Posted by A0102 on February 18, 2002, at 0:58:54
In reply to Re: Success with Effexor XR!, posted by Frankie on February 15, 2002, at 1:24:02
Frankie,
Sorry, I have been out of town for the past couple days and I did not want to start a thread and leave it. With that aside, I would like to repeat that the doses of Effexor that I was taking were directly *from the starter pack* up to 75mg/day. The jump from 75 to 150mg/day was under the direction of my (former) pdoc.
>Any antidepressant will not be, and should not be, judged over a few weeks. Especially when someone is playing Russian Roulette with the med!
Ok, I WILL judge an antidepressant over a few weeks if the only thing it does during those few weeks is make me feel as bad as I ever have by being ineffective and adding terrible side effects on top of that! In the case of someone who is suicidally depressed, do you think it would make ANY SENSE AT ALL to tell the patient to ride out an experience with an AD that is making them worse overall?!! Secondly, I don't have any idea where you guys keep getting this self-medicating/russian roulette stuff from. As I've clearly stated, my dosing came directly from the Wyerth starter pack and my pdoc beyond that.
>If you don't want other's advice, you should not be on this site!
I've never hinted that I don't want anyone's advice. I actually feel quite to the contrary, however I do not need anyone who will make false assumptions about my conditions and treatment or try to use me as a bad example.
>Effexor may suck. ( I would not know because I have never taken it. ) I have heard a lot of negatives.
I have no opinion on that, or at least no objective opinion. For me, it was a total mistake, but there are others on this board who seem to do quite well with it.
>But, you should at least consult with your doctor before screwing around with dosages. Unless you don't want to receive any benefits.
This is something you or Sid made up. Everything about my experience with Effexor was strictly in accordance with my pdoc's instruction. I do not claim to have toyed with my dosage and never have. The only thing that wasn't under my pdoc's instruction was my decision to quit. (That decision, by the way, seems to have been the best one in my entire experience with it.)
>I hate to see what you will write back to me, but the other guy and myself are only getting on you because it is dangerous to toy with these medications like this. A serotonin syndrome would likely be an uncomfortable death!
I am not trying to attack anyone with an informed opinion or anyone who took enough time reading my original post to understand the situation. However, when I am accused of the whole self-medication/russian roulette thing, it only shows me that some people would rather respond in a condescending manner with irrelevant statements than actually learn from my experience or try to help. The last statement of yours is a perfect example of this. You are hanging serotonin syndrome over my head for *quitting* an AD??? What kind of sense does that make?
Nonetheless, the point of my original message was that I dropped EffexorXR from 150mg/day and had no withdrawl symptoms. That was it. The reason for the post was to comfort some people who are apprehensive about starting treatment with it because they may think that they are doomed to suffer the withdrawl symptoms that are so horrible for some. I thought it may also be interesting to some who are interested in trying to figure out how these medications function from a neurological standpoint. Perhaps someone is collecting examples or experiences regarding (the lack of) withdrawl in some people and they will find this information helpful. I was not trying to start an argument or get advice on therapy (which I had already discontinued). So if that is how it appeared then I apologize.
As a follow-up to my original post and my experience quitting Effexor:
After the better part of 2 weeks off of Effexor, the only symptom I've experienced is a very brief dizziness when turning my head quickly. It appears likely that after this time and considering the very short halflifes of Effexor and its active metabolite, there will be no other withdrawl symptoms. As far as mood, I feel MUCH better (currently med free!) than I did while taking Effexor and even better than I did even before it. Finally, to the assuredly great relief of Sid and Frankie, I am switching pdocs and I will perhaps get one who does not believe in increasing Effexor doses from nothing to 150mg/day in 3 weeks ;)Adam
PS (to Sid and Frankie): I know the two of you were only trying to help, but please next time try to understand the situation a little better. Seriously though, thanks to both of you for taking the time and thanks for being concerned.
poster:A0102
thread:93710
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020215/msgs/94481.html