Posted by finelinebob on May 12, 2004, at 9:12:33
In reply to Re: Even more questions, posted by becksA on May 12, 2004, at 7:41:53
Okay then. I think someone said above that some people can find SSRIs like zoloft to be more "activating" at just about any level. You've been at 200 for a couple of months now, and you say that you don't think it's been doing anything to reduce your social anxiety since you started it? You might want to talk to your pdoc about reevaluating your strategy here.
I know (because I watch too much TV) that paxil has also been approved for social anxiety. Paxil is in the same category of meds as zoloft -- SSRIs. A different class of meds that can be used to address anxiety are benzodiazepines. Benzos I think are more effective for anxiety, but there are issues of possible dependency and of building tolerance with benzos that SSRIs don't have in general. That's one reason why your pdoc might have gone with zoloft before anything else.
The bottom line is that you were given zoloft to address your anxiety and, from your experience, it's only making matters worse. Two months at 200mg means you must have been on it longer, since you probably had to build up to 200. That's more than enough time for you to have reached the "therapeutic effect" -- if there was going to be one. Talk to your pdoc about reevaluating whether zoloft is the right medication for you and, if not, ask for two or three different options of what you might try next and what the pluses/minuses of each would have.
hth (finally),
flbps. different people respond differently to different SSRIs, in case you're concerned about switching to another from zoloft. How you responded to zoloft won't tell you how you might respond to another SSRI. For me, zoloft actually helped with my anxiety symptoms (but did absolutely nothing for my depression, which is what I needed more). Prozac did nothing for me. Paxil made my anxiety much, much worse. Your mileage may vary.
poster:finelinebob
thread:345309
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040510/msgs/346083.html