Posted by Emmah on July 1, 2001, at 12:19:37
In reply to positive on Effexor + don't want to stop!, posted by Emmah on June 14, 2001, at 12:18:11
Hi everyone,
I thought I might give you an update.
I saw my doc last tuesday and I told him I had felt very bad with only 3 tablets of 37,5 mg a day. And that I therefor had decided to raise my dose to 4x 37,5 mg. I expected him to be upset about me not contacting him about that, but he just nodded and let me continue my story. So I told him about the noradrenergic effect of Effexor with higher doses and my suspcion that I might be suffering from noradrenaline deficiency. I had found a checklist about the deficiency symptoms at:
http://www.healthsmith.com/hsweb/htm/mood_inventory.htm
My symptoms are mainly in the noradenaline category. He was very interested in what I told him about that and he nosed through the things I had printed for him about it (and asked if he could keep them!). And when I said I didn't want to try anymore to lower my dose, but instead wanted to raise it to maybe 225 mg a day to see if I really need some noradrenalergic medication, he just said "Ok, we could try that for a month." And without any arguing about it he handed me a prescription for 2 months, till my next appointment. I know he is a reasonable person and he really listens to me, but this I had not expected. I expected that I had to persuade him to let me give it a try, but he seemed willing to let me set the course now that I want to go. And he never even mentioned the possible referral to a psychiatrist.
And the good news is: I feel so much better since I went from 150 mg to 225 mg! I have much more energy, I feel like doing lots of things and I can really enjoy being with friends again. Just the second day I already felt good enough to go shopping, on my own! And I had a great time. I didn't even get annoyed when the bus was late and my feet were sore from the hot weather. I hope that this feeling will last and that my doc will let me stay on this meds till I feel I am ready to try to get off them.
Thanks for your advise and all the other info on this board!
Take care,
Emmah
poster:Emmah
thread:66461
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010701/msgs/68615.html