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Savella, AKA InHella

Posted by ThinkStopThink on January 8, 2011, at 12:02:36

Hi all,

I'm on my fifth day of the Savella titration pack. I'm feeling a lot better as the first two days were hell. When Paxil first came out and I was finished with treatment, the doc said 'just stop taking it'. I was in bed for three days with total brain chaos. The first two days of Savella were worse. Imagine this: on an empty stomach with two or three hours of sleep, you consume a pint of Tequila. Then you eat a huge greasy sandwich with rancid mayo. Just when you are going to vomit and pass out, you snort a ton of methamphetamine. So, nausea, dizziness, agitation, insomnia, and a bit of paranoia thrown in for good measure. Ick.

After reading the board a bit, I've gleaned a couple of things that work for me: take the meds with food and a cup of ginger tea--that cuts out the nausea right away. And, I take the second dose at lunch with another cup of ginger tea. I don't take it any later in the day as it may keep you awake.

After five days, I'm still having that 'uncomfortable in my own skin' feeling. And massive frustration that this isn't going to work and I'll have to go through the whole weaning process and try some other drug with another slew of side effects. I'm taking Xanax to keep the agitation in check, but I'm not sure it's doing much. The whole thing is worsened by the fact that I have to move in three weeks and it seems insurmountable at the moment.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the side effects will keep dissipating. Anyone else successfully taking Savella? How long before the side effects were manageable?

I've had bouts of depression since before college. And have always had a existentialist view of life. I was about 900' away from the WTC on 9/11 (my building was damaged but I was physically unharmed) and am realizing the I never really dealt with all of that--short of a lot of alcohol. My mother passed away a year and a day later. And about a year and a half later I was cycling and got hit by a car. At that point I was started on Lexapro which did zip--they my NP added Wellbutrin and I stabilized. The therapist I was seeing turned out to be ethically questionable, so I stopped seeing her and for six or so years just trudged along on the Lex/WB mix. About two years ago I decided I wanted to lose the 35lbs I'd added (while going to the gym five days a week!), get my sex drive back, and 'experience life authentically again'. I learned my lesson from the Paxil and tapered off the Lex/WB over a YEAR. Still, when I stopped the 2.5mg every other day, everything went sideways. Massive anxiety, hyper vigilance, exaggerated startle response. I would ruminate over my future and the existential nature of the world so strongly that I'd get into a really black place. I tried combatting it by taking an eight week meditation based anxiety reduction class which really helped. I'm in the gym 4 or 5 days a week. And, I eat lots of fruit and vegetables and cut the coffee down to 1/2 a cup in the morning and just drink Yogi Stress Reduction tea the rest of the day. For the insomnia I've been doing 3mg of Melatonin and Yogi Bedtime tea (and tried 5-HTP and Theanine which seemed to help, but 5-HTP is a no no with Savella, so I'm just taking the Melatonin now). Still waking up at 3 or 4 some days, which makes me a wreck at work.

But I feel lucky as I've found a really good therapist who seems to ask all the right questions. His name is Richard O'Conner, and he has several good books on Amazon. So I'm hopeful about that. I just really don't want to take any of these medications--they are just such shots in the dark. I profoundly dislike the thought that I'll have to take medication for the rest of my life.

I'm trying to decide if I really just need a small maintenance dose (two of my sisters take 5/10mg of Prozac/Paxil) of something. I guess I feel like I needed a hard pinch on the cheek and the Savella felt like a football player hit me in the face with a brick.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled thoughts; that's the state of my brain right now.

Any other Savella users care to comment?


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:ThinkStopThink thread:976198
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101231/msgs/976198.html