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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Denise528 on June 18, 2002, at 15:06:57
Hello,
My Psychiatrist has got me on 2 x 37.5mg of effexor daily for the next month. I have been on them now for over a month but I have messed about with the dose and I don't feel I have got anywhere.
Anyway for just over a week I have taken the prescribed dose consistently and the results haven't been very good. They are relaxing me but I am very drowsy on them and when that feeling passes I just feel really flat, numb, like I'm not alive, it's as if my nerves are numb.
I know that ADs can make you drowsy initially, in the past when I have taken them and they have worked, I have experienced drowsiness but after sleeping it off have woken up feeling alive and refreshed. That just istn't happening with the Effexor and my gut feeling is that they are not working. I can handle physical side affects on ADs but not mental ones.
I have however found, and I have experienced this before, that after I had taken effexor for a week, I missed a day and I felt better than before I took them and better than when I was taking them.
I am now thinking of alternating, taking them every other day, only each time bumping up the dose a bit with the tablets I manage to save up. So first time bump up to 3 tabs, 3rd time bump up to 4 and so-on. By doing this, hopefully on at least some days I can avoid that awful dazed flat feeling and tirate more quickly to a therapeutic dose.
I always feel that if a drug is going to work at the dose taken you will experience some positive effects straight away.
I know that the idea is that you should take them continuously over a long period but I was wonder if anyone else has tried doing this and if so did it work?
Denise
Posted by Terri C. on June 19, 2002, at 11:17:06
In reply to Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by Denise528 on June 18, 2002, at 15:06:57
It's my opinion that if an antidepressant medication isn't showing signs of working within a month, then it isn't going to work. Be cautious in taking my advice, however, as I have had too many bad experiences on Effexor and don't recommend that anyone try it.
Research the internet about this drug and see if there is any information that corresponds to your symptoms and experiences with it. In my case, I found the side effects posted on the web page corresponded to those I had experienced while taking it a year ago. My doctor had not warned me about any side effects beyond those commonly shared with new users. The side effects I experienced were originally documented as "rare" but had been upgraded to "frequent" while I was using it. In the aftermath, there was comfort in knowing that the experiences I suffered through were directly related to the Effexor and not related to being "crazy" as I had originally thought. At any rate, good luck to you. I'm now living in peace on my own and not in pieces on medication.
Posted by Denise528 on June 20, 2002, at 11:51:07
In reply to Re: Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by Terri C. on June 19, 2002, at 11:17:06
Thanks for the advice Terri, I agree with you there is nothing worse than other people telling you that the awful mental side effects you are experiencing are part of the depression and not the drug itself. When the drugs don't work it's like being forced to take poison, only you're the only person who knows it's poison everyone else thinks it will do you some more good if you just give it more time.
And it is comforting to know that other people have shared the same experiences and that it's not all in your mind.
That said, as I mentioned before I know how well ADs can work and am willing to keep trying until I find the right one.From what you say it seems that you do not have any good experiences of ADs to draw upon, perhaps you just didn't hit on the right one, or maybe your depression was caused by circumstances alone.
Denise
Posted by Sleepy Lizard on June 20, 2002, at 22:06:43
In reply to Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by Denise528 on June 18, 2002, at 15:06:57
You are wondering if alternating will work. I have not tried it, although I take Effexor XR. I've read that the serum levels of Effexor do not stabilize until 4 days. That means that if you alternate you will not know the final effect for at least four days. Also it takes several weeks (2 to 6) to know if an antidepressent will work. Also with all the drugs that modify seretonin levels have some similar side effects, but to different degrees, and some go away after a few months. From what I have read, one side effect that does not seem to go away is anorgasmia or delayed orgasm. But, my psychiatrist explained that effexor has a nor-epinephrine effect that kicks in at 150mg (total daily dose). There is also a weak dopamine increasing effect. He explained that seretonin has a way of allowing the neurons to reform their pathways and helps to cancel negative pathways that have been established through anxiety, etc. Hope this is some help. I guess I'm saying that Effexor could be good for you even though you initially have some side effects, and a dose change may help. It seems so individual, from reading the posts. I hope you can find a solution.
Posted by winter on June 21, 2002, at 18:25:02
In reply to Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by Denise528 on June 18, 2002, at 15:06:57
I took Effexor for about a year and half I started at 100mg and the highest was 350 mgs. I know that for me at first it was pretty lousy but I just waited then it felt like nothing. Once it began feeling like nothing however I found out that if I missed a dose I got so sick I couldn't even move. I would have a terrible migraine, felt like my body was dissconneted from my mind by about five feet, too nausues(I cannot spell that word!) to think, cramps all over my body. I would just lay in bed and pray to sleep. I I tried to walk I would walk into things and sometimes fall over. The only thing that would make me better was taking a dose of effexor as soon as I could. Then the next day with next dose I would feel okay again. With a remainder headache. I went through the worst withdrawal getting off of the effexor I was so sick for six weeks. I felt like I was going to die.
Meds effect everyone differntly. Wait to see if it works wait at least 6 weeks. Listen to your gut instict. I wouldn't skip pills not based on my experience but because you are messing with the levels of chemicals in your brain when you do that. If you are depressed and need meds, the chemicals already might be unbalanced. Skipping pills isn't letting the medicine do what it needs to do, and who knows you could make things worse. Mon-thur your body expects something then fri it doesn't get it who knows how it is going to react? We just dont know enough to mess around like that.
This is just my opinion.
Winter
Posted by Denise528 on June 22, 2002, at 8:02:44
In reply to Re: Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by winter on June 21, 2002, at 18:25:02
Hello Winter,
Thanks for giving me your opinion and I agree, what I am doing istn't a sensible approach but my gut feeling now (and this is based on past experience when the drugs have worked) is that they are not going to work on 37, on 74 or on 150 but they may work on 200. I am not prepared to waste time feeling droned out and lifeless, gradually trirating (don't know how to spell that one) going up to what may or may not be a therapeutic dose.
So why not try and hit 150 straight away and then after 4 days go up to 200, I am only toying with the idea of doing this as I know there could be risks.
So far I totally empathise with your experiences on this drug, for instance, I missed a day yesterday and today am feeling really tired, starting to feel sick but I prefer the crappy physical feelings to the unemotional, dazed feeling that I get when I consistently take 2 x 37.5 a day.
I often wish that I was a psychiatrist and that I could prescribe my own drugs, that way I could use Dr Jensons system of trying a drug for three days, having a three day break, trying something else and so on, then when I had finished I could take the best of the bunch and give the selected ones a proper chance. That way this time round I could have avoided spending six weeks feeling crap on Seroxat, then six weeks of the same with prozac and prothiaden, Lithium etc.
Oh how I yearn for the days when I could take practically any AD and they all worked just as effectively and just as quickly.
Can I ask you what you are taking now and whether you are feeling any better now?
Denise
Posted by Denise528 on June 22, 2002, at 8:15:00
In reply to Re: Effexor, can I alternate?, posted by Sleepy Lizard on June 20, 2002, at 22:06:43
Sleepy Lizard,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Why should it take six weeks to know if an AD is going to work when in the past I knew after a day that the prothiaden would work, I knew after 4 days that the Seroxat was working, I switched from Seroxat to Sertraline and they carried on working. I would be prepared to give a drug a six weeks chance if I could tolerate the horrible mental side effects (which, I hasten to add are not due to just the real depressed me).
I think that if a drug is going to work then you don't get horrible mental side effects with it, perhaps physical side effects but not mental. For instance, when I took Seroxat for the first time years ago, I felt sick, I had terrible diarrhoea, my legs felt weak and I felt in a trance, but at the same time I felt my mood lifting. Funnily enough, this time round I have none of those physical side effects and my mood has sometimes felt worse.
Denise
Posted by Denise528 on June 22, 2002, at 8:30:06
In reply to Re: Effexor, Sleepy lizard?, posted by Denise528 on June 22, 2002, at 8:15:00
I hope I haven't come across as spoilt, ungrateful and impatient in my previous threads, I know that there are people out there far worse of than I am, the fact that I am still going to work and not laid up in bed is a testimant to that.
Sometimes though, when I am surrounded by people at work, laughing and joking and looking forward to things (like I used to), I forget this and just start feeling sorry for myself.
Thanks to both of you for taking the time to respond and offer advice.
Denise
Posted by Sleepy Lizard on June 23, 2002, at 22:38:33
In reply to Re: Effexor, Sleepy lizard?, posted by Denise528 on June 22, 2002, at 8:15:00
Denise, I'm sorry to hear you are having such a bad time with the side effects of Effexor, especially at 75 mg. I had to take 112.5 mg before I got any anti-depressant or anti-anxiety effect from it. And tomorrow I go to 150 mg. I understand that 150-225 mg is the usual effective dose. Also I was told by my pdoc that I should stay on it for 6 months to a year to get the full effect that seretonin can give to repairing the neural pathways. The only reason I mentioned waiting 2 to 6 weeks with Effexor is that it has been common that some of the initial side effects go away. I know how horrible it is to switch drugs and got through the tapering off and back on again. Each time I have done it I've felt worse than before I started the drugs. I think the brain must modify the amount of neurotransmitters that it makes in the presence of the drugs and then when you stop taking the drugs it must take some time to adjust again. It is difficult for me to tell what is causing the side effects. I could not sleep well after a couple of months on Paxil 40mg. Celexa 20 mg did not seem to work at all. The Effexor is starting to work, and I have a little sensory buzz in my feet and arms too (not unplesant though). I hope this helps some.
This is the end of the thread.
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