Posted by 4WD on September 12, 2004, at 16:03:02
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawal Highly Overrated, posted by scruff on September 12, 2004, at 15:33:07
> > I took Effexor for a while until it stopped working. Like a previous poster, I would accept the side effects for the benefit without question. Withdrawal occurs (mostly) when it is stopped abruptly. When ramped down slowly, there should be no problem.
> >Sadly, this is just not true.
> > FWIW YMMV
> If it helps anyone, great. But it seems there will be withdrawal of some sort from this drug.
> Well I had been on Effexor for nearly a year. It was completely unsuccessfully on its own and only marginally successful with the use of supplementals such as seroquel and ativan.
> I have finally switched to Wellbutrin and have been very careful about 'ramping down carefully' form the effexor.
> The above posting is just plain incorrect. My withdrawal from effexor has been worse than the depression itself. The symptoms of brain shivers, terrible sleep disturbances and extreme agitation have continued fully one week after I took my last tab of effexor.
> This has not been an unmanaged withdrawal. I see a psychiatrist weekly.
> The drug did next to nothing positive for me and now that I've finally stopped taking it, it persists in hounding me with 'withdrawal'.
> I have a hard time finding any mention of ANY withdrawal effects in the pharmaceutical's paraphernalia.
> It has been a an arduous journey to come OFF of a drug that is supposed to help depression.
> I have had to switch form several other anti-depressants including Zoloft and Paxil. Not only did I NOT have any withdrawal form these medications, I have read/seen little information on anyone who has.
> It is clear that the process of withdrawal from any psychotropic drug needs to be studied much more carefully. As for Effexor , perhaps removing it form the market until real study of its withdrawal effects have been made is in order.
> I'm all for that.I have to agree. I've been on Effexor about 5 years. Every time I tried to switch to another drug (because of side effects and because the Effexor just didn't help with motivation, energy or anhedonia) I found I couldn't switch and had to go back to Effexor. I didn't have any of the physical symptoms (like nausea) except for the brain zaps so I thought I wasn't having Effexor withdrawal; I just thought the other drugs were causing me to have extreme anxiety. Even now when I am tapering Effexor slowly while going on Cymbalta, I'm having panic attacks every few days and heightened anxiety the rest of the time. I hate this drug and I am furious at the idea that I and other people have been forced to stay on it longer than we wanted because getting off it is next to impossible.
Marsha
poster:4WD
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040909/msgs/390027.html