Posted by ST on May 5, 2002, at 4:37:12
In reply to My story of Effexor, posted by SusanG on January 19, 2002, at 21:46:32
I'm responding to a post from a few months ago, but thought this would be a good place to tell MY story of Effexor.
I've been on Wellbutrin and Depakote for years. Various SSRIs have been added to this over the past 5 or so years to varying degrees of success.
In late December, I started out on 75 mg of Effexor XR. I worked my way up to 225 mg. (Sid and MaKi and I had started around the same time) My appetite decreased again after being completely ravenous for a year on Celexa. My mood seemed fine...felt nauseous with each increase in dose, but it eventually wore off. Again, my mood was fine, although my mood had also been pretty stable with the Celexa.
So, after being on Effexor for almost four months, I evaluated things and came to the conclusion that my mood was no better or worse, but my sex drive had completely stopped. Also, now that I was used to my 225 dose and the initial high-ness of the Effexor had worn off, I needed about 12 hours of sleep a night! I was exhausted constantly. In reading the posts, I was finding that this was quite common.
I reported my side effects to my pdoc and he thought I should get off of it. So did I. My doc warned me that discontinuing would be extremely difficult and to do it slowly and steadily. This was almost four weeks ago.
It was pretty easy to drop from 225 to 175 and then to 150. I experienced very little flu-like symtoms and nausea. 150 mg to 75 mg was OK. 75 mg to 37.5 was tough, but manageable. At the end of this past week, I went down to a quarter of a 37.5 mg tablet a day. That's about 9.37 mg a day. For the past few days at 9.37 mg, I have been sobbing continuously. I'm overwhelmed with obsessive and dark thoughts that remind me of when I was unmedicated. Each day that I try to go without the 9.37 mg, I end up light headed and dizzy and give in and take the little piece of pill.
This drug - or the absence thereof - seems to produce a hideous withdrawal beyond the expected physical side effects. Emotionally, I feel like a walking pin cushion. I'm jumpy, sobbing, thoughts keep repeating that are dark and destructive, I'm depressed, my life seems like complete shit. For the first time in a few years, I cancelled work (massage therapist) due to emotional reasons. That day, I was beside myself and hysterical over a relatively benign setback having to do with my career (acting). The emotional withdrawal side effects have been the most surprising. I had no idea.
Today, I did not take my 9.37 mg of Effexor. I didn't have to work, thank god. I feel like I have the flu. But worse, I cried for about three hours. Huge, jerking, gurgling, wailing sobs. Are these the daily emotions "normal" people have, only I've been numbed with medication for the past few years and now simply can't cope? I'm a little confused...Or is it a side effect of going off of Effexor?
I don't have to work tomorow either, so we'll see how sick I get...physically and emotionally.
I must say, it's been kind of a nice purge to have cried so much. I don't remember really crying much while on any of the SSRIs. Anyone experience this? Do the SSRIs numb us? Or do things just SEEM that much more dismal without the drugs due to our chemical imbalance?
Thanks for listening,
Sarah
poster:ST
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105123.html