Posted by RealTim on July 1, 2003, at 0:03:36
In reply to Anyone had success on Effexor XR? , posted by jp on October 24, 1999, at 14:59:14
I just wanted to share in case someone else has similar symptoms and wants to quit.
First, I started on Effexor for job-related anxiety. I had been feeling better for 4-6 months when I noticed that even being late for a dose would result in severe withdrawls symptoms. Flu-like in terms of nausea, light headed, dizzy, no appetite. The worst was the sleeplessness, and when sleep did come it was disturbed by vivid nightmares.
It took missing 2 doses to realize there was a pattern, and it was the missed dose. I just figured I had a 24 hour flu bug the first time.
I also had experienced weight gain (180lbs to 200), digestive problems (gas mostly) and sleep problems (not enough of it).
I tried quitting cold turkey when I did my homework on this, but by the 3rd day nausea was so severe I chickened out and swallowed a pill.
Since then, I have gradually decreased my dose from 150mg to 37.5mg. When I went from 150mg to 100mg there was no side effects. Same with 100 to 75. But when I cut down to 37.5 I was feeling intermittent withdrawal symptoms, but nowhere near on the same scale as before.
I did 37.5 for about 4 weeks and then stopped. That was a week ago. At first the withdrawal came pretty strong, but only half as bad as before. Dizzy
After three days it got modestly better, and each day the symptoms would be a little less. The best part, sleep was never that bad. A little rough the first night, but nothing like when I missed that 150mg dose.
So based on another posting this means I am one of 5% of Euro descent who is a "fast metabolizer"?
I'll post again once the symptoms are totally gone.
poster:RealTim
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030624/msgs/238348.html