Posted by chemicalxkisses on December 19, 2004, at 18:41:28
Hi, I was searching for stuff on Effexor withdrawal and came across this site, and it's really interesting. I'm eighteen years old, in my first year of college. I first started having problems with depression when I was twelve, and told my parents I needed help when I was fourteen. I tried St. Johns Wort first, which, of course, was totally ineffective. I started psychotherapy and Zoloft. This worked for about a year or so, and then I started getting depressed again. So I tried Celexa, Paxil, and Wellbutrin, before finally settling on Effexor XR, which has worked pretty well. I was given Provigil and told to "take as needed" for my oversleeping. Later in the year, after I began seeing a new p-doc and went through a battery of tests (sleep study, MRIs, neuropsychological studies, etc), I was diagnosed as bipolar, and immediately came off the Provigil, which was seriously screwing me up. I was prescribed Depakote in addition to the 150 mg of Effexor I was on. Last year, I quit Depakote cold turkey, I'd only been on it for a couple months, because I felt like it was taking away too much of my personality. Not a smart decision to make without telling anyone, but that's what happened. And since then, I've been totally episode free for over a year. I wonder if maybe the interaction of Effexor and Provigil caused what appeared to be bipolar rapid cycling. Anyways, I finally told the doctor, and he was a little disappointed in me, but it worked out okay, and I am now, very slowly, tapering off Effexor.
At the moment, I'm done to 37.5 mg. I was greatly encouraged to read about "brain shivers," because all this time, I never knew what to call it, I just knew it felt like a weird type of dizziness, like there was water sloshing around back and forth in my head for a second. I thought I was just weird. I've experienced brain shivers on Zoloft and Effexor, after missing even just one dose, which sucks. Once, I didn't take my Effexor for three days, and I was having cold and hot flashes, brain shivers every few minutes, and nearly falling down the stairs as a result. I guess I'd just like more information on all this, it sounds like Effexor has a somewhat notorious reputation around the online communities. Anyways, I'm sorry this was so long! Thanks for reading.
poster:chemicalxkisses
thread:431795
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041217/msgs/431795.html