Posted by Joey on October 29, 2001, at 18:32:19
I've now written this message twice because I got disconnected, so I'm going to cut to the chase:
1. I'm a twenty-six year old male.
2. My first psychiatrist diagnosed me with depression, due to my complaints about my attraction to alcohol, impulsivity, and my consistency in making small, stupid mistakes, and put me on 75 mg a day of Effexor.
3. I took this dose of Effexor for two years.
4. I saw a psychotherapist and completely stopped drinking (it's been a year and a half).
5. I complained to a new psychiatrist about a year ago about my lingering impulsivity, my being tired all of the time, and my seemingly inability to see reality. This has been normal throughout my whole life. I thought I needed more Effexor, he agreed, and so I went up to 150 mg for another year.
6. A month ago I began to do research into ADD. Made more sense than depression diagnosis. So, I consulted with a new psychiatrist.
7. She diagnoses me with ADD and tapers me off of Effexor. As suggested, I go down to 75 mg for three days, then take first dose of Wellbutrin SR, 150 mg, once a day for four days, then go up to 300 mg twice a day permanently.
8. Withdrawl from Effexor awful, especially when taking Wellbutrin. Extremely dizzy (electric impulses), sick to my stomach, moody, and attracted again alcohol or anything to make my symptoms better.
9. I decide to refuse to take more Wellbutrin. She then puts me on Adderall, a stimulant. Adderall, at a final 20 mg a day, does wonders for my attentional, daydreaming, and insatiability problems, but the withdrawl from Effexor still too much.
10. So, I keep sneaking in 50 mg of Effexor to get rid of the withdrawl symptoms but finally threw them away about nine days ago. Yesterday morning, though, I decide to start taking Wellbutrin again because the symptoms are so bad. It made it worse! Yesterday morning and today I'm extremely moody, dizzy, and a bit nauseous.
11. I threw the rest of my Wellbutrin away.I've decided that if I'm going to come off of Effexor, I'm just going to have to put up with the withdrawl symptoms. But how long is this going to take? I'm afraid of going nuts or something. And how will I know whether these are withdrawl symptoms and not just the fact that I really am depressed enough to need to be on them?
Any knowledge, advice, or suggestions will be appreciated. I did read one of the messages, which suggested small amounts of Prozac to treat the symptoms, but I don't want to take any more anti-deppressants.
Thanks a lot to those who read and responded to this messsage.
poster:Joey
thread:82614
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011025/msgs/82614.html