Sertraline - Looking for more encouragement?

@charliebella.
Have you consulted with your doctor about possibly increasing your dosage? You're on a relatively low dose and the maximum recommended dose is 200mg/day. It could be the dose you're taking is not providing enough therapeutic levels.

@Randy.
Sounds like you're at the "roller coaster" point which means the medication is beginning to work although you may still have some anxiety. You'll have good days and not so good days as your metabolism is still adjusting to the drug.
It can take 4-8 weeks for you to feel the full benefit of the medication so you're almost there already.
Hang in there and try to stay positive. A good attitude will really help speed things along as you begin to see improvements and not dwell so much on the negatives.

I have recently tried to up my dose t o 100mg, and it just created more anxiety

Yes, dosage increases might come with side effects too. If the anxiety is too severe your doctor might prescribe another medication to take for a couple of weeks until the side effects resolve as the sertraline takes hold.
Otherwise it's essence of time and patience because this is a common complaint with antidepressant/anxiolytics. :(

I cant tolerate increasing dosage , it just causes me to have severe anxiety. I am now back down to 50mg. No change... I also suffer from neck and back pain , my nurse practioner has now said my anxiety is from that. I almost feel like she is giving up on me, as I had to ask her if I should go back down to 50 mg after being on 75! I then asked her to schedule next appt and she said if I want to! What kind of answer is that? Does anyone feel I should try other med.. The only one I havent tried is lexapro. I also feel very unsettled and no desire to do anything and that is just not me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm sorry I didn't see your last post here until just now.
Are you tolerating the 50mg dose? You could persevere and see if it might be therapeutic.
Your other options might be to try a different medication. Have you tried medications that are not SSRI's? Ask about buspirone which is not an antidepressant but is prescribed specifically for anxiety. There's about a 50/50% chance of it being effective but it comes with minimal side effects. It might be worth a try. That's what I'm taking now.
Finally, if possible you might want to get a referral to a psychiatrist preferably.
Good luck to you. I hope you find your solution and quickly.
PS, Have you or are you getting therapy? It could be very helpful in finding your triggers and ways to
deal with them more constructively.

I am not getting relief from staying at 50 mg. I feel like after 4 months of being on this med, I should have some kind of relief. The lady I see is a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Isn't that the same as a psychiatrist? What I have read is Zoloft is not for GAD.. The only one I haven't tried is Lexapro.. Took Paxil for 40 years until it decided not to work anymore.. Wonder if I could go back to that? I dont have any particular thing that triggers it, it just happens. I have been off of Paxil over a year.

Although SSRI's are FDA approved for GAD you might want to look into the SNRI's if you haven't already.
"Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs)
This class includes Cymbalta (duloxetine), and Effexor (venlafaxine) They are considered as effective as the SSRIs and are the first-line treatment for GAD."
A nurse practitioner is more highly trained than an RN but hasn't received the training to be a doctor.
They can't diagnose and can only treat patients under the supervision of a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist has 4 more years of training and education than a GP.
Keep us updated, okay?

Thanks for the support! It's nice to have someone to talk about it . I go to pnp Tuesday and going to tell her I want off Zoloft.she acts like she doesn't know what to do with me. She has her own practice and don't believe she works for a psychiatrist. I even had a gene sight test done , she has a copy of it and has for months, their are a few things I need to point out to her. Don't even know how well she went over it. Sometimes I feel I should find someone else

Well, why don't you see how it goes on Tuesday and then take it from there. Lay everything on the line to her... you have every right to participate in your treatment plan. You can do this! When I was seeing my nurse at first it was a battle of the wills but once I made my position clear she came around and now we work exceptionally well together.
If it does go badly then you'll need to consider your options as far as finding a new care provider.

I definitely will! I also wanted to share with you something I noticed on my genesight test. There are several pages, but this caught my eye... It reads as : This patient is homozygous for the short promoter polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene. The short promoter allele is reported to decrease expression of the serotonin transporter compared to the homozygous long promoter allele. The patient may have a moderately decreased likelihood of response to selective serotonin inhibitors due to the presence of the short form of the gene. I will bring this up to her, like I said she has a copy. I decreased my dosage last night from 50 to 25mg and dont feel as anxious as I normally do.