty young I see. IMO my child would have to have some pretty chronic and severe depression before I would allow a doctor to prescribe an antidepressant before the age of 15.

At 17 and up your risk for becoming more suicidal is very rare. If it happens then call your doctor and simply taper off the medication.

Zoloft was my first antidepressant and I was 22 at the time. I started at 50 Mgs and ended at 150 Mgs a day as a set dosage. Zoloft is not normally very effective below the 100Mg mark, but some people that are sensitive to SSRI's find relief at 50 Mgs.

I'm just saying expect to have to increase the dosage in a couple months to get the most from the drug.

I was VERY suicidal at 22 prior to being put on Zoloft. It saved my life.
If you take it long term watch for signs that indicate the drug is starting to fail. Zoloft has a bad habbit of working great for 2 to 4 years and then pooping out. That's what happened to me.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

SSRIs tend to make people feel worse for the first few weeks, then switch to the opposite (antidepressant/antianxiety effects). You should remember when you start taking it that it's pretty common to feel bad for a while, but it's usually only temporary. I don't know exactly but I'm pretty sure this several week long phase is responsible for most of the reports of suicidal thoughts/actions on SSRIs.


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

Bingo! Pay attention to what Uphoria said. Many antidepressants will make you feel worse the first couple weeks you take them. That's why so many people start them and stop after a week complaining of this side effect and that symptom.

They never give the drug a chance to do it's thing. I've taken many AD's in my life and my rule is that I give 8 weeks to feel relief and benifit from the drug. If not in 8 weeks then either theirs a dosage problem or it's not the right drug for you.


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## a2f (Apr 17, 2010)

here's my experience with ssri meds

once upon a time i felt really messed up and anxious all the time. i used to have negative thoughts basically every minute of the day. couldn't control it. got so bad that eventually i started thinking about suicide in the same way, every single day. the very first ssri i tried was paxil and it was almost instantaneously that the thoughts of suicide stopped haunting me so dreadfully. maybe it took a day or something.

anyways, if you're always sad or have persistent thoughts of negativity, ssri meds are a great choice

they had the exact opposite effect of what you are afraid of, for me.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

You need to bring this worry to your doctor. The more they know, the better the match of prescription to you. 
I would go ahead and start taking the medication, and write down what you are feeling.

In my case, I was actually prescribed Lithium (believe it or not - it's like eating a battery :lol) in January, 2005 because my doctor originally thought that I was bipolar. The drug did nothing but make any OCD I had explode! I would check things ten times and still fear that I "accidentally" sent an email. That would be an extreme case. I got off the med after one week and told my doctor ASAP.


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## Jcq126 (Jan 11, 2010)

a2f said:


> here's my experience with ssri meds
> 
> once upon a time i felt really messed up and anxious all the time. i used to have negative thoughts basically every minute of the day. couldn't control it. got so bad that eventually i started thinking about suicide in the same way, every single day. the very first ssri i tried was paxil and it was almost instantaneously that the thoughts of suicide stopped haunting me so dreadfully. maybe it took a day or something.
> 
> ...


This, this and THIS. I was in this situation 2.5 months ago, I was so negative in my mind all the time and just couldn't change it, I tried positive thinking, I wrote affirmations around my apartment etc nothing helped for my entire life it was like this, I finally caved and got on an SSRI after starving because I couldn't afford my groceries anymore because I was too terrified to get a job. I've been on Celexa for 2.5 months and my life has completely changed, if you have tried all other options like meditation, positive thinking, therapy, natural remedies (5htp) etc don't be afraid to try an SSRI, on the internet everyone makes it into a scary thing but really for people with chemical imbalances it can change your life, it's like a diabetic taking insulin.

Try it and if it helps then awesome! and if not no biggie just try a different med, it's all trial and error. Best of luck friend!


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

Yeah so don't give up without giving it a full trial. And for some lucky people, they actually work in a matter of days.


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

*Thank you*

thanks a lot, to all of you. this really helped me, the fear of taking zoloft is going away. BUT i looked up people's reaction to smoking weed while on zoloft and some were really good and some were really bad. so i have decided that i wont take it until i get one more smoke in. which will probably be the first day of summer break which is saturday the 29th for me. i rarely smoke. maybe like one every two months or so, so i just want to get one more before i have a smokeless, drinkless summer.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

I love smoking weed on SSRIs. Once you're past 2-4 weeks in that is. Without being on an SSRI weed isn't very pleasant for me, too much anxiety.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

That FDA-mandated Black Box warning is a pile of BS. Suggestions that SSRIs *might* lead to suicidal ideation have been around since at least 1990, basically right after Prozac -- the first SSRI -- hit the market in 1988. It took the FDA about 15 years before they required that warning on all modern ADs. Their slug-on-sedatives speed of action might suggest they didn't really think it was a great risk to start with.

Many in the medical community have been highly critical of the Black Box warning thinking it does more harm than good. Depressed folks already have a tendency to kill themselves. Failing to give them an AD because of a black box warning may result in less treatment of depression and even more deaths via suicide, making the warning more deadly than the risk it warns of!


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## Edwin (Jun 19, 2008)

I've heard some stories of people losing it after taking SSRI's, but there's often something they have in common: they don't take it as prescribed. Start off slow, with a small dose, increment your way to the dosage your doctor prescribed you and don't miss a day; side-effects will be minimal and you'll feel better before you know it.


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## Magical Delusional (Apr 28, 2010)

I was concerned about this too before starting Zoloft/sertraline. I was pretty nervous about taking any SSRI or AD because of the supposed risk of suicide. I asked my doctor about it and she said that it's a bit difficult to pinpoint the reason for someone's suicide on their medication. For one thing, majority of people that are prescribed SSRI's are already depressed or whatever, so it's more than possible that the medication just didn't work. Also, the risk is very small. If it was a serious concern, your doctor wouldn't prescribe it. The chances of Zoloft making you feel better are much higher than the chances that it would increase suicidal thoughts. So take the medication as prescribed, call your doctor if you have any bad side effects (including more suicidal thoughts), and just hope for the best!


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

I wouldn't pay any attention to those Black Box warnings. There a bunch of BS anyway.


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## CopadoMexicano (Aug 21, 2004)

ya antidepressants can save a lot of lives as well kill you? nah i doubt it.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Magical Delusional said:


> I asked my doctor about it and she said that it's a bit difficult to pinpoint the reason for someone's suicide on their medication. For one thing, majority of people that are prescribed SSRI's are already depressed....


Exactly. Given the tendency of depressed people to die by suicide, it's basically impossible to know if a med played any role of not. After all, you can't easily ask somebody who's dead how that med worked out for them.


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## CopadoMexicano (Aug 21, 2004)

UltraShy said:


> Exactly. Given the tendency of depressed people to die by suicide, it's basically impossible to know if a med played any role of not. After all, you can't easily ask somebody who's dead how that med worked out for them.


 But since its an antidepressant shouldnt you expect the opposite? assuming one is already suicidal and gets on a SSRI?


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## Mr. SandMan (Aug 24, 2007)

^^^
Like he said. You can't ask the dead person.

Never really thought about that...


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

I think most of those cases are simple to explain. You have a person that is very severly depressed. He or she is put on (Prozac for example) and in a few days commits suicide.

Probably not the drugs fault IMO. People with depressive dissorders kill themselves everyday with and without taking meds.

These drugs take time to work and as we all know from experience not all of them do for each person. I know when my AD isn't working that I get suicidal. Not because of the drug, but because nothing is controling my depression.

I also remember long ago when SSRI's first hit the market and were all over the news. There were all these reports of people saying that they killed someone was because of that "drug" the doctors had him taking.

All just a cop out defense by a bunch of sleezy Lawers. Blame it on the antidepressant and get you client off the hook. These people would have killed anyway. "Prozac made me do it!"


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## mike8803 (Feb 21, 2010)

glue, you have OCD my friend, relax, take some OCD medication, not sure Zoloft is for OCD, these "thoughts" you have are OCD thoughts

Look into the drug...LUVOX.
Take care


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

hensley258 said:


> Probably not the drugs fault IMO. People with depressive dissorders kill themselves everyday with and without taking meds.


I think the rate of suicide is significantly higher than placebo in studies.


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

euphoria said:


> I think the rate of suicide is significantly higher than placebo in studies.


Do you hold all controled studies to be accurate? Thay are often flawed. You know it and I know it.

Controled studies also show ECT as being 75% effective. I think time has proven that study to be false by a long shot.

Placebo studies also showed very positive numbers for VNS when it was in trials. To this day only a reported 5% of VNS patients report lasting relief.
Most people that had it done have long since turned off the implant or had it removed completly, just leaving the wire in place that coils around the Vegus nerve. Hard to even find people still subjecting thenselves to VNS. In fact I don't even think it's still being done, due to lack of response.

Don't fall into every study you read as always being accurate.


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

mike8803 said:


> glue, you have OCD my friend, relax, take some OCD medication, not sure Zoloft is for OCD, these "thoughts" you have are OCD thoughts
> 
> Look into the drug...LUVOX.
> Take care


trust me i don't have ocd


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## mike8803 (Feb 21, 2010)

you do look at your thought pattern.
your the best judge though..


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

I had a person pin me as OCD before. Actually they called me obsessed because I like the sink to be free of dirty dishes.

Then I watched a show about people who suffer from real OCD. I feel bad for people that have it like that. Must not be easy.

I think this young lady that is worried about Zoloft is just afrade. A far cry from OCD. I remember my first antidepressant. It was Zoloft and I was pretty afrade at first too. Then I took it and said, "oh man this is nothing."

I was afrade it was going to freak me out or something. As if I was taking a hit of LSD. More like Tylonol.

That was before the internet was big and they had no forums like this to ask people. (Damn I feel old now)


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

The standard theory I hear regarding ADs and suicide typically goes like this: the AD gives the patient energy and motivation before it starts to improve their depression. So now instead of having someone who lays in bed all day thinking about death, you know have one who's thinking about death with the energy to get out of bed and actually put their suicide plan into effect.

My personal opinion on SSRIs (including Zoloft that I tried at 300 mg) is that they are quite harmless. The problem is that for me they're also totally useless. When adding in sexual side effects, they're worse than useless since taking nothing is an improvement over an SSRI.

Everything in life has some risk. It's just a matter of degree and I'd say Zoloft ranks exceptionally low on the risk scale. I personally don't think it's anything to fear, and I'm part of the small percentage of people who've used it at 300 mg so I actually know what it's like. To me dosage level didn't make any difference with Zoloft.

If you want to feel safer consider this: Before the introduction of SSRIs 22 years ago TCAs were the standard depression treatment. Problem: TCAs can produce fatal ODs and back in the day were a popular suicide drug. SSRIs when they first came out -- Prozac being the first, soon to be followed by "me too" drugs like Zoloft -- were loved for the fact that docs didn't have to worry that a patient might consume the whole bottle in a suicide attempt as it's not going to kill or even harm them. There is, as far as I know, only one documented case of death by Zoloft OD in the entire world, so choking to death on the pill bottle they came in seems a more likely way to die.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

hensley258 said:


> Controled studies also show ECT as being 75% effective. I think time has proven that study to be false by a long shot.


ECT is generally considered the most effective means to treat depression, topping even MAOIs that are generally deemed the most effective drug treatment for depression.

A study on ECT is almost certainly only going to involve the most extreme cases who have failed to respond to a whole pharmacy of different pills. Taking the most depressed and treatment resistant patients isn't likely to result in the greatest rates of success.

Probably the most famous ECT failure would be Hemingway who died at age 61 from a 12 gauge shotgun blast to his head.


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## axiomcomplex92 (May 10, 2010)

I'm not suicidal but the damn drug made me hysterical at a high dose. I would get random bouts of depression far more intense than my usual insomnia, followed by crying.

This was the last medication I have tried. I lost my faith in them after this, mind you, this was the 4th or 5th I've been prescribed.



Magical Delusional said:


> I was concerned about this too before starting Zoloft/sertraline. I was pretty nervous about taking any SSRI or AD because of the supposed risk of suicide. I asked my doctor about it and she said that it's a bit difficult to pinpoint the reason for someone's suicide on their medication. For one thing, majority of people that are prescribed SSRI's are already depressed or whatever, so it's more than possible that the medication just didn't work. Also, the risk is very small. If it was a serious concern, your doctor wouldn't prescribe it. The chances of Zoloft making you feel better are much higher than the chances that it would increase suicidal thoughts. So take the medication as prescribed, call your doctor if you have any bad side effects (including more suicidal thoughts), and just hope for the best!


Having tried lexapro as well, I can tell you from my point of view is that these drugs take away "feeling" and "emotion." Or exaggerate them negatively.


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

My problem with SSRI's is just the same as Ultrashy has. They no longer do anything for me except give me sexual side effects. Even at crazy high dosages SSRI's simply have no effect on my depression good or bad.

This was not the case 18 years ago when I started an SSRI. They worked ok then. Time has rendered them useless for me now. Either I got worse or just built resistance or maybe both.


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## mike8803 (Feb 21, 2010)

^ This is why i take MAOI's. Some people have smaller tolerance to medication and anything small works SSRI's etc, some people have a larger tolerance to medication u need stronger medication.


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## glueinmyshoe472 (Apr 25, 2010)

hensley258 said:


> I had a person pin me as OCD before. Actually they called me obsessed because I like the sink to be free of dirty dishes.
> 
> Then I watched a show about people who suffer from real OCD. I feel bad for people that have it like that. Must not be easy.
> 
> ...


 "young lady" thats really funny. way to assume that im a girl


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

glueinmyshoe472 said:


> "young lady" thats really funny. way to assume that im a girl


Oh your a guy. Sorry, it's often hard to tell just from a persons writing that they are male or female. I usually don't look at a persons profile before responding.


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