Posted by rosalinda on June 14, 2001, at 2:21:51
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawl , posted by slazart on June 13, 2001, at 17:42:22
Slazart--that was exactly what happened to me--I thought tapering gradually would help, but it didn't.
See my query on this board regarding using Prozac to ease the withdrawal. Apparently this works for some people; someone said that taking St. John's wort helped, too (it didn't help for me, but St. John's wort didn't work as an antidepressant for me, either). The theory is that the withdrawal symptoms are caused by Effexor's very short half life. Prozac, in contrast, has a very long half life, so if you switch to Prozac for a few days it stabilizes your serotonin levels. When you stop taking the Prozac your brain won't freak out the way it is right now because the drug will leave your system more slowly; you'll have more time to adjust. (I hope that somebody who knows more about brain chemistry will jump in and correct the errors I am no doubt making!) I haven't tried switching to Prozac yet because I resent the fact that I have to take another drug to get off the stuff I was taking, but I think I'm going to give in and give it a try.
Hang in there and try not to freak out too much. For me, the worst of the withdrawal was over within about 5 days--I still felt crummy after that (it's been almost 3 weeks now, and I still feel pretty bad), but the really intolerable, nerves-being-yanked-out-of-your-body feeling had largely abated. I relied rather heavily on Nyquil to get me through the nightmares & sleep problems, I'm afraid...
Do talk to your doctor and see if the Prozac thing might help you. Your doctor is the one who prescribed this stuff to you in the first place, so he/she should help you get off it. Or if you don't want to see him/her, go to a different doctor as soon as possible--I definitely think this is too hard a thing to go through alone. (Maybe you should encourage your family to read some of the posts on this board--they might get a better idea of what you're going through!)
I hope you feel better soon. Let us know how it goes...Sympathetically, Rosalind
poster:rosalinda
thread:1016
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010612/msgs/66404.html