Zoloft And Weight Gain

kellym78 said...
Hello everybody. This is my first post, but I have been on Zoloft 100 mg for six months and I am so fat and flabby now--I could die! I had severe PPD and anxiety so I started on 50 mg. Since then, despite the fact that I'm currently breastfeeding TWO kids (my older son still nurses also), I have gained so much weight. It's all in my abdomen and it's so flabby and weird! I've never had anything like this! I still struggle a lot with depression and anxiety, though, so I need something. I was thinking of switching to Wellbutrin. I also take Xanax .25-.50 x3 and PRN. Does anybody have any experience with other benzos like Ativan or Klonopin? I cannot take this anymore!

I think that Zoloft is notorious not only for the weight gain but the location of the weight gain...it is primarily abdominable.

so ameilia just curious after you got off the 12 mg you started losing in 8 weeks?

couldnt resist i love this message board

After reading the posts and looking back on my daughters weight gain it seems true that she did gain more weight and faster after she tappered to 25mg and stayed at that dosage for a couple of months.

She has been very short and irritable with friends and family.  More tears and has become withdrawn from kids at school again.  I'm not sure if its the weight gain or maybe just that she still needs to be on meds because of dysthemia.  Althought the Doctor gave her Welbutrin to try, she won't, I think its because she's afraid that it will cause weight gain.  The doctor said she hadn't had anyone in the five years she has prescribed gain off it.

My daughter is going as far as going off her birth control this month because maybe this also contributing to her weight gain along with her increased appitite, and cravings.  Has anyone noticed this to be a contributing factor while on zoloft?

The gain she has is alot like Amelia and some of the others have talked about. In her stomach area, loose flab that hangs over her pants and in her back area that she calls her love handles.  Grant it that this is wear she would carrry her extra weight.  This weight just really came on fast, like I stated earlier, summer and fall.  the gain is also showing in her face, she told me she had a chin she never had before.

She has been off now for about 4 weeks I do believe.  She is afraid to get on the scale because she is afraid that she has gained more instead of less.  She has been trying to watch her calorie intake by doing the WW point system, although she was doing this while on Zoloft and still put on many pounds,  Like someone had mentioned, it seemed she would put lbs on by eating lettuce.

I feel helpless for her!  She will go Thursday to see a dietion on this Thursday, I hope she can give us some answers or help information.  I will be sure to share with all of you!  It just seems so unreal that a person can gain like she did. 

It hurts me to see her so selfconcouis when its really not her fault!  Just when we thought she was getting her self worth and confidence back this all started to show up.

Any advice or personal stories would be of great help, we felt so alone in this until I found this awesome sight.  I find myself checking the sight many times a day, for this is every day battle.

Getting out of bed and trying to find something to wear everyday has been a very hard battle, I hope she starts to see a difference soon!!!!!!

Thank you again to everyone and please keep the posts coming and I wish the best to each and everyone of you.  Even thow I am not going through this personaly, I feel the pain and disapointments that my daughter is going through, there for I am also feeling pain!!! 

Mekkie, hang in there, it's erally scarey from the things I saw my daughter go through.  The doctors should prepare people for this.  They told me that she was very rare and very few people have this hard of a time coming off of it.  After finding this site, I no longer beleive them.  Her bad side effects lasted about four to five days.  Let yourself sleep when you can.  The third day she slept alot!!  To the point of scaring, they assured me the body needed this to heal.  Some of her many complaints were this when coming off, bad headaches, hot flashes, confused and jumbled thoughts, had a hard time being around alot of noise and etc., very hungry and strong cravings, irritable and short, cried and felt sad and very anxious, and also said she felt like her brain would quit working for a quick second(???) maybe this the electric shocks everyone is talking about!   I would say by the second week we were seeing improvement, by the thrid and forth it was mostly to irritability and some sadness.  She was was told by one of the doctors to drink alot of water to help flush out her liver and kidneys.  I think knowing that others go through the same and that it will get better!    I do believe its been a good five weeks now since she has been off her meds, now we are fighting mostly with weight she gained from taking the zoloft. Get lots of rest and drink alot of water, those side effects will be getting better for you.  I really think the thrid and forth days will be the roughest, then you will start to see improvements!!!  Kinda like anything medical, the first 72 hours seems to be those most critical. YOu can do this!!  It is going to get better, your most likey coming over the hardest part!!!!!  I hope this will answer some of the questions as to what your going through so you don't feel so alone in them!!!!  Stay strong!!!

It is so weird that people keep mentioning the shocks that run through the body as a withdrawl from zoloft. the first time i began feeling it i didn't know what it was. i thought maybe it was from a lack of sleep. I am a college student and sleep is definatly something that i lack. But when the shocks continued i knew it had to be from the zoloft.

I feel like i have no support among my family and friends during this time trying to regain myself after zoloft. I can't stand when i tell someone about what i am going through and they tell me that my body might be changing because i am getting older. I AM ONLY 21!!!!! i have never been fat in my whole life. i know my body well enough, and i know that zoloft has done this to me. in my family we are very open and we make fun of each other all the time. We can handle it. But i have noticed that since i have gained weight, some of my family members joke about it and it bothers me. In the past when we joked, i took it as joke and not seriously. but now that i have weight that i have no control over it drives me mad when they joke. But i don't get bent out of shape. i just think to myself that in about 6-8 months they are going to look like a bunch of fools when i am back to my regular weight!!!! especially all the people that tell me that my body is just changing, i can't wait to prove them wrong!!!

I am 5'2, i was 102 pounds when i began zoloft in june of 2004. As of today weigh 135 pounds. so in approx. 18 months i have gained 33 pounds. If my body is "just changing" this rapidly i am in deep doo doo!!!! i will be obeise for my size in no time.

i can't wait for this nightmare to be over!!!!!!!

Post Edited (ALLYBOOBOO) : 11/28/2005 12:36:53 PM (GMT-7)