Posted by txgal on April 1, 2005, at 23:54:26
In reply to Effexor XR vs. Paxil and weight gain , posted by Louise on March 14, 2000, at 23:35:34
> Just got sample of Effexor XR. I've been on Paxil 20mg. for 1 yr. I feel great and my panic attacks are gone. BUT --- I keep gaining weight. I told my dr. to give me something else. Did anyone gain weight on this stuff? Does anyone use this for panic attacks. My dr. told me I could go right from Paxil to Effexor XR, stopping one and starting the other with no withdrawl symptoms. ANyone try it. Thanks for any input.
> >
> Hi. I tried Effexor xr and I felt so much better. I was singing in the morning and felt like a new person. It was great. I wasn't on it for long and for some reason I was put on Paxil. It didn't work for me at all and I was switched back to Effexor xr. It just didn't seem to work like it did before. So the Dr. increased to double. (150) The days that I missed it I felt soooo tired and sleepy. As soon as I figured this out, I didn't miss any doses. I gained alot of weight on this. I don't know how. (But I went back to 75 mg) I also take thyroid rx for my hypothyroidism and also took a low dose of blood pressure medicine for my headaches that I got often. I always had a hard time getting up in the morning and a hard time falling asleep. I've always had scary dreams, so that was nothing new. Actually haven't had them in a long time. I have also not had my period in over a year. I also have a tendency to clench my teeth and have an upset stomach alot. I also noticed that at work when I wasn't busy ( I cut hair) and sat in my chair for more that 30 minutes I was dozing off. I always seemed to be tired. So I increased my thyroid rx to double and it seemed to take care of that. I also heard about the weight gain from depression medicine and wanted to get off it. I tried to stop cold turkey and only lasted 2 days. I was crying and a wreck and very dizzy and tired and emotional. I went to my Dr. today and he gave me some half doses to ween myself off Effexor. He told me that it makes you gain weight. He also gave me some other kind of medicine for my hormones so I can have a period and help my face to clear up. I did go to GNC and get some natural hormone stuff and I think that it is working as seeing as I kinda started a men. cycle. Very light. (Sorry guys) I'll start taking the lower dose tomorrow and hope that I'll do ok. It's hard to figure out if the depression was cause by the hypothyroidism or because of marital problems. I wish I had never stopped taking it the 1st time when it was working so great. It just never seemed to work good again. Same with the synthroid I took when I first found out about that problem. It worked great. Then I quit taking it for armour. Didn't work. Then they put me back on synthroid and didn't feel good like before and so they doubled....then test said it was too high. One of the t's was I think. Hopefully getting off the Effexor I will be able to lose the weight and still feel somewhat ok.
If anyone else has had the problem of no periods, I heard on the news the other night that when you go a long time without a period your body thinks that your are going into menopause and that's when you gain weight. That was good to know. There is a medicine to take that makes you have one but it was too costly. Anyway...I'll update to let you know how it goes.
poster:txgal
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050330/msgs/478788.html