Posted by bleauberry on January 9, 2014, at 17:43:26
In reply to Ok this is the thread! Trouble coming off Effexor, posted by ander35 on January 4, 2014, at 13:29:53
Just so you are aware, effexor is usually one of the most difficult antidepressants to get off of. There is suspected indirect connection with the opioid system which may play a role there. But effexor notorious for nasty and lengthy withdrawal symptoms. Oh sorry, that's not politically correct. Discontinuation symptoms. Ok. Whatever. It sucks for sure whatever one wants to call it.
Wow you did great with the cigs! Wow. Nice. I did not get the sense in your post how great of an accomplishment that is. Huge pat on the back!!! Nice.
I don't think the nicotine withdrawals are much involved at this time. It is the effexor.
You don't have to suffer the torture. Here is a way to make it smoother. It takes a while, plan on a couple months, but will be so much less torture you can get on with your life while getting off effexor without much torturous distraction.
Is it immediate release or time released? If immediate, that's easy, you can just make any custom size off a pill you want....a quarter, a half, an eight, a crumb, two crumbs, whatever. If a capsule, the little beads inside are enteric coated and the medicine is inside those beads. You can count out the beads for exact dosing. For example, let's say you counted 200 beads in the capsule and it is 20mg. Ok, so 10 beads is the same as 1mg. Now you can count out whatever dose you want, sprinkle it on applesauce or anything soft, swallow without chewing. You'll have to count for a starting point. If instead it is a tablet, then by breaking it up it will become regular release instead of time released. Crush it to powder and then you can make custom doses.
Once you've got that, then just an example of a dosing schedule might look like this:
Day 1 20mg
day 2 19mg
day 3 18mg
day 4 18mg
day 5 18mg
day 6 17mg
day 7 17mg
day 8 16mg
day 9 15mgThe idea is to take tiny steps down, settle for a few days somewhere to stabilize, then just keep going. No rush, no hurry, methodical and patient. A couple months later, you will be free and will not have had much pain getting there. Plus, you avoid the risk of snapping the brain into some bizarre place with all the chaos of a rapid withdrawal.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1057774
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140104/msgs/1058138.html