Posted by bleauberry on July 22, 2009, at 15:38:47
In reply to HELP Effexor Withdrawel, posted by scooby43215 on July 22, 2009, at 12:04:32
I have come to the belief that when one has been on a med for years, it takes quite a bit of time for the body and mind to adapt to the new environment where that molecule that has been there so long is gone.
With me it was Prozac almost 9 years and Zyprexa almost 8 years. I think it really took about 3 months post Prozac to feel I had finally settled into a baseline and that the majority of adaptations were behind me. With Zyprexa the time frame was about the same. Three months. The withdrawals were over long before that. What followed was the adaptation adjustment stage. Bouts of crying, bouts of nervousness, bouts of feeling fairly good, bouts of incredible fatigue, bouts of energy, all kind of mixed together in random fashion. This all settled down to a steady state in about 3 months, at which time it was apparent my steady state baseline was somewhere between dysthymia and major depression, exactly where I had started years ago before the meds.
AT this stage you are still feeling some withdrawals and they will continue for at least another 3 weeks, my best hunch. They should lessen a tiny bit as days go by but will continue. After that, things will still be weird. Effexor is notoriously nasty to get off of, with some unspecified action on the opioid system being suspect, so it would not surprise me if the road ahead continues rough for a while. As long as you know that up front, brace yourself, fasten your seatbelts, and are aware of what is going on, those things help to keep some perspection and control over the situation.
I made the choice to gut it out no matter what and it was hard. I did employ the help of some as-needed things during emergencies such as advil, benadryl, passionflower, valerian root.
I don't know what your future plans are...to stay off meds, switch to another, or what. If you had another med in mind, it might be wise to go for that right away.
Sexual dysfunction should go away in about 2 to 3 months. With some people they report it never goes away. If that were to happen, there may be another herb or med in your future that could revive things.
poster:bleauberry
thread:907921
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090721/msgs/907975.html