This blog post is all about motivation to start taking zoloft. Depression is a nerve-racking illness and it affects millions of people worldwide. People sometimes fail to realise that they require actual medical attention to get rid of their depression.

This is exactly why this blog will cover why the treatment of depression is crucial and what are the risks of leaving depression untreated.

How to motivate yourself to start taking zoloft?

You can motivate yourself to start taking your zoloft by the following ways:

Focus on how depression is ruining your life
Try to remember how happy and cheerful you were before depression
Look at the brighter side of antidepressants
Know that you’re strong enough to push through it
Remember that your loved ones need you

Focus on how depression is ruining your life

Depression is a mental health illness that literally disrupts your entire life. It makes you vulnerable to isolation and self-harm. If you need motivation to start taking zoloft, look at how depression is ruining your life.

It makes you so fragile that even a minor inconvenience can set you off and you start thinking why your life has to be so hard and painful. You don’t engage in your favourite activities like you once used to.

Depression takes all your happiness away and you stop being thankful for the blessings you have and start having a negative perception.

So, tell me, do you want to stay that way, or are you willing to fight through it? Depression is hard, the treatment of depression is hard, now choose your hard!

Try to remember how happy and cheerful you were before depression

Try to remember what you were like before depression hit you. Focus on the activities you used to love and enjoy. It is always peaceful to close your eyes and imagine your happier self, who’s always smiling, radiating positivity, helping people and is full of energy.

This is not something that’s impossible to achieve. All this energy and positivity comes from your brain. It releases ‘happy chemicals’ which make you feel that way. Zoloft helps to replenish these happy chemicals and make your depression symptoms go away.

Look at the brighter side of antidepressants

People are usually scared of taking antidepressants because of the side effects they produce. They often think that these meds will damage their brain and they will get worse instead of being better, but this is not true.

Yes, I can not deny the fact that these meds, including zoloft, produce side effects but that’s only because it takes time for your body to adjust to it and the side effects come earlier than the beneficial effects.

Antidepressants usually take 4 to 5 weeks to start making noticeable changes in your system. Just try to give your body enough time and I’m sure it will work out for the best.

Know that you’re strong enough to push through it

As I said earlier, the treatment of depression is not easy and it comes with multiple side effects including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of libido, loss of appetite, weight gain, drowsiness, insomnia, fatigue etc.

These side effects vary from person to person and usually begin to fade away within 2 to 3 weeks of treatment. Just know that you’re strong enough to push through the pain and get rid of depression, for good.

Remember that your loved ones need you

Always remember that there are people who need you and care about you, people who want to see you happy and at peace. Be it your friends, family, spouse or children, you have to be there for these people, but you can’t help or support anyone if you can’t help or support yourself.

In order to do that, you need to fight through depression and take your treatment seriously. There’s nothing to be worried or scared about.

Talk to your healthcare provider and discuss your symptoms. Your doctor will start from the lowest effective dose of zoloft and will gradually increase the dose. It will increase the level of serotonin in your body, which will help relieve the symptoms of depression.

Why do people need motivation?

People need motivation to start taking zoloft or any other antidepressant because they fail to realise the severity of their condition. Depression is often mistaken for over thinking and unnecessary mood changes but that’s not true.

Depression is an actual mental illness that is often frowned upon. If you suffer from depression, I am sure you have some people around you who tell you to cheer up or stop overthinking, but they fail to realise that it is not a choice you make.

Depression comes unannounced. Over a decade or two back, people including healthcare professionals believed that depression always has a reason. Years later experts revealed that this is not the case. Depression can be seen in people who have everything they could possibly ask for.

They have wealth, children, friends, happy marriage, good friends, a house of their own, literally everything, but they are still depressed.

Mental health illnesses are the most researched topics and experts have tried researching on various mechanisms which can lead to these conditions.

They discovered that depression comes from within. Even if everything is good in your life, it can still hit you and make you vulnerable to isolation and self-harm. When it comes to the treatment of depression, people consider it a big deal.

Some actually get offended if you tell them they need to go to a mental healthcare provider. Having depression does not mean that you’re abnormal and need psychotic treatment.

It is just a condition that occurs when you start becoming deficient of excitatory neurotransmitters in your brain. They modulate many psychological functions including your mood, memory, reward sensation, cognition etc.

When these chemicals are not present in sufficient quantities, you feel tired, hopeless, worthless, your life seems pointless and you feel like quitting. You don’t want to engage in work, go out with friends, be intimate with your partner or spend time with your parents.

You just need to be alone. So, why are antidepressants important for you? These meds increase the amount of above mentioned neurotransmitters. If we specifically talk about zoloft, it increases the amount of active serotonin.

This helps relieve the symptoms of depression and you feel like your life begins to go back to its normal state. You can literally feel your energy levels boosting and you start wanting to do all those things again from which you distanced yourself.

Common side effects of zoloft

Common side effects include:

Loss of appetite
Tiredness
Feeling angry or agitated
Weight gain
Inability to digest food
Nausea
Diarrhoea
Loss of libido
Sweating/Night sweats
Tremors or shaking
Insomnia
Decreased sex drive
Impotence
Inability to ejaculate

Zoloft, sometimes, causes serious side effects. Consult your healthcare provider as soon as you can if these symptoms occur:

Seizure/convulsions
Eye pain with vision problems
Headache
Confusion
Agitation
Memory problems/Dementia
Severe weakness and inability to move

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed motivational tips to help you start using zoloft. Zoloft is an antidepressant, which inhibits the reuptake of serotonin by blocking serotonin transporters (SERT). This results in increased amounts of active serotonin in your body.

This excitatory neurotransmitter helps modulate mood, cognition, reward, learning, memory, and various other psychological processes. It improves sleep quality, increases appetite, boosts energy levels, reduces the frequency of panic attacks and much more.

One major thing you need to know about antidepressants is, they do not treat depression instantly. These meds take time to start producing noticeable changes, usually around 4 to 5 weeks.

The side effects come way earlier though, but they begin to subside within 2 to 3 weeks of treatment. Make sure you take zoloft regularly as recommended by your healthcare provider.

Set up your mind and weigh the pros and cons. Depression, if left untreated, can cause complications, one of which is suicidal behaviour. It’s advised to start your treatment as soon as you can, once your depression has been clinically diagnosed.

FAQs: Zoloft motivation

Does Zoloft give motivation?

Zoloft increases the amount of serotonin which enhances mood, energy levels, motivation and helps relieve depression symptoms.

Does Zoloft cause laziness?

Yes, zoloft can cause laziness, fatigue, drowsiness or dizziness during the first few weeks of your treatment. These side effects begin to fade away once your body adjusts to the med.

Why are SSRIs overprescribed?

SSRIs are used for many other health conditions, other than depression. They can be used for depression, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder (SAD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many more.

Sertraline (zoloft), for instance, is used for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and has off-label uses to help relieve the symptoms of Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and neuropathic pain associated with diabetes.

Does your brain go back to normal after antidepressants?

Your brain does go back to normal but it depends on the duration of your treatment and the dose at which you spent that duration. People with long-term use of antidepressants at higher doses, can take upto 9 to 12 months to go back to their normal mental health state.

How do you know antidepressants are working?

The simple answer: When your symptoms start to subside. Depression is commonly associated with feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness, irritability or frustration, even over small matters.

You simply feel relieved from above mentioned symptoms. When you feel happy and satisfied, when you feel like engaging in your favourite activities and when you start feeling like being a part of your social gatherings again, you know your medicine is working.

Does Zoloft change your personality?

Zoloft can fix your personality if your depression has ruined it in one way or another. Some people become agitated when they suffer from depression. They isolate themselves and stop hanging out with their friends and family.

They stop engaging in their favourite activities and don’t even feel like leaving their house. This long-term isolation, anxiety and overthinking can mess up a person’s brain.

Zoloft, an antidepressant, fixes these depression symptoms. Over time, people start feeling better and start engaging in normal activities which seemed nerve-racking during the episodes of depression. This is how zoloft affects your personality.

References

Welmoed E E Meijer et al. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2002 – Adverse events in users of sertraline: results from an observational study in psychiatric practice in The Netherlands. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12512241/
G MacQueen et al. CNS Drug Rev. Spring 2001 – The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline: its profile and use in psychiatric disorders https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11420570/
D Murdoch et al. Drugs. 1992 – Sertraline. A review of its pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, and therapeutic potential in depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1281075/
A L McRae et al. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2001 – Review of sertraline and its clinical applications in psychiatric disorders https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11336629/
Singh HK, Saadabadi A. – Sertraline https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547689/

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How to motivate yourself to start taking zoloft?