I’m 25F and I don’t even have a boyfriend atm but I’ve been on lexapro for 2 years and I realized I never really thought about this. Does lexapro or SSRI’s in general have any data that it might affect your child developmentally before or during pregnancy? I know ultimately myself, I would be the priority and i shouldn’t NOT take medicine for the sake of a child that I don’t even know if I’ll have but it does concern me a little.

I remember in university my psych professor told us that she took antidepressants during her pregnancy and it’s much more common now, but that they do test the child for withdrawal symptoms or smth at birth?

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I'm 28M and currently switching from Lexapro to Zoloft. I'm looking for experiences from people who had severe physical anxiety and stomach symptoms during an SSRI startup or switch, especially people who eventually recovered and got their normal appetite back.

The main problem I'm dealing with is a strange combination of:

Constant stomach tension

Nausea

Almost no appetite

Food aversion

Gagging/dry heaving

Difficulty getting food down even when I know I'm hungry

Increased physical anxiety

The mornings are by far the worst.

I wake up and almost immediately feel tension in my stomach. Food sounds disgusting, I feel nauseous, and sometimes I'll gag or dry heave even though I haven't taken my medication yet and my stomach is basically empty.

Then I start worrying about whether I'll be able to eat, and it feels like everything feeds itself:

anxiety -> stomach tightens -> nausea -> can't eat -> empty stomach -> worse nausea -> gagging/dry heaving -> more anxiety

The weirdest part is what happens later in the day.

As the day progresses, everything gradually settles down. By evening or nighttime my stomach can feel dramatically different. The tension decreases, my anxiety drops, food becomes normal again and sometimes I can eat a completely normal meal.

Then I sleep and wake up the next morning with the same symptoms again.

My medication transition has been pretty messy, which makes it difficult to know where the startup effects end and everything else begins.

I was on Lexapro 20mg for about a year. Starting Lexapro originally gave me basically zero side effects, and I lived completely normally on it. Eventually my panic attacks started returning, so my psychiatrist decided to switch me to Zoloft.

The first attempt was:

Lexapro 20mg -> 10mg + Zoloft 50mg

Within days I developed severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness, brain zaps and dramatically increased anxiety.

Around day 4 I contacted my psychiatrist because I could barely tolerate 50mg and was told to increase Zoloft to 100mg.

I didn't increase it.

By day 5 I ended up in the ER because of the vomiting, stopped Zoloft and changed psychiatrists.

After roughly two days without Zoloft, my new psychiatrist stopped Lexapro completely and restarted Zoloft much more slowly.

My current uninterrupted restart has been:

12.5mg for 7 days

25mg for 6 days

50mg, currently day 2

So right now I'm 14 days into the uninterrupted Zoloft restart, day 2 at 50mg, and day 14 completely off Lexapro.

My psychiatrist also started a short 10-day Xanax bridge two days ago while I adjust to 50mg. I'm taking 0.25mg with my Zoloft and another 0.25mg later in the day.

One thing that makes me suspect anxiety is perpetuating at least some of the stomach symptoms is that I've taken Seroquel 50mg nightly for years.

Once it kicks in and I relax, my stomach tension can almost completely disappear. I stop worrying about food and can sometimes eat normally after struggling to eat all day.

The same thing seems to happen when my daytime anxiety decreases.

So I'm wondering whether the SSRI transition/startup increased my physical anxiety enough to restart an old anxiety-stomach loop.

I did also have what seemed like a separate stomach bug during this period after eating questionable food, with diarrhea and vomiting for several days. Bloodwork was normal twice. However, the nausea, food aversion and difficulty eating had already started before the stomach illness, and they've continued after the worst of it passed.

I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who experienced something similar while starting, stopping or switching SSRIs, not necessarily Zoloft specifically.

Did anxiety make your stomach feel physically locked up to the point where you couldn't eat?

Did you experience nausea, gagging or dry heaving, especially in the mornings?

Did you feel significantly better at night?

And most importantly, did your normal appetite and ability to eat eventually come back once your body adjusted to the medication? How long did it take?

I'm following my psychiatrist's treatment plan, so I'm not looking for advice on changing medications or doses.

I mainly want to know whether anyone else went through this horrible "my anxiety has taken control of my stomach and I can't fucking eat" phase during an SSRI transition and eventually came out the other side.

To make a long story short, I don’t have consistent and reliable health insurance, meaning I don’t know how I’m gonna keep getting my medications each month. Because of this, I’ve started tapering on my own. I know it’s not the best option, but it is what it is & this is where life has taken me.

I started from 150mg, went down to 100, then 75, then 50. All that went surprisingly smooth. However, I’m starting to have a LOT of issues coming down to 25mg and am extremely scared for when I try to stop completely. Does anyone have any tips for coming off on your own, any supplements that have helped, or any general advice? Much appreciate :’)

hi all! i have been on sertraline for about a month now, previously being on Pristiq and have only recently realized that my severe night sweats started when i started Pristiq. this really disrupts my sleep as i will wake up at ungodly times drenched and freezing as if i had walked into a shower with my clothes on. when switching over to sertraline i was prescribed 0.5 clonezepam to help with panic attacks i may have while adjusting. every time i have a panic attack and take one i notice i dont sweat at all. obviously i dont want to use these long term as i dont want to become addicted. on the other hand i have heard about vitamin e working to stop night sweats also, but doing further research it seems that vitamin e in the long term really effects the heart/risk of stroke. i really dont know what to do as it's really disruptive to my sleep

I am starting serteralin after months of anxiety and rumination. I have also started working out 3 months ago and so far it has been the only thing helping me with my anxiety. I love the way I feel after a workout but obviously exercise can’t solve all of my problems.
People who workout on SSRIs, how have SSRIs impacted your workout routine? Is the weight gain annoying? Do you feel less or more motivated to workout? Has your energy level changed?

I think around 6 months ago or more (not good with time) i lost the ability to orgasm.
It’s an annoying side effect but i don’t want to change my medication type. Bupropion is the only anti depressant that has worked well with minimal side effects.
there have been a handful of side effects but one of the most noticeable is my incapability to orgasm.
it can get frustrating at times, but i just haven’t been able to.
Is there any way i could possibly orgasm again or is it a lost cause? if i can will it just randomly come back or is there a way i can promote it happening?

I have had GAD for as long as I know myself. I also deal with CPTSD. Have managed without medication for most of my life, only took 25mg Zoloft 10 years ago for a few months during a particularly difficult period and it numbed me enough to get through it. I don’t really remember how I felt on it.

I had a baby 4 months ago who’s the light of my life. I need to get my anxiety under control to get through the next season of my life— going back to work, being a new mom and a stepparent, no support system, immigrant, etc.
I’m breastfeeding and feel extremely anxious about starting medication, even though several doctors and therapists have already recommended that I start and that only very little goes to the baby through milk.

I’m insanely anxious that the medication will mess up her brain chemistry and make her depressed in the future, or something. It feels unnatural to be putting my baby through this. I can’t let go of the guilt. I’m a good mom still, but I need to calm my brain down to be able to navigate everything else in my life and give her a good life.

I’m just looking for a word of support or advice? Or maybe I just needed to write this out into the world and out of my chest. I’m not sure. But I can’t keep going like this.

Hey everyone! I’ve been on sertraline for about 27 days now, so technically around 3.8 weeks. I’m taking it mainly for panic disorder, anxiety, derealization, and rumination.

For some background, I’m 22 and I’ve been dealing with panic disorder, anxiety, and derealization for about four years now. Before that, I honestly had no anxiety at all. It started one day after I graduated high school and started attending college full-time while working full-time. I woke up feeling completely off, like nothing was real. I had heart palpitations, was scared to answer the phone, and suddenly felt like I couldn’t function normally at work anymore.

At the time, I was working in a contact center at a school, and the environment was honestly awful. Supervisors were extremely strict, and some of the students calling in were mean or even threatening. It was very stressful and toxic. I stayed with the same company for a few years but moved between different roles.

Over time, I started having more physical symptoms too. I developed a tremor when I try to smile, and I get really anxious before social situations, especially larger groups like my husband’s family. I got married last September and we have a happy marriage, and his family is genuinely kind and safe, but I still get intense anxiety leading up to seeing them. Once I’m actually there, I’m usually okay, but the anticipation can feel overwhelming.

I left that job around three months ago and now work remotely, but I still have to interact with that company sometimes. Even just that can bring back really bad feelings and anxiety. I’ve been in therapy for two years, did EMDR for childhood trauma, and I’m about to start EMDR again because I think I may have work-related trauma that I didn’t realize was affecting me this much.

Overall, sertraline has been pretty awesome compared to when I tried Buspar and paroxetine (horrible: I felt disoriented, depressed, extremely anxious, couldn’t function at all). I’ve actually seen real results with this one, which feels huge after struggling for so long.

By week two, I noticed that my derealization started lifting, and my rumination was not as constant or intense. I didn’t really have physical side effects at first other than increased anxiety during the first week. I still had anxiety around social outings, but I felt noticeably better than before. I also feel like I can romanticize my life and enjoy little things again, which I haven’t been able to do in a long time.

Then last Friday, I was lying down and out of nowhere I got hit with really intense rumination and panic that I couldn’t shake. It eventually got better, but this whole weekend I was ruminating a lot more again. On Sunday, I went out with my husband and sisters and it actually went well. I still had a few small moments where I felt like my mouth could start twitching from anxiety or panic, but I was okay. I also didn’t use propranolol, which is something I usually need sometimes for social situations.

Since Friday, though, I’ve been getting waves of sadness and a little hopelessness. I just want to feel better and finally get out of the anxiety I’ve been living with for the past four years. I’ve also started having pretty bad diarrhea and some nausea, which I didn’t have when I first started sertraline.

Did anyone else experience a random dip like this around weeks 3 to 4, especially after initially feeling improvements? Did the sadness, anxiety spikes, nausea, or diarrhea pass for you? What was life like after you got through this part? Please let me know so I can daydream about better days lol.

Overall, I don’t feel horrible, and I do see improvements, especially with derealization and rumination. It’s mostly that fear of slipping backward that gets to me. Support would be lovely during this time, thank you. :(❤️

Can anyone advise why I have really bad executive dysfunction after ssris? I am almost 2 years off, and I delay everything every assignment everything I need to do. My brain still thinks it's on meds and behaves super chill without a care in the world. How can I get back to my original state? This is too far out.

Hello guys, I really need help F(24)

I was prescribed lorazepam and Lexapro 5mg [10mg after a week]

Currently, I'm on day 3 of 5mg, and the side effects have been insane, I feel like a gold fish, can't remember much, can't focus on anything, i can't think, unbareable headache, horny for some reason, can't sleep, or when I sleep I feel like my mind never stops working

I told my psychiatrist and as always, they just brush it off as a normal side effect

The thing is i only want you give it a try then quit if I don't like it, and so far I hate it tbh, but I'm thinking is it possible to try it for 2 weeks then just quit cold tutkey? Or would I need to taper even for a 2 week or 1 month period?

I really don't want this long term. It just makes me feel so dumb but I still want to see the therapeutic effects

i started taking prozac in september 2025. it made me horribly depressed. i know that theres an adjustment period of up to 6 weeks, but i was taking it for 10 weeks and was feeling worse than ever. ive been kinda depressed before but i started taking prozac for my anxiety, i wasnt really depressed. my college attendance went down to 63% because i couldnt get out of bed and ive had at least 95% attendance my whole life.

after 10 weeks of prozac and STILL being unable to function, i was put on a higher dose and it just made me feel even worse so i stopped taking it in december.

my brain is so foggy and scrambled. while i was on prozac i was really foggy and struggled remembering what happened even an hour ago (i dont even remember those months) and i think being foggy for a few months has thrown me off because even now i always forget what the day or even month is.

its now august 2026 and i still feel worse than i did before taking prozac even though my last dose was 8 months ago. my anxiety is just as bad, if not worse. and it made me depressed on top of being anxious. anyone else experiencing something like this?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some insight from people who have been through the medication ringer. I’m trying to figure out what my past medication successes and failures actually tell me about my brain, and what my next logical step should be.

My Track Record:

Sertraline (75mg–100mg): This worked incredibly well for my happiness and motivation. It gave me a good emotional cushion and a great mood lift. I stopped die to weight concerns and wanted to try more weight-neutral options.

Auvelity: This gave me a tiny bit of happiness at times, but ultimately it barely did anything for me and wasn’t worth taking twice a day anymore, so I stopped.

Lamotrigine (100mg): I've been on this for a little over a month after a month of titrating. It is not giving me any kind of happy spark really. Instead I feel an intense, almost constant short fuse, and irritability.

The anger and irritability is what I experienced before unmedicated. The only relief I get anymore is when I reach for the Klonopin I have for emergencies only. I don’t know how much time I should give this medication, or if it’s too early to tell.

Trying to understand:

What does this pattern tell me about my brain? Does loving Zoloft but finding that Auvelity barely touched the surface mean my brain specifically requires a strong serotonin-based emotional cushion to actually feel happy and stable?

Does this mean I just need an SSRI? Since Lamictal 100mg isn’t giving me that "happy" dopamine/serotonin cushion I'm missing from Zoloft, is the solution to just find a highly weight-neutral SSRI to layer on top?

Or is Lamictal the issue? Did anyone else experience a massive wave of emotional agitation/irritability while settling into a partial dose of Lamictal (100mg), and did it go away once you hit the 200mg target?

So this is my first post here and my first time taking an SSRI and was the first ever antidepressant I tried.
I want to tell my ride with it and exchange with other people and there experience with Sertraline.
So I started the dose titration last year in September with 25mg and every week I added another 25mg until 100mg (as I’m a tall guy, my doctor said this would the border where he expects a First positiv effect.). After this we downgraded the steps du 12,5mg cause i reacted really sensitive to an upgrade. We stopped at 150mg which I took daily until 4 weeks ago when I went to a day clinic. I often had the guess that I doesn’t really work on me. But we tried different medications for my adhd in the meantime (we Finally went for Medikinet Adult (60mg)).
In the day clinic the first thing the doctor tried to max out the Sertraline (here in Germany it’s 200mg per day). But my tension went beyond crazy. So we startet to reduce it and are now at 100mg. And i experience much less tension. My wife said that with every step down I would more realize what’s happening around me, with 150mg and more she said that i more or less only focused on me.
Also i realize right now that I was really numb with those high dosages. And when my wife said, that I have a panic attack or would have so much anxiety that I’m not in the here and now, my brain said to me bullshit. Today I had a little panic, my wife called it out and I was like, oh fuck yes, my hands are shaking, I’m sweating, I’m not seeing really what’s happening around me. I have to do something.
For my mind it’s kind of a wild experience. So I want to check out what experience others had ?

I’ve been on some form of SSRI pretty much for 15 years now. I’m slowly getting of of them and I am feeling so agitated, emotional, I feel like my boyfriend especially is pissing me off and we have been together for almost 5 years. Is this just who I am now or a natural part of withdrawl

Hi,
I started citalopram at 10mg just over one month ago. I had expected some of the symptoms I initially had, the sweating and the nausea. I’m not too bothered about the sweating but the nausea and stomach aches are still there. It did seem to resolve for a few days in the third week but the indigestion, flatulence and churning stomach came back. Everything I’ve read seems to say that you can expect this for the first two weeks but then it should clear. Does anyone have any experience of longer term stomach issues?

Thanks

Hello, good folks of the community.

I’ve been depressed for the past two years and started antidepressants about four weeks ago. After increasing the dose on my doctor’s advice, I’ve noticed some positive changes: much less rumination and negative thinking, better energy, and some weight/bloating loss.

However, I’ve also noticed something unusual. My depression was mostly emotional numbness, isolation, and mental exhaustion rather than crying.

Now, 1–2 nights a week, I find myself intensely revisiting the experiences and trauma that contributed to my depression. I can become extremely emotional and cry uncontrollably for about an hour, almost as if I’m reliving those moments. It feels overwhelming in the moment, but afterward I feel surprisingly relieved, calm, and sometimes even happy.

Is this a normal part of recovery/adjusting to antidepressants, or is it something I should be concerned about?

Thank you, and wishing everyone a happy recovery. ❤️

My whole body is in bruises from scratching my body and making it bleed...

I keep changing meds to counteract this but i am waiting for an impending doom because i tried

-Prozac

-Zoloft

And now im on Lexapro

The itching starts after a while not immediately... For Prozac it appeared in 3 weeks, was my first ssri, then i immediately moved to Zoloft which took1 week before i tiched and now im trying Lexapro because it doesnt cause as much itching appearantly but im on a ticking time bomb? I also see posts here saying lexapro caused itching and rashes...

I was put on Prozac and Risperdal at age 15 to manage suicidality because I was distressed that my friends were getting to do hobbies that my folks prevented me from doing. Shortly after the Prozac was changed to Cymbalta. Was on those for 3 years.

I can't believe I was made to think these would help. I didn't feel much different before and after taking them, but man do I now feel I didn't need them at all. They caused emotional blunting, inattentiveness, and worsened my OCD. I tried engaging in my hobbies but felt cognitively blocked, and like this was all okay. It wasn't.

Then at 18 I switched to Paxil. This made my OCD so much worse. Again I stuck with it because I thought it would help after some time. It didn't.

At 20 I switched to Zoloft and Wellbutrin. I felt not much on them.

I stopped Zoloft at 22 and was depressed for a period of 6 months which prompted me to get back on it.

I am now 24 and stopped Zoloft again for 6 months but right now am in a pretty bad depressive period. I have TMS in a month but was prescribed a small amount of Zoloft once again. But this time after taking it, I'm experiencing insomnia, nausea, and suicidal thoughts.

I can't believe I've been on these drugs for almost 8 years of my entire life and I was made to think it was okay. Who knows the impact they have had on my development and cognition.

I want my brain back so I can follow my former passions once again but I feel the damage might be permanent. I'm currently suffering from severe depression now that I've been entirely unmedicated for 6 months.

This is no way to live. I don't know if I can live the rest of my life knowing how badly my brain was harmed. It caused delusional thoughts, hoarding tendencies, anhedonia, social difficulties, and other impacts I now wholeheartedly regret.

Killing some brain cells so that traumatic events are forgotten is there any truth to this? Because the last I read scientists still do not know how TES works?

Hey guys. So I’ve been on sertraline since may or june I think? And I’m now up to 100 mgs. Suddenly, I can keep the place halfway decent lol. I have always struggled with cleaning, upkeep, just the work of it all… I feel exhausted all the time and just let myself sink into my bed once I get home. I’ve tried shaming myself for it, I’ve tried forcing myself, none of it works. I like a clean place but I rather just lay down when I get home, just need to reset and comfort myself. Mess piles, the sheets get dirty, the floor gets gross to walk on, greasy kitchen, dirty dishes, old bills and bottles on the dining room table. But for the last month or so I’ve been able to keep the place halfway decent. I’ve bargained with myself, saying I can lie down as much as I want, but if I get up at all, even to pee, I have to do something useful. And so far it’s been working and I’m like, mad proud of myself, idk how long it’ll last or if it’s really the sertraline but I think it’s helping me with this, anyone had a similar experience ?

Im 40 year old male. I lift heavy and often but my body looks kinda fatty. Is it because Im on lexapro 10mg since 2015?

I've been on paxil for 10+ years. Over this past 1.5 years I've managed to go down from 75mg to 30mg. I'm determined to get off paxil and switch to zoloft. This week is my first week cross tapering to zoloft (30mg paxil, 25mg zoloft). Then in a couple of weeks it will be 25mg paxil, 25mg zoloft, then 20mg paxil, 50 zoloft.... there's a whole schedule. I've been nervous to start because the idea of taking 2 SSRIs at once scares me. (Thanks anxiety LOL). Just curious to hear about others experiences with cross tapering and taking 2 SSRIs at once. Thanks!

This happened years ago, but it just occurred to me that I’m able to ask other people about it lmao
A while back, I was on 200mg of sertraline and was frustrated that, despite being on such a high dose, it felt like it wasn’t doing anything, which caused a paranoia spiral where I convinced myself that they had been giving me a placebo the whole time. I very stupidly went cold turkey because of this, but to my surprise, I don’t believe I had a single withdrawal symptom (which definitely didnt help with the paranoia). I later spoke to someone else who had been of the same med, and she told me that she had to go to the ER because of the withdrawal symptoms after only two days of not taking it due to refill issues.
Is this normal?? I have a history of medications not having any effect on me (only the side effects </3), but I assume that withdrawal would not be influenced by that.