[lesliemcfadden]

I am currently taking 150mg of Effexor XR. If I skip a day or lord forbid 2 days, I have severe symptoms. These range from the body/brain shock sensation, sensitivity to noise, dizzy, mental confusion, speech slurring, changes in body temp and severe agitation. Also have GI issues with nausea, gas, etc.

I spoke with my doctor about this and she said she has NEVER heard of anyone having these symptoms. Obviously, after reading these testimonials, I know that other people are experiencing this too.

I am afraid of the long term damage this drug may be causing me and I would like to get off it but I am really afraid of going through these withdrawals symptoms.

Does anyone have any advice?

leslie mcfadden

[glennn]

i'm on 150mg / day XR and have "accidentally" gone cold turkey a couple times (same with Paxil) - what a neurological nightmare. anyway, i found i still needed the good parts of Effexor and went back on. things are nice and smooth, mostly. i guess i'll just live with it. or switch to heroin to detox. good luck to you.

glenn nall

[grumpy01]

I feel for you. I went from 150mg per day down to 75mg per day and finally to 37.5mg for a week. When I stopped the withdrawl symptoms started immediatly. I felt sick to my stomach, became snappy at my wife and co-workers, had a buzzing feeling in my forehead, felt unsteady on my feet, and finally when I looked left or right as far as I could I would get dizzy, and swear I could hear a swishing sound like something flew past me. What's up with that?!?!? I'm on day three of withdrawl and all the symptoms are still there. How freaking long do I have to have this? I'm on 200mg Wellbutrin taken twice daily now but it's too early for it to take affect. I just want to lay in bed until the symptoms disappear.

[mrsanders_pooh]

Started taking Effexor XR 3 years ago--topping off at 150mg. Into my second year I went down to 75mg. The first 3 days I had agitation and dizziness, but finally leveled off--stayed at that for another 6 months. Went down to 37.5 for two weeks and then took myself off completely---and oh my! I thought I bad panic attacks before! The panic attacks where off the scale!!! My skin itched from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, diarrehea, severe chills, shaking, uncontrollable crying, and felt like I would knock somebody's block off!

Went back on to 37.5mg--still panic attacks and foggy feeling--then to 75mg and have leveled off again.

I've done some research and there are lots of longer term damages (liver, kidney, heart valves, etc.) from this POISON!!!

I want off this stuff!!!! Found that the pill form verses the capsule XR form comes in more graduated doses--and the pill can be cut!!! I have a friend that took herself off Paxil and she was able to get that in a liquid form--I'm going to see if Effexor does.

Here are some other excellent sites to get info. on all kinds of anti-depressants:

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/

http://www.drugawareness.org/home.html

Pooh Bear

[sweetgal]

I have been taking effexor for about 6-8 months, my dr. perscribed this because I was always tired and had headaches very often. Now I wish I never would have started taking it. I have just recently quit cold turkey and to me the tiredness and headaches was worth not taking this. I don't want to be on medication for the rest of my life I want to be normal. I just pray that it gets better and the withdrawals go away soon. If anyone has any advice I am willing to take it. Why would my Dr, do this to me?

[relieved]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am going through the same rollercoaster ride as you [xx(]. The best thing that I could have done, which I did, was to get a script for Effexor 25mg and cut them in half. I was on 150mg capsule for a yr and a half. I took 37.5mg less every 2 weeks for 8 consecutive weeks to wing myself off. Everything went fairly good. Felt bad a day or two but ok. Well the drop from 37.5mg to 0 was BAD! I felt horrible as everyone. Well like I said. I'm now on 12.5mg (which is half of the 25mg pill - not capsule) and it has helped BIG TIME! 2 weeks of this and then back to 0 and we'll see. I'll keep you posted. Good luck everyone!

[Gert]

Subject: Effexor, Risperdal, Gabapentin & Trazodone.

While on these medications I experienced: Headaches, dizziness, disorientation, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, slowed speech, retarded affect, gross motor impairment, obssessive negative thoughts, sedation, numbness, flat affect, mild to unreponsive catatonia,weight gain,seizures (mild), blood disorder (the blood hormone GBHT is over producing white, red and platelet cells resulting in a thickening of the blood: a condition known as Polycythemia), caveat: I have not been diagnosed with Polycythemia, however, I mention it here because I have heard of others who have developed blood disorders as a result of Psychotropic drugs and I am currently awaiting a referral to a Hemaetologist, increased irritability, increased anger, suicidal ideation and eventual hospitalization before I stopped the drugs. I can be reached at: onewomanonelove@hotmail.com

[shel65]

I read all the posts above and had to respond for I just finially got off effexor 2 months ago, it took me a couple months to get off of it, and it is wicked stuff, and alot of the doctors Dont know about the wicked with drawl effects, and to me there is a problem, why don't they know about this? I had to tell my doctor, I printed material out off the internet for him to read on the with drawl effects, just so he would stop looking at me like i was a nut or something, i am now back on prozac, it seems to be working fine, i also noticed a total craving for coffee when i was on effexor, i'd drink tons of coffee and smoke like a chimmney, it has a stimulant effect, and makes you crave more, or something, i feel like a changed person just getting off the ****, I thought effexor saved my life at the time i started it, then being on it for a few years and now off, I notice a change for the better, it in the long run did more harm to me then good.

quote:

[Twizted]

Hello,
Your absolutly right! EffexorXR has to be 1 of the worst drugs to get off of! For years My Dr. has been trying to find the right anti-depressent for me! Over the holidays I was on Celexa! ******** I was so aggitated, I thought I could kill someone. I punched the window in my car so hard that I broke my knuckle! Now, I am back on EffexorXR 75.5 a day as this seems to be the only one that will calm me down. No kidding about that! When you can't think properly, means your probably settling down. But, my anxieties are still high! I still have the get shaky. And I'm so tired and feel out of touch! I have tried so many drugs over the 18 years or so that I have been ILL. And none of them seem to work all that great! They work for a while, I relapse and then I have to change once again!Roller coasting for years as not been fun at all for me! I'm a single mom, and try to keep myself mentally alert. My daughter needs me! But when mommy gets upset. She tells me, momy it's just your pills not working right! I do not believe that there is any one right pill out there for me! And I have to learn to deal with that conclusion. ****, I have already been on and off EffexorXR. I just hope that it will work for longer this time before it decides to stop working. All the best of luck to those going on or off this medication! Remember, they all have really bad side effects, and I wish that none of us had to ingest any of them!!! YUK... GOOD-LUCK...Twizted

Hi, I need to know what about Wellbutrin???

[nomoremeds]

I also had to get off this medicine.. did it cold turkey with the help of tylenol PM for 5 days.. i woke up the 5th day and walla it was completly out of my system never went back never touched the junk again.. it was pretty horrible 5 days but worth it once it was over.

[foxx22]

i've been on effexor-xr for anxiety since june last year i think, they started me on 75mg a day. i had to be put on valium for the first few days while my system got used to the drug (it was increasing my anxiety tenfold) and after that it wasn't too bad - except i still had anxiety, so i was put up to 150mg a day a few months later. i noticed that if i ever forgot to take a tablet i'd experience the shock sensations aswell - how bad are they! and like you leslie, my doc has no idea of any of these symptoms other people complain of. anyway just after xmas i decided i was ready to go off the tablets. i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing or not as i seem to be going back to my psycho state i was in before having the effexor prescribed in the first place. i thought maybe i honestly wasn't ready to go off them, but now i'm thinking maybe its just the withdrawals.

anyway i just had to say how bad i feel going off them! i was reduced to 75mg a day for 2 weeks, that went fine, so i then went down to 37.5mg twice a day for 2 weeks. still fine. then i went down to 37.5mg once a day for 2 weeks which also wasn't so bad. i think i was a little irritable and emotional thats all. but $@#!, trying to come off the 37.5mg is proving to be absolute hell. if i don't take the tablet, i get the sever shock sensations, when that becomes too much to bare, i take the tablet (i usually force myself to go at least one day) but when i take the tablet, it makes me ubelievably nauseas and i actually dry-reach for the next 2 hours. absolute hell. so i can't seem to win, if i try stop taking them, i get the shocks, if i take them, i get sick! i'm seriously close to having my boyfriend of 7 years leaving me cos he's getting to crisis point, i'm going nuts! really irritable and emotional (one minute angry the next crying). and i've noticed that for the last 4 days i've had a contstant headache, i wasn't sure if this was a side effect or something completely unrelated.

i was actually considering going back up to my 150mg a day cos i thought the mental issues i'm experiencing were due to the fact that i'm not ready to go off them, but now i'm not so sure. actually, if this hell is all due to getting this drug out of my system, i'm more determined than ever to get off it, i don't see how somthing that has this much effect on me, can possibly be doing me any good in the long run!

if anyone else has any advice for me i'd appreciate it heaps, i've avoided seeing my doctors about this (i have 2 to be safe) as neither of them seem to have a clue about the seriousness of the side effects i'm experiencing. i think i may print these posts off to show them just to prove they need to do more research!

Lauren C.

[Twizted]

Hello,
Hum, I'm very much frustrated also! I almost wish i never went on these pills again! You think a person would learn the first time around. But unfortunately I was in such a mess the last time I was in to see me Dr. That I wouldn't have said no at that moment! ********!
When I'm sleeping I sweat and sweat! I have been having problems sleeping for the last week or so! Only been taking Effexor Xr for a little over 3 weeks now! And when I awake in the middle os the night, I have such cold sweats, it's beginning to make me feel really sick![xx(]. My Dr. is an awesome Dr. but has no idea what the hell the side effects are? Does anyone else sweat as I do?
To everyone trying to go off Effexor. I wish you all the luck!
Bye for now, Jade

EFFEXOR XR!!! Help!!! I can't stop sweating. Has anyone else ever had this problem???

[thedood1524]

I have also had these side effects with effexor and other SNRI (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) antidepressents. These symptons, according to my doctor, is from a sudden drop in norepinephrine and the best way this can be avoided is by gradual step down until you are weaned from the meds

[daveld]

Wow! I feel so lucky to hear I was not the only one. It took me 2 months to taper off Effexor. I had suck horrible side effects while getting off of this med. Ive now been off for 7 years and am doing great. I cut down my dose so gradually and then still felt like complete ******** when I completely stopped (I felt horrible for about 2 weeks). Long process. I couldnt believe how hard it was.
Good luck. You can do it!

STacy

[Jillory]

After reading about Effexor withdrawals you all have me nervous.
In short, I have had FMS for 13 years and lots of depression from a life event in 1984. My doctor has increased my dose over time and now I have been on 300mg a day. (175mg in am and 175mg at night)
[Also, my 14 year old daughter is now on it (75mg/day) for some anxiety issues.]
My depression is not that much better and I feel my life going in a downhill spiral.
So after reading all your comments, I want to just stop giving it to my daughter all together and start tappering off my dose. I don't know where that will leave me after with my depression but by the sounds of your experiences, the medication is to be feared more than the original problem. From your personal experiences,how slow should I go to tapper off? Jillory

[Devinity]

Hey, I hope that you are not totally panicked over this. Some of what is written here is really unnecessarily alarming.

Efexxor is in the same drug family as Zoloft and they have very similar withdrawals and properties. Both contain a chemical that your nervous system adapts to, creating a chemical dependence...an "addiction" of sorts. It's easy to fix by stepping down. Everyone needs to go in different increments to reduce the symtoms. It's no big deal.

Since this is a med usually prescribed for an emotional imbalance like Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD-I get a kick out of the acronym!) or Dysthymia, I have to ask why there are so many people that have been put on it trying to remove themselves from it without their doctor's advice (referring to other posts I've read). Whenever you're on a med long-term like that, don't just stop...always seek a doctor's advice.

In your case, if your doc didn't know about the withdrawal you describe, I would find a different doctor-is your doc a psychiatrist or a simple family doctor that probably shouldn't be prescribing this kind of medication in the first place? You may have a good doctor, but this may not be his area of expertise. After all, no one can know everything about everything. This med is for emotional (mental, if you will) problems, not medical ones, so you should be seeing a shrink, not someone that treats colds and earaches. Please consider doing so...if it's bad enough to be on Efexxor, it's bad enough to warrant the proper attention from a specialist. The taboo of seeing a psychiatrist is all but gone in today's society, so if you need to go, go.

I'm impressed that you figured out that it was withdrawal! When I decided I didn't need Zoloft anymore several years ago and stopped, I was in the emergency room two weeks later with terrible withdrawal, unaware of what the weird symtoms could be...thought I was losing my mind or had some weird disease. I felt like such an idoit describing my symtoms! The doc kept asking me if I was taking anything and I kept saying no (I wasn't taking anything). Finally, I got irritated with the repeated question and said, "Well, I WAS taking Zoloft, but I stopped a couple of weeks ago." He gave me this "Ah-hah!" kind of laugh and explained the withdrawal to me. I got back on a lower dose and stepped down...easy, breezy. Unfortunately for me, I had stopped my therapy and, as a result, did not improve and went through several more years of unexplained depression before being properly treated.

Now, I take Efexxor for Dysthymia (finally got the right diagnosis, I think-it's a hard one to diagnose for the first several years) and occasionally, when I run out (or forget to take it for 2-3 days), I get the same symptoms, but know what it is and get back on.

It's not meant to be taken forever. The idea of any mood-stabilizer, mood-elevator, or anxiety medication is that the patient be in therapy, learning new skills for coping with their life so as to no longer need the medicine. It's like a "donut" spare tire-you only run on it long enough to get the real problem fixed. In my case, assertiveness training has been helpful, but it's different issues and usually multiple issues for everyone.

Therapy doesn't always-doesn't even USUALLY-mean a psychiatrist, either. The trend is for lisciensed therapists, which cannot usually prescribe meds, do the therapy, while psychiatrists only prescribe and monitor the effects of the medicines. I see my shrinnk once every 3 months to see how I'm doing in therapy and how the meds are...if I'm putting or losing weight, sleeping enough but not too much,e tc.

Therapists are equally qualified in most cases to advise, diagnose, and treat emotional duress and anxiety-management through behavior modification. The key is to actually get better, after all, not just feel better. My life has actually improved with therapy, which is much preferred over my life remaining exactly the same while I take a medicine that keeps me from getting too depressed to cope with things as they are. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have to take something for depression or anxiety the rest of my life, but staying at the mercy of the bad feelings isn't a realistic option, either.

If you need the medicine, why get off of it, but if you're not doing anything else, your problem is never going to go away. The question is, what do you want and what are you willing to do to get it? The Efexxor isn't going to kill you, but what good is staying on it forever, anyway? On the other hand, what good is taking it at all if you're not going to change your life for the better while you're on it?

Medicines like Efexxor are not a permanent "fix". They are a tool and you need, in my opinion, to get on a treatment team comprised of yourself (who knows you better than you?), a good therapist (ask your pastor for a recommendation or contact your local crisis pregnancy center or other outreach center or even your insurer), and a liscensed psychiatrist. Get these three experts on the case and, using the med as a crutch to help you cope in the meantime, eradicate the problem(s)!

More power to you as you do, sister!

[Jillory]

Thanks Devinity,
You made some good points and are well taken. I think I have been on antidepressants long enough without really getting to the source of my problem. In '84 my true love died in a car accident at age 24. I felt and still feel so cheated out of love. So I don't know if that feeling will ever go away. I have been married for awhile now, but still have that empty feeling that part of me died with him so long ago. I am thinking that medication is not the answer. My Faith in God keeps me going to some extent and knowing I will see him again some day, but can not shake this feeling in the here and now. My FMS pain keeps me from getting out there in the real world and so it is a bad combination. But you are right! I think I need help other than medicine. Thanks for your time writing. J

[Devinity]

Wow, Jillory-21 years of torment! What a very strong woman you must surely be! If you can deal with what you have been dealing with, you undoubtedly have what it takes to make a complete recovery with the right help and support. Please try to find one person that you can trust that is a professional in the field of emotional health, preferrably someone with a good deal of experience with grief.

If you can't get out enough to find that, have social issues or the like, can you focus your own efforts on grief recovery? There is an excellent book on the process (that's what you're going through) called, "Good Grief!"

The tricky thing about dealing with grief is that you move back and forth through it's stages unpredictably and it's very, very personal-there is no one way to do it. The stages are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Acceptance. I may be leaving one out-it's been awhile since I last read the book, but that's common among all books about grief, pretty much-the stages are accepted as fact in psychology.

Anyway, people don't go through it all nice and neatly, usually. You can spend literally years stuck in one phase, simply not knowing how to get past it, or you can vascillate among the stages for half a lifetime before arriving at Acceptance. There is peace at the end, though.

People grieve over all kinds of things...the obvious, physical death, but also the death of relationships, such as what occurs with divorce, the death of one's dreams, such as what occurs with a dibillitating illness or injury. You may be grieving more than one thing with what you lost...your boyfriend, but more likely the dreams you had with him, the life you had envisioned that you may not see as a possibility any longer. You may even have a guilt issue going on. People that lose close love relations at very young ages tend to feel some level of responsibility, regardless of how realistic it is.

There are a lot of possibilities, which is why you need a good counselor to help you sort things out. You have the answers inside you. What you lack is someone-an expert, not just any ol' body-to ask you the right questions to find those answers and finally-finally!!!!-put things to rest, for your sake and the sake of your husband and family.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is FMS?

[Twizted]

Devinity,
You make it sound as though everyone who had been on Effexor need just to pick up, ask themselves what they are willing to do to change their life!!! Excuse me! None of us wanted to frighten anyone by posting what the side effexts where from taking effexor! We are simply asking each other if anyone else had experienced any of the same symptoms. And obviously for most of us! Going of this particular medication was a real aweful experience to say the least! Some of us may need to take medications forever. Not just until we decide what to do with our lives! And how we would want to change them! Most of us know that meds are not the miracle to making us all feel better! And no it is not the answere to the lifetime FIX...But to say that if your not going to change what is going on in your life. And willing to go out and do something about it! Is really unfair for you to say. Alot of us have probably done all the right things to try to change how we are! But, not everone is lucky enough
to get well just like that!!! Some people have to learn to deal with depression and may have to as I said before, "take pills for the rest of their lives"! Your post was inconsiderate and not very nice! Good luck to all the people who can get off their A@$ and change their life! But, speaking from my own experiences. I unfortuanetly will not simply get well, just because I decided to change my lifestyle???
Well, sorry if the Effexor posts made some people nervous. It was not intended to do so? And Devinity glad to hear that you pulled up your boots got off your A@% And got well...I'm really glad to hear that sometimes people do get well... Jade

EFFEXOR XR!!! Help!!! I can't stop sweating. Has anyone else ever had this problem???

[Devinity]

Twisted-

I am very sorry to have come across that way...I meant nothing of the sort. Depression is crippling and I meant nothing less.

However, these medications are not meant to be taken without therapy and any psychologist will say so. I'm not saying anyone here can get themselves off their @ss, and i certainly did not-I'm still getting up off of mine and I still take Effexor every day, myself, though I feel I am recovering after 27 years of off-and-on therapy without medicine (which can be equally ineffective) and medicine without therapy and a good combination of both. I've been lucky enough to hit the right combination is all...the right diagnosis, right medicine, right psychologist, right therapist. The medication is supposed to better enable a person to do that, though, and if it doesn't, it's not working. That's all I meant.

The only way to suffer the withdrawal is to not take the medicine and it's just not a good idea to self-medicate, even if that means getting off of it by yourself. Why would you be not taking a medicine you and your doctor consider necessary for your own well-being? If you take it like you're supposed to, you never have the symptoms. If you take it as it is prescribed, and have side-effects like those described here anyway, this forum isn't the place to get answers, your doctor needs to know immediately.

I know I got side-tracked and was kinda waiting for someone to point that out, but I stand by the advice I have given as it was intended, to point folks toward a better understanding of overall treatment of a crippling illness, using medication and also professional help. It may take more than one therapist or technique to get through depression, but it's not usually incurable, at least not the types that are treated with this medicine. A true chemical imbalance, like bi-polarism, is another matter and usually does typically require a lifetime of medication, but not Effexor.

I understand how tired depression makes a person. You don't want to get up and do a darn thing! It's enough to just continue to function, let alone go to what seems like the trouble of getting better. It's the very nature of depression to put a heavy weight on you-it's suffocating.

The idea that a simple pill can cure it is exactly what the pharmecuetical companies that advertize Effexor, Zoloft, and Wellbutrin (which can cause a heart attack with just a few doses-I have personal experience with that one, too) want us to believe, but I've been in the care throughout my journey of a few licensed psychiatrists that maintain that these meds are not meant to be used as cure-alls and have read enough about it to know for myself that it's true.

They are wonderful and I'm sure I'd be dead by now at my own hands without their invaluable help! I'm not advocating anyone coming off of them without recovering first-I'm questioning why someone would try to take themselves off if they see it as helping them.

If the side-effects are severe when taken properly, tell your doctor. If the withdrawal is uncomfortable, take them as directed so you don't suffer withdrawal. I suffer withdrawal, as I said, but it goes away when you start taking it again. If it doesn't, then it's not withdrawal, it's a negative side effect your doctor needs to know about to treat you properly. The nature of withdrawal is that you are not taking the medicine, so the answer is to take it. If you want off of it, see your doctor. If you have bothersome side-effects, see your doctor. Having side-effects happens when you TAKE the medicine, withdrawal when you DON't. Therefore, if you want to talk about keeping things on the original subject, side-effects of the medicine is not being questioned, but the withdrawal when the medicine is not taken.

I'm sorry if I've offended you (again), but I think what I said was probably helpful to some and none of us can always avoid offending everyone that comes in here. Getting into technicalities about the original post and the like causes fights. I was just going with the flow of the conversation like anyone involved in a live talk would. It's what I would say if we were all standing around, drinking coffee, talking about depression and it's treatment, including the use of medications like Effexor. I certainly didn't mean to tell anyone to get off their depressed a#@ and change their life all by themselves. We all need help from time to time and the truly depressed definitely need it.

[doug290]

Hi Everyone. Iam new to this forum and also taking effexor for depression and anxiety.I presently take 525 mg of it and it still is not working.If I go 2 days without it I feel like it is the end for me.I constantly sweat which is embarrasing and irritates the **** out of me. I am always on the edge with everyone especially my wife.We had an argument once and I thretened to kill her if she did'nt leave me alone.I love my wife very much but she does not know what I am going through.I often think of suicide but I think of the people that it would hurt the mostalso if someone ticks me off I go nuts! Man I feel ************ and I don't want to be a bad example infront of my daughter. I do not use illegal drugs but I like to drink,I think when I drink it calms me and puts me to sleep. I know that it is a depressant but my Doctor perscribed me depressants to calm my nerves. Go and figure that one out!It is nice to know that I am not alone suffering from this disese, listing to other people helps me but I wish my wife could understand what it is that we are going through.Thanks for reading and God bless all of us.

[doug290]

Hi Everyone. Iam new to this forum and also taking effexor for depression and anxiety.I presently take 525 mg of it and it still is not working.If I go 2 days without it I feel like it is the end for me.I constantly sweat which is embarrasing and irritates the **** out of me. I am always on the edge with everyone especially my wife.We had an argument once and I thretened to kill her if she did'nt leave me alone.I love my wife very much but she does not know what I am going through.I often think of suicide but I think of the people that it would hurt the mostalso if someone ticks me off I go nuts! Man I feel ************ and I don't want to be a bad example infront of my daughter. I do not use illegal drugs but I like to drink,I think when I drink it calms me and puts me to sleep. I know that it is a depressant but my Doctor perscribed me depressants to calm my nerves. Go and figure that one out!It is nice to know that I am not alone suffering from this disese, listing to other people helps me but I wish my wife could understand what it is that we are going through.Thanks for reading and God bless all of us.

[doug290]

Hi Everyone. Iam new to this forum and also taking effexor for depression and anxiety.I presently take 525 mg of it and it still is not working.If I go 2 days without it I feel like it is the end for me.I constantly sweat which is embarrasing and irritates the **** out of me. I am always on the edge with everyone especially my wife.We had an argument once and I thretened to kill her if she did'nt leave me alone.I love my wife very much but she does not know what I am going through.I often think of suicide but I think of the people that it would hurt the mostalso if someone ticks me off I go nuts! Man I feel ************ and I don't want to be a bad example infront of my daughter. I do not use illegal drugs but I like to drink,I think when I drink it calms me and puts me to sleep. I know that it is a depressant but my Doctor perscribed me depressants to calm my nerves. Go and figure that one out!It is nice to know that I am not alone suffering from this disese, listing to other people helps me but I wish my wife could understand what it is that we are going through.Thanks for reading and God bless all of us.

[Twizted]

Hi Doug,
Wow, your on that high a prescription? Hum, I was only on 75 mgs, and felt as though I was going to kill whom ever looked at me the wrong way!!! I'm a single mom & did not want my daughter to have to take the wrath of my medications side effects? I've now gone down to 37.5mgs and that seems to be better for now! I hope it does the job. But atleast I'm closer to the going off dose just incase my ahger begins to flare up again! While I was on the higher dose, I punched something so hard that I broke my finger! So I can feel where you are coming form when you say that you think it could be the meds you are taking! Be sure to see your Dr. and tell him about your temperment. Then maybe he will see that youe dose could be too high for you too handle! I've never heard of anyone tking that high a dose before... Well, good luck to you, be careful Jade

EFFEXOR XR!!! Help!!! I can't stop sweating. Has anyone else ever had this problem???

[powell]

i was diagnosed with post truamatic stress syndrome. this was one of the meds prescribed to me. i had to slowly decrease my dosage over weeks at a time. i still had the same symtoms you do. i had to miss work the withdrawls were so bad. i felt like a drug user. good luck and email if you need anything

[Devinity]

Doug-

Definitely see your doctor immediately. The temper issue can signal a blood-pressure problem, like the literature that comes with the medicine says it can. Don't just stop, though. It's in your nervous system and you can cause harm to yourself by just stopping.

I'd see a different doctor because that is a tremendous dose. You don't usually see someone being increased to that point, even if smaller doses are ineffective. Usually, another kind of medicine will be tried or added to the treatment.

Long personal story follows, all mine, within quotes, so that you can skip it if you want:

"When Effexor took my ability to orgasm, my doctor added a small dose of Wellbutrin to counteract that side-effect, which was fine. She upped the dose when it didn't do the trick to my satisfaction and I started having heart palpitations and dizzines. She took me off immediately (it had only been 9 days or so) and I mean right then when I called in. Turns out, it can bring on a heart attack (the heart palpitations were so intense, I couldn't speak and I thought I might actually be having a heart attack. I called her the minute I could speak.) Once you can't tolerate it in one dosage, there is too much of a risk to continue it at all. It's dangerous, which is why you have to be under a doctor's care to take it. ALL prescription meds are dangerous (kinda directing that at whoever keeps calling us "victims"). OTC meds can kill you, too.

Now, if I want to try the next thing, the only choice left is Viagra, which is very expensive and which my insurance doesn't cover. Luckily, you only take it when you think you're going to need it in the coming several hours. Still, I can't afford it.

So there was a clear, inpleasant, choice before me. None are what I really wanted, which would obviously be having the Effexor to lean on while I work on my issues and also being able to fully enjoy sex:

1. Re-arrange my life to buy the $10/pill Viagra, which may or may not work and which may not even be tolerated any better by my body than the Wellbutrin was,
2. Give up orgasming regularly at all, but still feel better than before in all other areas of my life,
3. Get off the Effexor and go back to feeling the way I felt before I started it, but regain previous sexual gratification frequency.

My doctor just laid it out and asked me to choose and I took #2, which stinks for a 34 y/o woman in her prime. I know it's not going to be permanent-the Effexor took away the majority (not all) of my feelings of desperation and hopelessness, as it is designed to. I'm willing to pay the price for the anticipated goal as I perceive it."

When I talk about choices, those are the kind of choices I'm talking about. It sounds like Effexor is doing you absolutely NO good. If it has, what are the good things it's done? If they outwiegh the bad, you might stay on it. If the bad outweigh the good (I don't see how it couldn't-you're a suicidal monster, liking yourself less and less, if I'm reading your description the way you meant it), then this treatment is not working well for you and you may need another kind of medicine. I don't think you really need any of us to tell you that, but it seems to fit at this point. You can't stand what it's doing for you, so you need something different. You don't have to take (or stay with) the first thing that pops out of doc's head.

Now, to the points in your post, Effexor is NOT a depressant. Did you mean that you take Effexor, drink alcohol, and also have other prescribed depressants, like, say, Valium? Effexor is an ANTI-depressant and targets two of several feel-good chemicals produced by our brains, which sends out signals for the production of all emotion-causing chemicals. It excites your emotion chemicals rather than calming them, as a depressant would. Every single emotion is the direct result of the release of a chemical or combination of chemicals and their reception.

(Did you know that the main chemical in our body that produces sadness is found in high concentrations in human tears? That is why people feel BETTER after a good cry when they've been sad. The level of the sad chemical is reduced in the body through it's expulsion via your tears. Cool, huh?)

Anxiety is one of the effects that Depression can have upon us-it's a symtom. Anxiety alone would not be treated with this drug. An anti-depressant can increase anxiety if there is no depression to treat. The anxiety is only reduced once the depression is addressed and resolved, at least to a degree with which you can live enough to not feel anxious. Anxiety alone is treated differently if drugs are used and is frequently treated without any drugs at all, through Yoga and breath training, anger management, etc...

Depression and depressants do not go together and these are surely interfering with your treatment. I'm certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that any therapist worth waving your hand at would advise you not to drink at all until you are on better footing. I love wine, but had to abstain for the first few months of my chemical treatment. P***sed me off a little-it was one of few things I still enjoyed-darn it all!-but it was only for a while, so we'd see what the medicine would do to me and give me a fair chance to adjust to it. Give your body a break and put only one mood-altering chemical in at a time...it'll thank you for being kind to it. Feeling better physically can have a tremendous affect on anxiety and depression.

Try thinking of it like this...
You're putting a depressant in your body-alcohol.
Your doc is putting an anti-depressant in your body-Effexor.
You don't feel any less depressed or anxious (one of the side-effects of depression), so your doc increases your Effexor,
You feel more tense (b/c you have more anti-depressant in your body), so you want a drink to help you sleep.

There's a battle going on inside you that can lead you into a world of the chemical manipulation of natural functions. This can quickly turn into a hellish nightmare far beyond sweats and anger-flashes. I'm not trying to be mean at all or say you're already there by any means, but there is a strong combination in your story of suicidal thoughts, death-threats, regret, guilt, conflicting chemical intake, normal life stresses (possibly more than "normal"), and a serious disease-Depression.

Please see your doctor right away or a new one and talk in depth about what you need-tell him or her everything in truth and without care-maybe even things you don't think relate to your illness, because you never know what may be very important that you didn't know was very important. It doesn't matter what s/he thinks of you, so be fearless and open. This is where a therapist is helpful-they have to not care about judging you and they can't repeat what you say, for the most part (they have to tell certain things, like if a child is in real danger, or at least that's how it is in Texas).

If you have sleep issues, there is a WONDERFUL non-narcotic, non-addictive, very mild, but I swear by it's effectiveness, and it's cheap, sleep aid your doc can give you. It doesn't knock you out, it doesn't make you wake up groggy (unless you take it and then only sleep 5 hours), and it has very mild side-effects, the worst of which is a little dry mouth when you wake up. It's Trazedone.

Trazedone used to be an anti-depressant. It had the strong side-effect of making patients sleepy, but was a mild anti-depressant, so it had little effect on that. The drug was re-named to it present name, Trazedone, and is now prescribed for sleep disturbance issues. You only take it when you need it and can take very small dosed or bigger ones, depending on how much you think you need that night. Not taking it does nothing, as it is non-addictive. Ask your doc about this in leiu of using other chemicals like alcohol.

The first night I took it, I took 100mg. I woke up with SAND in my eyes-the first time since early adolescence. Rememer what that felt like? I slept like a baby, woke up with the energy of a teenager-it was amazing!!! Getting good sleep on a nightly or near-nightly basis can make so much more difference in your ability to do so many things, from losing weight, to managing stress and anxiety, generally feeling better about your life. We are so over-worked and under-rested and this just triples anxiety and depression.

Also, it is a misconception that alcohol makes you sleep better. You sleep longer or go to sleep faster, but the mental rest is not as deep. For one thing, your bladder fills more quickly, but aside from that, you don't stay in REM sleep long enough. Then there's the obvious dehydration, possible headache if you over-indulge, etc, etc. Trazedone does none of that. Won't you please mention it to your doc, while you're there, asking for a lighter dose or a different anti-depressant than Effexor?

Thank you-I know this was long, even for me, but I'm worried about you, Doug. Your situation is very serious. Are you in therapy or trying to do this alone with only drugs to help you along? You don't have to get better alone and this or any forum can only do so much.

[Devinity]

Alicia-

I don't think you sound hostile at all and I agree that the effects you and others mention are terrible, I just don't blame the medicine for it, but the doctors prescribing it. They're supposed to know all this stuff. The Effexor website even says that this is not a medicine intended for anxiety alone, for example, but a few posters here have said they take it for anxiety. A doctor that doesn't know not to give an anti-depressant to someone already suffering from an excited state of high anxiety...that's sad and discouraging.

I guess I have been very lucky. I knew of the risks before my psychiatrist wrote any prescriptions and she questioned me pretty intensely about prior treatments and responses to medications. I will say that I had to ask questions before she told me any risks-it was not offered, at least not in any detail. It’s been too long ago for me to say for certain what she told me and what I found out on my own. I trust doctors, don’t get me wrong, but not implicitly. They have off days and varying experience and just plain make mistakes, so I keep up with my treatments in an effort to not become one of their mistakes.

You're right about another thing, too-we are being experimented upon (I don't remember now how you said it), but that's pretty standard practice. Remember all those poor women in the 60's that were put on high-estrogen birth control that ruined their ability to ever have babies and otherwise interfered with their lives forever? It was, like 12 times more than needed for birth control. Estrogen had been tested and tested, but the full effects of a medicine is really unknown until it's unleashed upon us all and allowed to be used (and misused) by our doctors to treat us. What was that weight loss drug that hurt a slew of people recently...Phen-Phen? New medications don't have to be proven to be harmless, only more effective than harmful and not grossly harmful to large percentages of patients.

I personally would not want to see Effexor off the market because it's helping me without such severe side effects (although the one I mentioned is not one I can live with forever). Since I only need 150mg a day, and it’s my understanding that most patients don’t require more or much more than that, perhaps the larger doses bring about more severe side-effects and withdrawals-it only makes sense that would be the case. It makes me wonder if doctors are limited as to how MUCH of a medication they can prescribe for a given condition.

The reason I say we're not victims isn't because I don't think anything bad has happened-it has-it's because we have the options of researching a medication before we start taking it, not ever taking it, and of getting off of it if we decide it's no longer benefiting us. Our doctors should help us make those decisions, but we should have the “final say” and, in fact, do. If the doc says, “You have to take this”, we still don’t have to, but there is risk in that, too.

Victims are helpless and purely not responsible for what has happened in any way. We're not helpless, for the most part. (You are with the platelet issue. I hope the condition you describe will reverse over time.) I just don't think it's very caring toward ourselves to not take the time to get to know our medicine before we get on it, but I digress…maybe I would have felt differently earlier in my treatment, when the depression was more severe and I didn‘t care about myself at all. People that would just as soon take their own life as get up and get dressed aren’t in the frame of mind to care about researching a drug they’re about to start. We all know how depression can affect our perception of things around us. Maybe my improvement has made me a poor peer and I hope I haven't been too offensive to anyone here.

[boogerdrool]

Well I may be alone in this post but I want to point out that I am taking effexor xr 150mg and it has done wonders for me & my family! I occassionally miss a dose and while I don't feel the same as if I had taken it, I don't feel like dying like I did before I was on it.As with any medication you take over an extended ammount of time, you should slowly taper off. I had to taper off ultracet for 6 weeks! So if you are taking effexor, don't be discouraged by what you read...do what's best for YOU.

Thanks, Kimberly

[AlohaGal]

Aloha, Hope all are doing well.
Just wanted to read your comments on the withdrawal effects of Effexor XR as I am on my second week of "downsizing". I went from 300 mgs to 225 mgs with no problems. I have been on Effexor for about a year and when I was on 300 mgs and missed a day or two, it was h*ll! I will begin my 150 mgs tomorrow. My doc is weaning me down every 7 days. I had a week or two of withdrawal effects from Paxil a year or two ago, but not as bad as you all have described here from Effexor XR. I will begin prozac when this drug is out of my system.
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections are welcome.

[AlohaGal]

Bumping topic.. I am on my third day of not taking Effexor.
Has any previous user of Effexor used antihistimines to relieve symtoms of "withdrawal"?

Thanks.