DOSE:	50 mg	oral	Pharms - Sertraline
	9 hits	smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

115 lb

I’ve been on a SSRI for anxiety and mild depressive episodes for about 2 and a half weeks. Paroxetine at 20mg for 2 weeks, then switched to Sertraline at 50 mg for 4 days when this happened. Previous to starting them, I had been a fairly experienced drug user. I had used tramadol (Ultram) and hydrocodone for about 3 years and cannabis for 2, all separately, with no problems. The side effects of the SSRI that I experience are: mild tremors, insomnia, dizziness.

The strains that I smoked were Blue Cheese and Purp.

9pm
Took my regular dose of Sertraline. I was hanging out with 3 friends of mine who were all fairly regular pot users. We decided to hot box my friend’s workplace, which was a small snowcone shack. It’s summer in Texas so it’s hot but the sun had been down for a few hours and the shack had quite a bit of ice so it was maybe 78 or 80 degrees. I hadn’t eaten since about 12pm that day.

10:40pm
We started smoking and passing the pipe around. I had three decent sized hits before I started to feel anything. Just the usual wanting to sway, enhanced senses, and having a good time laughing.

10:45pm
I was about 6 hits in and happened to look down at my hands. The tremors I have from the Sertraline had multiplied by about five. I could barely hold my cell phone or the lighter. I had taken a couple steps to see how well I could walk and was very wobbly, like I had too much to drink. The relaxed feeling with swaying, enhanced senses and slowed sense of time had increased.

Approx. 10:55pm
I’m 9 hits in and very wobbly with even worse tremors. I could barely stand unless I was moving around. I wasn’t worried yet, because I knew that the side effects from the Sertraline would be amplified. I decided to cut myself off because I still needed to make the 8 minute drive home and make it past my parents.

11:00pm
I decided to leave because I was much higher than I intended to be and was inhaling more from being in an enclosed space with 3 other people smoking. I stepped outside and immediately became disoriented. I tripped and fell and could barely stand back up without falling back down. I managed to make it to my car across the street. I became dizzy and just sat in my car with the AC on full blast until it subsided.

[Erowid Note: Driving while intoxicated, tripping, or extremely sleep deprived is dangerous and irresponsible because it endangers other people. Don't do it!]
11:07pm
Began the drive home and made it just fine. I had to concentrate on driving straight and watching my speed. Once I started driving, I realized how burnt my throat was and how short of breath I felt. I was forcing myself to take incredibly deep breaths so I could feel the cool air from the AC going down my throat, I could even feel it in the center of my chest.

11:15pm
Arrived at home and made my way inside. I spoke to my parents and concentrated on walking straight past them. My mom asked me to feed my dogs. I started walking around my kitchen preparing their food and I started gagging like I was going to puke (I cannot throw up because of a nissen fundoplication). I managed to open a blister pack of Onadesteron, a prescription nausea medicine. That stopped the gagging long enough to finish what I was doing and get to my room.

11:20pmish
I turned off the lights and laid down on my back in my bed. The room started spinning and my stomach turned over. I started gagging and spitting up again, my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn’t hold my phone still well enough to read the time accurately. I could barely breathe and was taking probably 80 deep breaths per minute. I laid there gagging, spitting and shaking with the room spinning and sweating profusely for about 10 minutes. The spinning stopped enough for me to stop retching and spitting. I turned over on my side and kept my eyes open which helped stop the spinning some. It felt like my bed was vibrating.

11:40pmish
I fell asleep sometime after this. I had incredibly vivid dreams that I remember upon waking.

4:45am
I woke up still high but had come down quite a bit. Some of the shaking had subsided but was still worse than it was when I was sober. I could breathe again but my throat still burned and I could feel the cool air as inhaled it. I was still sweating but not as much and the nausea was gone. I got a glass of water, drank the whole thing and went back to sleep.

10:45am
I woke up with the sweating and shaking gone. I felt very lethargic and slow but sober. My throat still burned. I ate something for the first time in almost 11 hours, drank about 3 glasses of water and showered. I felt a bit better and the heavy, lethargic feeling went away but the slowness, both mentally and physically were still there. My motor skills were a bit off and I still had a faint feeling of being in a dream-like state.

After this experience, I will NOT be smoking while taking Sertraline or any other SSRI.

Exp Year: 2014	ExpID: 103768
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 18
Published: May 23, 2026	Views: Not Supported
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