Posted by Medusa on September 20, 2002, at 4:33:24
In reply to Medusa?, posted by GabbiX2 on September 19, 2002, at 14:07:12
> It has helped my mood overall,
Oh yeah. This worked for me, when combined accidentally with fluoxetine or some other SSRI. I couldn't remember what being depressed +felt+ like, and wasn't sure I had ever really been depressed.
> but how can you feel better mentally, when you feel so sick physically.
>The first time I tried Effexor, it was on its own. The physical effects were so bad - extreme nausea and intestinal pain, splitting headaches, dry scratchy (though not really sore, IIRC) throat - I quit, then at pdoc's insistence tried once more to start slowly and step it up, and then figured NOTHING would help, so quit trying altogether. (Now I think that hopelessness might have been thanks to the bloody venlafaxine in my system.)
Years later, I threw all bottles of my old meds into a bag I was packing for a trip, and then decided I didn't want them taken at customs or something, and brought just the bottle of the SSRI I was taking (fluoxetine or something). I thought. I'd left the SSRI at home with all the other stuff, and brought the venlafaxine. I figured, well, I'd better take SOMEthing, and ... whoosh, confident, energetic-but-not-manic, the sun was shining and I didn't hide. I didn't realise that I was floating on the SSRI still in my system and that venlafaxine's half-life was so short, so when I ran out of the venl. after 11 days, it was a double cold-turkey effect, right as I was preparing for my sister's wedding. (Overdoing it for sure - my now-DH and I organised all the bmaid's dresses, altered some, made the mini-bride's dress and veil, and arranged all the flowers, for a huge, out-of-control wedding party.)
The worst was when I decided we absolutely needed some time for just us (we'd just done a week of intense his-family time, and were heading into intense my-fam time), and bought tickets for the HGO's performance of Nabucco. All I could afford was nosebleed seats, and the snotty older couple next to us CHATTED the ENTIRE performance. It was a spectacular show. The story means a lot to me, the orchestra was wonderful, the costumes were fabulous, and the performers were passionate. (I like opera.) So I felt that the older couple, who could clearly have afforded better seats, was atrociously disrespectful of the composer, the performers, the story, the whole thing, not to mention their row-mates. DH and I worked hard for our money, and gave up a lot to family, and the one evening we take time out for ourselves to do something we love, a couple of snots screw us before they dine at Chez Henri or wherever, to check off on their pretentions list Opera and Fine Dining. I disappeared during intermission, treated now-DH terribly, and got into an argument with the rich-btch at the end, and started sobbing as we left. We saw them again in the garage, and if I'd had a gun, I'd have shot their tires out for sure. We went back to the hotel, and I sobbed for hours. Screwy Effexor withdrawal!!! Combined with authentic Chinese food every night and junk food all day, I was loopy.
I should have just checked the unlocked, overstocked pharma cabinets at my sis' ILs, where I was arranging the flowers and sewing alterations, for meds. Sis' FIL is a pathologist, but freely writes Rx's for their house supply. They even give their dogs meds meant for humans.
Well, the wedding was nuts, unmedicated. E me if you want a link to pictures.
>And I find its effect erraticWhich effects? intended, or side?
> Did it make you feel like you had a bad flu?that, and demon-possessed.
> Did you stop taking it?well, I started again a year and a half or so ago, when a regular SSRI pooped out. I remembered that it had worked like a dream (albeit turned horror) and the pdoc I found here told me to try again. I started, with an SSRI still in my bloodstream, and once again experienced The Miracle. That's how I found the dr-bob site - I did a search for combining meds, specifically those two, and came up with this. My regular doc freaked and ordered urine tests every month. I worry about liver damage etc, but what good is a lousy life with a fantastic liver?
Okay, so for about 4-5 months (I think) I was taking an SSRI, and small doses of Effexor twice a day. I found it gave me a fever. (Where does that come from?) and at about the 9-hour mark (taking it every 12) the withdrawal headaches started. Eventually I tapered off the venlafaxine, and kept taking the fluoxetine, and then in May (I think) I tapered off the fluox. and walked around like a zombie for a while. Right now I'm trying to go back on the fluox. After 10 days on it (in July or early Aug) I tried adding venlaf. and felt great for a morning, then crashed completely that afternoon, and decided not to take the evening dose. The next day and a half were freaky. Just from that little bit! I should probably step it up very, very very slowly if I do again, but that a.m. dose was 25 mg. Ha. I found the blister-pack (most tablet/capsule meds in the EU come in blister packs, not bottles) and that p.m. half-tablet is still in there.
Rambling all about me,
M.
poster:Medusa
thread:30375
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020908/msgs/30403.html