Posted by Sea on September 20, 2001, at 22:48:50
In reply to Re: I need some very possitive feedback!!, posted by Linda Rose on September 19, 2001, at 21:43:26
Hi Linda,
I really understand your concern about taking Effexor, but would urge you to give it a try. I was in a similar situation about 6 weeks ago. I had just started Effexor XR (37.5mg) when I found this board and read all of the negative posts. It scared the s#*t out of me! I kept on reading and found several positive posts and a few people reminding us that negative experiences tend to get posted more often than the positive ones. I also read some of the papers on effexor clinical trials and decided that I needed to give it a reasonable trial. I had previously taken zoloft, which pooped out after 8 or 9 months, and wellbutrin which began to lose its effectiveness after a couple of years. I had been sliding down into that pit again and desperately needed to find something that would work again. I am now at 150 mg/day and feel really good. I am soooo glad I stuck it out! I haven't had any really bad side effects with it. I had some nausea the first couple of weeks, but being careful to take the effexor with food helped. While a number of people report effexor to be activating, it made me very sleepy within an hour, so I switched to taking it at night. My major problem has been with sleep, which seems strange since it made me so sleepy. Although I could fall asleep, I woke up frequently during the night. My mood began to lift a little even at the low dose, but I was exhausted and pretty much non-functional. My Dr. added trazodone at night and that helped the sleep. I continued to increase the effexor slowly and by the end of my first week at 150 mg I felt great! I'm going to stay at 150 mg/day until I see my Dr. next month, but will probably push it a little higher to see if there is any more mileage to be gained. While we all differ in our responses to these drugs, effexor has worked well for me.If you decide to stay with the effexor, I would urge you to work closely with your Dr. and make sure you get up to a high enough dose. While I had some minor gains at the lower doses, I didn't really begin to feel it until I had been on 150 mg for a week.
I hope this has been helpful.
SeaP.S. Here are some recent positive threads on effexor:
Beginning my fourth year... Mud 9/2/01
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/77421.htmlLove that EFFEXOR XR!!! Firebabe1 9/6/01
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/78069.htmlHas Anyone had a good experience with Effexor XR? Katey 9/17/01
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010917/msgs/78958.html
poster:Sea
thread:79116
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010917/msgs/79198.html