Posted by Althea8869 on February 4, 2004, at 20:13:26
In reply to Re: Effexor withdrawal, posted by fastblackZZR on February 4, 2004, at 18:54:02
> you know, information can be our best friend or our worst enemy, depending on the situation. in the case of this board, it's our best friend. you cannot possibly explain to someone who hasn't been there the sickening, vivid nightmares that seem to penetrate your very soul and leave you disoriented. or the uncontrollable crying, feelings of wanting to die, shock sensations in your head, etc. withdrawal from effexor is very real and very difficult. having this board to log into and read allows us the comfort of knowing someone out there empathizes completely. i have gone back and read many of the posts this afternoon. empathy doesn't take the nightmarish symptoms of withdrawal away, but it certainly makes the burden a little easier to bear.
I suspect that for many, this board is as close to a therapist as they might get. Which is both unfortunate and fortunate at the same time. As a scientist(actually mathematician) I would be very interested to find out what sort of useful scientific information could be distilled from all of the postings on this board. So many people tell so much of themselves that the total collected contents of this board would provide as much if not more info than any of those 'double blind/placebo' studies that all of us have read at one time or another looking for hope. I think that the most important conclusion that I have taken from all the reading I have done is that, at this stage of the game, we really know so little about the myriad faces of mental illness and diagnostics for planning treatment. I actually saw my pdoc today and we were discussing the fact that despite all the pharmaceutical options available, the single most successful cure for depression(and many other mental disorders as well) is ECT. Its clinical success rate still is staggeringly greater than any pharmacological/nutritional solution - and many suspect that this will remain the case for many years to come. Interesting.
Anyway, all the best.
poster:Althea8869
thread:1016
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040204/msgs/309503.html