Posted by 3 Beer Effect on April 30, 2002, at 23:38:16
In reply to ZOLOFT{{{{{{ TO 3 BEERS, posted by Geno on April 30, 2002, at 16:27:45
I originally took Zoloft 50 mg/day which made me very sleepy- I would almost get 'knocked out' every time I took it & it didn't seem to work at all as an anti-depressant, so after 3 months I stopped taking it.
The next time I tried it about 6 months later at 100 mg in the morning. The anti-depressant effects took about 3-4 weeks to kick in but it is the best anti-depressant I have ever taken. It made me extremely sociable, even with strangers, to the point of changing my whole personality from a shy introvert to a confident extrovert. It is the best social disinhibitor i've ever taken, almost as good as alcohol- it is similar to a 2 beer effect 24 hours a day.
It had an activating effect for me to where I had energy to get up and do things all the time, all day long, but without anxiety or nervousness around people- kind of like Dexedrine but not as potent in activation & no nervousness or anxiety around others. Caffeine potentiates this activating effect and may push it from comfortable into nervousness/wired territory.
As far as sexual side effects it doesn't seem to cause impotence atleast in younger males, but merely prolongs (a great deal) the time to orgasm, but the orgasms do seem more intense. I am 23 & I think I went from between 7-15 minute man, to 30 minutes to an hour man. That porn-star like staying power is probably great if you are dating a woman over 30, but college girls aren't as comfortable with themselves & can get quite impatient/annoyed.
After about 3 months, Zoloft did cause quite bad insomnia for me, which my psychiatrist could have fixed with Klonopin or Ambien, but he insisted that I only take the Zoloft. He is no longer my psychiatrist- The lack of sleep led to lapses in judgement, drinking & taking Benadryl in order to ease the insomnia (alcohol & Zoloft are a very bad combination) and eventually led to a full blown zoloft-induced manic episode.
Looking back, I probably should have taken 75 mgs of Zoloft with 1-2 mg of Klonopin in the day & Ambien at night. Zoloft at 75 mg probably wouldn't have caused the bad insomnia & eventual mania I had at 100 mg, & at 75 mg Zoloft is still supposed to be activating & work well. My sister was on 75 mg of Zoloft for a long time, & did very well on it with some but mostly moderate sleep disturbance.
But everyone is different, & some people take up to 200 mg of Zoloft/day with no problems. Remeron at night would overpower any Zoloft induced insomnia & would lessen the sexual side effects, but for me Remeron flattens my mood (basically making me feel worse than nothing at all during the day- kind of like I had been popping Benadryl pills all night & all day long).
Prozac has very similar anti-depressant & social enhancing/disinhibiting effects to Zoloft in many patients, as anyone who has read the book "listening to Prozac" will attest to. It may be even more activating especially since the starting dose of 20 mg is equal to about 80 mg of Zoloft, which is probably why many people don't do well on the starting dose of 50 mg Zoloft- Pfizer screwed up by making the starting dose too low- it should have been 75 mg. But Prozac arguably has worse side effects, especially anxiety/nervousness as compared to Zoloft.
poster:3 Beer Effect
thread:104553
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020425/msgs/104592.html