Posted by Kacy on July 29, 2004, at 19:02:52
In reply to Effexor withdrawal survey, posted by cpallen79 on July 28, 2004, at 15:45:57
1) How much were you taking?
150, then 225, back to 150, down to 75, up to 112.5, and now 75.
2) How long?Approx: 5 months, then 1 month, then 1 year, then 1 month, then eight months, and now a year and a half at 75–which only works at such a low level with Strattera. I went off completely for one month after one month of Strattera.
3) How did you withdraw?I tapered dose by dose. From 112.5, I tapered to 75 for two days, and then to 37.5 for two more, and then went off.
4) How long did your w/d symptoms last?A week.
5) Did you have protracted w/d symptoms?Some very light nausea late afternoon. Light zaps in the morning, usually in the first hour after getting up. Dragginess most of the week.
This was entirely unlike missing a dose. When I missed doses, I had electrical zaps and flu symptoms starting about seven or eight hours after missing and getting increasingly worse until I took the pill. Depending on how long passed before I took the pill, it took a half hour to four hours to get over the withdrawal symptoms. If I stayed on my stomach with my head to one side and flat on the bed, and didn’t move at all, I felt okay. Any movement and the symptoms started again.
The symptoms after missing one while taking 225 mg. were in a class of their own. The only way to describe it is as an interruption of the visual feed, like an old movie with pieces of it cut out: the scene jerked to a new one. It was so fast, I just knew it after it happened. The scene shift was tiny, but it was there. My brain wasn’t receiving (or wasn’t translating) what my eyes were seeing. I never got the flu symptoms, but maybe they were coming. It happened about ten hours after missing a dose. I didn’t miss any more, and then dropped back to 150.
7) How did you counter them?Waiting them out. Next time, I’ll start another ssri as I quit Effexor.
poster:Kacy
thread:371721
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/372145.html