Posted by dancingstar on November 29, 2004, at 13:47:32
In reply to Re: Effexor works for me, posted by Gia on November 29, 2004, at 13:22:29
Both. Honest. Read everything you can possibly read.
Click on the numbers of the people that signed the Effexor petition. I didn't realize that you could read what people said until someone here pointed out that you could.They will try to tell you that you can withdraw slowly and that will make it easier. I've heard that isn't so. It will either be easy for you to quit or it will holy hell.
Before I stopped taking Effexor, I had no idea why I gained weight or why I was in bed all day long or why I could no longer teach kickboxing classes or spinning or run my own business. I had no idea why I had all these pain symptoms that I never had before except for in my back. I had no idea why I couldn't lose weight even if I ate almost no food whatsoever.
When I stopped taking Effexor, I thought I would die. Now over two months later, I feel like I have a hole in my stomach, the nerves in my neck and back feel like they are shattered, and I've had to give up two classes at UCLA this quarter that I really want to finish but can't get out of the bathroom long enough to stay on the freeway, I want to move but don't have the energy...but do feel better in a lot of ways and I guess obviously have lost all the weight I had gained. I didn't know how muddy my brain had become. It's like a steel trap again.
Okay. Enough. You make your own decisions. I cannot tell you how far diet and exercise will go toward helping with depression. I know you won't believe me, but it's only cause you are not now moving to music. If you were, you would understand what I mean. Now I only wish I could do that again myself. When I do it now, I have to run back to the bathroom again...that is, since I have stopped taking Effexor-XR and only cause my stomach is wrecked.
I know this will not happen to everyone, but please read, read, read. It happens to a lot of people, an awful lot of people. There are some who have taken it for like 9 years, and they don't realize the changes in their own bodies. They have gained weight, they are really, really tired, and can't do the things they used to do. They have heart and blood pressure problems and don't know why. I know why. They won't admit that it could possibly be because of the drug even though there is a known relationship between Effexor and these problems.
It was a glimmer of, say, intuition that told me to stop taking this drug, that it was making me ill...so I did. I cannot tell anyone else what to do.
It occurred to me only yesterday that the reason that this is not being brought to light in a more public way by the FDA at this time is because they are waiting for some sort of tort reform to be voted through the current Republican Congress, where it is more likely to pass than it would have prior to this time which would limit the ability of the public to bring lawsuits against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for not letting people know about how dangerous Effexor/Effexor-XR and others in this class of drugs, like Paxil, are. I suggest that if we care about this issue, we do something about it as quickly as is humanly possible.
poster:dancingstar
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041128/msgs/421894.html