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Re: EFFEXOR return

Posted by Angel Girl on May 12, 2003, at 4:35:23

In reply to Re: EFFEXOR return » Angel Girl, posted by Snoozy on May 11, 2003, at 23:39:40

> Angel Girl -
>
> I keep going back and trying drugs again that seemed to help, even just the smallest bit, without side effects that were too overwhelming, so I understand why you're thinking about Effexor again. (Isn't persistence supposed to pay off :)
>
> Did your pdoc, or anyone here, have anything to say about dealing with the tremors? The brain shivers - ugh. I was on it in the early pioneer days - (way back in '95!) and of course I had them, and had a terrible time trying to explain them to my drs. I had 2 EEGs, numerous MRIs and a whole bunch of other tests - I don't know why they didn't know it was a side effect of Effexor. But all of this was before the extended release form was available.
>
> I'm curious if you have the brain shivers only when you're late for a dose? And did you have insomnia before the Effexor? Good luck making your decision, and I agree that going into this knowing what to expect makes a huge difference.
>
>
>

Snoozy

I used to sleep like a baby BEFORE Effexor. Actually, to be honest, I slept very few hours and was quite satisfied with that. Maybe due to BP-II that I didn't know I had? But even prior to that, I slept a full night's sleep with no problems whatsoever. It seems that my insomnia started the day I started anti-depressants and even though I'm currently not on any ADs, I still wrestle with the problem as you can see by the time of this post. I haven't gotten to sleep yet even though I took my new sleep med. I guess it's safe to say it's not working any better than the last one.

As far as the brain shivers are concerned, they started as my dosage got higher. I can't recall exactly what dosage it was (maybe 150?). I had them all the time, all day long. It was HORRIBLE!!! My famly dr and pdoc understood and accepted them as fact but I once went to the ER because I couldn't take it any longer and they told me that there was no such thing. This was said to me by a pdoc at a psych hospital. Of course, I had a fight with her much to the dismay of my family in the ER. ;) They even continued for a couple of weeks after I was completely off the Effexor.

The tremors got worse as my dosage was increased. As I said before, at times it got almost impossible to eat and signing checks was next to impossible. The only thing that my pdoc suggested was to decrease my dosage down and introduce a different AD to augument the Effexor in hopes that that would help. Of course, it never did. I still have some tremors. It is hard to hold a book still in order to read it. Since I've been off of Effexor for several months, the tremors I'm experiencing now must be from my Depakote, I'm assuming. They are tolerable although embarrassing when people see my hands shaking.

I've been doing pretty good with just the Depakote for my BP-II but lately I've been getting more and more depressed. I've also gained a fair amount of weight so not only am I considering the Effexor XR for the depression, I'm also considering Topomax for the weight gain.

Unfortunately, my body does not do drug changes and/or dosage changes very well at all. So, I think I'll have to make a decision on which one of the issues (weight/depression) needs to be addressed first. Right now I would consider them equal, although the weight gain is also adding to the depression. :(

Angel Girl


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