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My experience with quitting cold turkey (150 mg)

Posted by Sanjay Singhal on November 1, 2003, at 4:03:42

In reply to Effexor Withdrawl - I did it, so can you, posted by soshie on October 31, 2003, at 14:41:33

I first came off effexor 2 years ago. It took me 3 months of tapering, with recurring nausea and headaches. It was bad enough that I swore I'd never take the damn medication again. But a year later I went through 4 months of depression hell and started effexor again, swearing this time I'd take it forever since I didn't want to go through withdrawal ever again. Silly me...

After 6 months of relative normalcy, all of a sudden one day the effexor stopped working. This may mean I have bi-polar disorder. I'm not sure. But it's pretty apparent that the doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists who treat me haven't a clue either. All the people out there who wish that their physicians had warned them about effexor withdrawal -- THEY DON'T KNOW. That's why they didn't warn you. My MD told me that the worst symptoms would be over after 3-4 days. Yeah, right.

I'm one week into quitting my 150 mg Effexor XR cold turkey. I shut myself up at my parents house and told all my friends I was going away for a while. And then it still proceeded to be worse than I could have imagined.

1. Nightmares, vivid dreams, what have you. Pretty darn interesting for the first 3 nights. Then it got so I couldn't sleep. Which is worse.

2. Vertigo, nausea, "phasing". Has gradually declined, and now is only sporadic.

3. Bad indigestion. Was vomiting every night the first few nights, now its just acid reflux.

4. The "fever". I keep complaining that I have a fever, but Tylenol doesn't help, and I've finally accepted that I have only fever symptoms. Weak all over, hot/cold reversals, etc. Getting better after day 6.

5. Mild itching all over. Not as bad as others have reported.

6. A strange case of salivating continuously at night. I'm addicted to Altoids sours (tangerine). May be the culprit, but I refuse to stop eating them... one of the few things that can take my mind off the withdrawal symptoms.

7. Extreme sensitivity to light, noise, and emotion. Can't read more than a paragraph of anything without starting to cry (including this message board). This has stayed constant all week. Will be interesting if its permanent...

8. Can't sleep. Yes, I know I already mentioned this, but it's 4:49am in my part of the world, and guess what? I can't sleep. Meaning, I sleep for an hour or two or three, and then I'm awake for 20 hours.

My best guess is that it takes 10 days to go from initial cessation to most major symptoms being gone. And 2 weeks to feel 'normal'.

Good luck all.

Sanjay


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Sanjay Singhal thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031030/msgs/275450.html