TJFederer17 said:
Having recently started on sertraline for GAD and depression, I had a dreadful reaction to the 50 mg sertraline for the first three days and was wondering if it was serotonin syndrome as I had this unbearable burning sort sensation in my head and felt very shivery and lots of muscle twitching and dreadfully agitated. On the third day it was pretty much constant for the whole day, I almost went insane but now it has calmed down and have none of those symptoms expect the odd muscle twitching and am actually starting to feel pretty good the last day and a half. I was wondering if the cause of this might be because unbeknownst to me I didn't realise 5 Htp and Sertraline was a no go and had been on 5Htp for about a week prior to starting the Sertraline. I didn't take these together mind you I stopped the 5Htp the day before. Should I still see someone about this or will it be ok now that the 5HTP is out of my system?
I don't think that this was a full-blown serotonin syndrome - you would be in hospital! But it may well have been an overabundance of serotonin for a short while. If you are unsure, it is always advisable to contact your health care provider!
On the other hand, I also would suggest you do your own research about SSRIs, because they have some nasty side-effects, like increased suicidal tendencies. The other thing to think about is why you are depressed - the current model of a "transmitter imbalance" is probably wrong, or at least incomplete. SSRIs blunt the feelings of depression, but also the feelings of joy and happiness - everything just tones down, which might not be what you are aiming for.
Depression can be a sign that something in your life is missing or "imbalanced" and maybe this could give you the impetus to look for that imbalance and address it. If you want to know more about this, I recommend reading "Personality Shaping by Positive Desintegration" by Dambrowski. It's written in a rather clinical and dry style, but might give you some clues about how to address these issues.
A few threads that talk about SSRIs and related issues:
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,19253.msg186292.html#msg186292
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,23010.msg250908.html#msg250908
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,32434.msg442305.html#msg442305
I also advise you not to abruptly stop the medication yourself, but to do that with the doctor that prescribed it to you, if you choose so.
Hope this helps.
