Zoloft and memory loss/brain fog?

I just started taking 25mg of Zoloft for anxiety also. I had been taking 1mg of Ativan but it stopped working and I refused to increase the dosage. At first, Dr. prescribed the Zoloft and .5mg of Ativan IF NEEDED. The first week I had to take the Ativan a few times to calm the anxiety. As weeks went on I totally forgot about the Ativan. The anxiety just began to disappear. I am stunned. I resisted the Zoloft as I had a bad experience with antidepressants many years ago. But Dr. was right, it has help so much. I still do not want to have to take it but until I can find the reason for my fainting spells (which is the cause of the high anxiety) I will. I can't say I experience any brain fog from it. At least not yet. But if so I will keep your experience in mind for reference. I too have memory problems, have for couple of years now, but it hasn't gotten worse. Could it be interacting with another of your medicines to cause this? I will be interested in reading other's responses. I too will never increase my dosage of this. If it stops working at the 25mg, I will stop taking it.

Thx! It’s very helpful to hear others’ experiences. I’m not on other meds that should interfere but you never know. I am also having some unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects that I’m hoping will subside.

Hi, I too take zoloft and clonazepam. Due to 4 surgeries last year I am having terrible brain fog, memory issues, GI too. They bumped me to 200 sertraline from 50mg I took for vertigo . Now it's for depression. We r all different. I think my issues are from 20 years of clonazepam. Once I cleat clonazepam dr will lower sertraline, Zoloft

I was on Zoloft years ago after a miscarriage that landed me in the hospital with sepsis on a ventilator. I was suffering from terrible memory loss -- some of which was initially from being on the ventilator. But that initial severe memory loss resolved, and I was still experiencing memory loss that was interfering with my daily life. I asked my pulmonologist (who is also a psychopharmacologist) about it and he asked what drugs I was taking. I told him Zoloft and Zyrtec (an OTC allergy med). He told me that both drugs are known for causing memory loss and suggested I discontinue both. I went off of both and memory issues resolved! Hope this helps...

Very helpful, thank you!

Yes, I had brain fog. As I tapered off the Zoloft, the brain fog disappeared.

Response to lgerkin
Zoloft is one of several antidepressants that I was prescribed over a period a about 2 decades, and as with the others, it also did not address my major depression nor did my body respond well.

Like you, 25 mgs of the generic form sertraline was the dose. I've posted on this site in detail what the drug put me through and what I experienced while tapering with the help of the psychiatric nurse who had prescribed it. It took MONTHS to go from tapering daily doses to tinctures of the drug, and I did have regrettable episodes, everything from brain fog to memory "blanks" to losing track of time, loss of appetite and senses of smell and taste, nausea, and unable to focus (which was serious since I was teaching secondary and graduate school, so I stopped the graduate teaching and struggled with teaching 6 classes a day to classroom filled with 30 to 32 teenagers). What I regret most about Zoloft: that it lingered in my system and caused me to feel so horrible during our younger daughter's wedding. I struggled to smile and get through the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and the celebration at a beautiful Cade Cod manor. That was in late October about 12 years ago. The wedding photos show me dancing, smiling, mingling...yes, I managed to hide what was going on inside my brain and my body, while the entire time feeling as if I were in an out of body experience looking on to what was happening, fearful that I'd "lose it" and collapse and ruin our daughter's wedding day. I will never put myself through anything like that again. I was also undergoing brain demyelination, which went on for years. Goodness knows how the antidepressants contributed to or exacerbated that condition (which I'm still coping with and only recently received an unsettling diagnosis).
My point: Not everyone's experience with "getting off" a medication is anywhere similar to another person's. That's why I have not given specifics on how to taper; my strong recommendation is to do so with the guidance and supervision of a trusted doctor. I recommend a neurologist or the professional who prescribed the medication.

Best of luck to you as you journey through the task of getting of the medication.