How Zoloft is affecting me so far…

I haven't taken 75 mg of Zoloft in almost a year. In July 2016 the pharmacy here recommended the dosage be decreased to 50 mg, and I went along with it.

But now that I'm back on it, I wonder how it is affecting me.

I didn't notice much change the first week. Then, in the second week I started to get gastrointestinal discomfort and a lot of rumbling. It almost seemed to me like my body was fighting the Zoloft increase from the inside. But, I also noticed I was calmer.

The gastrointestinal discomfort subsided some in the third week. That made me kind of nervous. I wondered what caused my belly and intestines to all of a sudden accept what the Zoloft was doing.

I've noticed some increased sleepiness in the daytime – which I don't like. It started out with just yawning. Even one milligram of Valium makes me a bit sleepy. But the increased Zoloft it is definitely making me sleepier then I was.

This week it seems like my bowels have slowed down. While they may have been a bit overactive on 50 mg, on 75 mg they are different. I may not have to worry so much about getting to the bathroom quickly after eating or drinking, like I was. I have irritable bowel syndrome and I can have diarrhea or constipation, or a mix. My IBS is similar to what walking around people get, but my lack of activity makes it worse.

Getting physical therapy may have caused my bowels to move a bit more, although I did not notice that. Nevertheless, extra movement and increased circulation does do things like that.

If Zoloft is dulling things down and numbing me then it has to be doing it to my insides too.

So, I need to increase the amount of fiber I eat. I also have to drink more water. It's too bad they seem to have cut back on vegetables here. There are only a couple of days a week that we are served green vegetables which have a high-fiber content.

I have also decreased the amount I eat. I had a ten pound weight gain in March that came out of the blue, and I would like to lose it. I'm so concerned the extra Zoloft will increase my appetite, that I am cutting back on desserts and carbohydrates. It's so easy for me to not tell myself the truth about how much I eat, which most of us do.

My sister said the Zoloft could take a while to get into my system and work effectively. I'm hoping it will assist me to be less anxious. If that happens, I may not be as grumpy. If it calms me, I wonder if I will cease to get sudden hot flashes, or whatever makes me get too warm too often.

I do have to let the Zoloft work and not worry so much about it. Zoloft has always been the antidepressant which caused me the fewest side effects.

But, I also know, aging can change the way drugs work in my system.