![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Ted on September 18, 2002, at 19:59:56
Or is Lex a pretty good guy? I'm feeling better already. Not great, but better. The pdoc said that lexapro starts working after only week instead of the usual 4-6 weeks. However, I have experience of meds working immediately because I want them to; i.e., placebo effect. Hell, I don't care if Lex is just acting and he's really a cad as long as he's nice to me.
Zoloft withdrawl symptoms disappeared before Lex' second visit, so I'm hopeful.
Take care all, and thanks for your concern.
Ted
Posted by SandraDee on September 18, 2002, at 20:09:26
In reply to Is it just infatuation?, posted by Ted on September 18, 2002, at 19:59:56
Glad you are feeling better. Chins up. :)
Posted by GabbiX2 on September 18, 2002, at 22:30:02
In reply to So, Lex is a pro for you? :) » Ted, posted by SandraDee on September 18, 2002, at 20:09:26
Stomp. Pout.
It makes me feel like I've been poisoned.
It doesn't stop, it just takes a break long enough to make think its stopped.I just don't like it.
Its not very nice
Posted by Medusa on September 19, 2002, at 1:03:02
In reply to I don't like Effexor, posted by GabbiX2 on September 18, 2002, at 22:30:02
Posted by tina on September 19, 2002, at 7:36:32
In reply to I don't like Effexor, posted by GabbiX2 on September 18, 2002, at 22:30:02
Posted by GabbiX2 on September 19, 2002, at 14:07:12
In reply to Re: I don't like Effexor - me either (nm) » GabbiX2, posted by Medusa on September 19, 2002, at 1:03:02
It has helped my mood overall, but how can you feel better mentally, when you feel so sick physically. And I find its effect erraticDid it make you feel like you had a bad flu?
I get the most vicious abdominal cramps.
They almost feel like labor pains.
And a sore throat?
I don't understand that one at all.Did you stop taking it?
Thanks
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.
Posted by GabbiX2 on September 20, 2002, at 12:07:23
In reply to Effexor complexer - emotional memories of Poison » GabbiX2, posted by Medusa on September 20, 2002, at 4:33:24
Thanks Medusa!
Reassurance, information, and I feel like I just visited a friend all at once.
Aside from the marriage and Nabucco that described almost exactly my last few weeks, emotionally and physically.
The afternoon withdrawl hits me too.
Its so strange, I can feel it happen, I'm fine (relatively)and in about 1 minute my head starts pounding.and my muscles become uncoordinated, dizzy and well dreadful basically.Now, what to do with this information?...
Posted by Medusa on September 22, 2002, at 0:03:50
In reply to Another thank-you Medusa, posted by GabbiX2 on September 20, 2002, at 12:07:23
Gabbi, are you on the depot/extended release form of Effexor, or the twice/day stuff?
In theory, the extended release formulation should reduce the w/drawal problems, but I've never tried it - it only comes in doses higher than I want to take, and if you break the tablets, the construction (a matrix or something) of the depot thing is ruined.
I would actually be willing to try an injected sustained-release form of effexor. But I think the molecules might be too big for polymer encapsulation.
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Social | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.