Posted by John2222 on May 16, 2003, at 1:10:06
In reply to Re: withdrawal » John2222, posted by Paco on May 15, 2003, at 22:06:20
Paco, even though I have been taking Effexor XR for almost a year, I felt better after only 2 to 3 weeks. My dr pretty much insisted I stick with it for 12-18 months so help "retrain" my brain chemistry.
I've always been moody and just more of less accepted it. Prior to Effexor though and shortly after 9/11 I just couldn't get my mind back to the normal keel of life. Little things hanged on and on, and I worried about lots of "what if's" and "whys".
So maybe Effexor or not, I would have recovered on my own after 12 months.
I believe that the reason most of the Effexor stories on these support groups are about the problems, is that we look to support groups and others when we have problems, not when we're doing great.
Not that everything has been perfect, but I don't fear an anti-depressant--certainly I don't fear one just because I'm afraid that I might have trouble 12 months later discontinuing it. Most stories of discontinuing problems have been from someone taking 75 or 150 mg per day and then deciding "that's it" and quitting cold turkey.
Anyway, keep the faith, and don't fear success!
John
> Just wanna say thanks for your post. It's about the most encouraging one I've read here and it's just what I've been hoping to hear. Like you, EXR really helped me, and I'm glad to hear that going off it isn't a complete nightmare for everyone. I'm really not too worried about it myself anyway - I assume it has a lot to do with how you go about tapering and how well your system takes it.
>
> Good luck.
>
poster:John2222
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030514/msgs/226989.html