Xanax XR worked great...but changing to Zoloft?

[sunwindandfire]

My doctor recently put me on Xanax XR because he noticed how I was flipping out in the doctors office. I told him the doctors office made me have really bad panic attacks but he didnt believe it until he saw it.

So he gave me Xanax on a low dosage of 1mg. The first week was awesome. I used to wake up feeling like death or hungover but now that I take Xanax I dont have that crap anymore. I actually feel refreshed in the morning.

While the Xanax did help overall it didnt completely stop panic attacks as I still had one when I went to the doctor the next time so he bumped it up to 2mg.

Anyway, he wants to get me off Xanax because they say it's addiction. Which, who the F*#& cares if it's addicting. If it works I'll take it for the rest of my life, I dont care.

He wants to wean me off the Xanax and slowly start taking Zoloft (25mg) for a week then (50mg) from there on. By then I guess he'll stop prescribing Xanax and go straight with the Zoloft.

My question is do you guys prefer Xanax XR or Zoloft. It seems like every review I hear for Zoloft scares the crap out of me. People saying they wanted to kill themselves and crap. I personally am too scared to start taking it and just wanted to get your guys opinions.

BTW, for those who have really bad daily anxiety with panic attacks I'd recommend Xanax XR. I've only been on it for 2 weeks but these two weeks have been great. Instead of making up excuses for when my friends ask me to go out.......I'm asking them to go out and do stuff.

Thanks

 

[Bake]

hey! im actually on zoloft right now. i been on it for about 2months or so. i think it is working great. i can go out with my friends without making excuses not to =]

the only thing i HATE about taking zoloft is my dreams. there crazy/scary/weird now. lol. other then that, its all good

zoloft dosen't work on everyone though. but, if you start taking it, give it some time to get into your system.

& yeah that does suck that your doctor wants you to stop taking xanax xr. it sounds like it is working really well. but, zoloft is not bad. well for me it isn't!

xoxox

 

[sunwindandfire]

the only thing i HATE about taking zoloft is my dreams. there crazy/scary/weird now. lol. other then that, its all good

Does it make it hard to sleep when you're on it? Like, do the dreams make you sleep walk or anything?

The reason I ask is because when I was younger I used to sleep walk like crazy. I'm not talkin waking up and going into the next room. I'm talking sleep walking 2 miles to my moms house!

Later

 

[Ehsan]

Xanax is a Benzodiazepine and it is normal to work fast. But like other Benzodiazepines it isn't useful for large-term usage such that you should use it almost forever. Also you should increase its dosage gradually to take expected effect. Long-term usage of Benzodiazepines has lot of side effects too.

But SSRIs(zoloft, ...) may be used as an actual treatment for the problem in many cases (Not All). Side effects aren't so bad and decrease gradually. The only point is it takes long time to take effect, so be patient. See this for side effects and their probability:
[url]http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2005/019839s053S054lbl.pdf [/url]


Also using Benzodiazepines with SSRIs(Zoloft,...) is quiet common and you can use both of them.

 

[Bake]

no, they dont make me do that. but, they are really weird! you know how some nights you sleep & you'll wake up not even remembering your dream? well, while on zoloft you remember every single dream, maybe because there that weird/crazy =/

trust me, if this works for you as well as it does for me, you'll be all good. you just have to give it time to get into your system. my doctor told me that it could take up to 6 months before i'd notice any difference. & 2 months later i feel like i could do anything. seriously!!!

when i first started taking zoloft though, i had really bad mood swings. one day i would wake up feeling soo depressed, the next like i could take on the world!

 

[sunwindandfire]

Yeah, I'll give it a try. I hear it makes you sleep a lot...mmmmmm sleep ahgllllllll.

Glad it worked for you. Its nice to hear positive feedback on the forums about meds. It seems like people only post negative crap on here.

 

[sunwindandfire]

I started taking the Zoloft about 4 days ago. Ever since then it's made me feel like absolute crap. Anxiety has increased to probably more than I had before. It's also causing me to wake up sweating and feeling panicky. It's even made me feel depressed which I never used to feel before.

So far I'm hating the stuff. I've read that it increases anxiety at first but shit, this sucks. I'm going to ask the doc to get off it and just stick to the Xanax XR. Things felt much better then.

 

[decadeOfSA]

Xanax XR works well for me too, but it knocks that hell out of me. Zoloft and any other SSRI did nothing for me. I wish SSRIs worked for me and I didnt' have to take tranquilizers. I don't look forward to trying to get off them, if I ever can.

 

[decadeOfSA]

Oh yeah I'd like to add that the withdrawl symptoms and rebound anxiety when you aren't taking it are a bitch. Xanax XR made it possible for me to go back to school, but since I am off for the summer and just stay at home, I don't take as much, because it would knock me out and I'd be sleeping a lot. I have to take some of it to not experience withdrawl symptoms, but I am not taking the dose I would take if I were around people all day. Therefore, I get this terrible rebound anxiety that is worse. I went to the grocery store a couple of times, not taking the normal dose I was used to and my body literally froze up at the checkout line and I had to leave. I never had that before. Tranquilzers are needed by some people like me and they do help, but try SSRI's and psychotherapy first. They just mask the problem and then you get physically addicted to them and the longer you are on them, the harder it is to get off them. It's harder to get off Xanax then Heroin from what I've heard.

 

[Emma]

I am better at coping off zoloft, I felt like I was always about to fall asleep on it 8O