Posted by zinya on November 8, 2003, at 17:43:38
In reply to Re: Effex, then Paxil, Topamx now Nitroglycerin-HA » Mercedes, posted by KimberlyDi on November 6, 2003, at 12:54:23
hi Kim,
long time no post... I've been sabotaged of late by things which at first i thought had no connection to the effexor offramp but now i realize even something as seemingly disconnected as a recurrence of carpal tunnel can be related.
I only had carpal tunnel once before and then too i was in a drug-flux state, that time it was a shift in HRT (due to a stupid health insurance company decision to stop paying for the brand i was taking so i tried the one they wnated me on and it wiped out my estrogen levels, causing me to have to write and my md. too to request dispensation to go back to original HRT -- but in the interim, amid hot flashes etc etc, also my first-ever bout with carpal tunnel, a real bummer... Talk about ZAPS...
Well, now it's back again and, as mercedes helped me verify with an article she found -- i'd already learned 3 yrs ago that studies have shown a relation between carpal tunnel and estrogen ... But also Effexor w/d has one symptom of paresthesias -- which is this realm of nerve-damage problems including carpal tunnel .... Even this week an old injury of a torn ligament from a sprained ankle in 1997 that was horrible, that pain area resurfaced and my chiropractor (who was sent from god, really!) said that that is paresthesias ... Although, much as he dislikes all these drugs like ADs, he was stunned to realize that paresthesias is an SE of Effexor too.
(side note: He helped me to understand something i never knew before. The very name "effexor" comes from the nerves which EXIT the brain to our other body parts. The nerves ENTERing the brain are called "affexor")
anyway, i'm lamed up with carpal tunnel "lock" brace on one wrist, ace bandage for the other, recovering from a week of the foot pain and bad S-I nerve flare-ups, and realizing that the Effexor w/d is probably at least a factor in all this ...
I'm down to 9 mg of Effexor. As those of you i've dialogued with before know, i'm probably the "queen" of gradualness here. Just as i crept up in dose REALLY slowly and started at only half the 37.5 per night for 2 wks before even going to the full 37.5 capsule... etc... I'd had too many bad reactions on other ADs and this my last-ever stab and one more AD ...now that it was wrong too, never again...
For me it was also my heart (rapid out-of-body heart beat just for gardening, as if it was aerobics) plus UNRELENTING sweating that i tolerated for 3 months before quitting. But i started diminishing back on Sept. 3 and i've gone sooo gradually (and maybe ? becuz of that i've had very few of the horrific reactions, minimal brain zaps etc) but i HAVE had this carpal thing ... aargh... Anyway, after 2 months i've gone from 150 gradually down to now 9 mg. But if i skip one night at all, which i sometimes do intentionally now to test quitting, the next day i start to get some zaps late in the day and realize i'm not ready yet for cold turkey although after another week at 9 mgs (a 37.5 capsule divided into 4ths) i AM going to go to 9 mg every other day, then every 3rd day....
What i think explains these zaps -- which someone here asked about -- is that, as i now understand it - rightly or not -- these ADs cause the changes to depression they are designed to do precisely because they literally 'restructure' the brain. They ain't chickenfeed. These aren't like other drugs treating symptoms. They are actually causing brain restructurings. Therefore, going off one means your brain is left to re-restructure or de-restructure or some other quite monumental thing and hence the absolute need for gradualness to the max.
In my own case, i DO think my depression is behind me. And it's possible (?) that the Effexor did do something beneficial and maybe some component of its restructuring served like a mechanic tightening up a loose valve or something and maybe it's sticking with me ... The problem now is just the SE's of withdrawal itself. But i'm frustrated as hell, cuz i'm NOT depressed any more -- BUT i'm so riddled with 'handicaps' - literally - both hands and one feet riddled with nerve pains -- that i can't DO anything... which is its own source of depression cuz i was just starting to be really productive again and now i'm high and dry. Yet there IS a difference. I'm not depressed in that glum, what's-it-worth kind of way. Whether that was a stage of grieving that would have passed with time anyway or Effexor played some role in shortcircuiting it, i don't know, but i'm willing to say maybe it did something of long-term good in a 'mechanical restructuring' kind of way which will stay "fixed" even after i re-restructure on the offramp...
but it's been hell and it ain't over yet...
hugs to kim and all,
zinya
poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031105/msgs/277795.html