Posted by AnneL on March 25, 2001, at 0:43:03
I have been on Effexor 37.5 for one week now for depression and although frequently "jittery" during the day, have found it to be very helpful so far. Medication induced insomnia and anxiety at night are my main concerns and my doc suggested I take Xanax before going to sleep. I take 0.25 of Xanax about 1/2 hour before bed and find I drift off to sleep nicely, but at 1:30 AM I wake up every single night with extreme anxiety, heart racing, and say to myself, "No more Effexor!" because I get so scared. I have to take 0.5 mg. more of Xanax just to calm down! This scenario is repeated every night and takes about 30 minutes to calm down and get back to sleep. Is this a normal side effect of Effexor or am I experiencing a rebound of the Xanax taken before bed? As an experiment, I stopped the Effexor for one day and fell asleep last night without any Xanax but at 1:30 AM I woke up with the one of the worst panic attacks so far! The long and the short of it is that I am beginning to get phobic about going to sleep. My rationale is simple: If I don't go to sleep, I won't wake up with an anxiety attack! Of course, this is not practical. Any suggestions to help me manage? I really want to be able to work with this med because it is working on my depression.
poster:AnneL
thread:57460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010319/msgs/57460.html