[Coreyhalliwell]

I've always had personality and anxiety problems but after a mushroom trip i hit an all time low. I was having flashbacks and dreams so lucid that they became memories, i had awful anxiety and the urge to "get up and go" when i was stressed. I couldnt handle it so i went to my family psychiatrist. He prescribed me a couple of meds and we ended up settling with Effexor XR as it did work for my mother. Not long after i began having panic attacks but i could never tell weather it was the mushrooms or the Pills. As the effexor dose went up, my sex drive went way down and i thought i was going nuts.

Effexor helped me get to the gym and stay on a diet, and it helped me make decisions BUT i fear it may have caused some mood disorder symptoms and some psychotic phenomina. I strongly believe im a manic depressive and i never realized this but it was on the effexor that i had some of my most manic symptoms which i called "Feeling TOO good". Also around the same time as the effexor i began hearing voices. Not loud and clear voices but faint and distant voices. They didnt/dont tell me to do things nor can i make out what they're saying but they scared the hell out of me. I also began seeing what my doctor calls "Illusions" which aren't full blown hallucinations but rather distortions of things that were already there (shrooms?). For example i would see a distant stop sign as a person. Not a full blown person but just a shadow.

3 years later, i had lost over 70lbs and despite the hallucinations etc i seemed to have my life ontrack. My doctor and i talked about the hallucinations/illusions but he claimed they were all the drugs and stress. I began weaning off of the effexor(150mg) back in the spring of 2005. In october 2007 i was down to my last balls in the 37.5 mg pill. After getting off of effexor i was filled with many emotions but i loved the sex aspect of it. So i pressed onward but then the winter hit and i fell into a dark depression. I put on 20 lbs and i didnt wanna live anymore.

With effexor gone i started to have a strange crackling sensation throughout my ears and the front of my head. I also began to get these strange electric shocks when i was about to fall asleep. I would be almost asleep then something in my brain would JOLT me awake. I'm still having alot of illusions and i feel so detatched but manic at the same time. I actually tried to go back on my effexor thinking it was a mistake but when i did i realized that the panic attakcs i had way back 3 years ago were the same that i was having now. My memory is also non existant. I forget my keys, i forget how much food i've eaten off of my plate, i forget what day it is, i cant remember maps and i still havent learned the layout of my college i started in in september.

So right now im really upset and worried that effexor made my conditions worse. I also fear that i have some king of irreversable condition. Is it too late to change my brain chemistry forever? Am i a write off? I feel so defeated by it and that my whole life was devoted to working of fthe mushrooms that i may have been working against myself!

[fadedhorizon]

I'm in your same shoes... I'm on effexor and me and my boyfriend were driving and I could swear on anything I saw a guy sitting on the side of the road sitting in a wheelchair. I was dealthy afraid of that man... first of all why is on the side of the road, and why hasn't someone helped him... hes in a wheelchair?! As we got closer, it was just a plant on one of those wheelbarrel things.
I don't take any hallucination drugs, so i blame effexor, or my anxiety, so i blame effexor for not living up to the little packlet that came with it that said it would aid in anxiety.

[Patience]

Corey:
You did not cause permanent damage to your brain, but your brain has sustained an injury and will take a while to get back to normal, 3-18 months. The only way to get better is to wean off of the effexor, SLOWLY. Dont do every other day either, that screws with your brain and body. Start opening them up and taking out small amounts of the beads over like 5 months. If you quit cold turkey you will be in pain for a long time. The drug has caused all of the symptoms you described, but they will come back, with time. You have what sounds like post acute withdrwal syndrome:

http://www.interventionctr.com/paws.htm

Be gentle with yourself. Stay away from alcohol, caffeine, bright lights, loud music, sugar etc. Read this article:

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/reaction.htm

The first 6 months after you come off of a antidepressant can be really bad because your depression/anxiety can come back temporarily. It is the drug doing this.

Be Careful and good luck!!

[alkisses]

ive been on effexor since june of 2004.... 37.5 and upped it over the years...im at 150 mgs now, and thats only been a year on 150 but its enough for me.
at first, after a few weeks, it worked and then after that it stopped. i tried to get off it, hell my body wakes up the next morning with withdrawls from the medication, thats how bad my body is used to it.... i hate the pill, it doesnt do anything for me, i wanna switch, im in the process with the help of 2 physicians to get off it and onto somethign else, it doesnt work for me, and im mad that i was kept on it for so long, because the side effects, just after 1 month of 37.5 mgs a day left me for 3 days in a near psychotic state..... i cant imagine now, theres obviously a way to decrease it under a doctors care, but i wouldnt recommend anyone effexor, it was good for a little while and i mean a few weeks and after that, gone..... just a stupid pill i had to take so i wouldnt feel hungover like i drank 24 beers the night before.
if this scares anyone, im only being honest, i hate that pill. i cant wait till im off it for good.