Posted by Mr Cushing on November 27, 2002, at 12:15:15
In reply to Re: Nikki and Mr Cushing, posted by tina on November 27, 2002, at 10:54:29
Tina, I was on it for closer to 3 months. Put it this way, when I went on Effexor, my head was so screwed up that I really couldn't think straight, couldn't figure out what was going on with me, all I know was that I could barely function anymore and it was scaring the Hell out of me. My PDoc, who happens to be a good friend of mine for about as long as I've been alive, kept telling me that there was something off in my biochemistry and that if I didn't try to resolve the situation sometime soon that there would come a time where I would just not be able to function anymore. Anyways, she was saying that for like 3 years while I was just pushing myself as hard as I possibly could (getting through College, etc.) and making my condition so much worse. So when I called her telling her that something was wrong but that I had no clue what it was since I really can't even form a rational thought anymore, she wasn't surprised.We figured that since my anxiety and panic attacks (of which I was having at least one a day at this point) were probably the most severe symptoms at the time, that a combination of Clonazepam and Effexor would help to alleviate me of those and then we could go to work figuring out what was wrong.
Anyways, to make a long story short, I've been dx'd now as being Bi-Polar I with mixed states as well as having Panic Disorder and Effexor, just combined with Clonazepam and not using any Mood Stabilizers at the time, made me stable enough that we were able to dig deep into my problems and figure out exactly what was going on. I know you've heard that you should NOT take an AD without a Mood Stabilizer already in place if you're Bi-Polar, well, Effexor did work for me IF I timed my doses just right.
The only hard part was getting it into my system (I actually remember that because I just couldn't stop sweating and shaking, it was like I had the flue for 2 weeks) and the withdrawal is complete Hell. But for while I was actually on the medication, it really does work. I think the lab that makes it just needs to figure out a way to help get it into and out of our systems easier.
I stopped because I wanted to test out some Mood Stabilizers (been on Depakote now for about 1 month at 375mg per day) and I didn't think I would be giving it a fair trial while I still had Effexor in my system. Since the MS that I decide on I'll probably be sticking to for a number of years, I figured that it would only be fair to try it out this way. If I didn't, I wouldn't know what to attribute to Effexor and what to attribute to Depakote.
I stopped on Saturday night, after going through a week of weaning down from 75mg every 36 hours (any more in any different of a time frame made me hypomanic) to 3 days at 37.5mg every 36 hours, to nothing at all. The withdrawal became really bad on Tuesday.
poster:Mr Cushing
thread:129393
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/129587.html