Posted by cyclegrrrl on April 12, 2004, at 16:22:18
In reply to Re: How long does withdrawal from Effexor last?, posted by fastblackZZR on March 7, 2004, at 19:33:17
Now two and half weeks off 150 mg of Effexor cold turkey... The bad dreams/nightmares stopped after about 10 days. There is some very minor itchiness, but NOTHING like the first week of when I stopped. My stomach is just a little sensitive, but again very livable in comparison to when I stopped. The body "zaps" occur now breifly maybe once in a day and are much more minor and easier to ignore. I still have a little bit of of that wanting to cry feeling, but am not sure this is all due to effexor, or the reasons I went on an antidepressent to begin with. The main reason I stopped is effexor made it very difficult to sleep and get through the day-- I was waking up at 4 a.m., wide awake and unable to get back to sleep. And that plus the drug caused crippling fatigue that could hit me at any time throughout the day, taking all my focus and energy just to muster up the strength to get through a day of work sitting at my desk. It was so bad I began to fear for my job. That fatigue, I am very happy to report, has totally disappeared since I stopped effexor. I now enjoy a steady state and, more importantly, predictable state of energy. I sleep a solid 8 hours, and for the first time in months need an alarm clock.Getting back to "baseline normal" has been worth every single day of hellish side effects from coming off this drug. I'm not one for tapering because to me that just stretches out the suffering. I went cold turkey to get it all over with all at once. It's been hard, to be sure, but getting easier every day and well worth it getting it over with quickly. Life is much better without effexor, but being a seasonal bipolar sufferer when fall comes around and if I start to feel so down I'm having suicidal thoughts, I will happily go back on effexor because this has been the only antidepressent to pull me out of that black hole. That I will have to go through these side effects once again to get off the drug in the springtime is worth the relief I get from the effexor during the time I really need it. To me, it's all part of the price I pay for having this illness. Granted it sucks. I really do wish there were better chemicals that don't have all these nasty side effects. My hope is that some day there might be. Until then, I guess I'm resigned to go through all this because it's better than becoming really sick and getting hospitalized.
Peace.
poster:cyclegrrrl
thread:1016
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/335627.html