Posted by dancingstar on October 16, 2004, at 2:53:37
In reply to Re: Help for withdrawal, posted by nsr on October 14, 2004, at 18:19:52
After being given some samples and then a prescription for Effexor by a family practitioner, I took it for three years, and on the basis of an overwhelming gut instinct I stopped taking it two weeks ago as of last Wednesday.
I am not now, nor have I ever been chemically depressed. The doctor that gave the drug to me was a family friend that I have known since I was three years old. I didn't have a regular doctor; so when I had bad back pain, I went to see him. Since I worked out a lot, I thought that I must have had a bad back injury of unknown etiology. It wasn't until over two years later that I found out through my current internist that what I really have is fibromyalgia. My internist never told me to stop taking the Effexor; so I continued to take it until I something came over me, and I knew that it had to be the cause of at least my weight gain if not some of the other problems I was having.
Stopping taking Effexor was possibly the most painful thing I have ever done, and I've done some painful things. Has anyone done Krav Maga? :-) Maybe they put something in it, like nicotine, to make it difficult to stop taking it, but without eqivocation, it is a vile drug when you stop taking it. Nothing emotional about this, guys. Purely physical, honest! The last couple of days I've been feeling better, not as nauseas, and I'm finally out of the bathroom. Until now, though, I was only good for about two or three hours a day before I was too sick to be able to do much of anything. My happiness factor that has increased enormously since I've been off that silly drug, which brings me to one of my main points. Family practice docs shouldn't be prescribing that stuff, and drug reps shouldn't be hawking their wares in the offices. My internist congratulated me on "getting that poison out of my system." I completely agree with him.
That's the second disaster that the family malpractice doctor got me into, though. The first mistake in judgment that he made was when he had the pharmceutical rep for Oxycontin literally talk me in to taking the drug in the waiting room while he was seeing patients. I resisted. I didn't think it was a good idea. I asked about my getting better, if I didn't want to stay on the drug, and she assured me that I would have no trouble getting off of it if I felt better, that only people that abused it had a problem when they stopped taking it. Then the two of them assured me that this was the best medication for me to be on for the rest of my life.
Now, I'm a woman that teaches kickboxing for fun. I run a very successful small business, and I'm now going to a university for a third career because it's one that I've always wanted to try my hand at....Oxycontin???? But they were two of them, and I trusted him; so I did it. I had to go and quit taking that all by myself, too. (The Effexor is definitely more painful.)
AND to make matters worse, he was so embarrassed about it -- either that or afraid the he would get in trouble? -- that when my private disability company showed up at this dude's office, he denied prescribing the drug to me and made me look like an idiot altogether. Why would I even go to a doctor that would either lie or not stand by me? No, I didn't do anything, just sacrificed the $3,000 plus a month in disability insurance because he is my best friend's brother, though in retrospect I don't think he should be practicing medicine for the sake of anyone's health.
Well, now that I'm done ranting here, to add to the list of "help for withdrawal" -- I've been through a lot with meds and didn't even want to deal with Dramamine at this point. I actually had to be talked into buying some Pepcid for my stomach pain which I am sure now has a giant hole burned into it -- The Omega-3's do work. I like the Nordic Naturals. It is kind of lemon-based. You might try 5-HTP. If you have fibromyalgia and the pain is so bad that even your eyelashes hurt and by some miracle you can get Theramine which I don't even think officially exists, you are very fortunate indeed. But it is wasted in my oinion, unless you take it on a completely empty stomach, something like two hours before and after eating, and no, it doesn't make your stomach hurt. And lastly, because I get the feeling that my adrenals are fried, I'm going to try the Enzymatic Therapy "From Fatigued to Fantastic" program because of its emphasis on vitamins A, B Complex, C strenghtening the adrenals, lots of water, and low sugar.
One last thing, a question: Did anyone else notice that as soon as they stopped taking Effexor they stopped craving either sugar or sugar substitutes?
I'm sure that it is possible that this is a good drug for someone that really needs it, but it is being marketed towards the general public. Anything that has such serious withdrawal cannot be harmless; so one better really need it if one is going to take it, and that is neither the way it is marketed nor prescribed. And if you are thinking of quitting, just do it. Don't drag it out. Mentally, I feel fantastic. Physically, at 2 1/2 weeks, I'm 90 percent. Don't let the mental part scare you, IF YOU ARE FEELING HEALTHY TO BEGIN WITH, and you're just going to have to live through the physical part. Nothing will make it better. You will just make the pain last longer if you drag the whole thing out, but it won't be any less painful.
May the Force be with you!!!
poster:dancingstar
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041012/msgs/403739.html