Posted by tactilejones on March 19, 2005, at 21:35:00
Hi,
I stumbled across these postings while surfing for something only tangentially related, and saw the plethora of sublect lines regarding Effexor Withdrawal.
Almost three years ago I was on a very high dose of Effexor, maybe 375 mg/day? The upside of this was that it was fairly effective at treating what I then believed to be typical recurring depression. THE DOWN SIDE was that if I missed a dose one morning, my world fell apart by the afternoon. I would experience flu-like symptoms: aching muscles, extreme nausea (even vomiting one time), and skull-splitting headache. I also would cry, not sure if I was just upset about the symptoms or rebounding momentarily into depression. This all went away with the next scheduled dosing.
Not wanting to have the fear of this possibility constantly hanging over my head, I asked my doctor to wean me off Effexor, but he talked me out of it. Leaving his office having not felt heard, I made an appointment with a new doctor (and never looked back), who did take me off of Effexor. My withdrawal period lasted several days every time the dose was lowered, and about another two weeks when I finally went cold-turkey. Throughout this process, the most alarming withdrawal effect was "brain shivers". These felt like a shock or vibration to the back of my brain, accompanied by brief visual and vestibular (balance system) dizziness, and a chill or shiver down my spine. This might happen while I was talking to someone, and was so brief that they would only notice if I paused to comment on it. Needless to say, however, it was TREMENDOUSLY disturbing and frightening, and made me wonder if I had "experimented" with too many antidepressants and finally taken one that would leave me with permanent side-effects. In fact, I did continue to experience the random "brain-shiver" now and then for weeks after I was off of the Effexor, perhaps with vigorous excercise or when geting up from a sedentary position.
LO AND BEHOLD the "brain shivers" did finally cease entirely after a few weeks. Furthermore, my new doctor looked back over my eight-year psychiatric case-history, and other supporting materials from my childhood, had me undergo extensive testing, and made a diagnosis of ADD, Inattentive Type.
Over the past two years, I was treated first with Strattera, then with Ritalin, and with Wellbutrin as a supporting med throughout. The Strattera did help, but the effects were subtle at best, and had to be based purely on third-party impressions of myself I gathered from others. What's more, it had the unpleasant side effect for me of restricted urination, which other mental-health forums led me to believe might be the result of slight swelling of the prostate. Upon discontinuation of Strattera, this went away completely. Furthermore, Ritalin returned me to a state of well being reminiscent of something I felt I had missed since I stopped taking the Effexor.
These are my experiences only, and will not apply to many others; indeed, if you are bi-polar, taking a Stimulant such as Ritalin can induce mania. Fortunately in my case, after an eight to ten year pharmacological journey, I have experienced growth and stability over the last year of my life (that's a long stretch!)
Hope my story helps shed some light for a few. God bless, and keep on keepin' on.
poster:tactilejones
thread:473010
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050228/msgs/473010.html