Posted by tl on May 8, 2003, at 11:51:07
In reply to Tapering down??, posted by jb07 on May 8, 2003, at 8:59:17
I have been on effexor for almost 2 years. I started at 50mg and now am at 300mg. I am trying to get off of it because I don't like the way it is starting to make me feel. At first it worked great, I lost 20 lbs immediatley and my depression was easier to handle. But as time went on, I had to keep increasing the dosage (on the advice of my doctor) to get the same effect. The last year or so I have gained almost 25 lbs and have started drinking 5 or 6 glasses of wine a night. very unusual for me, I hardly ever drank before that. Now the pills are not working as well, the effects start to wear off in the afternoon (even though I take a 150mg in the AM and another 150mg about 2:00) so I spend my evenings sitting on the couch, drinking and feeling sad and hopeless. Two years ago I was a marathoner and spent 4 or 5 nights at the gym working out or cycling or doing aerobics. Now I can barely get out the door and run once a week, I am tired of feeling this way so 2 weeks ago I decided (without the advice of my doctor, because I am afraid he will just want to try more doses of E. or another type of medication, neither of which I want) to taper. I started by decreasing my pills to one a day, instead of 2, then I went to one dose every other day. I was feeling great until this morning. Now I feel horrible. I am dizzy, my head hurts and I have this bizzare tingling in my lips. I keep having hot flashes. I feel disorientated and very irritable. I feel like crying. My husband is mad because I won't call my doctor but I know he will just get mad at me for trying to do this on my own. Does anyone know if there are any truly serious side effects of tapering like this? Such as seizures or truly wigging out and hurting oneself?
poster:tl
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030505/msgs/225108.html