Posted by Medusa on October 6, 2003, at 4:21:12
In reply to Re: Effexor withdrawal symptoms!, posted by Heather33 on October 4, 2003, at 21:27:27
Me again. When I last was on Effexor, I took a very low dose, combined with fluoxetine/Prozac. When I decided to taper off, I increased the fluoxetine and decreased the Effexor v-e-r-y slowly. I mean dust-on-the-finger amounts. And I still wasn't in a happy place.
Effexor contains norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, right? I think that's why I keep going back. I hate the label "ADD", but my picture is right there beside it, and on Effexor, I didn't drop things. Seriously, every day I make really clumsy physical blunders. And on Effexor, this was reduced by about 95%, and I'm guessing the remaining 5% is what everyone experiences. On the right combination of fluoxetine (haven't tried other SSRIs yet) and venlafaxine/Effexor, I feel ... normal. Myself without the yuck layer.
The worst withdrawal EVER for me was before I knew about the SSRI/Effexor interaction. I'd thrown a bunch of meds in my bag before a 10-day trip, and then decided to only bring what I needed. Somehow I removed the SSRI I was on, and brought only an old bottle of Effexor. I thought that Effexor was just like the other SSRIs and was interchangeable, and figured I'd better take *something*. Well, that trip was lovely. I was building up courage to do all kinds of things I'd feared for years. When I got home, I'd run out of Effexor, and had to travel to my sister's huge wedding, so I didn't think about meds. Basically I went cold-turkey off of Effexor 10 days after I'd gone cold-turkey off the SSRI. Not cool. Fortunately, I had to arrange all the flowers for her over-the-top froofy herding, so I was pretty much locked in her in-laws cool glassed-in porch for a couple of days. I had no idea what was going on in my body - and I wish I had, because this was a prescription-happy family of doctors.
I remained fascinated by that 10-day period of plain-me clarity I'd enjoyed, and twice since, I've gone back on very low doses of Effexor combined with Prozac. I hate hate hate the short half-life, and the w/drawal symptoms that start a few hours before dose time. But I can't take XR - the doses are just too high.
Anyway! I don't know why withdrawal from Effexor is such h-e-double-hockey-sticks.
poster:Medusa
thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031004/msgs/265878.html