Posted by King Vultan on March 10, 2004, at 19:22:41
In reply to Just starting Effexor tomorrow. Advice?, posted by greywolf on March 10, 2004, at 17:09:22
> I'm starting Effexor XR 75mg/day tomorrow after about a year of no meds. Over the past 5 yrs I've tried serzone, trazadone, paxil, prozac, lithium, wellbutrin . . . you name it. Each one had side effects that weren't particularly pleasant, and I don't even want to recall the lithium days.
>
> So now I'm starting up again, only this time I thought to seek some thoughts from others concerning what to expect during the first few weeks, and whether there are some practical steps people have found effective in getting through any initial rough patches.
>
> I write all day, so the major negative I've been rather unsuccessful dealing with is fatigue. It seems almost everything I've tried causes me sleepiness or sleep that is not restful. I can handle nausea, but walking around half out of it and nodding off with pen in hand doesn't cut it.
>
> Any thoughts?
I took Effexor on and off for years and found the major problem to be insomnia combined with daytime sleepiness. If this is how you've reacted to SSRIs, there is a good chance you will also react to Effexor the same way. If I had to do it over again, I would be more open to using a sleep aid such as trazodone or Ambien. If I were taking the XR, I think taking it at night might lessen the daytime sleepiness problem, based on my limited experience with it just taking it in the morning (made me sleepy into the early afternoon). Most of my experience was in the old days with the standard release version taken twice a day.Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:323011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040308/msgs/323058.html