Posted by MaryG on April 3, 2003, at 8:07:37
Hi -
I've been on Effexor for a couple years now. I think I was at 225 at the highest point, but didn't stay there for long - cut back to 150 which felt better for me.
I've been having lots of sleep problems - enough so that my doc sent me to a sleep doc, I did the whole sleep lab thing (twice) and he thinks I have narcolepsy, he put me on meds for it and they do help a lot. I didn't doubt what he said, because I think my father has narcolepsy, and I was having problems before the Effexxor, but just not as bad. The sleep doc thought that maybe the Effexor was contributing to my problem, so he had me go off it. I went to 75mg for a week, no problem, then 37.5 for a week, then tried doing every other day and started getting those horrible things that I have seen people here talk about - the "brain shivers" or whatever they are.. for me, if I turned just my eyes to the side I would get these terrible electrical jolts running through my face and down my arms to my fingers. Freaked me out, so I stopped doing the every other day thing and I have been at 37.5 for probably 3-4 months now.
I talked to my PCP, told her about the withdrawal symptoms and she looked at me like I had two heads. Luckily for me, she is very cool, she seems more like a friend than a doctor, so she didn't just dismiss my comments - even tho she thought I had two heads she believed me ;)
So she gave mne a script for one more month of effexor at 37.5, then another 30 pills, and the intention was to start taking one every other day, then 36 hours, 48 hours, three days, then finally go off.
Well, it ain't working! ;) I still get those terrible electrical things when I miss a dose. They freak me out, and I end up taking my next dose.
I read a post here about someone opening the capsule and removing some pellets every day, I might try that.
But what I think I really have to do is just quit - cold turkey. From various posts I've read here, people say that the worst of the withdrawal is over in 4-7 days. Do other people agree with that??
I am having surgery on my hand on April 18th. I'm not sure how long I will be out of work, I figure at least a week, maybe two. So I'm thinking this might be the best time to just go cold turkey. I'll probably be pretty out of it anyway, will get some pain killers so maybe I'll just be sleeping a lot, especially the first 3 days or so. So maybe I'll feel so crappy that the withdrawals won't really affect me too much. Besides, I'll be home and can just lie on the couch and not move my eyes.. a luxury that I wouldn't have if I was trying to get off while I was going to work every day.
So - what do you think? Is that a good plan? I am at the point where I am almost wanting to say I will stay on this med for life, because going off it is so terrible. But - there is no way I can do that.. if going off it is this bad for me, then what the heck is it doing to my brain??
I have to get off it, but the withdrawals are killing me. If anyone has any feedback on my "plan", or advice for making the withdrawals easier, or any other advice, I would love to hear it!!
I'm also interested to see if my sleep problems just go away after I get off it.. maybe I don't have narcolepsy at all!
thanks -
Mary
poster:MaryG
thread:215729
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030402/msgs/215729.html