Posted by girlie on November 7, 2001, at 20:18:42
In reply to Effexor Withdrawal, posted by samssopp on November 7, 2001, at 19:19:04
I took my last dose (at 37.5) on Friday and have been in hell ever since. At first I thought I could handle it, but things kept getting worse. The nausea alone kept me in the house for 3 days. Yesterday the emotional effects happened....and this afternoon I had a breakdown. Started having the "it would be easier just to fall off the face of the earth" thoughts. The swinging between uncontrollable crying and then anger was no fun either.
I had my doctor paged and she called in a prescription for 25mg for me. I'm to take that for at least a week, then cut it in half for at least a week. At that point I may go to every other day.
I told her that I was afraid that I just wasn't going to be able to function off of it, and she assured me that this is typical withdrawal, that it's "horrific" as she put it.
(BTW, I was on 300mg/day for a long time and have been weaning down since June of this year. I went down at 75mg intervals. I was at 75 mg for about a month, then 37.5 for a week, then off.)
I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but I honestly didn't expect it to be this hard.
girlie
> I am having an absolutely awful time withdrawing from Effexor - I've been on the med about 19 months and, though initially had good results, have grown resistence and have had "breakthrough depression/anxiety symptoms." (this is a common occurrence for me -- usually switch meds about every 2 years and have been on just about all of them over the past 13 years.) I stepped down from 150mg of Effexor to 75mg a few weeks ago and had the same awful symptoms I'm having now. At the same time, started on a new med called Serzone (which causes wooziness when first stepping up on it). So, I may be getting hit from both sides.
>
> I dropped the other 75 mg last Friday and have had an incredibly strong return of symptoms -- major dizziness and exhaustion (both my therapist and secretary commented today how wiped out and tired I looked :( Also have incredible joint aches and headaches. I am only in my job 4 months and cannot take significant time off. I did take one day off last week, but cannot continue that...so, I push myself through the day with much effort and return home to exhaustion and try to lay down as much as possible with a 6 year old and a 3 year old. My doc says that the withdrawal symptoms usually last about a week, so am really hoping I'm feeling better by the weekend. This is horrendous! I had heard about the withdrawal from this med, but had no idea how awful it would be until it finally knocked me for a loop!!! Thanks for letting me vent -- let me know if any of you has any advice for getting through this!! I'm doing major advil for the joint pain, but nothing beyond that...although I heard Benadryl might be an option???? Am afraid to mix too much stuff now!
poster:girlie
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83476.html