Posted by Janelle on July 11, 2001, at 20:27:12
In reply to Effexor XR and feeling slowbrained, posted by pellmell on July 11, 2001, at 20:01:44
Hi,
I've just started EffexorXR and well, it sux so far. I titrated up to 150 mg and felt worse and worse in terms of both depression and anxiety, so my pdoc had me cut back to 75 mg until next appointment.
I am also feeling foggy, light-headed, slow-brained, apathetic, lethargic, yet anxious with racing thoughts at the same time. Weird, huh?!
I hate to say it, and this is based ONLY on MY limited experience with Effexor, but it could be causing your slow-brained "dumbness" as you put it. I'm sure you are NOT dumb; the med may be making you feel that way. I also felt foggy, heavy headed and dumb on Celexa, but was sharp as a tack on Paxil but I think I was on it too long and it lost its effectiveness.
I would say do NOT try a dosage increase without talking to your doctor; if your doc agrees, then go for it (increase to what the doc says), see how it feels before you give up on it. ALSO - 150 mg is the therapeutic dose for EffexorXR, so you probably shouldn't go up much further anyway, at least not for a prolonged time.
Since I got worse as I increased EffexorXR (and the one day I was on 150 was horrible; that day I phoned the doc with an SOS call), I will probably go off Effexor and try something else.
I think I have "problems" with SSRI's that do a lot to norepinephrine. I was better on Celexa, but that's not saying much.
I can't tell how much of my "stuff" is depression versus anxiety. Ackkkkkk!
Good luck, and talk to your doc before increasing the Effexor (or changing dose of any med for that matter!) - Janelle
poster:Janelle
thread:69789
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010708/msgs/69795.html