Life with sertraline a.k.a Zoloft

I first started to feel anxiety around 14-years-old. Feeling nervous during the teenaged years is usually a normal part of the range of emotions for youth, but these feelings I was experiencing weren’t based solely on course work or preparing for a sports game; although these circumstances I’m sure exacerbate my anxiety.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, “about 8% of children and teenagers experience an anxiety disorder.” A conversation with the Director of Psychology and Neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Jennifer Katzenstein, indicates that symptoms of teenaged anxiety can include “worries, feeling irritable/nervous, feeling restless, wound-up, [or] on edge.” These are the type of symptoms I developed and have felt for many years.

As I’ve become more aware of my anxiety and recognized my trauma in adulthood, I believe the pressure had been building up since the day I was born. You see, my biological father was never really meant to have kids, and he made that very apparent through my formative years.

I started seeing a counselor when I was a teenager, around the same time I got my first ever boyfriend in high school. I told myself that it was because ‘my father abandoned me,’ which was partially true, but wasn’t the main reason. The abandonment from my father kicked off a long list of men I would come to be…