Posted by BennyJ on January 28, 2005, at 14:37:31
In reply to Effexor - when to increase dosage?, posted by Jen2 on January 26, 2005, at 14:20:42
Hey,
Even with the right med you will still have some bad days but they will far less common. Two weeks is still very early, dont give up on eff just yet. Since youve already started and are at 75 allow yourself a few months and work towards 150mg but do it very slowly, dont make large dosage jumps. I didn't follow the trial pack directions of 37.5 for a week then 75 the next, the side effects were nasty immediately starting on 37.5 for me so I stopped and started up again going up in increments of about 18mgs (and holding until negative thoughts became common) which was very manageable for side effects. Ideally you want to stabilize, having a pretty consistent pattern of tolerable days...this will take many weeks, for me was 2 or 3 months with all side effects except sweating and some cognitive impairment gone in 6 months. Effexor was the best med ive tried for depression and its got a prooven record for helping alot of people (despite what some posters here will have u believe)keep smilin,
Ben
> Hi all,
>
> I know there's a great debate about Effexor, so without getting into the pro's and con's (since I'm already on it, have had my share of bad side effects, and don't have another appt with the doc until Friday), can someone tell me how long it was before you had to bump up your dosage to feel better?
>
> I've only been on for two weeks today. I started at 75mg (see my earlier post on the pharmacist's screw up) and while I had horrible side effects for the first week, I did have four good days straight until today. Today has been not very fun. I've been crying and feeling very blue - I've got anxiety/depression and am feeling a little out of control re: some school issues that are ongoing for me. I feel like, if I were "normal" I'd be able to cope with things much better than I am today. And I'm starting to get the racing heartbeat and other symptoms that I had before I started the meds. So maybe that means that the Effexor isn't doing it's job as well as it might if I were on a higher dose...?
>
> I know some people stay on low doses for a long while and others need higher doses. I'd appreciate any comments anyone has to make on whether, after only two weeks, I should be upping my dosage.
>
> Jen
poster:BennyJ
thread:448175
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050128/msgs/449238.html