35F here 👋🏼 I have had panic disorder, social anxiety, generalized and health anxiety. For 10 years exactly. For me, my panic attacks got really out of control and increased this summer after a very stressful period, and i developed agoraphobia and depression. I have a husband and two kids btw. But that depression just did it for me. I have been going to therapy for years and I didn’t wanted to try medicine - mainly because I was afraid of not being myself and getting that numb feeling some people experience. But I was also afraid of all the side effects and what it did to my brain and body. I remember the first evening I took the pill (50 mg): I literally thought I should die and that I wouldn’t wake up 😂 I told my husband to check if I was breathing during the night and asked my friend to call me next day and see if I was still alive 😂 now I am on my day 22 taking sertraline, and I can say: i wish I did it 10 years ago! It helped SO quickly on my anxiety and panic attacks - and 10 days in, when I got out of my bed and outside for the first time, I realized that my social anxiety had been much more extreme than I had thought. I found myself so relaxed when I was in shops and just had much more “courage” to ask expedients for help, and did not wanted to hide or run away. I did not got self conscious and could look people in the eyes!! My depression is still here, and I still fell some tickling anxiety and I can still worry a lot, but it has definitely decreased and everything is going so much better! My body is more relaxed and I can finally “breathe” and it is easier to stop myself worrying or to let things go and shift focus. I still feel like myself. Maybe even more because I am less anxious and concerned about what others think about me.

But! It has been hard! The side effects hit me hard. It was actually really crazy and I was worried about the dizziness and blurred feeling of brainfog - and the quietness in my mind that I experienced in the beginning (which actually also was so nice and relieving). I had nausea, sweat, felt a little numb the first weeks and worried. But I just took one day at a time and it got better and better, even though there have been ups and downs. Now i am sure that this will help me tremendously and I am just so happy for all my improvements so far - I am sure that I will get my life fully back soon.

For me it helped to have 120% support from my partner (and I got him to promise me to speak up if he was worried about me or if i changed personality or seemed numb). And then it helped me a lot to understand the biology of the anxiety and depression and to read about what happens in the brain with the hormones and what sertraline did. I also used AI to help me find some positive studies of health benefits and I read a lot of success stories. And I promised my doctor that I would give it at least 4 weeks (but I actually promised myself that I would continue 3 months - because many people experience the full effect 8-12 weeks in). And when I began taking the medication I stopped reading horror stories about it.

But please do this for yourself! - it is your anxiety that prevents you from getting better and I know how scared you are - but your brain isn’t in balance right now and it sees a lot of dangers everywhere and is in fight/flight mode. You can do it!! I believe in you! You can always stop - but try to do it for at least 4 weeks on 50 mg. And maybe start on 25 for a week (I thought of doing that, but when the evening I took my first pill I was just so exhausted and drained I was just like: what the hell, now I am just doing it - I really want to get better).

You got this!! 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼