Posted by jjaustex on June 12, 2005, at 19:53:10
In reply to Re: Aching body-withdrawal from Effexor, posted by SLS on May 22, 2005, at 11:44:58
First, I want to say that I am very happy to have found this site, it has been a God Send!!
I have been taking Effexor for a while now. This past year I began to develop some fairly serious (at least to me) health issues which I never realized until recently could be related to the Effexor. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure (technically it is pulmonary hypertension), sleep apneia (yes, I have to use a CPAP machine) and glaucoma (increased pressure in the eye). The high blood pressure I was sure was related to this obscene amount of weight I had gained during the last two years. And I was sure that the glaucoma was a result of the hypertension.
Just to be on the safe side, when I started taking high bp medicine, my doctor started tapering the Effexor. I had experienced the "electrical impulses" and vertigo (I call them the hebbiejeebies) as well as extremely bad nausea when I got off Paxil a few years ago. (I thought THAT was a Terrible experience! Well, I am being proven wrong.) At first, things went ok. I had the usual heebiejeebies with the tapering, but the high bp medicine was helping so much with the tiredness and shortness of breath, I felt relieved and thought for sure I was gonna get better and be able to start exercising and lose some weight. NOPE! I went downhill as I dropped my dosage from 187.5 mg a day to 150 mg. All of a sudden I started having the same old tired feeling PLUS this terrible aching and tightness in my muscles, joint pain, nausea/vomiting, headaches...you name it. I thought it was the high bp (which was still a little elevated) or electrolyte depletion from the diuretic in the high bp medicine, compounded by my weight problem. Nothing I did helped the situation. The tightness in my muscles and the joint aches have kept me awake at night. I have felt like such a LOSER because I can't get my weight down to control all of these problems. To be honest, the symptoms have been so bad, I thought I was dying or losing my mind, or both.
Until today, when I found this site. I read all of the postings I could find on Effexor withdrawal and I can't describe how much better I feel knowing that I am not crazy and I am not going to die.
I am angry when I think that Effexor has almost destroyed my health. I have obesity, high blood pressure, glaucoma, sleep apneia, anemia, chronic fatigue....all of which can be traced back to Effexor.
I will be darned if I am going to stop tapering it, though, even if I DO have to taper it by counting out the little granules each day!! I am not going to lose this battle without a real fight!
Thanks to all of you who posted about the symptoms of withdrawal. It is gonna make this battle a whole lot easier knowing I am experiencing side effects from withdrawal not going crazy and not dying!
poster:jjaustex
thread:501204
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050611/msgs/511743.html