Posted by Lokisdream on January 24, 2004, at 14:49:51
In reply to Re: How long would these withdrawal symtoms last?, posted by readingboy on January 14, 2004, at 23:35:36
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> Wow. It's good to find a group to discuss these issues with. I couldn't imagine going what I went through without finding these posts.
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> I've had a difficult time with my psychiatrist and decided to stop seeing him and find another. Previously, he prescribed Effexor XR and I've gradually gone to 150 mg. dosage, which did wonders for my depression and pain through my break up and divorce (a couple years ago). I stopped going to my psychiatrist recently, thinking that I'd find another soon enough. It hasn't happened and my prescription ran out yesterday morning.
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> Holy Mother of God! -- brain-flashes, dizziness, a slight nausea, and my skin began to feel electrified. I wasn't warned about these being side effects (not that I remember several years after being prescribed it), but knew it was Effexor withdrawal. It came on struck increasingly over a few hours. I didn't notice at first, the main is the dizziness and brain flashes, which happened when I'd move. When it really began to hit, I had to excuse myself from work. There wasn't any way I could be in public feeling like this.
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> I went home, found the phone number, asked my former psychiatrist for help telling him what I was experiencing, got a refill, and several hours later I'm recovered from the symptoms. It really scared me. I couldn't last a day of normal life with the intensity of the effects when they hit full force. I don't understand how I made it to the pharmacy and back (I walked since I couldn't trust myself driving).
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> I'm so glad to see others are working their way off with success. Really, finding this board helped immensely. I think with my divorce passed and things in my life beginning to look better, I'm probably ready to try life without Effexor XR. I will find another psychiatrist and ask to be taken off this medicine. To be fair, Effexor helped lift my depression and allowed me to live my life at a time when I was worried I couldn't. But now that things have improved, I don't want to stay on this drug forever, but the withdrawal symptoms are startlingly bad for me. If there was no way to get off but go through days of that, I would be taking Effexor for the rest of my life.
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> I now see that lowering the dosage gradually (it wasn't clear about the dosages and length of times though) along with taking mini-dosages of Prozac as needed is helping some work their way off it. I will definitely suggest this to my new psychiatrist if he or she is unaware of the process.
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> Thank you all for posting. And thanks Dr. Bob for putting this site up. You all have made a frightening episode much less scary in posting and explaining a lot of things.
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> -- readingboy
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> Ye Gods! So many people with such similar problems with the same stuff. I have 2 brothers-1 is a GP and the other is a counselor. A family has to have a black sheep so here I am. I am an epileptic taking Dilantin and Neurontin with mild tinnitus and slightly bad knees. I cracked when I found out my wife of less than 6 mos. was sleeping around and left me. Bro.#2 hooked me up with a nut who's answer for everything seemed to be take another Effexor. The tinnitus got almost unbearable but I didn't know what was causing it. My depression was still present but I just can't feel it-or much else-and I have open wounds that wouldn't heal because I couldn't feel them. I told Bro#1 that I didn't think it was doing any good and he said 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone.' Understatement. So I kick it and almost immediately start having seizures,every nerve ending felt scraped raw,at times have had trouble remembering my name,and ringing so loud can't hear much,needless to say, sleeping is out of the question. But, I can feel the pain, and life is nothing but different kinds of pain. It's our choice, hopefully. I have no ultimate answer. Just a warning-be very careful, esp if you have a seizure disorder or any form of tinnitus. It could be very unhealthy for your dr. LOKISDREAMp.s. There may be an upside to this-I've dropped 35+ pounds in around 3 months(gets kinda fuzzy back around Oct.) from forgetting to eat-I didn't feel hungry.
poster:Lokisdream
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040122/msgs/305064.html